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By Jonathan, July 31, 2010 4:28 pm

On our last major outing in the Olympic Peninsula area, we went out to Cape Flattery.  This is supposedly the most northwest point of the continental US.  It’s on the Makah Reservation and requires a reservation pass (available all over the reserve for $10 – good for a year) and fairly decent hike. 

The hike was about a 3/4 mile each way.  But, be prepared for a 300 foot descent on the way to the point, which means a climb on the way back.   The trail is pretty neat, but expect parts of it to be made of split timbers, with steps and stacked logs as well.  Not difficult for most people, but you’re not going to be getting a wheelchair or anything back there.

There are several points on the way out where there are small overlooks onto the coastline.  They’re pretty cool, but the real reward is at the end!  There’s a viewing platform with a spectacular view (when it’s not foggy) of the light house and surrounding coast.  It’s well worth the trip.

After heading back to the Jeep, we drove into the main town on the Makah Indian Reservation and found “the salmon guy”.  We’d heard that there’s a guy who makes great smoked salmon.  Our neighbors at the campground even asked if we could get some for them!  Well, we found the guy, tasted the salmon and promptly bought a couple pounds.  I have to say that I don’t like salmon.  Dasy does, but I don’t much care for it… at all.  But, this smoked salmon was incredible!  Suffice to say, it didn’t last very long. :S

From here, we headed back to Shelton to spend a couple more days with my sister and her family and then headed out to Mt. Rainier.  More on that next time!

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By Jonathan, July 31, 2010 8:17 am

Our second outing in the Olympic National Park took us to the Hoh Rainforest.  The is on the west side of the Olympic mountains, where the mountains push the wet sea air upwards, causing it to rain much more than anywhere else in the park.  Fortunately, we seemed to hit a good time in the year to avoid the rains and it was a beautiful, sunny day. 

There aren’t any real scenic views or anything on the way into the park from the Hoh entrance.  The scenery is the forest!  The trees are HUGE and there’s a primeval feel to everything as you drive under that dense canopy.  Most of the ground is covered with water, mud or moss.  Ferns are also quite abundant.  We didn’t spot any dinosaurs, but I suspect there are a few wandering around in there somewhere.

We stopped at the Sitka spruce, which is one of the first of the ‘giant’ trees that you’d encounter in the park.  It’s probably wider than our Jeep is long!  It’s big, old, and a bit gnarly looking.  I think it’s about 500 years old.

But, the real attraction is the visitor center at the end of the road.  Here you’ll find information on the rainforest and a few exhibits on the animals and plants in the area.  There’s also a small gift store, picnic area, restrooms and backcountry hiking permits.  Plus… trails!  There are trails for just about all levels, from 1/4 mile paved “kid friendly” trails, to multiple day hike-through-the-entire-park trials.

We went on the “Hall of Mosses” trail.  It wasn’t too long, but went through some of the old groves that we wanted to see (and we like moss).  The trail is about a mile and is relatively flat, although there are some fairly gentle inclines. The trees here are simply monstrous in size!  My poor attempts at describing them wouldn’t come close to doing them any justice.  There are a few pictures that give an idea of the size, but I’m not a good enough photographer or writer to really get the idea across.

Our next stop was the Sol Duc entrance so we could see the trail and falls.  We decided to skip on the hot springs, as we’d heard that they’re not really that nice and are kind of commercialized (and we were there on the weekend).  I got the impression that it had been built up enough that it would be a stretch to call it “natural” any more.

I don’t know if the Sol Duc area is technically rainforest, as I think it’s far enough north to get a little shelter from the rains on the west slopes, but it’s still huge and primeval.  The trees are a bit different than the Hoh section and there doesn’t seem to be quite as much underbrush.  The trees at Sol Duc seem to be a brighter green and there were a fair amount of younger trees.  If you come to the area and don’t have time to see both Hoh and Sol Duc, it would be a tough to decide which to skip.  The trail is nicer at Sol Duc, but we only did the one.  There are a lot more trails at Hoh and a lot more species of trees there.  Hoh clearly has older trees, but there’s also a lot of dead stumps there.  Hoh is awesome, but there’s a feeling of “life” in Sol Duc that can’t be ignored.  It’s the kind of place where you wouldn’t be overly surprised to find a triceratops grazing on a patch of ferns just off the trail.

Of course, the other thing that Sol Duc is known for is the falls. As with any decent sized river, there are generally smaller “feeder” streams.  You’ll cross a few of these on the way to the falls.  I always like these little streams because I can go rock-hopping and actually mess around a bit.  Bigger ones like the falls are kind of off-limits to anyone with the slightest bit of sense.

I only managed to get one decent picture of the falls (above), mostly because they spray up a water mist and my camera is afraid to get wet.   There main trail crosses almost directly over the falls using a very stout footbridge (it would probably hold a decent sized truck easily).  This gives a great view right down the “throat” of the little box canyon than the falls have carved.  The amount of moss here (due to the spray) is ridiculous!  You could probably belly-flop on some of the rocks and be more comfortable than on some mattresses.

Unfortunately, that pretty much finished our time IN Olympic National Park, but we also did a bit of exploring outside the park.  We’ll get into that on the next post!

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By Jonathan, July 30, 2010 10:11 pm

Our first real outing in the Olympic Peninsula area took us to the Hurricane Ridge entrance of Olympic National Park.  Hurricane Ridge has a number of scenic vistas and interesting areas, but the main point for those who don’t mind a bit of a hike is Hurricane Hill.

The hike to Hurricane Hill starts at the very last vehicle-accessible area from the entrance at Port Angeles.  The last section of road is extremely tight and windy.  A small class C RV might be able to make it, but I doubt event a 30-foot class A could manage it.  We parked at the bottom of the trail and proceeded to head upwards.

The trail climbs through fairly arid areas that can be a rather odd mix of snowfields, dry sandy soil, flowers, meadows and windswept trees.  To make it even more odd, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky (no shade) and it was quite hot.  We got pretty well baked on the trail.  Serves us right for not planning.  We didn’t think we’d do the hike, we kind of decided to attempt it at the last minute. :S

The hike is about 1.7 miles each direction and climbs about 700 feet.  The trail is dusty and rocky and was absolutely infested with bees for the entire trip.  A few signs at the entrance to the trail indicated that if we just kept moving when any of the flying critters investigated us, we’d be fine.  I guess they knew what they were talking about, as we didn’t have any issues with them.  Just be warned should you go in the summer.

Other than the sun, heat and bees, we really didn’t have any problems and it was well worth the effort.  The flowers were really surprising considering the terrain and weather conditions.  The views were spectacular and the hike wasn’t that hard until the very last section.  Note: If you are actually a real “hiker”, consider our description to be woefully tainted by the fact that we’re wimps and we don’t really hike.  A real hiker would probably consider this to be a gently sloping tourist trail. :S

At the top of Hurricane Hill, you can see down to Port Angeles and if it’s clear enough, you can see Victoria, BC across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  It kind of feels like the top of the world!

The area is pretty much infested with chipmunks!  They’re not at all shy and they will pretty much be running around just about any rock you look at.  They were cute, but not very cooperative for the camera.   Fortunately, that wasn’t the only thing we saw…

One of the things I’d been hoping to see on our trip to this area, but hadn’t really expected to see was a marmot.  We found one running around a meadow just below the peak!  They look like big groundhogs, just furrier.

We also went to Obstruction Peak, but it was a dusty unpaved road and the end wasn’t that impressive for us.  Half the trail was still covered in snow and we’d already done far more hiking than we’d planned, so we just took a look around and headed back home.

If you’re headed here, there’s a nice visitor center and some nice overlooks just off the main road.  But, if you’re really looking to see the area, expect to put forth some effort to do so.  It’s well worth it, but bring some water, a good hat and sunscreen or a long sleeved shirt.

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By Jonathan, July 30, 2010 10:18 am

After Seattle, we decided to make our way to Olympic National Park.  After doing a bit of research, we found that the ferry was probably the cheapest and fastest method of getting our collection of vehicles over.  We hopped on the ferry at Edmunds, after a number of issues.

First, there were no signs to tell us that we had to disconnect the Jeep from the Dutch Star.  Second, there was no designated space to do so after getting through the entry booth.  We pulled over, blocked a lane for a bit and got everything unhooked.  Dasy took the Jeep and I drove the Star.  Dasy loaded up first, while I sat there for a bit and was then directed to take up two spots and straddle the lane to park.  Dasy unloaded first and ended up in front of me.  Unfortunately, she didn’t know where we were going and there was no where convenient to reconnect.  So, she drove for about a half an hour with occasional horn honks and lots of turn signal warnings from me behind her.

The icing on the cake, however, was there were at least four other RVs on the ferry.  One was larger than us, directed to take a single lane and did not disconnect his toad.  There was another smaller class C, also with a toad that was connected (“toad” is the nickname given to a towed vehicle by RVers).  So, we ended up with a lot of confusion and a lot of extra hassle and work because the ferry system is inconsistent on what to do with RVers.  Ah well, it was still cheaper and faster than driving all the way around the sound (about $75 for both vehicles).

The ride was fine, but the view wasn’t great from my perspective. I did get out a couple times and take a look around, but it was kinda gray and there wasn’t a whole lot of decent pictures to get on the trip.  But, it did get us over to the Olympic peninsula pretty quickly and easily, so it’s all good.

Now for the other part of our headline for this article… “Barely There”.

We’re currently just outside of Mount Rainier National Park.  It’s pleasant and will give us the opportunity to see Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens, but we have no wifi.  We also have no cellular data connection.  That means we’re essentially without any kind of connectivity for a few days.  The nearest coffee shop with Internet is about 15 miles from us (which is where we are right now). So, we’ll not be regularly replying to emails, text messages, comments on the blog or anything else for about four days.  The bright side is that I can work on the blog posts for Olympic National Park offline, then upload them when I get to town.  So, you might be seeing three or four posts roll in on one day (but probably not today).

That covers us for now… we’re off to see Mt. Rainier, then we’ll start batching up blog posts on Olympic tonight. 

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By Jonathan, July 28, 2010 8:55 am

In total, we spent about a week in Seattle.  The weather was just about perfect and we found lots to do (hence the lack of updates).

We went back into the city a couple of times and somehow managed to end up at Piroshky Piroshky again.   Dasy had a smoked salmon piroshky, which was shaped like a fish (and still quite tasty).  Speaking of fish, we also went to the Seattle aquarium.  The aquarium had some nice exhibits and a cool “touching pool”, where you could touch starfish, urchins and anemones.  It was pretty neat, but I didn’t get many decent pictures.  Shooting through glass and moving reflective water doesn’t work so well without some filters that I don’t have right now. 

We also went to the Space Needle, the science center and the sci-fi museum.  All of this was paid for with a City Pass.  City Pass is a collection of tickets to various shows and attractions, all at one price for a “book”, which is good for nine days.  Most of the tickets are good for one entry to the attraction, but some are good for multiple…  The Space Needle allowed for two visits in 24 hours, so you could see the view during day and night (we only did night). The City Pass isn’t a bad value if you plan on hitting multiple attractions.

Another area we visited a couple of times was the International District.  Imagine a “Chinatown”, but instead of being just Chinese shops, it’s a little bit of everything.  Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Mongolian, etc.  We even found a Cambodian noodle shop!  Unfortunately, it was closed on Monday, which is when we were there. We ended up having noodles somewhere else (I think it was a kind of Asian fusion place… a little mishmash of everything).

Seattle is kind of a big melting pot.  There are a lot of nationalities represented by both the inhabitants and the visitors.  We spent a fair amount of time with a group of Cambodian friends from one of the congregations in the area.  We had a lot of fun, met a bunch of new friends and it gave Dasy a bit of an insight into how easy (or hard) it would be for her to relearn Cambodian (she speaks just fine, but would need to learn reading and writing again).  Mostly, we just had fun hanging out with them.

I’m not going to take a lot of time going into each of the museums and what there is, but I’ll give you a few general opinions that I think Dasy and I agree on.

First, we’re probably spoiled by living in Washington, DC for so long.  All of the museums and attractions we went to were “nice”, but none were great and we probably would have been a little miffed at all of them if we’d paid the regular admission prices.  The aquarium was small and overcrowded, the science center was almost completely geared towards children, etc.  Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t hate any of them and we’re glad we went to each of them. But, we’re used to the Smithsonians in DC.  Those are museums!  We should spend more time in them when we go back to DC.

There were a couple of exceptions though…  One of the items in the City Pass is for Argosy Cruises, which offer a number of sightseeing tours around the sound.  It was very interesting to see Seattle from the water and the announcer did a good job of explaining everything.  It was just a pleasant cruise and a good break after walking around the city all day.

The other one that we really liked was the Science Fiction museum.  It’s a little on the small side and there’s nothing “interactive”, but if you’re a sci-fi buff and in the area, you need to go.  They have a ton of cool stuff on display and most of it is pretty well known, even by those who aren’t really into sci-fi movies and books.  They have about four full outfits from Blade Runner, a bunch of stuff from all the Star Wars and Star Treks (including the original captain’s chair), a Terminator robot, Buck Rodgers robots… I could go on and on!  They have some cool “classic” stuff too…  Like Logan’s Run and even Metropolis!  Ok, I’ll stop now.  

Oh, if you plan to take pictures at the Sci-Fi museum, bring a compact tripod, a fast lens and a circular polarizing filter.  Everything is behind glass, poorly lit for photography and no flashes are allowed!  I managed to get a few decent pics, but I wish I’d known the conditions earlier.

Speaking of pictures, I have way too many to stuff into one blog post.  So, I made a short slide show of the highlights.  It’s probably about 30 pictures or so, but if you’ve been following us so far, you’ll probably enjoy it.   Just click here for the slideshow whenever you’re ready and it should open in it’s own window (hit the little play button if you don’t want to click them manually).

Note: We’re currently in Shelton, WA and will be heading to Mount Rainier tomorrow.  We’re about a week behind on the blog and will be filling in some posts about Port Angeles and Olympic National Park over the next few days.

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By Jonathan, July 20, 2010 3:40 pm

One of the places we’d been told to see by pretty much everyone was Pike Place Market.

We drove into Seattle and got parking on a very steep street, as we haven’t quite figured out public transport yet.  It seems that they have a very nice light rail system here, but it doesn’t do us much good if we can’t park at a station.  I’m sure there’s something we’re missing, but I haven’t been able to figure out what.

The market was crowded and it’s hard to move.  I don’t like being around crowds of people and my leg was bothering me (I fell off the slackline the other day and landed badly).  In spite of that, it was interesting and the great food made up for the crowds!  We sampled a few items as we walked around, like cherries and strawberries from the fruit stand.  Generally, the fruit and food was excellent, but more costly than we’re used to in a grocery store.  I normally don’t mind paying a bit extra for freshness, but we don’t have room to store much and it’s hot enough in the RV in the afternoon to make fruit spoil pretty quickly.

Dasy had some clam strips from a little Korean store.  They were pretty good and didn’t cost that much either.  We saw the original Starbucks store, but declined fighting the lines of people.  Starbucks always tastes burnt or “oily” to me anyway, so I didn’t mind.   We then went up to Piroshky Piroshky and ordered a cheese piroshky…  And a beef and cheese piroshky… and a sauerkraut and cabbage (with fennel seed)… and a blueberry cream.  They were awesome! 

Note: Now that I’ve just thought about that, I want to go back… NOW!

We went to a park across the street to eat our piles of piroshky and relax for a bit before heading back.  It gave us a nice view of the sound and the city. 

We were planning on wandering around and seeing a bit more of Seattle, but we settled for full bellies and a little bit of driving instead.

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By Jonathan, July 19, 2010 10:30 pm

Hello everyone…  Just wanted to post a real quick update to let you all know that we’re currently in Seattle, WA.  We’ll be here for a few more days, then we’re headed south again.  We’ll post up a full entry of our exploits tomorrow!

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By Jonathan, July 15, 2010 12:12 pm

We’ve been in with my sister, Wendy, and her family in Shelton, WA for quite a while.  She has a small farm with a number of critters…  horses, llamas, alpacas, geese, dogs, cats, etc.  I’ve been helping out a bit with some farm work (like loading hay bales) and Dasy has been doing some of the cooking.  We’ve also been watching the niece and nephews when needed.

While hanging out with the family one night, Jim and Wendy showed us some videos of people on a slackline.  Jim showed me a clip of how someone set up carabineers to make a primitive block and tackle and we started talking about how much equipment it would take to set up a slackline.  I mentioned that it wasn’t really necessary, as I already had just about everything needed, since that’s pretty much the same stuff I use to pull stuck vehicles out when off-roading.  One thing lead to another and we soon had an impromptu slackline in the front yard.

For those who don’t want to go read the link above, slacklines are like tightropes, but generally are made out of web straps (kind of like a seatbelt) and are supposed to be a bit loose (“slack”) so that they flex when weight is on them.  This allows some people to do some really interesting tricks on them.  It’s kind of fun and turns out to be pretty good exercise too.  We might do this periodically, depending on where we camp and what the room is like.  I probably need something a little less “beefy” than my tow strap though… it has almost NO stretch.  Right now, that’s a good thing.  We set it up very tight, as that’s easier for newbie “slackers”.

From here, we’re off to Seattle for a week or so.  After that, we’re kind of undecided.  We want to see Mount Rainier National Park and we may come back and visit Olympic National Park as well.  We’ll work it out on the way.

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By Dasy, July 4, 2010 2:51 pm

What more can you ask for?

My summer visit is coming to an end. I can’t believe I’ve been here for a month!?! It’s been great! I’m ready to return home to my hubby.

I saw so many friends, got to eat lots of  delicious food (Thai, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Seafood,  home cooked and grilled,  and much much more…) and saw lots of family. It’s been so good to see so many familiar, friendly faces.

And I helped my little sister and her hubby with getting their house in order. I have mowed, sanded, painted, screwed in nails and cleaned and cleaned. It’s finally coming together! Hurray!

I’m coming home soon!

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By Jonathan, June 30, 2010 9:21 am

Just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know I’m still here!

“Here” is currently Shelton, WA.  I’m spending some time visiting my sister and her family while Dasy is in Virginia.  I haven’t had much time to see the sites, so there’s not much going on here other than just spending time with family, catching up on a backlog of work, and trying to get some mechanical gremlins out of my little Yamaha TW-200 (the valves don’t seem to want to adjust correctly).  I’m catching up on getting mail and packages caught up to me while I’m parked for a bit. 

Hopefully I’ll make it out to Mount Rainier and/or Olympic National Parks in the next week or two.

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By Jonathan, June 16, 2010 8:49 pm

After Dasy went back to Northern Virginia and the Star was done with it’s major work, I headed up to Glacier National Park.

I was hoping to spend a fair amount of quality time on the TW-200 (motorcycle), but the weather wasn’t cooperative.  It wasn’t bad weather, just highly unpredictable. 

Glacier is probably the prettiest of the national parks I’ve been to so far.  Everything was so green and the plant life and terrain was so varied.  Most of the other parks seem to have a couple types of trees (or no trees), but Glacier seems to have a little of everything.  I’d have to say it’s possibly my favorite so far. 

The first day, I got the Star checked in and set up around 5pm.  That left me only a couple of hours to run up the Going To The Sun road to see the park.  Unfortunately, the road was closed after about 15 miles, as they haven’t finished snow plowing yet.  Since that’s the only road that goes through the park, that left me able to only see a portion of it.  It remained closed throughout my visit and is only scheduled to open about now.  Maybe I’ll take Dasy with me and we’ll see the rest of the park on the way back from the west coast.

Glacier is pretty much lots of lakes, streams, forests and mountains.  Most of the streams contain a number of waterfalls, of varying sizes.

On the second day in the park, I’d bumped into Jennifer of LivingInMyCar.  We talked a little about some of her RV problems, and made arrangements to do a short tour the following day.  I ended up caulking what we thought might be leaky spots in her roof, then we spent the morning on the Going To The Sun road.  Jennifer only has her RV and didn’t want to uproot and drive it out there.  So, I volunteered the Jeep as transport and we spent an afternoon taking pictures on the road.  Luckily (for me), on the way there, I spotted a black bear and a ranger promptly showed up to “deal with it”.  This involved shooting it with a bean-bag cannon, which didn’t work at all.  The bear simply ran up a tree.   I didn’t hang around to watch the aftermath, as there was quite a bit of traffic building up to watch the show.  I also saw a grizzly bear later, but didn’t have the camera handy, so no pictures of him (sorry).

The next day, I took the Jeep out to Polebridge, via a gravel road in the park.  The ride out was pleasant, but long.  It also rained for about half the drive.  I decided to go back on the TW when the weather was decent, as it would handle the potholes much easier than the Jeep would.

I also checked out the local national forest and found a trail up there that I thought the Jeep could handle.  Unfortunately, I ended up sinking the Jeep in snow up to the bumper, which is where I turned around.  I might have attempted to go further, but the surrounding trees in that area were too small to support the Jeep if I needed to winch through any deep snow or mud.  But, it was a nice drive and I got to see a few of the more out-of-the-way streams and waterfalls.

I spent a couple days in the RV due to the weather and work needing to be done.  But, when I had a decent day, I took advantage of it.  One of the trips I made was out to East Glacier, which is a small town at the entrance on the opposite side of the park where I was staying.  Normally, I would have taken the Going To The Sun road, but since it was closed, I took highway 2 around the south end of the park instead.  It’s a nice scenic drive if you’re in the area for a while.

For my last day in the Glacier area, I managed to get good enough weather to go back to Polebridge.  There’s exactly two stores there, one of which is a well known bakery; Polbridge Mecantile.  I waited a bit for some particular lunch bits to come out of the oven.  I was rewarded with one of the best turnovers I’ve ever had…  Chicken with ranch dressing and bacon, stuffed in a flaky crust and baked to near perfection.  It was pretty awesome and was worth the 40 miles on bad roads I took to get there.  I got a roast-beef with grilled onion and horseraddish to go, which would be lunch for another day.

While waiting, another set of motorcycle guys showed up on very well equipped (farkled) BMWs and KLRs.  They wanted to take the park road back instead of the main pothole-riddled road.  Since I’d done it a few days ago in the Jeep I offered to guide them/requested to tag along.   The TW is still fairly new to me and it has a few “quirks”, so I prefer not to be in the middle of nowhere without some kind of possibility that someone can send for assistance if needed. 

We arrived back at the park entrance an hour or two later, said our goodbyes and then I headed out to pack up the Star.  My next stop would be somewhere in Washington state.  I would be heading past Tacoma towards the west coast to spend some time with my sister and her family.

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By Jonathan, June 13, 2010 12:44 am

I just wanted to do a quick post to apologize for the lack of updates.  I was fairly busy at Glacier National Park and I haven’t had time to go through the pictures yet.  I’m currently at a campground in Sprague, WA.

I have electric, so I can pull the pictures off the big computer and back to my laptop, but the only internet access here is my cell phone (which is why this is such a short update).  I should be able to post up about Glacier in a day or two. 

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By Jonathan, June 10, 2010 11:50 am

On Thursday, while the Star was waiting on a new control module, I decided to head out to Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park to check out the caverns.  It was one of the few days that it didn’t rain (well, it didn’t rain on the way there).

I could probably ramble on ridiculously about the cave system and what makes it different from the majority of other caves, but if you’re not into caves (and I’m not really) it probably wouldn’t mean much.  You can do some research on the internet if you really want to know about the caves.  What I can tell you about is how the trip was and what you might want to know if you decide to go.

First, the caves aren’t horizontal or vertical.  They’re tilted, at about 55 degrees due to the mountain shifting a long, long time ago.  The entrance is up on the side of a mountain.  The exit is several hundred feet below it on the same mountain.  You’re looking at about a two mile hike, with a lot of elevation changes.  You’re also looking at climbing up and down a few tight and dark passages.  Plan to spend at least two hours in the cold and dark.  It’s 50 degrees and it is damp (I found several puddles the hard way).  You should be in relatively decent physical shape and you shouldn’t be claustrophobic or afraid of the dark.  Now that all the nasty disclaimers are out of the way…

The cave tour is very interesting and worth the effort.  Unfortunately, I’d have to take an entire lighting rig down there to get decent photographs, so I have only mediocre ones, at best.  Near the end of the tour, they’ve upgraded the lighting to multicolor LED projection bulbs.  They approximate sunlight, but I’m pretty sure they added a few filters for effect. Still, it’s better than the standard incandescent bulbs in the rest of the place.  Any pictures that have a lot of color (like the one below) were taken near the LED lighting.  Anything that looks mostly orange or brown were taken near the incandescent lights.

Umm… it’s a cave.  It’s neat, but it’s definitely a cave.  I’m sorry, but I really don’t know how to describe a cave.  It’s such an alien place.  The pictures will have to do my talking for me.  I can tell you that this particular cave system is known for it’s formations, which are quite interesting and varied.  Some are strange enough to appear to defy the natural laws of physics.

Oh, expect to get a little cozy with others if you end up in a large tour group.  Some of the rooms and the passages are quite small.

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By Jonathan, June 7, 2010 9:21 pm

My previous post pretty much wrapped up our trip to Yellowstone National Park.

On Saturday morning, I said goodbye Dasy, Rob and Lara and they headed off to Jackson Hole to catch a flight back to Washington, DC.  Dasy was going to visit family and friends for a couple weeks and Rob and Lara were going back to “normal life”. 

I finished packing up the RV and talked with our host for a bit (by the way, Wagon Wheel RV Park in West Yellowstone gets our seal of approval).  Then I started heading for Bozeman, MT to get some work done on the Star.  Here’s the short version of the issue (trust me, the long version would be several pages)…

Note: Some people I’ve discussed this with aren’t clear on what is meant by “chassis”.  In most cases, the chassis is the frame of a vehicle and all the bits attached to it that make it go or stop.  This normally includes axles, brakes, the steering components and wheels, but in some instances can also include the engine, transmission and any electrical bits associated with any of the above.  For RV’ers, we generally use the following rule of thumb for determining if something is chassis-related:  If the part in question is also found on a delivery truck or a semi (tractor-trailer), it’s probably a chassis part.  Things specific to an RV, like a refrigerator, a roof fan, or a 50 amp electrical transfer box, are not considered part of the chassis.

When we were in Texas, we noticed that the driver’s side front wheel was leaking some fluid.  We have air brakes, so I knew it wasn’t brake fluid.  It turned out to be axle fluid (gear oil).  The axle fluid keeps the wheel bearing lubricated, which is kind of important.  We stopped on the way out of Texas to get that fixed.  It’s my belief that we were completely scammed.  The shop that did the work tried to bill me for the brakes and seals for both front wheels.  It was obvious they’d only done one.  The mechanic refused to talk to me when I complained about it and the owner was “unavailable”.  I managed to get the cashier to bill me for only one wheel, so we chalked it up to “lesson learned” and moved on.  I checked the wheel several times on our way to Yellowstone and noticed that it started leaking again (almost as soon as we left the shop in Texas).  In my opinion, the mechanic did a lousy job and botched the new seal.  The lack of fluid then ate up the wheel bearings.  So, I found a shop just outside of Bozeman that was certified by Freightliner to work on RV chassis’ in order to get the seal done again.

Another problem that popped up on the way from Moab to Yellowstone was the ABS light.  It came on and never went off.  I’ve had ABS computers fry in other vehicles before, so I wasn’t worried about it, but I wanted it fixed.  I don’t think our ABS system has ever kicked in, but when I’m driving a 30,000 pound vehicle, with a 5000 pound Jeep and a motorcycle attached to it, I want the ABS to work if it’s ever needed!

We also have had an ongoing but intermittent problem with the air pressure gauges on the Star.  There are two air tanks that hold the air used to operate the brakes.  They generally stay at about 120 psi.  When we would drive the Star, one or both guages would regularly drop to zero.  This would cause alarms to sound (which I disconnected fairly quickly) and a warning light on the dash.  I  checked the actual pressure on the tanks and I checked the operation of the compressors and all was well.  So, the air system was working, but the sensor system wasn’t.  I have no idea what else relies on those sensors and I don’t what the long term effects would be, so I wanted that fixed as well. 

I ended up going to Rocky Mountain Truck Center in Belgrade, MT (about 7 miles west of Bozeman).  Out of all the shops we’ve been to for just about anything, this is probably the place I’d try to come back to if I needed more chassis work done.  They diagnosed everything fairly quickly, spent most of a day trying to get the replacement computer needed for the air system and dealt with my Good Sam service insurance (although it wasn’t quite enough of a bill to meet my quite high deductible).  The best part is that they pulled the Star out of the shop at night and they let me sleep in it in the back lot.  They even let me run an extension cord out to get power at night!  They also took care of a Freightliner recall and reprogrammed the engine and transmission controllers.  They were quite tolerant of my being around all the time and they treated me and the Star with consideration and respect (including making efforts to avoid getting my home dirty).  I can’t recommend them enough!  It would be nice if they had a better wifi antenna though, as I couldn’t get a reliable connection when in the back lot.

It took about a week for everything to get done…  Most of that was waiting for the new control module for the air system.  Apparently even Freightliner had a hard time figuring out what it was and where they had one…  The parts guy spent most of a day on the phone with them trying to track it down.  I wouldn’t want his job! :S

At the end of it, all was done to satisfaction and I now have a safe and drivable RV that I can trust again.  The Star made it all the way from Belgrade to Glacier NP with no issues at all!

While I was stuck in Belgrade, I didn’t do much other than arrange things on the RV at night.  I did have one outing to Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park, which I will write about next time.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the old air system control module (the new one looks exactly the same, just less dirty)…  I’ll be pulling it apart soon.

I really don’t want to tell you how much it costs to have one of these replaced. :S

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By Jonathan, June 6, 2010 9:23 pm

Gallatin National Forest

On our last outing while in West Yellowstone, we decided to go see if we could find some bear in Gallatin National Forest.  There’s a section called The Narrows that’s on Hegben Lake that we’d been told was closed to visitors due to bear activity.  Apparently, there were some carcasses (of unspecified type and origin) that were on the beach and the bear were feeding on them.  When I’d gone on my morning outing a few days earlier, I’d gotten close to the closed area, but didn’t actually go as far as I could.  I figured that was our best shot at finding some bear.  Even if we didn’t see any bear, it would be a nice drive through the woods and would be close enough to town that we could call it quits in an hour or two if we got tired (we did).

We ended up going north of Hegben lake to see if we could see any bear activity across the lake.  We figured that would be easiest and safest… bears can run fast, but they aren’t the quickest of swimmers.   We saw nothing of bear or carcasses.  So, we headed back and took a bunch of Jeep trails towards the bear area. 

We stopped first at Horse Butte Overlook.  We saw evidence of bear (shed fur), but again there were no bear.  We did see a couple of Ranger looking people but they didn’t stop us or say anything, so we pretty much ignored them.

The view from Horse Butte was nice and we spotted a herd of bison in the distance (the picture above is taken from Horse Butte Overlook).  But, our quest for the day was BEAR!

We headed back down the butte and followed some more Jeep/forest roads towards the closed area.  The sign marking the road closure had been knocked over earlier and… um… we didn’t see it until we left.  So, we headed all the way through the closed area and all the way to the beach.  Unfortunately, I think this was another park service publicity stunt… no fanged or clawed furry critters were to be seen.  While it was little consolation to us, we did spot our first picah on the way out (sorry, no pictures, they’re skittish and FAST!). 

After that little drive, we headed back along Hegben Lake towards town, stopping at various little scenic overlooks.  At one point we had to drive through the herd of bison we’d spotted earlier from the butte.  A few of them did NOT look happy about it!  I don’t have any pictures, because I was driving and didn’t want to stop the Jeep.  I thought there was a real possibility of one of them getting unhappy enough to charge us.  They’re awesome creatures from afar, but they much more intimidating when staring at you from three feet away!

There were two other interesting things we spotted though…  Osprey and eagles.  There were several osprey, but one of them flew pretty close to us and he’d just been fishing!

I don’t know how big that fish was, but I’d have been plenty happy with the portion size if it was on my plate.  One of the bald eagles must have thought the same thing and it started chasing the osprey!  I figured the osprey would just drop the fish and run, but he was quite set on keeping his own dinner.  Much to our surprise the osprey just kept climbing (with the fish) and managed to keep several flaps ahead of the eagle.   We’re not sure of the final outcome, as they were eventually too high for us to keep track of them.  My bet is on the osprey!

After that we headed back to town.  Rob and Lara had a flight to catch the next day and Dasy was going with them, as there were some family and friends back in northern Virginia she wanted to visit. 

Oh… we never did see a bear on our trip to Yellowstone.

Note: This was about a week ago… I’m playing “catch-up”.  I’m currently in Coram, MT, just outside Glacier National Park.  The Star is all fixed and working and I’m chilling here for a week.  I’ll be in or around the park for a couple of days when the weather is decent and will be working when it rains.  Judging by the forecast, I’ll be working quite a bit. :S  But… I saw a bear today!

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By Jonathan, June 4, 2010 10:06 am

Gallatin National Forest and Grand Teton National Park

For the last few days at West Yellowstone, we decided to check out some of the areas around Yellowstone National Park.  We were still on a quest to find a bear and we’d heard that there was an area not too far from our campground that had been closed off due to bear activity.  I figured we could get close enough to see the area from afar and maybe spot our elusive bear.  For some reason, I’d woken up really early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I did some exploring on my own at 6 AM.  At worst, I’d have an idea of how to get where we wanted to be.  At best, I’d see a bear or find some good trails.

The area I was aiming for was called The Narrows and was located in the Gallatin National Forest, just north of West Yellowstone.  It’s basically a peninsula in Hegben Lake.  Dasy and I had taken a couple of short drives to Hegben Lake already, so I thought I knew what to expect… However, at sunrise it looks completely different!  Sometimes getting up at a ridiculous time can reward me with some amazing sights.  The fog and lighting from the morning sun were almost unreal.  I really should get up early and go exploring more often.

If I have my timeline correct, we checked the weather and we had one potentially decent day and one wet one approaching.  We decided to use the decent day to go to Grand Teton National Park. 

It was a terrible day of driving (luckily Rob had volunteered that morning).  We got stopped in the park for almost an hour so the park service could herd some wandering bison back into the park.  It was cool to see that many of them and the cowboy was quite entertaining… especially when he tried to get the “last” bison to move when it didn’t want to.  I guess the last bison is kind of like the rear guard of the herd.  There were several times we thought he was about to charge the cowboy!  Unfortunately, it was too far away for a decent photo, but I took some video, which I’ll post later.  After the herd passed, we were stopped again by bison near Old Faithful.  This was a large family group with bison of every age and size.  Some of the younger ones were fighting, which was pretty neat.  Dasy particularly likes the calves.

After the bison, we made it through Yellowstone NP and then got stopped again for a long time while waiting for construction on the road between Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP!  We probably spent two hours parked on the road that morning. 

But, we finally made it to Grand Teton National Park.  Unfortunately, almost all the facilities were closed.  They were opening that weekend and we were a few days early.

We drove through part of the park and realized that there’s really not much there other than boating and hiking.  It’s fairly undeveloped and isn’t as accessible as Yellowstone.  It didn’t help that most of the roads off the main road were also closed.  So, we ate lunch, saw the Grand Tetons, took our pictures and went back.  Most of us slept for the trip back to our campground (sorry, Rob!).

Note: I haven’t had my coffee yet and I can tell I’m starting to ramble, so I’ll save the other post about Gallatin National Forest for later.

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By Jonathan, June 3, 2010 10:22 pm

Our third outing in Yellowstone was a cold and dreary morning.  We might have also made an unwise choice in where to go and when.  It wasn’t snowing or raining regularly, but there were flurries and it was far colder than any other morning so far.

We headed to Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which is on the east side of the park.  We stopped at a point near the falls and planned to do a little hiking to get to a couple of viewpoints.  Due to the recent rain/snow, the ground was absolute mush.  My boots were caked with clay and mud within minutes.  But, we did get some decent views of the falls and the canyon.  I’ve included both a zoomed in shot and a zoomed out one so you can get an idea of just how big the canyon is. 

Even though the views were worth it and we’re glad we decided to come, we were getting pretty miserable and we were less than halfway to the point we were trying to get to.  Luckily, I brought along a GPS (no cell service) and did some occasional checks as we went.  It looked a lot like there was a road that eventually ran out to the point we were trying to get to. I mentioned it and almost immediately got a “Great idea, let’s go!”.  I guess I wasn’t the only one who was cold.

We hiked back to the Jeep and drove right up to the point we were about to hike to.  I guess I should have checked a couple more maps before heading out.   We were rewarded with another great view, but the distance was quite a bit further to the falls.  We did get a much better view of the canyon from there, but it was still cold. We decided we needed some heat!

So, we went to the Dragon’s Mouth!

The Dragon’s Mouth is so named due to the steam that constantly bellows forth and the roaring that accompanies it.  The water at the entrance is constantly churning and bursting out.  If not for the steam and muddy color of the water, it would be very much like a sea cave with waves crashing in it.  It’s rather strange.

There are a whole lot of active features at the same location, including bubbling mud pots, boiling pools and a mud volcano.  We weren’t up to exploring too much, but we did the normal picture taking and eyeballing.  If we did want to explore some more, we would have been out of luck due to the sign.  The sign was an “Area closed – there be bear abouts”.  We have decided it was all a publicity stunt and there aren’t actually any bear.  We ran into bear closure areas all over the place but didn’t see a single one the entire time.  There was one area with a ton of traffic where people said there was a bear, but we didn’t really believe that would be our only chance to see one, so we didn’t stop.  Oops.  We even went looking for bear, but that’s a story for another post later.

By the way…  I’m not sure how long this area (Dragon’s Mouth) will be open.  It’s pretty active and the parking lot is now starting to get eaten.  There are several holes in the asphalt with hot sulfuric steam coming out.  At some point the park service will have to re-arrange that parking lot.  From my perspective, it was neat to see the change in only a couple years time.  The whole park really is an active area.  I guess it’s possible than any of the features could change radically at any time.

After the Dragon’s Mouth, we headed to Yellowstone Lake.  To our surprise, it was still covered in ice!

It’s probably thawed out by now, but it was neat to see it at least partially in it’s winter attire. 

After that, we went to the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  West Thumb is probably one of the most visited areas of Yellowstone, with good reason.  It has some really neat geysers, but it’s very restricted and can be quite crowded at times.  It’s best to visit this spot in the early morning or later in the evening if you don’t want to be squeezing past people on boardwalks.  It’s good if you can take some time and just wander here, as some of the pools are quite beautiful. The different water temperatures coming out of the ground (all of which are close to boiling) are home to many different algaes and other biologic stuff that I don’t remember the names of.  Different colored things grow in the different temperatures, some of which can show some incredible colors!

It was also kind of cool to see the elk just hanging out amongst the features.  Some of them were getting a nice little steam bath.  They don’t have to adhere to park regulations about staying on boardwalks. 

Luckily it warmed up and the sun came out while we were at the West Thumb area.

That was pretty much a full day’s activity for us.  I think we were all getting fairly tired from the constant activity, as we’d pretty much been going non-stop since we arrived.  The remaining few days would change that.

Note: I’m still at a repair shop and can get power at night to pull pictures.  I’ll try to finish off the Yellowstone posts tonight or tomorrow (offline) and post them up when I can get a connection.  

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By Dasy, June 2, 2010 12:20 am

Today was the first time I have actually mowed a lawn with a push lawn mower. And it’s not even my lawn! Don’t get me wrong,  I do “yard work”. I just have never mowed grass before. I garden, weed, dig, plant, trim and “landscape”. I don’t cut grass, that’s what brothers, husband or lawn service is for.

My sister and her husband moved into a house some weeks ago and they have been busy improving the inside and have had no time for the outside. Since this is their first house, they don’t have all the tools to properly maintain a yard. So, Dad had stopped by  to mow the grass a few times.

I wanted to be helpful. So, while everyone was at work I took the newly purchased clippers and trimmed the holly hedge by the front entrance (my old electric edger works so much better!). It seemed to take forever!

After I was done with the hedge (it’s in the third picture), Dad dropped by with the lawn mower and accessories. He showed me how to start and operate it. He cut the first half of the smaller side yard and I finished the other half. I was so proud of myself!

Then we proceeded to do the other side of the front yard. Dad started and then he had to leave. I was left all alone with that scary lawn mower. But I “completed” the remainder of that section. It was hard work! There is a tiny “hill” on that side of the yard and I stalled the mower twice! :S

So, I “completed” only the front section of the yard. I left the remainder for my brother-in-law (Sorry Seth!). I was hot, tired, dirty and thirsty.  I came in and drank three glasses of water and ate two mangos. I wanted a green smoothie but was too tired to make it.

The guys make this job look so easy. Guys, thank you! We, women, appreciate you mowing the lawn! Even if we don’t say so, we appreciate it. I have a greater appreciation for lawn service. I’ve seen them work our suburban yard. There are usually three to four men; in about five to ten minutes our yard was cut, edged and blown clean.

I must admit,  there was one casualty. I nicked the coconut fiber mat with the lawn mower by the side door. Sorry guys! :S The lesson for me: Stick to “yard work” and leave cutting of grass to others.

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By Jonathan, June 1, 2010 5:33 pm

What you’re seeing is a picture of my office for the next few days…  actually, it’s the drivers lounge at a Freightliner repair shop I’m at.  I may be spending a fair bit of time here.

On the way to Yellowstone, our ABS light came on.  When driving a 30,000 pound RV with a Jeep and motorcycle attached to it on mountain roads with potential snow, I want my ABS system to work!  So, I’m at a Freightliner dealer getting a few things fixed.  I don’t know how long I’ll be here yet, as they haven’t given me an idea of what’s going on yet.  The RV has been plugged into computers for most of the day and heads have been disappearing into various engine bays and hatches every time I’ve looked. 

Unfortunately, all the Yellowstone pictures are on the big computer in the RV, so I can’t finish my entries until I can get plugged back in somewhere.   I might be able to get the computer up sometime tonight to transfer all the pictures to my little laptop.  If so, I’ll be spending some quality time typing at a local coffee shop somewhere. 

Unfortunately, that’s a little difficult…  I managed to slice my knuckle open this morning when I was clearing out the RV for the workers.  It’s not quite bad enough for stitches, but it’s close…  it’s my own fault, I wasn’t paying attention when I was cutting something. 

Dasy went back to Northern Virginia for a bit, mostly to visit friends, so we figured this would be the best time to get all our maintenance done.  Hopefully, I’ll be all healed up and we’ll have a lot of things fixed on the Star when she gets back.

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By Jonathan, May 28, 2010 4:19 pm

West Yellowstone, MT and Yellowstone National Park, WY

We arrived in West Yellowstone, Montana about a week ago and got the RV set up while waiting for friends from Virginia to join us.  The first day was a nice chance for Dasy and I to run around West Yellowstone and do some basic exploring before hitting Yellowstone itself.  To make it less confusing, let me define West Yellowstone and Yellowstone.

West Yellowstone is the town in Montana that is just outside of Yellowstone National Park.  It’s one of the closest areas you can stay in outside the park.  It’s located in Gallatin National Forest and serves as the “gateway” to the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park.  We’re staying at Wagon Wheel RV park while we’re here.

Yellowstone National Park is located mostly in Wyoming, although small parts of it are also in Montana and Idaho.  I’ll refer to Yellowstone National Park as YNP from here on.

West Yellowstone is a neat little frontier town.  It’s not hard to imagine someone pulling up with a wagon full of skins at a traders store.  There are even bison wandering around!

The next morning, our friends (Rob and Lara) and us headed into YNP itself.  There were a number of road closures, due both to weather and bear activity.  We were in the park a little before the prime tourist season and it was still quite cold and weather was somewhat unpredictable (most people would definitely describe it as winter).

We saw a number of wild animals in the park, which for some reason generally makes us happier than scenery.  One of the first we spotted was a pair of golden eagles nesting near the road.  We stopped briefly and watched from a distance and took a few pictures.  There was a 1/4 mile “quarantine” zone that people weren’t supposed to stop in, so we were still a fair distance away.

We were also lucky enough to spot a wolf, presumably looking for food, near the Gibbon River.  Unfortunately, my camera lens appears to be getting worse and I only got one shot that was anywhere close to being in focus.  I think the sand in Moab did a number on the lens and it doesn’t like to focus any more.  I’ll clean it and see how it does over the next week or so.

One of the notable things that happened would turn out to be a recurring theme.  Even though it wasn’t really tourist season yet, we’d have to deal with traffic jams in the park.  But, unlike most traffic jams, these were usually caused by bison.

We also were lucky enough to spot some elk when we stopped for lunch at Mammoth Hot Springs in the park.  It would turn out that the bison and elk were pretty common and were generally found all over the place, but it was nice that we spotted some on the first day in the park.

After lunch, we checked out the springs and then headed back out for West Yellowstone.

It’s really easy to forget that Yellowstone is the largest active volcanic system in the world.  It’s such a beautiful place and really good example of how big this country is.  But then, you find some geologic feature that’s spouting steam and smells like sulfur and it sinks in a bit…

…we’re walking on a volcano… a really BIG one!