Yellowstone National Park

Elaine, Me and Nicole at Yellowstone

I found the landscape and terrain at Yellowstone so different to anything I have ever seen before, it was fascinating, but I wished I knew more about geography other than the generic, landscape formed by volcanoes and placed on a fault line.  We saw so many incredible things including geysers, and hot pots, and dramatic waterfalls; as well as exciting animals.

One day we got up early to miss the crowds and went to Old Faithful, so named because it spouts hot water and steam straight up into the air at regular 90 minute intervals.  We had just finished watching it and were walking around some of the other curious holes in the ground, some of which were fairly dull looking and muddy, some beautiful and bright blue, some a peculiar shade of grey; when another started spouting huge shoots of water and steam into the air.  As soon as that finished another, named 'the castle' because of its shape which had a built up cone created over thousands of years, put on a performance, and then it was time for Old Faithful to go off again so we watched it for a second time and then enjoyed a late breakfast.

Some of the pools were a bright blue colour and filled with warm steamy water and looked terribly inviting.  It seems hard to believe that the water is boiling and dangerous, and that the caves at the bottom of them may be bottomless and lead to a molten centre of the earth.  Some of the geysers smelt terrible, and some didn't and some were quiet, and others hissed gently, or made funny bubbling noises or even roared and gurgled.  We walked around the whole area on wooden boardwalks, and you could see destruction caused by the geysers, vegetation had been killed off, and there were warning signs everywhere telling you to stick to the path as the earths crust was so fragile in places you could fall through, it seemed so contrary to the normal world we usually live in it was hard to believe, despite the evidence before my eyes.

Some of the algae and tiny creatures that live around the pools create brightly coloured patterns around the whole scene.  I was reminded of my reading and photographs of Roturoa in New Zealand, and I can't wait to go there and see what that is like - a shame I will be nearly two hundred years to late for the pink and white terraces.

The Last Chance Stampede: Helena Rodeo

Last night we went to see the rodeo, something I have wanted to do for many many years.  The event started with small children riding sheep - or ought I say falling off sheep.  The children were as young as four, and only had a rope to hang on to, the sheep were not very happy to be ridden, so the inevitable result was the children tumbling off and the sheep running around the ring at full speed to be herded back to their pens by the very skilled cowboy overseers.  Although I was outraged - and I am not sure who for, the children or the sheep, it was actually pretty funny.

The event continued along the same lines, almost every competition involved making a beast buck as much as possible - generally bulls and horses, and the cowboys staying on for at least eight seconds, and winning points for style.  It was of course more complicated than that really, and I never fully grasped the intricacies of the scoring system.  It was very entertaining, very tense (each time man or beast got up from the ground alive I was relieved), and the skill involved was tremendous.  There were also some comic moments although not created by the truly terrible clown who talked through the whole show. 

Eight seconds, is such a long time, when watching a beast trying to throw his rider, and most of the cowboys (and this was a rodeo with top cowboys in it) came off before that time was up.  The bull, steer, or horse, can easily fit in 15 or 20 big bucks in that time, and it was a miracle that any of them stayed on for longer than the second buck.  When the bulls threw their riders, the riders had to run for their lives and climb out of the pen, for often the bull would turn to charge or attack them - I have never seen a man crawl so fast as one unfortunate who had lovely silver tassells on his chaps which shone with each movement.

In one of the slightly more imaginative competitions the cowboy had to ride in after a calf, lassoo him, leap off his horse throw the calf to the ground and tie up three of his feet, immobilising him.  This too was achieved for the winning cowboys in eight seconds - never has eight seconds seemed such a short period of time!  For one cowboy it took longer because he kept picking up the calf to throw him onto his back and the calf kept resisting so that the calf was thrown at least four or five times.  The calves looked very small and defenceless in this competition, but each one probably weighed twice as much as a men, if not more.


Another competition involved riding in on a horse, jumping off onto a young bull and wrestling him to the ground; skillful, impressive, exciting to watch, but I did have foolish sensibilities and some qualms about it! 

On the whole, I felt that it was a refreshing antidote to the foolish world we live in, filled with health and safety, risk assessments, and civilised concerns.  Humans, are, whether we like it or not, attracted to the dangerous, the slightly barbaric, and the bloody, and to deny that is ridiculous.  The rodeo seemed like a last bastion in the western world, and for that reason I was in favour.  The animals although discomforted and perhaps enraged and scared, were only in that position for a minute or two at most, and the whole show was conducted very professionally.  I am full of admiration for the cowboys, who are not only skilled, but either very brave or foolish - there is no way on earth that I would have got anywhere near some of those antagonised bulls, let alone got on one, and to do that time and time again, knowing full well the consequences must be admired.  I know that even if I wanted to, my knees would shake, my stomach would contract and I would be so scared I would be physically unable to make myself.



Me and Russ, an Arrington family friend - in his best for the day!



Glacier National Park

I have just returned from Glacier National Park which was green and verdant and filled with the steepest and craggiest mountains I have ever seen.  The mountains all seem to have dramatic sharp edges and ridges against the sky, and on many of them I could see the stratations in the rock traversing a whole mountainside.  The valleys are filled with raging torrents of cold turquoise glacial melt water and huge turquoise lakes, and in between the tops and the bottoms are thick forests, or steep meadows filled with a multicoloured array of flowers.  On the first day we camped at Many and walked along the valley to a beautiful lake embraced by mountains, then, feeling energetic we hiked up to another waterfall which was spectacular.  I stood in the spray looking out over the valley and over to mountains on the far side and was drowned in the roar of the cascading water.  It was brilliant.

The Hidden Lake - Mostly frozen

On our second day we drove over the pass (the going to the sun road) to the other side of the park, stopping on route to hike across the snow to the hidden lake, to photograph many points of interest and to see the weeping wall.  The pass was cold, and had only been reopened a week ago and the road was carved through piles of snow as high as double decker buses in parts.

The third day Rob and I hiked up to the fire tower on Mount Brown - which was bigger and steeper, or we were less fit, than we had hoped.  The views were just incredible, and it was so nice to really get some good exercise! 

On the fourth day we walked up through the forest to yet another beautiful lake.  Every minute was filled with my eyes just drinking in the views and trying not to forget them.  The National Parks, or at least Glacier, was truly amazing, well organised and well run and filled with smiling uniformed guides, the trails are well marked, and there is something for everyone, they are much more accessible than equivalent places in Britain, in almost every way.  I was very impressed.

Me, Nicole & Rob

As for wildlife, dare I admit this to my parents?  We saw bears!!! And very close by, there was a mother and three young by the side of the road - we were in the car.  Worryingly they were rather unconcerned by us, and soon a ranger appeared and let us get out of the car for photographs, so it was perfectly safe - and we hiked with bear spray and making lots of noise.  The bears were beautiful though I was so pleased to have seen some.  We also saw lots of mountain goats, bighorned sheep, chipmunks, Colombian ground squirrels, normalish squirrels, a marmot some huge butterflies and unfortunately a lot of mosquitoes!

Wise Old Mountain Goat

Next stop Montanna

I am off on the greyhound tonight bound for Helena, it will take all night and I ought to arrive about lunch-time tomorrow.  My time at Marcy's in Tacoma seems to have flown by, and I am sorry for those of you have wanted lots of pretty pictures, Marcy and I have been very domestic, as she has had work and we have been getting things done here rather than going out and exploring.  I also feel as though I know the area quite well as last year I was here and I did visit Seattle a lot, go to lots of museums have an underground tour etc.
So in the last week I have bought a bicycle, and all of the other things I will need for that part of my trip, we have pottered around in the garden, been to farmers markets, done a lot of baking (gooseberry pie, quiche, sourdough bread, fruit pizza, Indian with chipatis, bagels, spring rolls, etc) and watched lots of period dramas (North and south, very good & Downton Abbey, which I loved and the costumes where just wonderful, and Little Women with some very youthful familiar faces)!

Home made fruit pizza - yummy!

Rhubarb festival in Sumner - It felt so much like the Gilmore Girls I kept expecting to see Sookie walk round the corner with a pie.

Home made bagels!

My latest discovery

This is avocado bubble tea, which is a drink made from avocado's, which is why its green. It has a consistency of very thick milkshake or smoothie or perhaps slush puppy as it is very cold.  These drinks come in many different flavours - red bean, mango or pineapple to name a few, and the 'bubbles' are tapioca, so the black beads you can see at the bottom are about the size of a smarty and are round beads of tapioca which are rather chewy and slimy, reminiscent of frogspawn only I suspect slightly chewier and denser.  Although this was tasty, I am not entirely convinced!

Tacoma

I am staying at Marcy's house, which is just beautiful - especially as when I saw it last year she was just putting an offer in to buy it - and I was quite worried by how grim parts of it looked!  However the last few days I have spent mostly trying to get organised for my cycling trip later in the summer.  First step, buy a bike, second step buy a map - easy, one would think!
I have been to five different bicycle shops with little luck - road bikes can't deal with the load, mountain bikes are too heavy and clunky, I couldn't find a comfortable hybrid like my bike at home, and what was sold as a touring bike was either something that looked like a camel, or something made from a similar substance to cast iron, which may have been suitable for a police man seventy years ago.  I already have 12 kilos of stuff excluding food and drink, I don't really want a bike that weighs as much as me. 

I was seriously considering trying to ship my bike from home, I was getting that worried, when I finally found something which I hope will be perfect.  (It was of course more money than even my negative prediction had been so I am now feeling rather broke.)

It has drop handlebars - really comfy, I am won over already; peculiar gear leavers, cleverly hidden behind the breaks, and Naomi, you will be amused - I deliberately bought toe straps.  I figure with over 1000 miles to go I need all the help I can get. 

Maps - Thank you Ordinance Survey!  You are the best organisation in the world, I had never realised how unusual and how lucky we Britain's were having complete coverage with topographical information, natural and man made features available in two different scales.  America does not have this, and in fact no one seems to appreciate that as a cyclist I may need to know whether to stop at this campsite or how far and how many miles it is to the next.  I have not yet managed to solve the map problem, and I am slightly worried I may have to travel blind, rather scary.

What is even funnier though is the gear shop here is amazing - it is palatial, like twice the size of a large supermarket, and they sell everything, canoes, kayaks, bicycles, climbing gear, walking kit, camping, you name it, they cover it (or appear to) They even have a dirt track outside to test mountain bikes on, a climbing wall to test climbing kit on, and a large pretend terrain thing to try walking kit on - yet they can't do a decent map!

Victoria BC

The best things in Victoria were:  The Museum, with an amazing collection of birds eggs on display, and a recreated turn of the century street, complete with drapers shop which I was enchanted by (I dragged Marcy round it about three times), some of the architecture, the singing bell tower, and afternoon tea at the Empress.  We also went to Butchart Gardens, which were supposed to be very English (as was Victoria) I didn't think they were particularly, and although quite nice, they would have been far more enjoyable at half the admission fee and with fewer tourists.  We walked to the castle, but didn't bother to go inside, the walk round suburbia was very nice though - lots of rather lovely grandiose Victorian mansions interspersed with modern houses when they had sold off their gardens.

Beautiful birds eggs (Photo by Marcy)

Afternoon Tea - yes we did eat it all! (The Battenburg Cake had chocolate squares - I was appalled!)

Butchart Gardens, please excuse the horrible fixtures - it was impossible to get a picture without, as with millions of visitors a year they have to open at night and so need lighting; in Britain I suspect the integrity of the garden would come before commercialism.

From the Museum