[a/s] The Sinewes in Wyoming

[HHamp5246@xxxxxxx]

Another report from Phil Sinewe.... sounds so familiar.... (c:

Hunter

Well, the last time I wrote, we had pretty much done all of Yellowstone
(some of it in the pitch black darkness of West Wyoming).  Anyway, here we
go:

7/8/00:

We got up early to go to Grand Teton National Park, which is right below
Yellowstone.  Of course, it takes 2 hours to get through Yellowstone, so
Grand Teton is a long day trip.  We only spent the day, but if I had it to
do over again, we should have taken the trailer and stayed a couple days
there.  Anyway,  The mountains are simply breathtaking.  It only took a few
minutes to come to the opinion that Yellowstone is cool and interesting, but
the Teton's are simply Beautiful.  To make it even more incredible, we find
a mama with baby Moose, all close enough to get great pictures.  Then we
stop at Jackson Lake Lodge, walk out on the back porch and find a bull moose
50 yards away, eating in a pond, with a second mama and baby equally as
close.  The baby was like a puppy, playing hide and seek with the mom.
Then, as mom would walk away, he would bounce across the field after her.
Another interesting thing, the bull moose could simply walk a few feet into
the thicket and he was gone, totally.  Very well adapted to the brush, they
could be seen and not seen at will.  We then took and drive along the
mountains (not over them, along side)  It was great.  The mountains have
several glaciers to see.  These are not the size of glacier you would see in
Alaska, but, they meet the definition and are considered glacieral flows.
Very cool, no pun intended!  After the drive, we had lunch at the lodge,
with huge windows overlooking (OK, looking UP!) the mountain range, it was a
great lunch!

Advice to those in this part of the country, GET UP EARLY, it is worth the
wildlife.

That evening, we met the nicest couple from Alberta Canada.  They had a
motorhome, pulling a trailer for their Honda Gold Wing.  The annual Honda
Wing Ding was held this past week in Billings...Several thousand Hondas,
most of them hitting Yellowstone.  Anyway, we talked for about an hour.  As
my friend Hunter said the other day, you would likely never meet and talk to
folks about a thousand different topics if you were staying in a
hotel/motel, thus the beauty of camping.  On top of that, you would not have
a man from Canada offer to take your boys for a motorcycle ride around the
campground, Curtis and Marcus were in heaven.  Marcus no longer wants an
Airstream, he wants a motorhome and a Honda Gold wing towed behind it.

7/9/00:

We VERY reluctantly leave the Yellowstone/Teton area.  It has been a very
wonderful time.  We are heading for Rapid City SD, with a few stops
in-between.  We drove for about 7 hours (almost running out of gas at one
point) and ended up in Buffalo, Wyoming.  A very quaint western town.  We
stayed at Indian Campground in Buffalo, the cleanest, nicest bathrooms we
have ever seen, as well as the nicest laundry and the nicest family running
the place.  I would recommend it over any campground we have ever seen!!!
That evening, we drove up to the mountains on a scenic drive (saw another
baby and mama Moose, then a bull far off in the distance), an unexpected
surprise.  The pass at the top was 10,000 feet, with just a slight view {:)
And then we came back down the mountain on "Crazy Woman Canyon Road"  WHAT A
DRIVE!!!  This is gravel road (a nice road) that takes you through Crazy
Woman Canyon.  It is incredible.  We saw several buck deer (possibly mull
deer), standing near the drive.  As you get down the mountain (a good 45
minute drive), you end up in a canyon just wide enough for a normal car,
winding around huge rocks, with the stream right next to you.  You felt
totally like you were in the old west riding a horse down the canyon, it was
very nice.  By the time we got down, it was dark (again!), and we topped the
evening off by watching a spectacular lightning show in the distance.  A
thunderstorm in the distance in Ohio is nothing like watching a storm out
here.  Big Sky Country!!!

7/10/00:

We left Buffalo and headed for Spearfish South Dakota.  On the way we
stopped to see Devils Tower National Monument.  It is pretty neat.  The boys
climbed on the bolder pile at the bottom of the tower.  Devils Tower is
kindalike "OK, there it is, we're outta here".  It was, none-the-less, worth
the detour and stop.  We saw several groups of antelope in the fields on the
way.  We are also getting into the Black Hills, very nice mountains.  We
ended up at Chris' Campground in Spearfish.  I nice family run spot.

OK, that's all, off to bed.  Rapid City is on Tuesday.

Phil and the gang