The Mountains are Calling

Chelan Lake 

Adjacent to North Cascades National Park is the Lake Chelan National Recreation area accessible by daily Stehekin Ferry. The town of Stehekin with no road access is located at the head of the lake. Departing the ferry and after a short bike ride we walk through the woods to the Buckner Orchard. Planted in the early 1900s this orchard is now managed by the National Park Service and is open in season for apple picking. The orchard’s 4 mile gravity flow irrigation system, fed by snowpack, and hand dug by the homesteaders, is still in use today.

    
Chelan Lake vacation home                                                            In the Old Orchard

   Schoolroom Chart                                                                Garden pollinators

 

Mount Rainier

As we approach 14,410 foot Mount Rainier from the east over Chinook Pass the glaciated peak suddenly appears high above us.

    
Mount Rainier                                                   Emmons Glacier from Sunrise

From our campsite at Ohanapecosh we follow the loop trail through the old growth forest to Silver Falls.

    
Big trees                                                                          Silver Falls

 

Mount St. Helen National Volcanic Monument

An Active Volcano 

As we travel along the entrance road we note the changes in the area that have occurred since our previous visits to the area in 1982, just 2 years after the eruption and in 1992.

We hiked The Boundary Trail into the landscape altered by the eruption. Mount St. Helen was shortened by  1300 feet to 8363 feet by the eruption. Still visible is a 300 foot lava dome bulge on the north side of the mountain.

   
First view of the volcano                                                       The clouds start to clear

The clouds finally clear

 

Yellowstone National Park

The First United State National Park 

As a result of the mid-June flooding both the North and Northeast Entrances remain closed so we enter via West Yellowstone, MT. With the majority of the world’s geysers and hot springs and an abundance of wildlife located in this park it can be a fascinating as well as dangerous place. Warning are everywhere.

    
 Unpredictable Steamboat Geyser                                                     Hot Spring

White siliceous organisms color the landscape

 

Hot springs are living thermometers. Microorganisms that live there and in their runoff have adapted to the extreme temperatures. The different colors of these organisms indicate the temperature at which each can survive – orange at the hottest (140 degrees F) and green at cooler (122 degrees F).

    
Grand Prismatic Spring                  

Hiking along the south rim we view the equally spectacular Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

 
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

   
Upper Falls                                                                   Lower Falls

 

Bordering Yellowstone National Park to the south is one of our favorite parks – Grand Teton National Park. Jackson Lake, a highlight of this park, is experiencing very low water as Idaho has drawn water from this reservoir for agricultural use lowering the lake level by 39 feet.

By making an early start we were able to enjoy an uncrowded, challenging hike to circle between Bradley and Taggart Lakes for some fantastic mountain views.

    
Grand Teton at Bradley Lake                                Grand Teton across Jackson Valley

 

Capitol Reef National Park 

At Capitol Reef National Park we join New Jersey hiking friends Joyce and Alan Breach and Joyce’s sister Kate Weller for several days of hiking.

Capitol Reef’s defining geologic feature is the Waterpocket Fold, a wrinkle in the Earth’s crust carved by millions of years of erosion.

    
Hickman Natural Bridge                                        Big horn in Cohab Canyon

   
 The Narrows                                                       Slot Canyon

 
In the 1880s Mormons established the small settlement of Fruita building irrigation systems to water orchards and pastures which the National Park presently maintains. Thus the source of fruit for pies.

 
Pies for lunch

True dark skies are becoming rare but the open skies at Panorama Point provided the perfect theater for thousands of stars to shine and amaze as the daylight dimmed and the billions of stars in the Milky Way gradually appeared across the sky.

Fun in Missoula, Montana

A Carousel for Missoula is a hand-carved 1918 merry-go-round maintained by volunteers. Jim tried but missed the brass ring.

    
Carousel horses

Grab for the ring

 

The Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery

Headwater of the Missouri River 

Missouri Headwaters State Park, near Three Fork, MT, encompasses the present day confluence of the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers.

 
Missouri Headwaters 

It is here the Lewis and Clark arrived on July 25, 1805, accomplishing a major goal of the expedition: to explore the Missouri River to is source.  

From the Headwaters to the Mississippi River, the Missouri River is 2341 miles long.  Rain and snow falling on 580,000 square miles in the Missouri River Basin eventually flows into the Missouri River and then the Mississippi River.

In order to continue west the Corp needed horses.

 

We  now have it easier as we continue our travels westward.

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