National Parks of the North West USA

Well then.  The first tour of my mega-trip is almost done.  Just travelling back to Seattle on the bus now. It's been great! 2300 miles traveled in 2 weeks!

Highlights for me.  The people. Everyone on the tour has been great.  Friendly, funny, diverse and jolly.

Jen and Sandra, two scottish lassies who have made me miss home and have been a great laugh and great company. Jen is a fellow photographer, though our eyes catch different things to take photos of.  She reminds me in mannerisms, temperament and accent of my aunt Carla.
Sandra is absolutely lovely and has been a kindred spirit of madness.
Andy, from one of those 'Northern' cities (Birmingham he says, at least I think that's what he said.) He has been the most difficult to understand accent wise, and is a proper blokey bloke.  He has put up with me admirably.
Claire is the youngest on the trip and from just outside Belfast. Similar to me, she is on a couple of concurrent trips. She has the typical friendliness of the Northern Irish.
Toby is from Essex and, though always the last to turn up for the bus, is a lovely looney and very friendly.
Dennis is from Canada and has been my room/tent mate for the trip. He's quite quiet, but really nice.
Marielle is Dutch (I think), and very sporty. She has been in the lead group on all the walks and I am jealous of how fit and active she is, especially considering she had a serious neck injury only a year or so ago.
Ari (Ariel) is from Miami, and other than our guide is the only american on the tour.  He seems to be alternatively very quiet and very loud, and a huge fan of Taco Bell.
Hilde is from Belgium and was unfortunately afflicted with a horrible cold for the first few days of the trip, but she very kindly shared it with all of us!
David and Mal are from Australia (though David is originally Welsh) and were mum and dad for the trip. Lovely pair, witty, fun and quick.
Ryan, our CEO (Chief Experience Officer, aka tour guide) has been great. Fun, friendly, organised, and though he has not actually been to a couple of the places we went to before, it really didn't show.  He is only 26 (though he seems much more grown up...most of the time!) and from Texas. He often leads YOLO trips (18-39 year olds), so hopefully we were less immature than them, though with Sandra and I there, maybe not!  In a few weeks he's off to New Zealand to do some CEO'ing out there during the US off season. He's been a big hit with the whole group, particularly with 'Bartlebear', whom he is taking photos of everywhere for his nephew.

So, other than the people, what have my other highlights been.  Some of the springs and pools at Yellowstone are high on the list.  The colours and formations are amazing. 

Craters of the Moon was just surreal. Not a type of landscape I've ever seen before.  Something really special.

Crater Lake was similarly a first for me. I'm beginning to run out of superlatives to use to describe this stuff. It was so huge and still and clear - just incredible.

Other notable events:

Black bear at Mt Rainier

Marmots! 

Cute chipmonks

Bluebird

The angry italian at Grand Teton (we parked the van slightly in view of his photo and he was about ready to start a fight. He got very agressive, called us 'fuckers' in italian, which Hilde understands, so she told him to 'go fuck himself' in Italian. He was rather taken aback!) 

Toby always being late

Ari's love of Taco Bell

Sandra's photos at her namesake town, Gillchrist

Starting every drive with Willie Nelson's 'On the road again' 

Ari crying every time Desperado came on

Martin's never ending donuts

Becoming a drug baron (dispencing paracetamol and cough sweets on the bus) 

Wifi on tbe bus

Group singalongs on the bus. 

Mal's s'mores production line

Dennis and his secret moose

Power march at the top of Glacier pass

Boseman hot springs

Paradise inn at Rainier

Toby in the fishtank

Toby as Gollum in the cave

Hilde breaking the dryer

Ryan's inability to pronounce words like 'route' properly.

Ari's arguing about anything, particularly american 'culture' and guns. 

Ryan's 'fun facts', which were only partially factual. 

The weather. Whilst cold in the mornings, and initially damp at Rainier, we have generally had stunning weather, and been incredibly lucky with visibility most of the time. 

It's been a fantastic trip, I am knackered though, and a little concerned what 10 months of going at this sort of pace will do to me.  Tomorrow I fly down to San Francisco and have 1 day to myself before joining the Explore trip to Yosemite and Grand Canyon.

Crater Lake

A couple more days of travelling. Miles and miles of dead straight roads.  So glad I wasn't driving, must be mind numbing!

We had an afternoon (mostly I think to give Ryan, our guide, a bit of a break) in Bend, Oregon.  A lovely town named after the shallow bend in the river that was the only crossing point for hundreds of miles in both directions. Now an outdoorsy town that seemed really peaceful and nice.  The river has paddleboarding and kayaking, and there is a constructed standing wave for those that want to surf!

The riverside walk was very picturesque, with some weird poles that I think are for osprey or heron nesting

The houses by the river looked idyllic!

Saw this bird.  Pretty certain it's a bluebird.  You know, because it's blue.

 Next day did yet more driving, with a stop at Crater Lake. I'd seen pictures of this before, but it didn't prepare me for just how still and pristine it was. I've never seen reflections like it before.  It's a caldera that collapsed in on itself and has then slowly filled up with rain and snowmelt.  There is no water flowing in, and the only water flowing out is by evaporation and some seepage through the rocks. It is crystal clear, they say possibly the clearest on the planet.  Sechi disk measurements have put the visibility up at 140m.  This has allowed plant life to grow at deeper depths than normally found and there is a ring of underwater moss at almost 400 meters around the entire lake.

We took a walk down to the lake itself at the only accessible point. It was a walk of about a mile, with switchbacks all the way.  Nice to go down, but a challenge to come back up.  Again the altitude had some sort of effect, but who knows how much.

In an attempt to reduce the purity of the lake, several of us went for a swim. (it's allowed, and no I didn't pee in the lake).  The only way to go in is of course to jump. Very very cold (as you can imagine), but rather invigorating!

 And then there were these guys!  So damn cute, and as it's only really nature buffs who aren't arseholes that make the trip, also quite unafraid of people.  I dug out some pistacios to feed them.  Sooooooooo cute!

Later we saw Superman.  Don't ask me, I have no idea.

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Monument is a very recently created volcanic landscape, only 15,000-2,000 years old! Huge areas of lava flows, some cinder cones with only a few plants on them (mostly sagebrush - the yellow one in the pics), and lava tubes, some of incredible size!

It's a really stunning landscape and quite unearthly.  Highly recommended!

Grand Teton

Blogging on the bus, because we have another long travel day, but the bus has wifi!  I love this bus.

After Yellowstone we headed south to an adjoining Park, Grand Teton. No-one was amused, least of all me, to discover that the name 'Grand Teton' originates from the french for 'Big Titties' (possibly nipples, but lets go with a little artistic licence when being rude).  Originally  "Les Trois Tetons", named by a french fur trapper who was presumably rather starved of female company, and later modified.  No-one was amused.  Not at all. Not even a little tit... erm... bit. :-)

Grand Teton was mostly a 'drive through' rather than an explore, but seeing those mountains rise up out of the plains from nothing was quite impressive. No foot hills, just straight up.  We did stop for a walk at Colter Bay and saw some squirrels, beaver lodges, some Grey Jays, and one of our group saw 2 moose, but I missed them :(

We stayed overnight in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where there were bears and elk antler arches.