Badlands and Grand Teton National Parks

Not a whole lot to report here....  We finished the Adventure Cycling trip on Friday August 30th and headed east a bit to Badlands National Park. Friday was rather wet so we toured the Visitor Centre and drove through the park, stopping at lookouts along the way. For someone whose car normally turns west toward the mountains this was a nice change of scenery. On Saturday the smokin’ hot weather returned and we did a few hikes in the park. Pretty amazing rock formations. Many are very delicate and fragile-looking; hard to believe they won’t just disintegrate in the next rainstorm.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed west once more. We made a stop at Devils Tower National Monument (America’s first, apparently).  A pretty impressive chunk of rock!  And, yes, we did see climbers on it.

Back in the car and on to Thermopolis. We didn’t have time to visit the hot springs at the state park, but I did have an amazingly yummy pineapple curry at the local Thai restaurant.

While I certainly did want to see Badlands, Devils Tower, etc, some of the rationale for the circuitous route to Grand Teton NP was to avoid the long weekend since the campgrounds there don’t take reservations. Success!  Lots of room in the campground we wanted even though it had been full all weekend. Tuesday was a hike up into Cascade Canyon (after a boat ride across Jenny Lake).

Wednesday was a 75 mile bike ride down toward Jackson and back.

Thursday morning was a short hike up to Grandview Point followed by a canoe outing on Jackson Lake in the afternoon.

Our weather was glorious the whole time we were in Grand Teton and the mountain and lake views did not disappoint.

As forecast, the weather turned a bit on Friday. Ursula was anxious to get back to Calgary so we drove through Yellowstone (scattered rain much of the day) on Friday, stopping at a few thermal basins along the way.

It might be September, but there are still lots of tourists in the park!  We made it to West Yellowstone in good time for some main-street-strolling. A few minor purchases but for the most part we both kept our credit cards in our wallets.  I ran into 3 women who I will be riding with for the next month, so they’re starting to trickle into town.....

On Saturday we were up in good time and Ursula made it back to Calgary by 6. I spent a few hours at the Grizzly Bear & Wolf Discovery Centre (a worthwhile trip if you’re in town),

caught up on a few things, did another tour of the shops, had a chat with a fellow biker and ran into Cy (our guide), got some reading done, watched the US Open tennis final (yay Bianca!), and generally did nothing productive.

Off to meet the troops now........