Paddle Hike Explore

I made my way next to Rocky Mountain National Park, camping and hiking first on the lesser visited west side outside of Grand Lake. I stayed here about a week and yet another great free camping area, then moved on to Estes Park and the more popular side of the park. The hiking here is amazing and the altitude provides very pleasant temps even in late August. I saw several moose, especially on the west side of the park. One day on the way back from a morning hike I met some folks that worked for a birding guide service out of Austin, we hiked back together and I was able to use one of the guys binos to spot a Three-toed woodpecker! Alpine view Bull moose near my campsite Lone Pine Lake hike Very impressive trail work Hiking to Big Meadow I was getting restless again so I headed south down to I-70 then west to Breckenridge and south on 285 stopping in Salida for the night. Early the next morning I headed out to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. I explor...

I was now officially on the way back to Texas, heading east into Idaho to see the Sawtooths. I reached Boise, restocked groceries and got the oil changed, spent the night and arrived in Ketchum midday of the following day. I stopped at the Sawtooth NRA visitor center and got info on free camping just down the road. I spent a week here as it was close to hiking trails, and right on the water. It even had a dump station, fresh water and garbage bins. I even bought a pr of solar eclipse glasses at the visitor center. It was nice to stay in one place for that long, but eventually, as always, I get restless to see more, so finally I headed north to see more new vistas. There is no shortage of free camping in the Sawtooths and I spent a few nights here and there, most nights somewhere on the Salmon River. The hiking was off the charts here, and I hiked almost a dozen trails while in the area and had made up my mind I'd stay for the eclipse. I met great people on the trails, always on my ...

Driving down the Oregon coast is just jaw dropping! It also had some of the steepest inclines I'd traveled so far. I got an early start as usual heading down Hwy 101. First stop was to be Cape Meares NWR. Unfortunately, about a mile from the entrance there was a newly fallen tree. I was only the third person to reach it and the first one was calling it in.  The car in front of me turned around and I, not knowing how long it would take to remove it did the same. What a disappointment, there was old growth forest up there! So, I continued down the coast looking for the next refuge or spot of interest. The amazing thing about Oregon is that all the beaches are public, mostly in the form of state parks or recreation sites. I was stumped by this at first, thinking like Texas they all had a fee charged. Mostly they rely on a state pass, but I found that was mostly needed for camping, not day use. There were also lots of free camping pull offs right on the beach. After making my way to Ne...

From Yellowstone I headed north to Montana, stopping in Bozeman to wait on a package from UPS (my new replacement binoculars....old ones failed in Colorado). I actually spent a few days in Bozeman, arriving on Friday and leaving Monday morning, and really liked it. It's a nice size down, not too touristy, a great library and wonderful parks and bike paths, one of which was right outside the library. I also enjoyed walking the neighborhoods near the library where there were great old houses. Some of the artwork along the hiking/biking trail at the Bozeman library Life size sculptures  From Bozeman I headed to north on 287, taking 141 out of Helena, stopping at Big Larch CG on Seeley Lake. The drive was gorgeous. The campground is named aptly for the very large Larch trees in the area. The next day I continued on to Kalispell, then on to spend a noisy night in Columbia Falls, before heading to Glacier NP. Many Glaciers area in the Waterton-Glacier NP Glacier was ama...