It's my Birthday!!

I just LOVE Birthdays and especially my own. Something about celebrating LIFE! Thank all of yall who remembered...I didn't realize I had it on Facebook as my girls created that account for me and I have to laugh because they put the year wrong, but it is amazing how many people use FaceBook! I think its cool in that it puts people in touch whereas the connections might otherwise be lost. Here are some zinnias that Pete and Nanci sent me from their garden via cyberspace...and then a fellow Leo, Cindy sent me the graphic.
I got up early today and went a mile to where the White Salmon River meets the Columbia River and watched the Indians catch Salmon. It's a great day....it's very hot here, like 105, but I do love the heat!

Camping in Gifford Pinchot National Forest

As soon as I got to my brother, Clint's house in White Salmon, Washington, I was wisked off by him and Joanne to go camping in a nearby forest about 30 minutes away. We set up camp in a clearing where he normally camps for elk hunting season. We grilled....guess what...elk burgers! I reckon by now I am only 75% vegetarian! There were fir and pine trees, huckleberry bushes (which we picked and made a Dutch oven cobbler), ferns, vine maple, and wildflowers a plenty.

He had a camoflaged stealth camera set up to capture photos of wildlife.....189 photos had been triggered with a few shots of deer and some black bear.
For bear protection we had TinkerBell and a 44 Magnum.

There was an Ice Cave less than a mile away.......amazingly COLD air that changed immediately upon descending into the cave....the ice was only about 10 feet from the surface with this huge opening...the outside air temperature was about 97° (a heat wave going on up here). In the past this cave produced all the ice for the neighboring towns.

There is also a huge lava field where one of the lava tubes has collapsed creating about a mile long canyon with some of the ceiling still in place creating these natural bridges.
Lots of huge fir trees of all sizes.

Arriving to the Columbia River and the Gorge

When I first came upon the Columbia River I thought it was a lake....it is a huge river....a mile wide in some places. The Snake River I have been camping on flows into this great river, contributing to the force that feeds 14 hydroelectric dams, spawning grounds for salmon, recreation of all kinds, world renown windsurfing and kite boarding, phenomenal sturgeon fishing, etc. etc..
The Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia. My destination here is my brother's place in White Salmon, Washington, a small town on the cliffs overlooking the river about halfway through the Gorge. The narrow toll bridge (75¢) over the Columbia River from Hood River, Oregon to White Salmon, Washington. I'll have more photos of the Gorge later on as I will stay here for a few days visiting my brother who I haven't spent much time with since we were teenagers.

Boise, Idaho

Stopped in at Boise, Idaho to visit Norm and his new wife Maureen. I met Norm about 13 years ago in Cozumel, Mexico for Abbe's Bachlorette Party....we have all been great friends since. They were wonderful hosts allowing me to do laundry, shower and sleep in a real bed. I spent the next day on a shop-a-thon...I bought a new camera for all that wildlife I am going to see, a mummy sleeping bag good for -15° for those cold Alaska nights (though a friend just emailed me and said it's hot in Alaska??) and various other camping items. I also got a brake job on the van....nothing to do with the fact that I drove 100 miles with the emergency brake on...oops!!...this flatlander is not used to setting a parking brake. I am learning all sorts of things..and hoping that I am tough enough for the North!!

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Traveling through Idaho on the way to Boise, there are these huge lava fields....and it truly does look like a moonscape....I stopped and hiked around a little walking through some lava flows, up a cinder cone and into some caves. Pahoehoe lava is the smooth ropy looking one and Aa lava is the rough jagged one..both Hawaiian words.
The Inferno Cinder Cone is a steep climb with the steepest part at 15°, doesn't sound like much but that is steep. My feet were almost black when I got back to the van. No vanity here..HA! The cave was beautiful though...the inside of a lava tube actually.

Hard to leave

I have been here at this camping spot for 10 days!!.....it's time to move on.....though you are allowed to stay 14 days...I feel Alaska calling me. I have been reluctant to leave because this place has everything...really....I get up and sit at this table and watch the wildlife..."glassing"...looking through binoculars.
Then hike about 20 minutes to the hot springs where there is NOONE and do Yoga and hang out for hours.....can even walk around the meadows naked....a great feeling.Then the sunsets are always a nice time, however I will NOT miss the mosquitoes..they are terrible here!!
I will always remember the cool people I met here...and I hardly had to cook a meal as I was invited to many meals...steaks, salmon, bacon eggs, etc.etc....not sure if folks feel sorry for me or if they just wanted the company....yesterday turned down an offer to go on a 4 day private river raft trip...would have gone if he wasn't so young...21...well I do have my limits...HA! That one was for you Catriona!

Hiking with an Expert

I was very fortunate to have the guidance of Gary, a most knowledgable person about wildlife and this area in particular as he has been coming up here and hunting for over 30 years...he is also with the Wyoming Game and Fish and so really knows his stuff! I accompanied him on a couple hikes.....he showed me where the local hot springs are...
and then we went to a ridge where we could see the Snake River Valley for miles...he had his spotting scope and we actually watched a Grizzly bear chase a herd of Elk!!! The Elk disappeared into the willows and the Grizzly came back out so we guess he didn't score...Gary said he had never seen that before, so I really felt priveledged then.we saw sooo much wildlife...Trumpeter Swans, White Pelicans (that really surprised me!), Bald Eagles,
Peregrin Falcons, Sandhill Cranes(they wake me up every morning flying low over the river), Ruffed Grouse, Gray Jay, White-breasted Nuthatch, Belted Kingfisher, etc...see I am learning my wildlife!!

Bear Preparation

I have been educated now as far as hiking and camping with grizzly bears goes. I have followed all advice and now have my own large canister of pepper spray that I carry at ALL times...if I am more than 6 feet from the Van I have it hooked on...as the family next to me had a grizzly walk through their camp while they were sitting at their table. We have seen 3 different grizzlies from this camp.

I just LOVE this camp

It is hard to imagine the absolutely perfect place to camp and this is it!!!...and it's free thanks to John D. Rockefeller Jr...making Mango Salsa while watching for wildlife....the view of the Snake River and the Tetons from my bed.

And I have met the most wonderful people here.....Roy,the Cajun, Warren, another free spirit, and a family from Cheyenne who all took me in and we enjoyed meals together as well as lots of shared stories and wildlife viewing. That little white spot in the middle of the photo is the van. This place is remote!

Wildlife from Camp

These little ground squirrels are scurruring around my camp every morning..

All the deer and elk are "in velvet" meaning their new antlers are still soft with a velvet like appearance.Grizzly swimming in the Snake River just across from camp....taken by another camper as I did not have my camera on me....more grizzly shots later when they send them to me.

More Yellowstone

More geysers in the distanceHerd of Bison...a common site

Upper Falls...109 feet

Doesn't even look real...

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is the first National Park of the U.S. Once inside the park the road crosses the Continental Divide several times. The first place I went was to the Geyser field of Old Faithful...named because it faithfully spews about every 90 minutes. There is a boardwalk to accommodate the thousands of visitors that are there to see the same thing....
one of the geysers is named Castle Geyser and goes off twice a day...well don't ya know it went off just as I walked up! The hot thermal pools are surreal.

Then I went in search of a campground....I found a most amazing one in the Rockefeller Park between Teton and Yellowstone....on the Snake River! This is where I will stay for a few days...only 4 campsites and there is a fellow Cajun who plays the guitar every night and a Grizzly bear that frequents the camp...life is grand!! View from my camp....Polecat Creek entering the Snake River with an 8 point mule deer crossing the creek. Soooo much wildlife here...deserves another blog entry! later........