National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 30 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
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Fantastic photos! It's kind of neat seeing your photos now compared to the pictures my in-laws took back in the 70's. Not *too much has changed and that's good.
I cannot wait for the Tetons. I know you weren't as impressed by them as you were with Yellowstone, but for some reason I just adore them.
That's what I'd hope that not too much had changed, as that's meant to be the idea of the national parks. The Tetons were beautiful, they just didn't have as much variety for me as Yellowstone... and coming after our visit there, comparisons are inevitable....
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Saturday 10 September – part eight: out of one national park and into the next!
As we headed out of Yellowstone, we started to see glimpses of Lake Lewis...
.. until finally we found a spot to stop. There were two guys there, who we chatted with. We were saying that, if this hadn’t become a national park, we could just imagine how this area would look now. It would no doubt be surrounded by lakefront homes and hotels and, as one of the guys said, no doubt a casino in there as well. Thank goodness it was saved for everyone.
As we watched, we saw two tiny specks on the horizon turn into rowers who seemed to be going at a fair pace, although the water was coming our way in fairness, no doubt helping to push them along. When they reached the shore, one of them told us that they’d been soaking in the natural hot springs on the other side of the lake.
Then we were on our final leg of our tour of Yellowstone with a few final photos along the way and a couple of last stops, including this one of a beautiful waterfall...
... and this one, overlooking Lewis River Canyon. The damage done here by the 1988 fire was quite something to see. I could start to see why they just let fires burn themselves out. Sometimes, sadly, it’s the only way. As we had seen throughout the park, there were lots of places where the old trees were decimated, only to be replaced by smaller, younger trees. I guess that’s what you call the Circle of Life.
Just a couple of observations before we leave Yellowstone behind completely... Wendy asked while we were there whether it was all made up of old people visiting and : it wasn’t at all. We saw a couple of families, although very few kids, and quite a few couples of around our age. It seemed to have attracted a really good mix of people.
We also saw a really good mix of licence plates. We were impressed when we saw one from California, but then we saw heaps more, followed by Michigan, then New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and even Florida. This park certainly draws people from far and wide. I heard German, Spanish and French being spoken and even saw a T-shirt with what I know to be Russian writing on it. As I say, a very diverse mix.
And of course, we all came here for something different. It could be, like us to enjoy the scenery and take lots of photos, it could be to track wildlife, to learn about the geology and nature of the area, to go cycling or hiking. We even saw people hitch hiking. It really did seem to attract people from every walk of life.
And so now it’s time to leave Yellowstone...
... before heading into the Grand Tetons.
I will say here, that had it not been for the fact that the Grand Tetons was on the way between Yellowstone and others, I would never have come here. : It’s not a park I’ve ever heard of at home, although I’d heard nothing but good things about it whenever it was mentioned. I was told the mountains were quite something to see and as we drove along, we got some of those views. It was pretty spectacular, but so far, it was lacking the diversity we’d seen in Yellowstone.
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Great wrap up to Yellowstone. Kayaking across the lake to the natural hot springs sounds wonderful to me... I've been to Grand Teton, but I have very few memories of it. Can't wait to read all about it. I watched Ken Burn's National Parks DVD series that did an entire section on John D. Rockefeller and the creation of Grand Teton National Park.
Great wrap up to Yellowstone. Kayaking across the lake to the natural hot springs sounds wonderful to me... I've been to Grand Teton, but I have very few memories of it. Can't wait to read all about it. I watched Ken Burn's National Parks DVD series that did an entire section on John D. Rockefeller and the creation of Grand Teton National Park.
That sounds wonderful. I'll have to go and look that up...
Beautiful farewell photos of Yellowstone and of the lake and mountains at Grand Teton. It's wonderful to hear that Yellowstone was preserved for us and is being used by a diverse group of people in all the ways that were intended.
Great final day at yellowstone. The lake reminds me of lakes in northern Wisconsin! And my DH has a tshirt that says "kiss me I'm Russian" in Russian! Only 1 person has been able to read it in 4 years!
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Great final day at yellowstone. The lake reminds me of lakes in northern Wisconsin! And my DH has a tshirt that says "kiss me I'm Russian" in Russian! Only 1 person has been able to read it in 4 years!
Saturday 10 September – part nine: wow, this is a big cabin!
We made it to Colter Bay and headed for the Visitor Centre, but it had closed at 5:00pm, about 40 minutes earlier, which did seem very early for something like that to close.
We headed off to try and find the Cabins, not the easiest job when you’ve been provided with no directions. All I knew was that it was in Colter Bay Village and that’s where we were now. Fortunately Mark’s eagle eyes picked out the sign and I headed into reception to pick up our key to cabin 450.
Our cabin turned out to be a short walk from the restaurant, so that would be useful for dinner. It was a beautiful place, both inside and out:
it’s Billy the Bison from Yellowstone!
I was very impressed with the size of it, as I wasn’t expecting anything nearly so big.
We settled down for about an hour or so, making the very nice discovery that this place has free wi-fi. Something I didn’t know about, as they didn’t say that in any of their literature. Ok, so it was too slow to watch Doctor Who but at least I was able to catch up on e-mails and update the trip report, so that was good.
Then we decided that dinner was a good plan. However, we hit a snag as we went out. We couldn’t get the door to lock. In the end, I told Mark to go back to reception and ask them, as we had no cell coverage inside the cabin (I know, despite having free wi-fi, how bizarre is that? ) and I went back in to guard our stuff. He returned a couple of minutes later with the solution. You had to lock it from the inside, rather than with your key from the outside. Ok, so in a month of Sundays, I would never have fathomed that one. :
Finally, we were off to dinner, with me getting some photos of our woodland cabin setting.
We went to John Colter’s Ranch House Restaurant, although we had no choice, as the neighbouring cafe had already shut up for the season. It was very odd to see things closed, especially with the wonderful weather we were having at the moment...
We had to wait a couple of minutes to be seated and admired the old photos they had in there...
Then we were offered the choice of a table or booth and I opted for booth. I loved all the little touches in here.
It took a bit of browsing of the menu to figure out that all their entrees came with a soup of the day, which turned out to be red pepper and crab, and a salad, so we both opted for just entrees. Our salads and soup were very impressive:
I went for the Cedar plank blackened wild salmon, wild caught salmon cooked on a Cedar plank, with native grain rice, yellow wax beans and creamy green onion butter sauce and achiote oil. It was good, but towards the end, the flavours became a bit too dominating for me and I couldn’t finish it.
Mark had the grilled buffalo flank steak ( I know he’s seen some, but the second I saw the menu, I knew what he’d go for... ), although he subbed out the sweet potato black bean cake that came with it for mashed potatoes. It also came with pico, sautéed green beans, bordelaise sauce with pickled jalapeno.
Once we were done, we looked at the dessert menu, but nothing on there grabbed us, so we got the check, which came to just $43. Considering what we’d just eaten, that was pretty good.
John Colter Ranch House:
Appetiser 8 7½
Entree 7½ 8
Service 7 7½
Atmosphere 8 8
Value for money 9 8½
Average score: 7.90
With that, it was back to the cabin. It was starting to get dark, so I got some night-time shots of the area.
The rest of the evening was spent online and unsuccessfully trying to watch the latest Doctor Who episode... well, I did say it was a slow service.
The weather today was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 70s. The best thing today was seeing all the geysers. The worst thing today was how cold it got in the evening. Today we tried visiting Yellowstone’s many geysers And the result was they are absolutely amazing, with such stunning colours. They really are a beautiful sight. The most magical moment today was watching Old Faithful erupt, almost alone.
Next: what do you mean you heard noises outside in the night?
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: it wasn’t at all. We saw a couple of families, although very few kids, and quite a few couples of around our age. It seemed to have attracted a really good mix of people. 
I will say here, that had it not been for the fact that the Grand Tetons was on the way between Yellowstone and others, I would never have come here. 
it’s Billy the Bison from Yellowstone! 
Something I didn’t know about, as they didn’t say that in any of their literature. Ok, so it was too slow to watch Doctor Who 
but at least I was able to catch up on e-mails and update the trip report, so that was good. 
) and I went back in to guard our stuff. He returned a couple of minutes later with the solution. You had to lock it from the inside, rather than with your key from the outside. Ok, so in a month of Sundays, I would never have fathomed that one. 
), although he subbed out the sweet potato black bean cake that came with it for mashed potatoes. It also came with pico, sautéed green beans, bordelaise sauce with pickled jalapeno. 
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