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This Week on the Road - August 6th-12th

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This Week on the Road - August 6th-12th

Hello Everyone,

Greetings from America’s Dairyland. When I left you last week, I had no plan to be in Wisconsin quite this quickly, but once I got rolling, I just kept rolling. I took advantage of the cool of the early mornings to drive and then tried to make the most of my afternoons wherever I landed. Even though the name of the game this week was to drive towards home, it’s actually been a pretty great week on the road. I was sad to pass through South Dakota so quickly, but I will definitely be back when it’s cooler and I’m ready to really dive into it. Temperature-wise, it’s significantly cooler out here, but once I crossed the Missouri River the humidity started to increase with each passing mile. But it’s still cooler at the end of the day and that is making a huge difference after too many hot weeks out west. Now that I’m back on the eastern side of the Mississippi River and now that my brain isn’t frying every time I step outside, I feel like I’m in a better place mentally. My van did exceptionally well this week and it seemed much happier to be moving in the cool of the morning as well. All told, it was smooth sailing. While I didn’t get to see as much of Montana, Wyoming or South Dakota as I had hoped and planned for this summer, I was grateful for what I did see and will return another time for the rest. Now that I’m somewhere cooler, I will be able to slow down for a bit and see some friends and family before I make that last run for home. It may be cooler here, but it’s still blazing hot in D.C. so while I’m headed that way I’m not in a huge rush to get there at the moment. So let’s get into what I did see and do this last week as I made my way east.

When I left you last week, I was in the old coal mining town of Gillette, Wyoming. Gillette is not Wyoming’s biggest town and certainly not its prettiest, but it was nice enough for the night and the people were friendly. I had booked a Harvest Hosts stay at the Big Lost Meadery right in the heart of downtown Gillette and it was an excellent place to stay. Wednesday was bingo night, so I settled in to enjoy a couple of glasses of mead and try my luck. There weren’t too many people there, but there were obviously some regulars who come to play every week. One group had a very long basset hound which was absolutely adorable. I didn’t win a single game, but I enjoyed being there. After they wound up for the night, I wandered around downtown for a bit, but there wasn’t much happening so I called it a night and got a good night’s sleep.

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This Week on the Road - July 30th - August 5th

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This Week on the Road - July 30th - August 5th

Hello Everyone!

Greetings from the prairies of eastern Wyoming. I have officially turned my headlights east and I have begun my long journey home. It’s been a fascinating time here in the Rocky Mountain states and I would love to keep exploring for the rest of the year, but between the crazy heat of the last month and the issues I’ve had with my van this summer, I have decided it’s time for me to go home for a while. When I get there I’ll be able to sort some things out, regroup and get ready to get back to it again in 2027. It’s not been an easy decision, but I think it’s a good one and I’m starting to wrap my head around it at this point. Waking up super early so I can drive somewhere and then spend all day either inside or sitting under a tree is not a lot of fun and even though the summer is waning, it looks like another month of heat could be ahead. The work I needed to have done on Shadow Catcher this summer highlighted how old she is getting and how hard it will be to keep getting parts and also just how far away from home I am in a 30 year old vehicle. Even though she’s been running really well for the last few weeks, I think it’s time for her to find a new home with someone who needs and expects less from her than I do going forward. So I have slowly begun my eastward journey with no plans to speed across the country, but with every intention of getting there in the next few weeks. That said, I’ve had a really interesting week here in northern Wyoming and southern Montana exploring small western towns and some of the battlefields of the Plains Indian Wars. The heat broke on Monday and I have done my best to make the most of the last few days with cooler conditions to run in. I’ve certainly slept better, that’s for sure. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

After leaving you last week, I finished up a few things and then strolled down the road and checked into the historic Greybull Hotel for the night. The Greybull is a charming small-town hotel which was clean, comfortable, very reasonably priced and right in the middle of town. I plunked my stuff down and cooled off for a minute and then wandered down the street to the tiny Greybull Museum. The museum was really small, but had a lot of cool rocks and fossils from the area and some nice historic artifacts from the town as well. From there, I popped next door to CC’s pizza for dinner and then went for a beer at the Smokehouse Saloon. On Wednesdays they were charging 25¢ for a draft beer or $1.50 for a pitcher. I showed tremendous restraint by limiting myself to just one pitcher, but I had paid for a nice hotel room which I wanted to get back to enjoy it, which is exactly what I did. It was quite nice to relax on my couch, in the air conditioning, and watch some TV for a while. I know that is something many, many people do every night, but for me it was a luxury.

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Snapshots: South Pass City - A Wyoming Gold Rush Town

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Snapshots: South Pass City - A Wyoming Gold Rush Town

In June of 1867 a small group of soldiers from Fort Bridger, who were in the area to help protect the overland trails coming through South Pass, decided to try a little prospecting during their down time. They came up lucky and soon a small gold rush brought 2,000 people up the mountain, and South Pass City was born. The mines and the town would both go through a series of booms and busts over the next 90 or so years until, in 1968, the whole town was bought by the state of Wyoming and was designated a state park. The Carissa Mine was bought in 2003 and added to the park. Extensive restoration of the town makes it seem as if the citizens just left yesterday, leaving the store fully stocked and half drunk beers on the bars. The Carissa Mine and Mill are incredible to see as not only have the buildings been restored and stabilized, but much of the machinery is in working order. I had a great visit to South Pass City and found the whole place fascinating. They had a great display outlining South Pass City’s role in giving Wyoming women the right to vote back in 1869 and it was also home to Esther Hobart Morris, the country’s first female Justice of the Peace. You can even get a cold sarsaparilla in one of the saloons. I hope you enjoy these photos from old South Pass City, a beautifully restored Wyoming gold rush town.

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This Week on the Road - July 23rd-29th

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This Week on the Road - July 23rd-29th

Hello Everyone!

It’s been another hot week out here on the road in central Wyoming. July is historically the hottest month in both Wyoming and Montana, but this summer has brought record temperatures to both. Daytime temperatures are once again nearing 100° out here, but thankfully it’s been cooling off enough in the evenings to sleep in my van. I’ve been up and out early most days to get my driving done before it gets ridiculous out and have definitely been trying to scout out some shade whenever possible. Despite the heat, I’ve had an interesting week out here exploring some of central Wyoming’s small towns and what they have to offer. I also spent some time on the Wind River Reservation this week, home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapahoe Indians. Wyoming is the least populated state in the country and it’s definitely not hard to imagine that out here. Big lettered towns on the map are relative and mean that these are big towns for Wyoming, but not necessarily big towns. With only around 588,000 people in the entire state, Wyoming’s whole population is slightly more than that of Baltimore, Maryland and slightly less than Memphis, Tennessee. I definitely enjoy the small towns and the wide open spaces of the Cowboy State, and I’ve been happy to see so many new-to-me places this week.

After leaving you last week I headed out into the night there in Jackson. I’ve certainly seen a lot of changes in Jackson over the last 25 years since I first visited, and every year it gets a little more L.A. and a little less Wyoming. The place that continues to roll with all of the changes is the infamous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar right there on the town square. The Cowboy Bar opened its batwing doors back in 1937 and has always been a central gathering place for the town. It’s decorated with burled wood beams, taxidermied animals and cowboy relics and even has saddles in place of barstools. With live music every night, I’ve never been there when it wasn’t busy. On any given night, you’re likely to find locals and tourists, cowboys, rafting guides, drifters and beauty queens shooting pool, shooting whisky and tapping along to the band. This night was no different and I enjoyed a few cold ones and a few tunes while I chatted to some folks from Charlotte, N.C. who were in town for a wedding. Long live the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar – may it continue to evolve with the town and somehow still remain exactly the same as the first time I walked into it.

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This Week on the Road - July 16th-22nd

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This Week on the Road - July 16th-22nd

Hello Everyone,

I have had a wonderful week out here in the Rocky Mountains, having spent most of the week in Yellowstone National Park. I didn’t put a lot of miles on my van, but put in right around 50 miles on my hiking boots which has been exhausting but exhilarating as well. I’ve spent a decent chunk of my life in Yellowstone, having guided tours there for over 25 years, but it’s still nice to be there. I also know that I’ll be back in Yellowstone in the future on the company dime, so there really wasn’t much need to visit any of my favorite spots (which are also, not surprisingly, major highlights of the park). Instead I wanted to do some hikes that have been on my radar for a while and really get into the backcountry and explore some new corners of Yellowstone I’ve never been to before. The result was a fairly quiet and peaceful week in a spectacular setting, despite it being the highest of the high season out there. I’ve always told anyone who was interested that if you get tired of the crowds in Yellowstone, walk a half mile down a trail from any parking lot and you’ll find a much quieter place. Walk 10 miles down a trail and apparently you won’t see hardly anyone at all. Aside from the hundred or so mosquito bites covering my body and a few raw patches on my feet, I’m feeling great. My mind is clear, my body feels strong and healthy and I was able to declutter a lot of things in my head this week. So it’s been a pretty great week on the road and on the trails out there in Yellowstone.

After finishing up this post last week, I went out to have a couple of beers in Livingston while the sun headed towards the horizon and the day cooled off a bit. I went back to Katabatic Brewing Company for a beer and ended up chatting with a man about my age who was from Chicago. He was traveling through and we had a nice conversation about where he had been and where he was headed. After the brewery closed, we went next door to the Murray Bar and continued talking. There was another man at the end of the bar who joined the conversation and he turned out to be from Tacoma Park, Maryland, just outside of my hometown of Washington D.C. It was really nice to be able to connect with someone from home for a bit. He was a teacher on his summer break and was heading west to visit his dad in Santa Cruz. He had just bought a new car, a Hyundai Santa Cruz and I found it quite amusing that he was driving his Santa Cruz to Santa Cruz. He was on his way to Yellowstone the next day and I was happy to point him in some good directions so that he could make the most of his time there. It was a nice evening and very nice to make both of their acquaintances.

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A Month in the Rockies

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A Month in the Rockies

It’s always wonderful to be writing in this space and especially to be sharing photos of the places I travel. The last time I wrote, I was just finishing the first tour of a two tour package in the Rocky Mountains. I just finished the second tour and have returned to San Francisco where I have a few days to rest and recover before starting a new trip in a few days. This has given me a chance to go through some photos and pick out some of my favorites from the last month.

It was a great couple of trips and a great couple of groups out there in the mountains. They stuck it out through some pretty cold weather (for June), and both groups saw a reasonable amount of snow. While the rest of the country was struggling through a massive heat wave, we were building bigger and bigger fires to try and stay warm. It’s also spring, so the wildflowers were starting to bloom and the newborn baby animals were frolicking around as well. We saw babies of all of the following animals this month: bears, moose, elk, fox, wolves, pronghorn and mule deer. My favorite was definitely the baby pronghorn which couldn’t have been more than a few days old and was jumping around on its unsteady legs. My heart just melted…

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Back on the Road in America

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Back on the Road in America

Hello Everyone!

It’s wonderful to be back with you this week and to be back on the road. I’d first like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of you who reached out with kind words about my uncle since last I wrote. He is doing much better and seems on the road to recovery. It was a hard few months at home, but I was glad I could be there to support him and my mother through some very tough days.

I’ve also had some really good news on my photography front as the two photos above have been selected to hang in the Rockwell Gallery of the Salmagundi Club in New York City. This club is one of the oldest art organizations in the country and it’s truly an honor to have my photos included in their current exhibition. If you’re in or anywhere near New York City, go check it out, entrance is free.

With that good news in my back pocket, I flew back to San Francisco about two weeks ago and enjoyed a day to myself in the city before I ventured out to check on Shadow Catcher. Before I even turned the key, I changed the oil and checked all of the fluids etc., but she started right up with no problem. She definitely has a little bit of an issue with one of the front brakes, and while it didn’t seem to affect how well we stopped, it did make a heck of a noise each time. This should be an easy fix when I get the time to do it. Other than that, it was great to take her out for a spin for a few days.

I spent a couple of days cleaning her out real good and getting rid of some things which I just don’t need. In Stockton I went to see the Garden Brothers Nuclear Circus which was incredibly entertaining. I even got to meet the second shortest mobile adult in the world, Edward Niño Hernández, who stands proudly at just 27.64” (70.21cm). Then I went out for a night in Isleton, a cool little city with a lot of Chinese-American history right in the Sacramento River Delta. It also has one of the best little beer bars in the region. I spent my last night out in Pacifica getting a little beach time in before putting my old van back in storage. This is the last summer I plan to do that as I plan to be back to blogging and traveling in her full-time for a while after this season.

After a few days in San Francisco to get all of my paperwork etc. done, I drove solo up to Seattle where I began a two week camping trip through the U.S. Rockies. This is going to be my 17th summer guiding overland tours of the U.S. and Canada, something which seems truly beyond belief. This tour took in Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, three of my absolute favorites. It was still really cold out there with nighttime lows below freezing and plenty of snow still on the mountains. That being said, it was also really beautiful and we saw a ton of wildlife…

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Fall Wrap-Up

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Fall Wrap-Up

Hello Everyone!! It’s been entirely too long since I last posted on this blog and for that I am genuinely sorry. As my tour season progressed, it got busier and busier and I got more and more worn down. I didn’t have much free time at all in September or October and what little I did have was spent trying to catch up on some sleep and rest up for the next tour. I ran 15 tours this season spanning the country from Seattle to New Orleans and Los Angeles to Glacier National Park. Most were at least a week long and each presented its own joys and challenges. In summary, it was another amazing summer guiding tours of the United States, but I’m thrilled to see it in my rearview mirror as I look ahead to what is to come this winter.

After I last wrote in September, I headed north to Seattle where I ran a two week trip through the U.S. Rocky Mountains to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. It was late in the season to be camping that deep in the mountains, and we woke up with ice on our tents more than once. That trip ended up in Salt Lake City, where I turned around and started back towards Seattle the following day on the same trip in reverse (but this time thankfully in hotels instead of tents). While both of those trips were late in the season and many things had already closed down for the winter, the crowds were thin and we did some amazing hikes. We also spotted plenty of wildlife including a handful of moose, a couple of bears and two different wolf packs in Yellowstone. I was able to get out on my own and hike up to Grinnell Glacier, one of my favorite hikes in the country, and ended up in about five inches of snow near the top. The days were short and cold, but we had a really good time out there on both trips.

After the long drive down from Seattle, I set off on another two week trip. That one started in San Francisco, took us out through Yosemite National Park and then brought us down into the desert where we visited Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks and also Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation.

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August on the Road

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August on the Road

Hello Everyone! I apologize for how long it’s been since I last wrote, but it’s been a hectic and crazy month out here on the road. Until this past weekend, I had not had a day off in over a month and I’ve covered a lot of ground during that time. I guided four trips in a row which took a lot out of me, but I had great passengers with me and we saw some amazing and beautiful places. I have another solid month of guiding beginning in just a day or two, but I wanted to drop you all a quick ‘hello’ and share some of my favorite photos from this last month on the road.

I started with an old favorite – a six day hiking tour in Yosemite for Intrepid Travel. While I’ve done this trip several times including twice earlier this summer, it’s still nice to spend so much time on the trail and to show people one of my favorite National Parks. The waterfalls were still going strong for August and it was the first time I’d been able to get up to hike Cathedral Lakes in the high country this year. These hikes left everyone pretty tired, but I know every one of those passengers had a great and memorable trip and will remember Yosemite fondly for the rest of their lives.

After bringing that group back to San Francisco, I left the following day for Seattle where I started a six day trip to Portland via Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. It had been 20 years since I was last in Olympic and it was really nice to be back in this beautiful and often overlooked park. We did a whale watching tour, explored the Hoh Rainforest and walked by the Pacific Ocean looking out at the beautiful sea stacks of Second Beach. While I used to spend a lot of time at Mount Rainier, that’s another park I haven’t been to since before the pandemic. On our first day there we got some fantastic clear views of the mountain and I’m glad we took advantage of them because our second day was almost entirely shrouded in fog. We still had a nice hike and then headed on to Portland where we visited the International Rose Test Garden (it is the City of Roses after all) and then had a quiet dinner in the park before calling it a trip.

Half of that group stayed on with me for the next six days and a lovely Swedish couple joined us as well. That week brought us from Portland all the way back to San Francisco. We visited Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, ate smoked salmon with a lovely couple who run an indigenous salmon business on the Warm Springs Reservation, Kayaked in a volcanic crater near Bend, Gazed out over Crater Lake National Park and cruised the California Coast feasting on some fresh oysters. We finished with a walk through Muir Woods and a lovely view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I got a day to wind down and wind back up again and the very next day I picked up my last group of that run for a fast and furious 15 day tromp through some of America’s best National Parks. We started off with a few days in Yosemite and then had to duck around Death Valley due to the rains from Hurricane Hillary, staying in Tonopah instead. After a quick trip to Cathedral Gorge State Park, we went on to Zion and then had two great days at the North Rim of Grand Canyon. You may remember that the last (and only) time I was at the North Rim, I was recovering from Covid so I didn’t push myself too hard out there. This time I headed deep into the Canyon on the North Kaibab Trail and it was really nice to see the Canyon from a different angle. We headed from there to Monument Valley to spend some time with the Navajo and then had two great nights in Moab visiting Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. Then we were off to Salt Lake City to learn about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from the Mormon missionaries at Temple Square. Finally we spent three days in the splendor of Yellowstone before winding up our journey in beautiful Bozeman, Montana.

It was a long but quiet ride back to San Francisco from there, but I did get a few days to catch up on some sleep and a few other things before turning north again to Seattle where I am writing to you from today. Tomorrow I will meet another group and we will be headed east from here to Glacier National Park, my favorite place in the whole world. Then we’ll have some nice days in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons before winding up in Salt Lake City. I’ll get a day to myself there and then turn around and do the same trip in reverse bringing me back to Seattle in the first week of October. It’s going to be cold in the Rockies by then, but it should be quiet and beautiful as well and I’m really looking forward to it.

I don’t think I’m going to get much of a chance to do anything here on my blog over the next month, but I’ll check back in with you when these two trips are done in October. The summer sure flew by this year, but time flies when you’re having fun. I hope you’ve all had a great summer out there, wherever you are and that you’re looking forward to cooler days ahead. Thank you, as always, for reading and I hope you enjoy this little sampling of photos of some of the spectacular places I’ve been this summer.

-Mike

(Click the link to see my favorite photos from this month)

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In Focus: Yellowstone National Park

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In Focus: Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is one of the most extraordinary places on the face of the Earth. Sitting atop a volcanic hotspot, Yellowstone is home to more than half of the world’s thermal features with over 10,000 within the park’s boundaries. Yellowstone is also home to the greatest concentration of large mammals in the lower 48. Established in 1872 as the world’s first National Park, it has drawn visitors from every corner of the globe. Charles Kuralt once called the Beartooth Highway, which brings you in the northeast entrance to the park from Red Lodge, Montana, the Most Beautiful Road in America, and I agree with him. This road (which is only open in the mid- to late-summer months) will lead you to Lamar Valley, dubbed “America’s Serengeti” for the diversity of animals found there. Bison, moose, bear, wolves and coyotes can frequently be found in the valley if you get up early enough and have a keen eye. From there you’re off on the main park road which runs in a massive figure-8 around the park. Where to stop can often be overwhelming to first-time visitors, but a few of my favorites are Mammoth Hot Springs, Midway Geyser Basin (home of Grand Prismatic Spring), Morning Glory Pool, Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Don’t forget to stop in the beautiful Inn at Old Faithful, an amazing old log-cabin style hotel, where you can get some Moose Tracks Ice Cream and enjoy a great view of the world’s most famous geyser. Beyond those highlights, my biggest recommendation is to get out of your car and go for a hike. It can be easy to get frustrated by all of the other tourists in the park, but those frustrations will fade with the crowds when you’re a mile down the trail. I hope you enjoy these photos from the world’s first and one of my favorite national parks.

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In Focus: Grand Teton National Park

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In Focus: Grand Teton National Park

Grand Teton National Park is one of my favorite parks in the west. It’s often overshadowed by its more famous and more popular brother just to the north, Yellowstone, but it is definitely deserving of more than just a photo stop on the way to or from. I often tell my tour passengers that when I drew mountains as a child, I was drawing the Tetons whether I knew it at the time or not (in reality, we had a large painting of the Tetons in our house, so maybe that had some influence). The Tetons are one of the youngest mountain ranges in the country, giving them their jagged contours. If you get there early in the morning, you may be able to catch a breathtaking reflection in one of the many lakes that lie at their base. There are, of course, dozens of trails throughout the park, ranging from simple 20 minute jaunts to multi-day treks into the wilderness. I’ve definitely seen more moose in the Tetons than I’ve ever seen in Yellowstone and I’ve also seen bear, bison and elk along with a multitude of birds and small mammals as well. The historic buildings along Mormon Row and in a few other spots in the park are favorites of photographers. It’s also the only National Park with its own airport, although flying into it isn’t cheap. If you ever get the opportunity to visit, Grand Teton will definitely dazzle your senses. I hope you enjoy these photos from another of our magical National Parks.

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