Vedauwoo: Box Canyon, Boulders, Beavers, and Bears - Saturday, October 1, 2022

The morning was leisurely for me. I slept in, showered, and Bob cooked a wonderful omelet breakfast. We also each had hot chocolate with half a cinnamon roll that we bought at The Daily Bread in Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Bob had to work early this morning, so we planned to hike at Vedauwoo (pronounced VEE-da-voo) Recreation Area later in the morning. Scattered thundershowers were forecast at 4 pm.

Vedauwoo is famous for its rocky terrain, consisting of boulders, slabs, and cliffs. People come here from all over to rock climb, mountain bike, hike, and camp. It's a land of enormous Sherman granite rocks made of pink feldspar, white quartz, black specks of horneblende, and other minerals including sparkly mica. These ancient rock formations were created by ice, wind, and water and defy gravity up to 500' in the air. You'll see what I mean in the photos. It looks like many of those rocks shouldn't be up there. And, it is the case that rocks could tumble down at any time.

[NOTE: I think I should have been a geologist. Places like Vedauwoo in Wyoming, and Enchanted Rock north of Fredericksburg, Texas, fascinate me. Both geologic wonders started out as giant batholiths.* (*batholith: a large mass of igneous rock that has intruded and melted surrounding strata at great depth. Batholiths usually have a surface area of over 38 miles squared. As is the case with Enchanted Rock, a lot of the batholith is underground.)]

A beautiful national forest campground sits amidst the towering rocks at Vedauwoo. It is first-come, first-served dry camping with vault toilets and a central water spigot. There are a few large RV sites, but most are for small-to-mid-sized units. There is a separate campground for tents only. This campground is easily accessible from I-80.

We drove 40 minutes west from Cheyenne, Wyoming on I-80 to Vedauwoo in Buford, Wyoming. When we arrived at the self-pay station, we had forgotten that this park is in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. If I remembered my National Park Pass we wouldn't have had to pay the $5 fee. Oh, well, we don't mind supporting our national park system.

Our goal today was to hike the Vedauwoo Glen Loop (one mile) and the Turtle Rock Trail (three miles). I took a plethora of photos today. Oh, we had striking fall colors as well!

Photo of rock formations while driving
into Vedauwoo Recreation Area.

The road is lined with the fall colors
of quaking aspen trees.

I took a photo of the trail map at
the self-pay booth.

Today, we parked in the Box Canyon Day Use Area and walked the easy Vedauwoo Glen Loop Trail. The surface of the loop trail is paved, but you can take a short dirt out-and-back side trail to an old bridge and scramble on the rocks if you'd like.

Box Canyon Day Use Area.

Vedauwoo Glen Loop Trail.

Box Canyon Day Use Area
picnic tables are set amongst
the rocks.

We didn't see any bears, but
apparently they're around.

The Box Canyon.

Bob is on the paved Vedauwoo Glen 
Loop Trail.

Pretty colors on the rocks.

We're on the natural surface
side trail in the box canyon.

A long, curved rock. At the center
top of the photo is a hoodoo.

In the box canyon of the Glen Loop
Trail. 

I'm amazed by the way the rocks
on top eroded.

A slab on top of boulders.

The Glen Loop Trail.

A balanced rock.

A veritable wonderland of rocks.

From the Box Canyon Day Use Area we walked the park road to the East Turtle Rock Trailhead. When we were here in June 2020, we walked the trail in a clockwise direction from the West Turtle Rock Trailhead. Today, we're going counter-clockwise.

East Trailhead.

There are beaver ponds along the Turtle Rock Trail. Unfortunately, we did not see any beavers, just a lodge.

There are a few beaver ponds on this 
hike. Here's one of the lodges.

Big boulders are everywhere on
this hike.

Boulders everywhere you look.

The trail marker.

I love my handsome man!

You can tell by looking at what we're wearing that it's chilly. At this elevation (7,000-8,000') it's much cooler than Cheyenne. We also did some huffing and puffing as the trail is moderate with ups and downs.

Bob calls this "verticality," an apt
description. We love it!

When we started hiking, it was sunny and warm in the box canyon. Bob took his coat off and tied it around his waist. I was getting warm, too. However, we knew the forecast was for scattered thunderstorms at 4 pm. It was only 1 pm, so we thought we would be okay.

It's so funny that Alltrails.com has a comment about the Turtle Rock Trail saying he spent all his time looking for the "damn turtle." So did I. If you look at the photo below, I think the big formation in front looks like a frog and the flat slab formation in the back looks like a softshell turtle.

A frog and a softshell turtle??

A fallen tree with a twist.

Part of the trail is on the batholith.
It makes a great walking surface.

It's easy hiking here.

The row of boulders in the foreground
is fascinating to me. Was there a column
of rounded rock that fell over?

Another view of the frog and the
softshell turtle.

A natural rock garden.

Bob descending this part of the trail.

It's such a beautiful day...for now.

The trail goes through Ponderosa 
pine (smells like butterscotch).

The trail winds through boulder fields.

Uh, oh. The sky is looking very 
threatening to the west!

About two-thirds of the way around the loop, we saw dark clouds moving in. It was 1:15 pm. About 20 minutes later the thunder kicked in, followed a few minutes later by rain.

The sky was still beautiful to the east.

Toward the end of the hike, we
entered the fall color zone.

Even the understory plants got in
on the fall colors.

Another beaver pond.

Look at the way the rocks on top
eroded. Crazy!

Looking good, Bob!

Did you just sneak into my photo?

It has now started raining. We heard thunder. Thankfully, we had a steady, light rain, not a downpour.  We still got wet, mind you. We picked up the pace to get back to the car, but I couldn't stop taking photos.

It has now started raining. You
can barely see Bob's blue coat
disappearing into the trees.

A pretty peachy-orangish tree.

The beaver pond is very large.

Very tall rock formations.

These rocks tower over the trail!

After two hours of hiking, we went to Mongolian Grill for lunch. That was a great meal after hiking in the cold and rain!

Back at the 5th wheel, Bob decided to go for an hour-long bike ride on bike paths around Cheyenne. Scattered thunderstorms were predicted all afternoon and evening. 

He had been gone just about an hour when I heard thunder. The rain started and Bob returned shortly thereafter. Good timing on his part, especially because a glorious double rainbow parked itself over the RV park and he got to take photos of it.

I took a photo from our front door.

Bob stood in the rain and got a 
great shot of Rigamarole under a
rainbow.

Then, we had a beautiful sunset and a very unusual cloud formation.

The peach colored clouds were a strong
uplift. The dark gray clouds hung
down underneath.

Wow, another wonderful day of adventure, including a box canyon, boulders, beavers, and bear warnings. 

Bye-bye!

A Trifecta* of Tantalizing Trails in Banff National Park - Tuesday, September 20, 2022

 *trifecta definitions related to today's blog:

1. noun - a group, set, or series of three; a triad

2. British Dictionary definition - any achievement including three successful          outcomes.

What more can a girl ask for than to be in her favorite place in the world, with her husband and new friends? Today's activities were hard to top (except for some on our Alaska RV caravan).

To start out the day, Bob, Pat, Kevin, Bob Z., and I rode together to Johnston Canyon to hike to Lower Falls. The trail to Upper Falls is undergoing infrastructure improvements to the Johnston Canyon railings which will enhance accessibility, improve visitor safety, and reduce disturbance of the endangered Black Swifts nesting in Johnston Canyon. Railings will encourage visitors to stay on the designated trail and keep them from trampling on surrounding vegetation. 

Johnston Canyon is a very special place. The beginning of the trail passes through a lovely forest. That changes when you reach the catwalks into the heart of the canyon. From here on, much of the trail to the falls is along catwalks bolted into the canyon walls. The catwalks allow people to walk two abreast. Without these elevated walkways along the canyon walls, most of Johnston Canyon would be impassable. 

Bob A. and Bob Z. on the
suspended catwalk in Johnston
Canyon.

Kevin and Pat are on the catwalk. 
Can you tell it's really cold?

Here's a photo of the catwalk along
Johnston Creek. 

Kevin and Pat are on the hike.

The suspended catwalk.

Bob A., Bob Z., and Kevin.

Lower Falls in Johnston Canyon.

Lower Falls. 

One of the unique aspects of this waterfall is a cave you can enter to get much closer to the falls. When we were there in June, the water gave us a shower because the falls were so full. This time, we didn't get wet at all. Oh, well, it's still a beautiful spot. As we were coming back out of the cave, I smashed the top of my head on the ceiling. Thankfully, I was wearing a very warm coat with a hood. That's what kept my head safe from the rock ceiling.

After we did the cave thing, we hiked up another set of stairs to get an overview of Lower Falls. From here, you can see the cave entrance, the falls, and the bridge to the cave. In June, a line of people stretched all the way across the bridge to the cave. Only a few people can go through the cave to the viewing platform at one time. In June, it took us over 1/2 hour to wait for all the people ahead of us to go to the cave. Today, we only had two groups in front of us. 

Overview of Lower Falls viewing area
and the cave entrance.

It was so fun to take Bob Z., Kevin, and Pat to see this unique area. They were appreciative and enthusiastic about visiting Johnston Canyon.

The next activity we wanted to do was a 5k Volksmarch at Lake Louise. Even at this time of year, Lake Louise's public parking lot was full. When we got up to the parking area, Bob asked the workers if he could drop us off. They let him into the parking lot. As we drove through the parking lot, we found an empty space. I asked the parking attendants if we could park there. They said, "Yes," and told us to pay the parking machines on the way to the lake. It cost us $12.25 to park for the day. We considered ourselves extremely lucky to find a spot. There are people who drive around and around hoping for an open parking space on their next pass through the lot.

As we walked to Lake Louise, we could see fog all the way down to the lake. Oh, no! That's a bummer. We decided to do the walk along the lakeshore to the end of the lake anyway. 

Lake Louise is all fogged in.

We started to see some light at the
end of the lake that looked like the sun
trying to break through. 

The walk along the lakeshore is very flat. It had rained recently and we had a number of puddles to watch out for, but nothing we couldn't bypass easily. The hike to the end of the lake is 1.5 miles (3 miles round trip). When we arrived, the fog started lifting. We felt very fortunate to watch this take place. It was a slow reveal of the grandeur around us. Kevin and Pat had never been here before so they had no idea what to expect. Let's take a look.

The world-famous Chateau Lake Louise.

Peek-a-boo. What have we here?

The sun burning through thick fog
reveals a big mountain.

Bob Z. and Kevin watching
the fog reveal the majesty
surrounding the lake.

We are at the end of the lake watching
 the rock cliffs appear above us.

The mountains are coming out.

It looks like we picked the absolute best time to be here. The big reveal of the mountains surrounding the lake teased us for at least one-half hour before we could see all the scenery.

The fog is so cool to watch!

Chateau Lake Louise and the 
mountains behind it.

A granite massif.

Sawtooth-type mountains.

What a morning! Look at the color
of the water.

This is the view we didn't see when
we got here. Wow!

Stunning!

As we headed back to the parking lot, we saw Rocky and Cathy walking toward us. They plan to eat lunch at Chateau Lake Louise overlooking the lake.

Our next stop will be trickier. In order to go to Moraine Lake, there has to be enough parking at the end of the road to let us through the barricade. There is a guard keeping track of vehicles coming and going. We drove down the road. As we approached the guard, we slowed and asked if we could go up to the lake. The answer was, "No." At that point, we decided to eat lunch and try again later. 

There's a strip mall in Lake Louise Village and we chose to have lunch at Lake Louise Village Grill & Bar. It ended up being a good choice. They had typical American fare as well as Chinese food. And, there was no wait to get in! Score!

When we finished eating, we decided to make one more pass by the road to Moraine Lake. In order to do that, you have to drive all the way back to Lake Louise and drive back down to the barricaded road. As we got close to the barricade, a shuttle bus was let through, and then two cars. They also let us through and closed the barricade behind us. We all felt lucky today and made the comment that we should play the lottery!

We had told Bob Z., Pat, and Kevin that the first place we were going to go at Moraine Lake was The Rockpile to take photos. We walked through the woods and came out at The Rockpile. Pat was surprised. She thought The Rockpile was going to be a little pile of rocks. Hah! Not so. 

Pat, Kevin, and Bob A. starting
the climb up The Rockpile.

The view of mountains looking away 
from Moraine Lake.

This is where we continue up
The Rockpile.

Moraine Lake and the ten peaks.
Kevin and Bob A. are at the bottom right.

Bob is at the top of The 
Rockpile at Moraine Lake.

Bob and I are at Moraine Lake.

Now, we are going to walk to the end of Moraine Lake. It's a relatively flat trail and when we're done we'll have walked another 5k Volksmarch. This trail is more primitive than the one around Lake Louise. We had to watch our step in this forest because of all the roots.

Moraine Lake's color is 
prettier than Lake Louise's color.

Bob hiking through the 
woods.

Bob A. and Pat.

Pat and Bob A.

The end of Moraine Lake. It is not as
big as Lake Louise.

Me and Pat. 

Bob at one of his favorite places, 
Moraine Lake.

Kevin and Bob A. 

Pat, Kevin, and Bob A.

Looking up at hanging glaciers that  
are above Moraine Lake.

We had a most excellent day all around. The weather was picture perfect.

It was time to head back to our RVs and get ready for Carol's birthday dinner tonight at the Park Distillery Restaurant and Bar in downtown Banff. We had 21 people at the restaurant. Their claim to fame is a vodka distillery on the premises. 

The drink that was recommended to us was a Hard Root Beer made with vanilla vodka. OMG! What a yummy drink. Bob and I both love root beer. You can't taste the vodka in this drink.

For dinner, Bob had the pulled chicken sandwich with bacon, a side salad, and fries. I had Achiote Shrimp Tacos, Smoked Tomato Chili Vodka Soup, and a piece of focaccia bread. We loved our food and had great conversations at our table.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Banff. Some members of our caravan left for home or a repair shop today. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to our new-found friends. We plan to get together with them in the future. It has been a memorable trip with many new adventures under our belts. 

I will continue catching up with my blogs in the next few weeks. That's all for today.