The Rocky Mountaineer's of 1995 - USA.
All pictures on the two pages here has been rescanned and enlarged, to get better quality.
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Page 1: USA - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana.
Page 2: Canada - Alberta, British Columbia. |
Last Updated December 14, 2010.
The Rocky Mountaineer's in our Mt Rainier cabin.
"All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth"
(Chief Seattle, Suqwamish and Duwamish 1786-1866)
The Olympic National Park.
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The Rocky Mountaineer, a 21 day Trek and my second Trek with
TrekAmerica. A few years later the name of this Trek was changed to "The best of the Rockies". This is one of the best Treks in my opinion, and this was the Trek that started up a friendship quite uniqe. We all met up in Seattle, Washington and started up our trek by taking the ferry to The Olympic National Park on the other side of the Puget Sound. |  Beautifully view in Olympic National Park. |
 One of the many gorgeous views in Olympic NP (Well, I am not talking about me of course....). |
We drove around in the Olympic National Park and saw some really nice views. Of course we also did some hiking but to start up a bit easy we did a few short ones. |
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The first hike we did was pretty steep, but not so long, and when we entered the trail the first thing we saw was a
warning sign that the area was inhabited with Mountain Lions. Of course we didn't see or meet any but we met up with some other wildlife instead. |
 Deer in Olympic NP. |
 Our first group photo in The Hoh Rainforest. |
In Olympic NP we also visited the only Rainforest existing in the USA; The Hoh Rainforest. Here we also went out on the trails and it was very exciting. |
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After we had arrived to the campground in Olympic NP we were suppose to just relax for a while but me; I put
on my jogging shoes and went for a run. Of course I managed to meet a snake again; they really must love me. The snake got pretty scared itself when I was about to put my foot on it so we were both pretty stiff there for a while. |
 Our Olympic NP camp - the gang is heaving breakfast shortly after sunrise. |
 Our Olympic NP camp at sunrise. |
The night in Olympic NP was pretty cold but also kind of noisy and I think everyone was pretty tired when the morning came.
It wasn't because of the cold. No a rooster started to make noise BEFORE the sun was rising. Also my tentmate Pat was attacked during the night through the tentwall by the only Mountain Lion we came across on this trip - One little playful kitten. When we meet every year on our reunions, both these events is something that comes up now and then and we laugh like crazy. |
Mount St Helens.
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The nex morning we left the Olympic NP and drove towards Mount Rainier where we had rented a cabin
for the night. That was a lucky thing to do since the weather just didn't want to go our way.
On the way there we stopped at Mount St Helens, the vulcano that erupted in 1980. I have only one word for what it looked like around the vulcano......WOW! All the landscape around the vulcano was completely wiped out and when we were here, even 15 years had passed since the eruption. |
 Mount St Helens, the erupted vulcano and the surrounding landscape. |
 Pam, Julia, Me and Andrew trying to help the trees grow back again. |
We was up at the crater of Mt St Helens to have a look and it sure was a bit scary actually. We were told that the vulcano was still active and I have also seen on the web now and then that sometimes they prohibited climbers and other people for going up there because of it's activity. When we continued our journey towards Mount Rainier we stoped for a lunchbrake at a place not far away from Mt St Helens where we tooked this photo to the left. We wanted to help the trees grow tall again. I must add that today I am really curious about what have happened with the landscape since we were here. |
Mount Rainier.
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Then we arrived to Mount Rainier. We also did some short hikes here. One we did were the hike up to the Alta Vista Point together with a Ranger, Lara, who told us a lot about the area, about wildlife and the fauna which were very interesting. The weather was still very bad; it rained and was very foggy so we actually didn't see much of the mountain until the day we left. On the way up to the point we met a lot of people that was on their way to climb or snowboarding, they had a loooooong walk to get up to the snowline. |
 On our hike up to the Alta Vista Point together with our Ranger, Lara. |
 Group photo inside the Mount Rainier visitor center. |
After the hike up to the Alta Vista Point we went to the Mount Rainier visitor center. Here you can see exhibitions about the mountain and do a lot of other things. Of course we just had to have a group photo again inside the visitor center |
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When we were on the road in the fog on our way out from the park someone suddenly screamed in
the van; STOP THE VAN!!! WE CAN SEE THE MOUNTAIN!!!
And there it was, a tiny little hole in the clouds behinds us where we finally could see a glimps of Mt Rainier, and we quickly ran out from the van taking photos like crazy. |
 Mount Rainier visible in the hole in the clouds. |
 Group photo in front of Mount Rainier.....eeehhhh, sort of. |
Of course we had to take a group photo as well, this was THE TREK of many group photos. Unfortunately by the time we finally had set up our cameras the mountain had disappeared again..... It sort of didn't help that everyone was screaming hurry, hurry, HURRRYYYY!!!! Well, at least we had another group photo |
Craters of the Moon.
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We headed east through Oregon for Idaho and Sun Valley, where we were going to stay in an
apartment together with out Tourleaders parents. Sun Valley is a winter resort but even in the
summer it's very pretty and the best of it all; it's not so crowded with people. We had a nice evening with a good dinner and a homemade Punch that were devastated to some of us. Especially to someone in the group who slept in the garage that night???? Who? Well, it wasn't me! The next day we continued our drive towards Wyoming and Jackson Hole. On the way we stopped at Craters of the Moon to have a look around in the caves. We even took a guided tour in a dark, narrow cave where you couldn't see a thing but had to feel your way through the tunnels, and had to climb over and under cliffs. That was a bit scary sometimes. |
 Me laughing like crazy when climbing out through one of the many tunnels at Craters of the Moon. |
Jackson Hole and the Tetons.
 Our camp at The Lone Eagle Campground. |
We arrived safely to Jackson Hole and our campground The Lone Eagle. What a beautiful campground that is. It is located just beside a river a bit from town so we had company of all sorts of animals during our stay there. |
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The first day we went hiking in to the mountains of the Tetons.
This was the first day when we actually were in Bear country so we were pretty excited about that. |
 The mighty beautifully Tetons. |
 The group by the Hidden Falls. |
Most of the hikes we did on this trip we did together so we all took the boat ride over Jenny Lake
and then we went to the Hidden Falls.
When we came to the Hidden Falls we naturally had to have a group photo again...... |
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We were told to make a lot of noise all the time to let the Bears know we were coming
their way. So we were walking around in the woods singing; Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on.......... If that didn't scare away every Bear in the country, nothing will. Well, as You probably understand we didn't meet any Bears. |
 Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on.......... |
 Me and Andrew going crazy on the Teton hike. |
After beeing to the Hidden Falls we contiuned on a bunch of other trails. At this point we split up in two groups. Pam, Andrew and myself took off on a trail of our own and the rest took another trail. |
| The other ones took a trail down to Jenny Lake again and took this (Oh Yes, again) beautifully group photo bye the lake. |
 Some in the group by Jenny Lake. |
 The gang by the campfire at the Lone Eagle. |
After a long day in the Tetons we came back to the camp to have dinner and some relaxing. The evening we spent by the campfire of course and had a few drinks. |
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Jackson Hole is a real western town and of course we just had to go and take a silly photo
of us, dressed up like cowboys and saloon girls. We were laughing like crazy while taking that photo, mostly because we all had some problems getting in those clothes. I don't think any of us girls were able to zip it up in the back so we were all showing our knickers when we were walking around in the photo store looking just awful. The photografer also told us to look very seriously on the photo and that was just so hard, trying to stop laughing. Nowdays that framed photo is hanging on my wall back home and every time I look at it I always start laughing. The evening in Jackson we first went to have a Chuckwagon dinner at a Ranch and then of course went out to have a look around since it's a real Western town. We also went to a country and western bar to have some fun. |  Howdy folk's - Welcome to our Saloon. |
Yellowstone National Park.
 Our campsite in Yellowstone Park with all the burned trees. |
Then we headed north to Yellowstone National Park. When we came to our campground inside the park we were told that a Black Bear had visited the campground several times the last few days so caution about food etc. was in place. This was the first time we were in an area with actually Bear sights so from now on we started to have "Bear-precaution". Which means that you don't leave anything out in the open that smells; like food, toothpaste, soap, chewing-gum, clothes you had worn during cooking etc., everything had to be locked up in the van at all times. |
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Believe me when I tell You we were pretty nervous and didn't sleep that well the first night
but a few days later we had got used to it and didn't think about it any more. The campsite also had been involved in the big forestfire some years back so the forest at the camp was really burned. The next morning we got up early to start all our hikes and it looked kind of spooky at our camp with all the burned trees and also it was a bit foggy. It was also very cold, we had frost during the night. |  Our foggy and frosty camp at sunrise before we started all our hikes. |
 The Old Faithful having one of it's many eruptions. |
In the park we of course went to see the Geysers and the Old Faithful was one of the highlights when
it had it's eruption. Why is it called The Old Faithful? Well you can always trust that it is going to erupt, which is starting quite often on regular basis. |
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We were also very lucky this day. On of the geysers, The Beehive, had it's eruption when we were there and this geyser only have one eruption every 10 days or so. |  The Beehive having it's eruption. |
 The Buffalos close by to the hot geysers. |
Everywhere around the geysers you see Buffalos wandering around. And these guys you don't want to get too close,
they can be pretty dangerous. But as you can see on this photo they are quite close to the trail, so it wasn't us who got too close. |
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We did a few hikes here and the first one we did was going down a ladder to see the Lower Falls close by in the Grand Canyon
of Yellowstone. The climb down there was pretty steep but it was worth it when entered down the canyon and had a real good look at the waterfall. |  The Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. |
 Me by the sign of Uncle Tom's Trail after coming up by the ladder. |
The trail down to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Lower Falls is called Uncle Tom's Trail. As I said it was pretty steep going down and up on the trail and even though I have a quite good physics my heart was pounding like crazy. |
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Then we continued our hike and followed the Canyon for a while and the view down the canyon was just breathtaking. When we had hiked for a while we could see the Lower Falls in a distance from a viewpoint and it was a really gorgeous view. |  The Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from a distance. |
 Andrew showing the way at The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. |
We stopped several times to take photos of the canyon. Here you can see Pat, Pam, Paul, Kurt and Andrew on the other side of a gap in the cliffs way up beside the canyon. |
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After hiking beside the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone for a while the trail took us in to the woods instead. The most memorable here was when we out in the woods came a cross a heard of Buffalo's on the trail who just refused to move so we had to take a d-tour and go bush walking. |
 Traffic jam in Yellowstone NP. |
 Elk in Yellowstone NP. |
We saw all kinds of animals in the park; Buffalos, Elks, Moose and lots more.
The Bear that they had told us about at the campground; Well he never showed up. |
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Whe we going back to the camp we met up with a Moose family. Of course we just had to stop the van and go out and take som photos. |
 Dennis having an encounter with the Moose family in Yellowstone NP. |
Sun Canyon.
 On the road to Montana with our mascot "Dino" the monkey in the front window. |
We continued our journey up north to Montana. It was quite a bit to drive so we made a stop for the night in Sun Canyon, where we were suppose to go horseback riding. In the front window our mascot "Dino" was always sitting and we named him after another Trek-leader, Dino, casue we thought they looked a little bit alike, that is very cute and nice both of them...... The real Dino was a really nice person that was having the other Rocky Mountaineer Trek. Now and then our path crossed and we met up with Dino and his group here and there. |
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When we arrived to Sun Canyon we found out that horseback riding unfortunately got cancelled.
But we stayed for the night in a cabin and just rested because by now we were pretty exhausted and sleeping in a bed; well it felt like heaven at this point. |
 Our cute little girly cabin at Sun Canyon Lodge and Pat, Sven and Dennis in the front. |
 Stuffed animals (all of them?) at Sun Canyon Lodge. |
The evening we spent together at the mainhouse, having dinner and a couple of drinks. The dinner room in the house was filled with stuffed animals everywhere and it sure looked as we were in a real hunting cabin or something. We were told though that many people come to Sun Canyon to do just that; go hunting. |
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Sun Canyon is a beautiful place as well so we enjoyed our stay there very much. I actually came back here
in 1997 and enjoyed it very much once more. The next morning we continued our journey towards the Glacier National Park. So we packed the van and drove off on the dirt road that leads to and from Sun Canyon. |
 The gang packing up the van again to leave beautifully Sun Canyon. |
The Two Medicine Lake.
 The Two Medicine Lake. |
Again we made a stop on the way by the Two Medicine Lake but by now we were actually in Glacier National Park. Here we had our lunch brake and then we went hiking. We also met a man by the lake who was very experienced with the Bears in the area. He told us that right now there was a huge Bear activity in the area and also a lot of stories and how to behave if we should meet up with a Bear. |
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The area around the lake, where we hiked, was extremely beautifully.
When we came as far as we had the time for, we were at a small beach, we just had to take a group photo again. It was not that easy to set the cameras for this since it was very windy at the spot. It took us a while to get the photo since the wind took the cameras and they kept falling off all the time, and we were laughing like crazy the whole time. |
 The gang finally had the group photo at The Two Medicine Lake. |
The Glacier National Park.
 One the trail up to The Grinell Glacier. |
When we got to Glacier National Park I quickly realized that we actually
were on Tribal land; The land of The Blackfeet's. For me who is very interested in the culture and history of the American Indians, I was very happy about that. That evening I sat down by myself by the river at our camp ground, just feeling the atmosphere. I sat there for a long time just looking at the beautiful view that surrounded us. The next day we went hiking up to the Grinell Glacier. |
| On the trail up to Grinell we had to make a lot of noise again, there were Bears again in the area. |
 At a view stop on the trail up to the Grinell Glacier. |
 On the trail up to The Grinell Glacier. |
It took us about 2 ½ hours to get up to the Grinell glacier, and it was quite
hard. But believe me when I say it was definitely worth every step on the way.
The trail up there was unbeatable. The view was breathtaking everywhere and of course we took loads of photos. |
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After almost coming up on the Grinell Glacier we took a lunch brake and then we continued
the last few steps.
The view from up there was really gorgeous and we took a lot of photos again. |
 Me trying to some how belong to The Grinell Glacier. |
 Christoph, Me and Dennis; Trying to look as The Professional Photographers. |
Most of us had really good cameras with us (although none of us had any Digital ones at the time),
but the one who really had some good equipment with them are mainly Christoph but also Dennis. This photo here is trying to show you what kind of photo crazy people we had in this group. |
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As I said we took loads of photos from up here. But most of all we just sat there and admire the beauty.
But........of course we had to have a group photo here as well. |
 Group photo at the Grinell Glacier. |
 Pat bringing her newly found friends along, the "WILD" horses. |
When we came back to our camp, after the Grinell hike, we suddenly got some company.
Two horses came to visit our camp together with Pat...She must have charmed them some how.... |
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They were so excited with all these people who wanted to pet them that they almost
ran down our tents wanting to get so close to us.
That was quite hilarious. |
 Our very dear friends, the "WILD" horses. |
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My Treks with TrekAmerica.
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Last Updated December 14, 2010 - 09:30 CET.