Borsos Autumn Road Trip 2012
Borsos Autumn Road Trip
September – October 2012
Equipped with our new Nissan Pathfinder, we left Lake Tahoe to drive across several states to visit family, friends, (it had been several years since we had seen everyone we visited) and to see some of God’s Autumn beauty and landscape.
We were delighted and surprised to see the leaves already changing in Idaho & Wyoming.
Our first destination was the Grand Teton NP in Western Wyoming. We did some hiking and were blessed to see two Elk grazing in a meadow. It was a beautiful crisp clear day to view the jagged rocky peaks, sagebrush flats, and forests driving through the park.
Just north of Grand Teton NP is Yellowstone NP, our destination for the next few days. Ron had visited this park when he was a child, only remembering Old Faithful Geyser, and this was Carol’s first visit. The heart of Yellowstone’s past, present, and future is volcanism. The landscape is littered with geysers, magnificent colors in the hot springs, fumaroles (a smoke hole), and colorful bubbling mud pots.
In four days we drove all over the park, walked and hiked, taking in the sites. God blessed us with great weather as we heard the week after we left Yellowstone had its first snow.
We saw several geysers erupt while in the park; Old Faithful we saw about 6 times while in the area. The power and force of the geysers that we witnessed throughout the park was amazing.
Another formation of the park is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Words can only tell part of the grandeur of this area. To see it is amazing. The many colors of the rock come from rhyolite rock and sediment being altered by the hydrothermal activity in the area. There are two major waterfalls along the 20 mile, 1,500-4,000 foot wide canyon. Upper Falls is 109 feet and Lower Falls is 308 feet.
We were fortunate to enjoy many of the wildlife in the park. Several Elk (it was mating season so the Bull Elk were gathering their Does) were out and about. Mule deer, Osprey, and lots of Bison were sighted. We even had a herd of Bison cross the road, traffic stopped, with a park ranger directing all involved. A most rewarding sighting was early one morning 3 wolves crossed through a meadow and the road we were on. We watched them for about 20 minutes until they disappeared into the forest.
We would highly recommend staying at the Old Faithful Inn. Rustic with the feeling of being out in the woods, we stayed in the old section. Completed in June of 1904 it is a wonderful piece of architecture and history. Don’t let the idea of shared bath facilities in the old section scare you off. Room for 3 people at a time and exceptionally maintained.
Our next destination was Spearfish, South Dakota. Carol’s second cousin “Uncle” Ralph and his wife Jeanne Walters live there. Ralph is 91. Ralph drove us through Spearfish Canyon to view the Autumn colors and we stopped in to see the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery which supplies the trout populations in the Black Hills. We really enjoyed spending time with Ralph and Jeanne.
Mount Rushmore was our next stop. Four American Presidents heads carved in the granite needles was a monumental task giving all who see it an admiration for the work done and the historical significance it has for us all. We highly recommend taking the ranger guided walk here for a fuller experience. The carvings were begun in 1915 and dedicated by President Roosevelt in 1927.
Continuing on our journey, we were headed for a family visit in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Along the way we had an overnight stop near Austin, Minnesota. Why Austin you say? One couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to the Spam Museum. Hormel Meats is located in Austin and their whimsical yet factual Spam Museum should not be missed. We learned more about Spam than you can imagine and got to see the “Wall of Spam”! Eat your hearts out Spam lovers, or not!
We continued to be in awe of the brilliance of the red, gold, yellow, and orange Autumn colors mixed in with the green leaf trees as we crossed the northern states. Although this time of year the cornfields would be brown, seeing the miles and miles of dried cornfields and soy bean fields reminded us of the drought and loss this part of our country has experienced; peoples livelihoods in ruin. And then the reminder of hope when we saw the name of JESUS in huge letters painted across the roof of a barn.
Next we had a 2 day stop in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to visit family. Ron’s Aunt Ruth Tate and cousin, Janet Clark and her husband Harold live there. Ron and Janet had not seen one another since they were children and it was Carol’s first time to meet them. We had visited Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ralph a couple of times over the years when they lived in Arizona and Washington state and Ruth had come to California to visit us too. Ruth has been a widow for almost 2 years.
It was so enjoyable to catch up with family here; just spending the time together reminiscing. Carol even got to attend a ladies Bible study with Ruth.
The last stop we’ll mention in this blog was in Riverview, Michigan near Detroit. During our Alaska cruise in 2004 we met a young couple on their honeymoon, Mark and Kim Bovair. We’ve kept in touch and wanted to see them during this trip. They have 3 children now and it was fun to see them and catch up on life. We even attended Courtney’s (their 5 year old) soccer game alongside the Detroit River.
Our next installment will be our visits and adventures in Ohio where we spent the next two weeks.