Spectacular western US destinations; update your "Bucket List" for 2015

Wildflowers frame a receding glacier near top of Logan Pass in Glacier National Park!

The "Phantom Ship" rises out of Crater Lake, one of two islands on the azure blue lake.

The Grand Canyon offers many hues in late afternoon, taken from Mather Point.

A herd of bison graze peacefully in front of the Grand Teton Range in late morning.

Susan and author Tim Viall await eruption of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park.

Cleveland Indians warm-up before a game with the San Francisco Giants; Cactus League in Glendale, AZ.

We central Californians are blessed by close proximity to the American West’s incredible spaces, all within a several day drive or closer. With so many spectacular destinations at your back door and a New Year, take the time to update your bucket list of western destinations.  Two weeks ago, we offered insights into California’s incredible places (http://blogs.esanjoaquin.com/valleytravel); here are some of our favorites in the west.

Of the USA’s 59 national parks, several in nearby states stand out: California leads the nation with nine parks, Alaska has eight, Utah, five, Colorado, four, Arizona and Washington, three each and Wyoming two parks.  With the exception of Alaska, all are within a two-day drive of central California.  Our short list of favorites in the west are the Grand Canyon, Crater Lake,  Yellowstone and Grand Teton and Glacier Park. 

I first visited the Grand Canyon with my family as a 15 year-old, and several times as an adult.  Each visit comes with the jaw-dropping, catch-your-breath amazement that accompanies the first look into that huge, colorful abyss, some 5,000 feet deep in the Arizona high desert. 

A year ago, my wife and I recently approached the park’s south rim at 5 PM to find the canyon bathed in stunning hues from the setting sun - incredible!  This is a landscape to inspire the multitudes; the Colorado River runs 277 miles through the park, up to 18 miles wide and over a mile deep.

The majority of visitors enter the Grand Canyon at the south entrance. Tour the south rim, running for miles with unique vistas and history, including the Tusayan Ruins and Museum; noting the history of the native people that once made their life on the rim. Take a hike down the Bright Angel Trail used by mules to take people all the way to the canyon bottom – we hiked about a mile down the trail, then had approximately 700 vertical feet to climb out – definitely tougher than the trek down!

Near the top of our list is Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, just north of the California border and offering wonderous vistas. Start at the Crater Lake Lodge area on Rim Drive’s southside.  Walking to the crater’s nearby rim, that first view remains always inspirational.  Crater Lake, which filled a collapsed volcano’s caldera some 7,700 years ago, 5 miles across and 6 miles long, is the bluest blue you’ll ever see.

Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Parks are also must-dos.  Located in Montana and Wyoming, they offer a double shot of western beauty, sharing a common border.  Most visitors plan to spend several days in each park, to see Yellowstone’s scores of geysers and thermal basins and to share in the bison, elk, moose and stunning mountains that call both parks home.

A tour of Glacier National Park in north central Montana can be linked to a visit to Yellowstone, though the two parks are separated by almost 500 miles of monumental Montana scenery.  Glacier, home to most of the US’s surviving glaciers, is a gem of carved, rugged Rocky Mountains.  If you can add a few days, plan also to voyage north to Canada’s Lake Louise and Banff area, about 300 miles further north. 

For destinations “not quite a national park, but awe-inspiring none-the-less”, Mount St. Helens, WA, is a national monument and well worth the visit.  Just 50 miles northeast of Portland, a wonderful route shows the swath cut in 1980 when the mountain’s northside erupted with immense force.  Almost one cubic mile of the mountain’s northeast side exploded, reducing the once grand 9,677 foot peak to  8,365 feet, leaving a gaping, horseshoe crater. devastating an area about six miles wide and 20 miles in length and killing 57 people. Just 60 miles further north is Mt. Rainier National Park, so couple the two destinations into one. 

Mt. Rushmore National Monument, in South Dakota, though created by the hand of man, is also a destination for anyone’s bucket list and the surrounding Black Hills hold their own scenic rewards.

For cities with special urban delights, Seattle would rank at the top of our list.  With waterfront vistas almost everywhere, marvelous seafood dining, the old Pioneer Square area, the Space Needle and Pike Street Market, Seattle is an eminently walkable, bikeable and tour-worthy city.  Running a close second are Portland, OR, and Vancouver, British Columbia.  Each have similar attributes and their own special character to rank near Seattle.

Look for unique experiences that, coupled with great destinations in their own right, make for special memories.  Spring training baseball, late February to March, makes the Phoenix area an even more special place to visit.  Mix in a stop at the Grand Canyon, and you’ve added several noteworthy places to your expanding list. 

Fifteen major league teams make the Phoenix area their Cactus League headquarters.  Last March, we saw the Cleveland Indians beat the San Francisco Giants, and toured the parks of the Chicago Cubs, Oakland As and others. Or, couple a summer vacation with visits to football training camps for your favorite teams like the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos!

When traveling, watch for unique “by accident finds” like the Imperial Dam on the Colorado River, just outside Yuma, AZ.  The dam and huge settling ponds allow sediment to settle before the irrigation water is pumped to the Imperial Valley, CA, one of the US’s largest agricultural regions.  Nearby is the eerie Salton Sea, a former barren valley well below sea level (similar to Death Valley).  It became an environmental disaster in the early 1900s when the flood-stricken Colorado River overflowed its banks, forming a landlocked sea now 35 miles long and 25 miles wide; floods in the 1970s created five ghost resorts surrounding the lake. 

Take the New Year's start to update your own Western USA bucket list – and, get exploring! No list can ever be complete, so polish up your own and share notable destinations that I have missed.  I’ll publish other reader favorites in my upcoming Record Valley Travel blogs!

What to take: fishing rods, good hiking shoes, binoculars and camera, maps and/or a GPS unit. 
Where to stay: The nice thing is that all these destinations have in-park lodges (many historic and memorable), fine campgrounds in beautiful settings and good-value motels nearby.  If you are a senior, get the America the Beautiful Pass, costing $10, getting you into most national parks free and saving you up to ½ off federal campgrounds! 
For more information on any of our National Parks, go to: http://www.nps.gov and pick your destination.  For insight into Seattle, go to www.visitseattle.org (or similar visitor sites for the other cities). For Phoenix and Cactus League baseball games, www.cactusleague.com.
For additional travel destination inspiration, see my blog: http://LittlePlacesIKnow.blogspot.com; to contact me, tviall@msn.com. 
Happy travels in the West!

Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, Montana in winter; scenic, cold and uncrowded!

From top down: Buffalo gather at Yellowstone's Midway Geyser Basin; -38 degrees in West Yellowstone on car's dashboard thermometer makes for challenges getting car started (yes, we do listen to Bob Dylan on a long drive!); huge stuffed Grizzly in the Stagecoach Inn's lobby in West Yellowstone; a snowcoach warms up in West Yellowstone, awaiting the temps to rise to -25 degrees before park service will allow access into Yellowstone; Izaac Walton Inn on south edge of Glacier National Park is an old Great Northern Railway hotel, open to guests; Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park is the "end of the road" for vehicles in the winter; Lake McDonald shines in winter splendor at -13 degrees; stately mountains provide majestic backdrop behind barn in west central Montana.

Last January,  we headed to Whitefish, Montana, to join a group of ski patrol friends to ski at Whitefish Mountain (formerly, Big Mountain), tour into Glacier National Park and make our way south to Yellowstone National Parks.  I suggest such a winter trip should be on the bucket list for any outdoor enthusiast!

Weather the trip is to ski, to see our national parks or to take in the majesty of the west in winter, this trip does not disappoint.  We drove, from central California, through Nevada, north into Idaho and up through western Montana.  Most of the scenery is spectacular, roads are good and a host of inexpensive motels line the stunning route!

We made Whitefish on a sunny, clear but -5 degree, which got our attention (little did we know that would be the warmest day in the next five!).  Some of our group boarded the Monday morning shuttle to Whitefish Mountain, while my spouse and I slept in, then grabbed our cross-country skis and did a few laps on the cross country ski track, right outside our cozy lodge.  

The next day, five of us toured into Glacier National Park, just 28 miles to the northeast.  Temperatures had reached 13 below zero, and keeping warm was high on everyone’s list. During the winter, most of the roads in Glacier Park are not plowed, and closed to vehicular traffic. 

From the western park entrance we were able to drive 11 miles into the Park on Going to the Sun Highway, ending at the boarded-up Lake McDonald Lodge.  Here, hardy snowshoers or cross country skiers can continue east along the closed road. 

The tour along the southern shore of Lake McDonald offers simply stunning views.  We stood on the shore of the lake, with a wind-chill down to about -25, and listened to the slapping of white caps breaking on the shore, framed by the rugged snow-capped mountains across the lake. 

We then headed east along the park’s southern border.  In the town of Essex is the delightful Izaac Walton Inn, a unique year-round resort that caters to skiers and snowshoers in the winter.  The old inn is a Great Northern Railway hotel with inviting rooms, and it is surrounded by renovated cabooses and a Great Northern locomotive, all turned into cozy accommodations, with numerous cross-country ski trails leading to incredible scenery!

After our several frigid days in the Glacier Park area, it was time to head south to West Yellowstone and Yellowstone National Park.  Hwy 93 takes one south along the western shore of Flathead Lake, with snowy peaks framing the lake at every vantage point.  We turned east on I-90, past Missoula to Bozeman, as my spouse checked the Weather Channel app on her iPhone, noting that West Yellowstone was forecast to reach -25 degrees by the next morning.  Between Bozeman and West Yellowstone, we detoured off the highway to take a look at Big Sky Ski Resort, big-time skiing just outside Yellowstone Park.  But, by now, temps were dropping toward -25; Brrrrrr! 

We reached West Yellowstone just before dark, and spent the night at the Stagecoach Inn.  In January, but for snowmobilers, not a lot is going on (only a handful of restaurants and motels are open), so we had pizza across from the Stagecoach, turned in fairly early and waited for the coming cold morning.

The next morning, a motel attendant noted the temperature had reached -40 degrees overnight.  Sure…he must be exaggerating!   Shortly, I went out into the sunny morning to start my car – it would barely crank – the dashboard display registered -38 degrees!  After running down my battery, I called AAA.  Awaiting their arrival, I returned to the car 15 minutes later to get my hot cup of coffee, only to discover it frozen solid!

More than an hour later, AAA was able to start my car.  We learned that the Park Service was halting all entrants into the park (via snow coach or snowmobile) until the day warmed up to -25 degrees! 

Yellowstone Park can be entered in winter via three entrances, but only by snow coach or snowmobile.  Choices are from West Yellowstone (the west entrance), Mammoth Hot Springs (north) or from Jackson Hole/Flagg Ranch (south). 

On an earlier trip, we spent three days at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, a quarter mile from Old Faithful Geyser.  It’s a four-star hotel, with 150 rooms and a cozy, full-service restaurant.  We chose the Frontier Cabin option, vintage cabins a block out back and less expensive than the nearby lodge.
We packed our cross-country skis, but used them only sparingly.  While several feet of snow was on the ground, plenty of walkers/snowshoers had packed the snow-covered miles of boardwalk so that we were able to hike the thermal basins and up to the Old Faithful overlook shod only in winter footgear.

During our stay we saw stunning Trumpeter Swans on the Firehole River and shaggy bison throughout the park, including a huge bull just 20 feet off the boardwalk on one of our walking tours (they come down to the geyser basins for warmth in winter). 

Old Faithful Geyser, only a short walk from our cabin, and the park’s many thermal features warmed our hearts during several brisk hikes – often, we would be the only observers when a geyser erupted!
We marveled at elk by the hundreds; in winter, they prefer to wander the park roads rather than wade through deep snow. 

The morning of our departure, a coyote followed us out the morning we left, seeking a handout; he’ll have to await our next visit! 

How to get there: From central CA, we headed east on Interstate 80, then north on Hwy 95 through western Idaho, then Hwy 12 over Lolo Pass, north on Hwy 93 through Missoula and past beautiful Flathead Lake to Whitefish.  Hwy 2 east from Whitefish will take you to Glacier National Park.
What to take: Binoculars and camera, of course, lots of winter clothing, and skis or showshoes if you are into that.  And, chains for your vehicle, even if you have a 4-wheel drive; jumper cables make sense if predictions of temps down to -20 or lower! 

Where to stay: In Whitefish, the Grouse Mountain Lodge (http://www.grousemountainlodge.com/) is a superior choice for cozy and classy accommodations in a lodge-like setting (Whitefish offers other good motel choices).  On the southern edge of Glacier Park, no more unique inns exist than the Izaac Walton Inn (http://www.izaakwaltoninn.com/).  In West Yellowstone, we have enjoyed the Stagecoach Inn (http://yellowstoneinn.com/; 406.646.7381) several times; in Yellowstone Park the Old Faithful Snow Lodge is the only winter choice (http://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/). 

For more information on Glacier National Park, (406) 888-7800, http://www.nps.gov/glac/planyourvisit/winter.htm.  For snowcoach service into the park, the West Yellowstone Chamber of Commerce can offer choices of private snowcoach providers, (406) 646.7701.  For Yellowstone’s North park entrance (Mammoth Hot Springs) and south park entrance (Flagg Ranch/Teton Park) lodging and snow coach service, and Old Faithful Snow Lodge stays, contact Zanterra, the Yellowstone concessionaire, www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com, (307) 344.7901.

For additional travel destination inspiration, see my blog: http://LittlePlacesIKnow.blogspot.com; to contact me, tviall@msn.com. 

Enjoy your travels in the West!