This being the last day we headed up into the Rocky Mountain National Park along Trail Ridge Road to the peak of the Continental Divide at a bit over 4000 metres. Lynne and Skip wanted to give us a lastlook and memory of the Rocky Mountains and allow us to use our time doing scenic driving rather than sitting at an airport. As snow had fallen the previous night we had tro wait for the road to reopen. Once again Skip did a good job on a very narrow and p...

Another driving day through the grasslands and high plains of Wyoming. For part of the way the highway follows the old Deadwood to Cheyene Stage Coach Route and on another part of the journey we drove through the territory once infamous for its Cattle Wars. Our target is the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park another historic hotel which was the inspiration for the Overlook Hotel in the film The Shining . The original owner was the inventor of the Stanley Steam Car. ...

We had an early start this morning as Lynne had arranged for a talk by the current Lakota Chief Bald Eagle who is 96 years old. The Chief now is a ceremonial title rather than a legal title. We drove through the Black Hills of Dakota to Kevin Costner's Native American Educational Centre "Tatanka". Chief Bald Eagle talked with us for about one and a half hours and then we had a short tour of the grounds. Next we joined Jay's Luxury Tour of Deadwood Town. This...

Our first visit this mornng is to the site of the Battle of Big Horn also known as Custer's last stand, now a National Memorial. We arrived at 9.00 am in time for a talk by a parks Ranger. He related the background, the politico-economic background to the Sioux uprising and then very descriptively outlined the daily progress of the confrontation itself. As we sat on a ridge the Ranger could point out the actual disposition of both sides and explain their tact...

After a morning tour of Yellowstone we set out for Cody, travelling through the Shoshone Canyon and the Absoroka Rocky Mountains still in the high country. Yellowstone had lived up to our expectations. We visited the Buffalo Bill Centre of the West and it was very informative not -with-standng a lot of the content was about Cody's life. The centre sensitively dealt with the indian issues as well as recoding their lifestyle and beliefs. We wer surprised by h...