NORTH AMERICA REUNION 1998 By Yao Qi |
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All families arrived in Denver around noon time. They are Gu Kejing & Ge Shan Hua from Vancouver, Canada; Jin Ruichun & Chen Lifang from Detroit, USA; Lou Shituo, & Yao Qi from Halifax, Canada; Stanley & Meili Wang from New York City, USA; Zhou Benhua and Mao Yu Hua from Beijing, China. We arrived in the Airport Comfort Inn at about 1:40pm. Stanley and Ruichun picked up a full size van from Denver downtown. We met at the front door of the Inn, and left Denver by taking I-25 north to Cheyenne, I-80 west to Rawlins, and then 287at west all the way down to Yellowstone National Park. We arrived at Flagg Ranch near the south entrance of the Park at about 8:00pm. Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 as the world's first and oldest national park. The human history of the park is evidenced by cultural sites dating back 12,000 years. The commanding features of Yellowstone as a national park, are the geothermal phenomena (there are more geysers and hot springs than in the rest of the world combined), the colorful Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, fossil forests, and the size and elevation of Yellowstone Lake. We visited the Old Faithful geyser and other nearby geysers, and the fountain paint pot. Later in the afternoon, from 3pm to 5:40pm, we enjoyed a boat rafting through the snake river and then the Jackson lake. We saw rainbows beside the lake on the way to a restaurant for our dinner. We also saw the rainbow again the next day around the same area. * Visited the Mammoth Hot Springs. * Visited the Canyon, the Upper Fall and the Lower Fall. The Grand Teton rises to 13,770 feet above sea level. Twelve Teton peaks reach above 12,000 feet elevation, high enough to support a dozen mountain glaciers. With the establishment of Grand Teton National Park in 1929, and later additions in 1950, culminating in today's park, a wide variety of resources are protected for future generations. (*) "Tetons" is actually a French word meaning "breasts" Don McKenzie is credited for making the Teton name stick when he crossed the area in 1816. At afternoon, we took 26 east through Riverton, Shoshoni to Casper, and then, took I-87 north to Buffalo. We stayed at the Motel Arrowhead. Crazy Horse, and Mount Rushmore National Memorial * Visit the Devils Tower National Monument In 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt designated Devils Tower as the nation's first natural monument. It is actually the core of a volcano exposed after millions of years of erosion brought on by the Belle Fourche River and the weather. We visited Devils Tower National Monument in the morning. The tower looked so high and large when we were close to it. The rocks and boulders around the base of the tower are actually broken pieces of columns having fallen from the sides. At its base, there is a paved walking path around the perimeter, a distance of one and a quarter miles. The tower is 865 feet high. We found 3 climbers on the tower (about 500 feet high!). We drove through Sundance, WY, Spearfish, Deadwood, and had lunch there. There was a huge Harley Davidson Motorcycle event: the 58th Annual Sturgis Rally & Race, from Aug. 4 to 6. The small town was very crowd! We took a walk through the main streets along side the motorcycle drivers. * Visited the Crazy Horse. The Crazy Horse mountain carving now in progress will be the world largest sculpture (563' high, 641' long, carved in the round). It is the focal point of an educational and cultural memorial to and for the North American Indian. The memorial is not a federal or state project. It is a non-profit project begun in 1947, when sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (1908-1982) arrived in the Black Hills to accept the invitation of Lakota chiefs to carve Crazy Horse. The project is being continued by Korczak's wife, Ruth, and their family. We also visited the beautiful Indian Museum of North America, the sculptor's studio-home and workshop. * Visited the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial Mount Rushmore is a memorial to the growth and development of the United States of America. The sculptured busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln represent the American character, its ambitions and visions as a nation. We viewed the laser show at 9pm. We stayed at the Motel Rocket in Custer,SD. We visited the Wall Drugs - a large mall - on the way to the Badlands National Park which is located in southwestern South Dakota. Badlands National Park consists of nearly 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest, protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. Established as Badlands National Monument in 1939, the area was redesignated "National Park" in 1978. Over 11,000 years of human history pales to the eons old paleontological resources. Badlands National Park contains the world's richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 million years old. We then drove away from SD, and took 90 west to Rapid City, 79 south to Hot Springs, and 18 west to Mule Creek, then 85 south through Lusk, Torrington to Cheyenne. We had a good dinner in a small Chinese restaurant there. We drove south and arrived in Denver at midnight. The park is located in Estes Park, Colorado, 240-mile from Denver via Boulder. We stopped at the beautiful campus of University of Colorado for a few minutes. The park's rich scenery typifies the massive grandeur of the Rocky Mountains. We drove around Trail Ridge Road crosses the Continental Divide and looks out over peaks that tower more than 14,000 feet high. we also visited Alpine Visitor Center, and viewed exhibits about the history of the alpine tundra environment. Finally, We arrived in Grand Lake and took some pictures there. We had a farewell dinner in " Xi Lin Men" Chinese restaurant in Denver. Glass and steel tower give the Mile High City of Denver a serrated profile as dramatic as the mountain skyline to the west. We visited downtown on a hot sunny day. 4 families left Denver in the afternoon. Lou Shituo and Yao Qi stayed one more day to visit Colorado Springs. |