Reset search
Elvis Lives TourElvis Lives Tour
SatelliteEdit route

Elvis Lives Tour

May 2016 - August 2018
May 2016 - April 2019 Read more
+6
  • 222footprints
  • 14countries
  • 821days
  • 1.1kphotos
  • 0videos
  • 34.9kkilometers
  • 1.2kkilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date ascending
  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    Day 65

    Rocky Mountain High

    July 20, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We headed down the mountain into Boulder - a really cool town with lots of v fit looking people (lots of athletes live here including British Ironman legend Chrissy Wellington - one of my heroes). We satisfied our craving for pizza but unfortunately there was no camping in town so we headed back up the mountain to the National forest just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).

    The next day we headed into the park - due to our complete lack of organisation we knew the campsites were fully booked but we asked on the off chance at Glacier Basin campsite & a lovely ranger found us a spot! And what a spot it was surrounded by snow capped peaks - wow. Walked up to Dream & Emerald lakes & spent the evening by the fire watching a distant lightening storm - nature at its best.

    Lucked out again the next night - the same ranger found us a spot at another campsite. After setting up did a tougher walk up Deer Mountain with gorgeous views at the top. Got down just before the thunder storms started!

    Our luck finally ran out so we drove over the 12,000 foot pass & amazing tundra to the quieter western side, taking in our first sighting of elk. The following day Phil decided he needed another big hike so he hiked the 15 miles over Thunder Pass whilst I was left to drive the van the 100 miles around.... Not content with going over the 11,000 ft pass he also felt compelled to scoot in Thunder Mountain another 1,000 ft up. I was slightly worried about meeting up but all went well & I met him bounding down about a mile up the path on the other side. We got back down to the van & eyeing us less than 100 yards away was a moose with her baby - our luck was back! That night we were treated to an incredible sunset...    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    Day 69

    Cheyenne, the final frontier...

    July 24, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    On our way up to the Badlands we hit Wyoming and there was allegedly one if the biggest/best rodeos going on in Cheyenne. We were tempted to go see Fall Out Boy thar night, but instead waited for next day and took in Frontier Days, which is a 10 day rodeo and carnival. We'd seen one rodeo before in PA and assumed it was a bit of a token effort as it was so far away from the wild west coast, but although this one was bigger and better, I'm still glad we took mum and dad to it. One thing we didn't see in PA though was the wild horse race, where a team of 3 had to saddle and ride a wild horse once around the track - it sounds easy but it was hilarious watching them get tangled up and then the horse to run in the wrong direction. The Indian Village area was pretty cool, especially the little kid strutting around in his native dancing costume.

    We left pretty late from the show and got to Guernsey State Park pretty late, which is a shame as it was a lovely camp site next to a decent sized lake. We went for a quick run and dip the next morning then spent most of the day driving through Nebraska and South Dakota on our way to the Badlands.

    We saw a herd of buffalo (same thing as bison, FYI) when we hit the national park - these things are massive and a little intimidating, then set up at Sage Creek camp ground. There was a cool ranger talk that night where we got to throw an atlatle (spear throwing thing), although only at a fake bison called Bob (a cardboard box).

    In the morning we drove through Badlands, stopping and gawping at every turn. The big multi coloured cliffs of soft stone machined into steep gorges and sharp ridges by the weather. Hard to believe this place was once bottom of a sea but they have found lots of ancient fossils of some scary looking creatures. That evening we headed back west and into the Black Hills of South Dakota. As we were nearing Wind Cave National Park, the sky went pretty black and starting hailing the size of marbles. We were held up for 15 minutes by a herd of bison dawdling in the road, and it was just as well as at the camp ground they had ice stones the size of golf balls and everyone's car ws dented plus one RV had its skylights smashed in. We silently thanked this bison later!    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    Day 72

    Take Me Back To The Black Hills...

    July 27, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    (apparently it's a song...)

    Seeing as we ended up in the Wonderful Wind Cave National Park (to avoid the $20 entry fee, $21 camping, $7.70 reservation PLUS $2 phone fee for Custer SP) we thought we might as well spend the morning exploring the cave below our feet. It was pretty different from the 2 big cave systems we have visited so far, with some incredible box formations and not really any stalagmites/tites as it was submerged then dried out.

    From there we drove the Needles Highway through the Black Hills of South Dakota, which was just incredible for the herds of bison on the road, massive big dark rock formations and road cut through tiny one-lane tunnels.

    Crazy Horse monument was just around the corner and from what we had heard from others was definitely worth a visit. Mount Rushmore is a few miles down the road and the Native Americans wanted to demonstrate that they had heroes too (and the feds refused to add to Rushmore) so wanted to build something bigger and better. Its so big they have been going at it for about 75 years and they have only just got his face done, let alone the rest of him and the horse. It was still pretty impressive so remind me to come back in another life when it's finally finished.    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    Day 74

    Go West!

    July 29, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We camped in a small National Forest site just down the road and it was really nice to have a fun evening around the camp fire again (most places recently have had burn bans due to the risk of forest fire). In the morning we woke to wetness - think this is our first proper rain during the day for well over a month, but fortunately it started to dry up as we got to Mt Rushmore. I wasn't expecting too much from this, but we took in a really good talk from Red Cloud's great grandson on the white/red-skin relationship as the government took this land for a national monument.

    As we wound our way west over the rolling hills that started to emerge out of the enormous flat plains of Wyoming, there is suddenly a massive rock sticking out of the earth without any good reason why. As we got nearer we saw Devil's Tower is straining itself out of the earth with these unusual hexagonal blocks, a bit like Giant's Causeway. We were surprised to find a lovely little campground nestled at the bottom so we parked up early and enjoyed the gorgeous evening sun. There was a ranger programme on the night sky which was pretty interesting, and we saw a couple of shooting stars from the meteor storm. What was even more amazing was the climbers lights on the tower as they descended in the pitch black.

    The next day we drove west and climbed out of the plains very dramatically. It was so nice up on high pass that we decided to spend the night in one of the National Forest campgrounds up by Bald Mountain and watch the rest of the meteor storm.

    Saturday was a restocking day before we hit Yellowstone, so gas, petrol, food and of course beer. Lovell, a small town en-route, offered a free campground with showers so we gratefully took advantage the latter. From there we drove on to a little camp site by a brook just outside the park.

    Rather than head straight into the park we turned the opposite direction and drove a few miles of the Bear Tooth Highway which runs across the wilderness area that borders the park. We found a gorgeous little camp site next to a big lake and decided that would do us. We did a nice little (8 miles) walk up to the lakes above us. It was a lovely evening so we decided to cook a curry on the open fire - all was going well until the hail, thunder & lightening but the fire survived and it simmered away nicely whilst we hid inside waiting for it to clear. We popped down to the lake before it went dark but no sign of the resident grizzly (on the other side of the lake!). It was a chilly night dropping down to 10C, which was a bit unexpected as it's been high 20s most nights.    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    1
    Day 80

    It Was All Yellow

    August 4, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Well we have finally made it to the one standing booking we've had for the whole trip - 5 nights in Yellowstone! The drive in was beautiful through the Lamar Valley past hundreds of bison. We were expecting the campsite to be basic so were delighted to find that there were hot showers & we got 2 free per night :) There was also an excellent laundrette so we are all squeaky clean. On further exploration we found a cafe, grill, restaurant & bar so we are definitely happy campers!

    After a breakfast of eggy bread, our first day in the park was spent climbing up to Observation Peak - beautiful wild flowers & I'm glad to say no bears. In the afternoon explored the Canyon region with stunning waterfalls & amazing colourful steep canyon sides.

    Our 2nd day in the park was spent exploring the geothermal spectaculars that Yellowstone has to offer. This place has over half the geysers in the world - most are reasonably impressive and everyone has heard of Old Faithful (except Helen apparently!) but was a little spoiled by having to share it with several thousand visitors. The highlights were a short walk to Mystic Falls, with its steaming cliffs and the mystical fog that hung over the river & the beautiful turquoise/orange (due to the thermophilic bacteria) Grand Prismatic Lake. Our journey home is interrupted by bison heading down to the river for an evening drink.

    The next morning we headed off around the northern loop, and a sudden pull off the road resulted in our first grizzly sighting! We jumped out of the car and watched at a safe distance, amazed by the people who ventured close with their small kids running around & one man who knocked himself out by running into a tree in his excitement... Then the teenage bear casually wandered towards the crowd and mad panic ensued!

    After the buzz of the bear encounter we headed up Bunsen Peak - it's not one of the big ones but it does offer pretty impressive 360 degree panoramas of the different habitats across the vast park. We continued our journey around the loop and ended up at Boiling River, which is a lot more pleasant than it sounds when you mix it with a cool mountain river. We somehow grabbed the best seats in one of the pre-made rock 'hot tubs' and spent 90 mins getting wrinkly whilst avoiding the sudden hot/freezing currents. A great day was topped off with a coyote running across the road in front of us.

    On our last day in the park we decided to head up Washburn Mountain, which was a lot more populated than Bunsen but it was still a nice couple of hours walk with great views from the firetower summit. The only new animal spot was a Pika, a large mouse type creature. We headed back on the quieter northern loop to little lunch spot by the creek, and explored a few little trails and off-road drives.

    Although it's not the most spectacular park in terms of craggy peaks, the sheer beauty and diversity is unquestionably gorgeous.    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    11
    Day 87

    So small & humble.

    August 11, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    Lizard Creek was our first stop in Grand Teton NP , a lovely little campsite in the north of the park with tantalising views of the main mountains to the south.
    We had a rainy day (not used to that!) but we drove a few miles south and managed to get into Coulter Bay Campground so were closer to the action. The next day, as we drove down to the trail head, the Teton range reared up aggressively and looked stunning in the morning sunshine. Shakira was correct - no confusing these mountains. I think Phil summed it up with his insightful comment 'wow wow wow!'

    We started our hike in the most surreal way by seeing HARRISON FORD at the trailhead. Quite a rare sight although Phil has seen him before in Hollywood! We had to Google him to make sure it was him hiding behind his scraggy beard, and we found out he is a Jackson resident (admittedly part time).

    We were more excited (& I have to admit a little scared) to find a mummy bear & 2 little cubs right on our trail going to Amphitheater Lake. After waiting for others to catch us up we all hiked through together & we were all relieved that they were black not grizzly bears. We reached the lake & had lunch surrounded by the magnificent towering Teton peaks. On our way down we encountered the bears again & watched for a long while as they were right by the path - incredible. There was one more bear sighting when we were literally 100 meters from the van at the trail head, and he meandered across the road only a few metres away.

    The next day I was promised a nice easy walk along the canyons... but we kept going a little bit further & higher until Phil argued it would be silly to go back the way we came. So we ended up going over a 10,700 pass to make it a round trip of 20 miles with 5,000 ft elevation - I was v v knackered, although it was an absolutely EPIC trek, and one of the best so far. We were good samaritans & gave a couple of lads who were the only other ones stupid enough to do the same trek (they didn't know how long it was!) a lift back to their car 4 miles away as they were more unorganised than us & had even run out of water.

    Phil made up for tricking me into a ridiculous long hike the next day with cinnamon rolls cooked on the fire for breakfast, a trip to the National Wildlife Art museum & beers in the sun in Jackson Hole :)    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    2
    Day 89

    It's All About The Lakes, ...

    August 13, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Despite the fact we have visited some absolutely incredible places on this trip so far, the Tetons just blew me away with its jagged peaks and stunning lakes and canyons, not to mention the wildlife (and celebs!). Still, all good things must come to an end and we eventually headed out of the park. We headed north, over some 10% gradient roads which Elvis wasn't too happy about. We're liking this part of the world more and more as we found a beautiful free camp site by a large lake with hardly anyone in it, and managed a few hours fishing before watching the amazing Persides meteor storm with several shooting stars per minute.

    Elvis's driver side window has given up the ghost, and I'm amazed how warm it is this high and far north so it's driving me crazy. I have to have the air-con on whilst Jo has her window fully down. So we picked up a replacement part but annoyingly it didn't fit. Along with an oil change we lost a good couple of hours, and spent the rest of the day chewing miles as we headed north. We stopped for a quick lunch at a place called Gates of the Mountains, which is aptly named due to the narrow vertical crack running through the rock and into a gorgeous looking lake. We found another lake to camp by (again free) which allowed a quick run followed by a nice cool down (and de-smell!) before we had a camp fire on the beach.

    The next morning we continued our drive north and got close to Glacier NP. It's really popular around here so we struggled with a camp site and ended up in a parking lot next to an official site right outside the park. There was a freight train line not far away so it wasn't our best night's sleep, but that did enforce an early start which meant we got the penultimate spot in an official site in the NP :)

    As it was still early we drove up to Many Glaciers, which sounded promising. Even more impressive sounding was Iceberg Lake, but we weren't expecting too much - it is August, it's 30+C and we are only at 5,000 feet. Despite our scepticism, after a couple of hours hike we arrived at this gorgeous turquoise lake ringed by a high vertical ridge so it gets almost no sun, and yes - it was full of icebergs! They were admittedly not Titanic proportions, but were several metres across. As we were noshing down on our sandwiches this unbelievable guttural tearing noise echoed around us, and 20 odd seconds later a big slice carved off the glacier on the far side of the lake. About a minute later a mini tsunami almost pulled our bags into the water! It was such a gorgeous and unique spot that I felt compelled to swim out to one - a decision that was hastily regretted, although a experience I will never forget! Jo decided to have a nice long hot shower at the end of the day instead - what a wimp!    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    3
    111
    Day 92

    Full Moon Rising

    August 16, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    We woke to yet another gorgeous morning (we've been incredibly blessed with the weather) and decided a big hike was in order. We drove up the road to Logan's Pass Visitor Center but soon gave up fighting over non-existent parking spaces with 50 other people. We drove on over the Continental Divide (which way the water flows out) but didn't have any better luck and eventually headed back towards our camp site. About noon we bagged a parking spot which was close enough to our back up hike so we set off up Siyeh's Pass. It was gorgeous walk up through the pine forest and into the alpine. As we headed over the saddle we were treated to beautiful views of a small glacier below and across into Canada. On the other side of the pass was an absolutely unbelievable view of massive valleys, towering peaks and a huge, cracked, deep blue glacier gripping to a small ledge in the cliffs. The walk took us on down, down, down the valley and through more scorched forest. Luckily we ended up doing the hike the right way as we lost twice the altitude we gained. It was an absolutely incredible day, with stunning scenery drenched in sun.

    We didn't think we'd be able to top yesterday's hike and thought we should have a bit of an easier day so we headed back up to Logan's Pass (on the free shuttle this time!) for a short walk to Hidden Lake. We recognised a small unmarked trail that Marshall, our camp site neighbour, and told us about so we thought we'd get away from the crowds a bit. That certainly worked as I think we saw more mountain goats than people! The views from top of the trail blew away the busy overlook ones and we had lunch with just another goat for company. Jo amazingly agreed to push on up the Dragon's Tail, a narrow ridge with massive drop offs down to the lake far, far below. We went on until we were both getting a bit freaked out by the crumbling rock and long plummets below, before heading back to the saddle. The sun was still high so we followed a narrow goat track around the cliffs surrounding Reynolds Mountain out on a rocky promenade with jaw dropping views of the glaciers on the far side of the valley. It was an absolutely awesome view, and cemented Glacier NP as the new favourite park.

    Marshall joined us for beef stew that evening as we watched the full moon rising over the mountains behind us and we played around with his military grade night vision goggles, which was great for spying on the other campers! We'd been toying with buying binoculars for a few weeks so when Marshall offered us his pair we had to add to our collection of stuff (whilst helping him pair down his bike even more!)

    An unbelievable few days but time to move on - we're just not sure where we are going yet! You would have thought that after we've just passed our 3 month point we'd be more organised by now.    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    Day 97

    Now is the summer of our content

    August 21, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We headed down the west side of the park into much greener climate to a glorious calm lake. We were really tempted to throw our overnight gear together and kayak over for a moonlight night on the far beach, but bizarrely there was a storm forecast. (I say bizarrely as we have grown accustomed to zero weather, other than the sun and maybe a few afternoon mountain clouds!)

    We restocked food, booze, gas(oline) & gas (propane), but frustratingly Elvis's part hadn't turned up. We headed down to Flathead Lake and grabbed a beautiful spot in the state park. Our inflatable kayak made a rare appearance and we whiled away a unusually lazy afternoon.

    From there we drove through the National Buffalo reserve and saw longhorn sheep, elk, antelope, buffalo (obviously!) with only the resident black bear avoiding us. As we were driving to a little camp spot by the river I was lucky enough to watch a bald eagle hunting overhead - he probably had more luck than I did fishing later on!

    The following day we headed northwest and spent a few hours in Sandpoint - doing the things we hadn't been able to over the past few weeks (fancy coffee, ice cream and afternoon beers in sun). We found a gorgeous camp site run by Corp of Engineers as it was by a hydroelectric damn. We whiled away the afternoon on our new floaty inner tubes - why didn't we buy these months ago?! In the morning the trail around the camp site island made a perfect running track so a few loops of that followed by a dip, a (25c!) shower and bacon & egg muffins (a special treat as we rarely cook breakfast).

    We finally got the part we needed in Spokane, and I took the door apart in the car park just to make sure! We then lucked out again by getting a cancelation spot in the state park and headed straight out to watch a free Shakespeare in a nearby park. I wasn't that familiar with Comedy of Errors but I'm pretty sure Benny Hill wasn't in the original. The Montanan students put on a hugely entertaining show, and even Richard 3rd (which was the other show on the tour) made an appearance! It was meltingly hot even in the early evening (98F), but I guess that's due to coming down from 9,000 feet to a few thousand.

    The next day it was so nice to have some decent signal and catch up with the family back home. Then we cycled the Centennial Trail along the river and across town to a brewery. It was tough work and the little 1960s mom & pop ice cream kept us fueled. We were pretty beat 3 hours later when we finally arrived but a couple of cold ones sorted us out. We headed back the easy way stopping at The Flying Goat, which is probably the best pizza we have ever had (gorgonzola, pear & bacon with a balsamic drizzle) and promptly collapsed in a heap when we got back to camp.

    We finally tackled our huge pile of laundry the next morning - it's actually a problem when everything is clean as it doesn't fit in the cupboards. Then we drove back towards the Canadian border and found great little $6 National Forest camp site with piles of free firewood, so dug out a load of old tunes from the laptop and had a little 2 man party.

    Its been a very different lazy few days back in the real world, but we've really enjoyed it after weeks in the woods.    Read more

  • Elvis LivesElvis Lives Tour
    1
    Day 102

    A Little Vacation...

    August 26, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We drove a couple more hours and stopped at another National Forest site just on the edge of Northern Cascades National Park, and headed in early the next morning. We got a gorgeous camp spot right on Diablo Lake covered in rainforesty canopy, and spent the rest of the day prepping for some more backcountry camping.

    In the morning we pumped up the kayak and loaded her up before setting off down the lake. Again we found it pretty hard going as this thing doesn't cut through the water like a hard shell and has a tendency to go sideways! Still we got to our camp spot about 90 minutes later although we had a choice of 3 beautiful spots it was a no brainer to take the one looking directly back down the flooded valley.

    The next day we were supposed to be paddling to the over side of the lake and doing a short hike but the seams on the boat were coming apart ominously so we were forced to spend the day lazying around in the sun punctuated with many short dips in the slightly chilly (Jo says freezing) lake. Although we were roughing it I'm sure we probably cooked the poshest backcountry meals in the whole park with Thai curry, pasta, bangers and mash washed down with red wine, then pancakes in the morning (which were a bit of nightmare without oil!)

    On the 3rd morning we tied up the bursting seam as best we could and set off back to Elvis. Despite the amazing weather over the past few days this morning a storm was starting to roll in and it was pretty windy. Although we were both only paddling on one side every 10 strokes or so we were turned about and had to do a couple of reverse strokes to straighten us up again. The boat was sagging a bit sadly but it wasn't too bad and with the cross wind we actually made it back much quicker than we'd gone out (fortunately - don't want to think about the wind being in the other direction!).

    Once back onshore we loaded up Elvis and in an hour we were on the western coast. We've now touched the major compass points of the country, and still have nearly 3 months before our visas run out.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English