Canada to Wyoming

A Happy Camper...

Our trip took us through a wide variety of city and natural landscapes. In Vancouver, we saw the first signs of the Canadian anti-war efforts focused on Afghanistan. And we encountered a sixties style shop named the Urban Shaman, in which people were apparently smoking dope and “doing” natural herbs, such as LSA in lieu of LSD. Peyote buds were blooming under growlamps, marketed to facilitate inner- journeys (sound familiar?) that lasted 6-36 hours. Ken’s hair has been growing steadily longer since we left and he is beginning to look the part – soon to change unless Micheline’s arguments prevail.

The Vancouver Art Gallery

The art landscape was also varied. The exhibit ‘Krazy’ ( AnIme cartoons and video games) was not to our liking but interesting, and Rebecca Belmore a feminist artist had a couple of political pieces (see the photo of her scarred back). “Zhang Huan: Altered States” documented a number of his bizarre performances and recent sculptures made from ash gathered from Buddhist temples. Most powerful was his array of head shots in which his face is gradually covered with black calligraphy until it is completely black. Local artists were featured in “Canadian Women artists: a Dialogue with Emily Carr” which Micheline had been looking forward to since seeing Carr’s work side-by-side with Georgia O’Keefe’s at the Nat Women’s Museum in DC. Only a few of her paintings were there, but they stood out like a force of nature, totem heads merging with abstracted trees and rocks. Her vision drove us to nearby Stanley Park, to soak up directly the giant trees, lush plantings, masses of rhododendrons of all colors. Trees, trees, trees! No wonder M feels an affinity with Canadian painters. Even the park has a dedicated “Painters Circle”. Stanley Park trees

Louise Bourgeois' eye-benches in the Seattle Sculpture Garden.

The short 3 plus hour trip to Seattle at last brought a relief from three weeks of rain. We soaked up the sun in the Seattle Sculpture garden . We stayed at a great union hotel called the Edgewater. Built right on a fishing dock, it is renowned because Ringo Starr went fishing out from one of the first floor windows - a plaque in his honor by that door. We were a little worried because the staff were wearing “fair contract” pins but they told us they expected a great settlement and the pins were just part of the contract campaign. That night we attended a labor and community reception thrown by Seattle Fund Raiser Linda Mitchel in support of the ‘Win-Win Coalition’, the local C-4 table, but became increasingly concerned about the Gubernatorial election. Republican Rossi ‘s numbers appear to be surging upward.

In Portland -- in addition to our Williamette Valley excursion (see Wine and Food supplement below) our friends Dave Grushkin, Lori and their daughter Alisa, brought us to spectacular Multnomah Falls and the Portland Rose garden.

Ken and Dave Grushkin Columbia River Gorge

Trying our hand at floral photography....3 of the 1000's of varieties

The beautiful trek to Wyoming, along the Columbia River gorge and across the 45th Parallel, took us through bustling Boise, Idaho. We were careful using public facilities – especially men’s rooms, looking out for stray feet underneath stall partitions and graffiti markings noting “ Larry was here”.

Bustling Boise comes alive at sundown

Continuing toward Wyoming we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument, where we camped on a large lava flow in the moonlight. This dramatic volcanic area of pitchblack rock and ancient lava was actually used by NASA astronauts preparing for moon landings.

2,000 year-old limber pine, trapped in lava flow and surrounded by new vegetation

Home on the Lava

We reached the Tetons on a cloudless day and hiked through heavily-scented pine and aspen forest to the Phelps Lake overlook. Our guide was Lyn Cunningham who also took us to the National Museum of Wildlife Art perched above a wild elk refuge. Filled with animal bronzes, the collection also includes many paintings by Carl Rungius, the Old Master of wildlife art, and some fascinating 19th-century drawings of massive buffalo herds and the fate that befell them. Lyn and his wife Dorothy moved from Washington DC, where he and Ken worked together on the DC Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, to Dubois, Wyoming (pop. 986) 90 minutes from Jackson. Dubois features the Cowboy Cafe, a not-so-bustling breakfast stop, among other less-than-fast-paced establishments. At 7000 feet, it is surrounded by magnificent red rock canyon land.

Phelps Lake

Antler Arch in Jackson, WY



The Grand Teton range

Ground cover on June 19th near Dubois!

Dawn on the wild elk flats