Gulliver's Travels
Washington and Wyoming
September-October 2025
Last fall I visited two places that I worked in during two summers when I was in college, Wyoming and South Dakota in 1961 and Washington in 1964. In 1961 I worked for the US Forest Service in the Black Hills near the border of South Dakota and Wyoming. After I started working there I got a job for Vic Schiegg working in the restaurant at Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. He can't remember me doing that for him. He's now 85, so....well, I won't say it. I also visited Grand Teton National Park for the seventh time and a bit of Yellowstone National Park, though most of the park was closed for the winter.
In 1964 I worked on a fire lookout tower, along with various other jobs, for the US Park Service in Mt. Rainier National Park. I visited there and nearby Mt. St. Helen's National Monument and Olympic National Park.
Then I went north to Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker in North Cascades National Park near the Canadian border. Tom Westover lives only a couple of miles from my way there, so I called him and left a message asking if we could meet for dinner that evening. I suspect he thought that I expected a free dinner...as he never returned my call. He's 83, so maybe...well, I won't say it.
I also visited two fantastic gardens near Seattle. I made sure to get out of there before the famous winter monsoon hit, as I didn't want to grow webs between my toes. Tom should send us a photo of his toes to show why I was fearful of that happening.
Mt. Rainier, 14,411 feet high, where I worked in Summer 1964
My fire lookout on Mt. Fremont, with Seattle in the distance 90 miles away
Sunrise Ranger Station: my bedroom was in the building on the left, second floor on the right.
Mt. Shuksan, at 9131 feet in North Cascades National Park and five miles from the Canadian border, is seen on many calendars because of its iconic shape. I've been there four times, and I FINALLY got the perfect shot, well worth the trip.
Mt. Baker, at 10,786 feet, is about five miles west of Mt. Shuksan
The Japanese Garden at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, across Puget Sound west of Seattle
Moss-covered trees in Olympic National Park
 An interesting tree trunk in Olympic National Park |  Another interesting tree trunk |
In the Rhododendrom Species Botanic Garden in Federal Way, 30 miles south of Seattle. It has one of the largest stumperies in the US. A stumpery is a garden with a lot of dead trees and other wood in it.
In the Rhododendron Species Botanic Garden
Mt. St. Helen's, reduced from 9677 feet to 8363 feet when 0.6 cubic miles of the mountain disappeared in an eruption on May 18, 1980
View of the north side of the mountain that blew out horizontally following an earthquake
Mt. Adams, a dormant volcano of 12,281 feet in southern Washington
Mt. Hood, another dormant volcano, 11,249 feet, just south of the border in Oregon
Crazy Horse Memorial, near Custer, SD, was started by Korczak Ziolkowski in 1948 to honor the Sioux Indigenous people. My uncle, Walt Sievert, lived in Custer and worked for the US Forest Service as a road engineer. He was a friend of the sculpturer and directed the building of the gravel road up to the mountain. My family visited the site in 1949. In 1961 when I worked nearby I talked with Casimir, the sculpturer's son, who took over the project upon the death of his father. The photo shows that the carving has picked up the pace since the lifting device was bought. I've always said that I want to be alive to watch the project from the very start until the finish, when it will be 564 feet high. Anyone want to bet if l get my wish?
A lonely trailer ascending a ridge under a foreboding sky in western Wyoming
The northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park
The back part of the Grand Teton Mountains, taken in Idaho
Steers oblivious of Mother Nature's cool clouds in western Wyoming, a waste of her effort
The front range of the Grand Tetons, at a maximum of 13,775 feet
More of "Mom's" work, a "cloud tornado"
The original J.C. Penny store in tiny Kemmerer, Wyoming, built in 1902
The interior of the store, still in business, with mechanical tubes carrying money up to the upstairs offices, similar to the vacuum tubes used in Schuette's in Manitowoc
The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum, halfway between Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska, has a cool B-36 seen the photo, which had 10 engines, six props and four jets.
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