The Golden Tour

If it ain't the last leech still sucking, my nightmare and yours, the watermill. This ain't the same kind of copulin and blood guzzling you use to bait though. This parasite slurps away at the very ground you stand on. unlike its just as evil twin the sawmill, this piece of work is allowed to keep working, which makes it's work that much worse. I just hope this thing stops spinning before the world does. If I'm around to see it, all the better.

Starting Area – Automatically Unlocked.

This here is what folks call ghost town, although a few hundred years ago you'd have known it as prosperity springs, Mining hub of Wyoming. Lovely name, but there's nothing nice about chipping away at natures beauty for some pretty rock. Maybe hard to picture now, but the powers to be didn't always see the value in protecting a place like golden ridge. instead getting carried along in the gold rush that washed the reserve down the drain. Its hard to say how much damage toxic metal and acid run off did to the park. I'm relieved to say that those who could put their foot down, before the elks, bears and whatever Johnson was around, got ran out of house and home. Now the town rots where it stands and the gold stays where it should.

Stuttered right in the centre of the towering alpine peaks, is our silver strand meadows outpost, offering shelter to travellers from the mountain trail. Much like any other outpost, you will be able to find noticeboards, storage lockers, boat house and a garage for easy access to transportation, as well as a flagpole for yourself.

Round these parts you can see scars on the land, left behind by the bandits of prosperity spring. This one here is a shaft stabbed deep in the soil by some suckers scrabbling to make two cents to rub together, thinking they can go home to their families with a smile, a pocket full of silver looted from the land. Well I can hardly blame them. Any poor soul would have stayed poor after being sold that sham of a dream. You see people don't make money, they just move it around, and although no end of them was getting moved out of golden ridge, its the ones that already had the money that came out rich. There ain't any silver or gold in this hole no more. There sure as hell ain't no dreams, only ghosts now. in this pit is your dream, here lies the American dream, lived on the back of the land of those too poor to know any better. Rest in peace.

Heck of a view ain't it, don't matter where you are, can hardly miss it. What your seeing here is what i saw every weekend growing up, it's what my pop and my pop pop saw working away. Its what the Nez Perce*, Blackfeet* and Shoshone* saw, as they lived and breathed under that same big sky. It's hard not to feel connect when you feel nothing but awe, majesty of mother nature. Where you're standing, so many have stood before you. These mountains have stood here longer still, they're older than the oldest of mans tales and will outlive every last one of us."

* Tribe names identified from the National Park Service record

Popular one for the tourists, spires drop. Our largest and most powerful waterfall, around august time its not too rare a sight to see a double rainbow leaping across the rapids. so keep your eyes peeled. I could wax lyrical about how a beautiful and majestic sight it is all day, but above all else, spires drop is cathartic. If you ever feel like your mad at the world or even a bit sad, sometimes its just nice to see some water getting the snot beat out of it. It never stays down for long.

Here you see the tracks of my tears, one more of mans attempts to syphon away natures bounty at a heavy cost. This railway here carried a precious cargo out of the park to be refined and sold for coin. However, it got shut down when the powers to be did the right thing for once. After the mining industry was iXnade here at the park, we had no more need for a choo choo or two. Now they're gone to join the rest of the metal they hauled out of here.

They say this park is haunted and well the only baloney I care to deal with is in a sandwich if you know what I'm saying. However, if we're talking about the ghosts of logging industry left behind, I'd have to agree. There's the ghosts of men and women, mobbed down, sweet mother natures idle vitality, for a, to the to. There's the ghosts of Fur, Juniper and Pine, took from us far, far too soon. Heck, the building itself is a ghost. Once wern with it's own bale for life energy, look at it now. Just an eerie shell of work once was. Although il have to ask you to stay out of there, for safety reasons. Should probably remove this bit from the tape later on if i figure out how.

If you find the trees giving way to unyielding mountain rock, you're in emerald lake plateau. While you are there, do be sure to drop by the outpost. Much like any other outpost in the park, you'll be able to find noticeboards, storage lockers, a boat house and a garage.

This dam here was built in the 1950s, and out of all the taxes the land has to pay, it's one of the better ones. This structure allows proper irrigation of the surrounding farm land and while I wouldn't say its as grand as some of the other sights in the park, it's a monument of sorts. unfortunately, that monument releases green house gases, deprives eco systems of nutrients, destroys habitats, raises sea levels, wastes water, but ah hey. Best of a bad bunch.

The hot springs here are an esteemed natural resource, first utilised by the ancestors of Shoshone further back than the books go. Mountain men exploring the area came back with tall tales of bubbling mud and steaming rivers, leading to high ridicule from their despondent comrades. It seems natures gems were dismissed as pure delirium. But further expeditions and explorations elucidated the matter better than words ever could. The stories were real and the beautiful bubbling geysers were our parks very own wonder. The history of our hot springs as a hot property goes back to 1906 and one Gregoire Lacroix (Julius J. LaDuke), French Canadian immigrant who's staked a mining claim and thanks to this here park. What he found himself in, was a spot of hot water, and much like that Archimedes fella, soon thumped for something crafty. Riverbank hot tubs were the first place his mind went. Soon folk from all over were following along. Decades later, mud ain't the only thing he'd knock, turns out mother nature bounty ain't half easy to make a few pennies on. But hey, what can you do. They treat me nicer than any other parasites I got, and they never forget my birthday. which is more than I can say for my tape recorder.

Open canyons you could park a plane in means you're far out in ruby river range. While you're there, drop by the outpost, much like any other outpost you'll be able to find noticeboards, storage lockers, a boat house and a garage for easy access to transportation.