We packed up our new Prius, which should get super gas mileage, and headed west. After spending two nights on the road, we finally reached our first destination - Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The natural structures are just amazing and the colors as the sun would change were beautiful. It's not a very large park, but the scenery seemed to go on forever. The only animals we were able to see were the prairie dogs which were all over. There were actually hiking trails, but it's not something we were interested in doing in the blazing sun. It was a few hours of driving around and then we were on to our next destination.....Wall Drugstore.
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| prairie dog |
As you are driving across South Dakota you start seeing billboards for Wall Drug, hundreds of them. You have to stop just to see what it's all about. It started out as a drug store and now has 3 cafes, several souvenir stores (of course Greg had to buy a T-Shirt), a museum, etc. We didn't stay long, but had to get our free ice water and 5 cent cup of coffee, which is how they lured travelers in the early days.
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| Nickel Coffee and a pastry - Greg's favorite stop! |
Our next stop was Mt. Rushmore. It was impressive as you walked up, as you saw all the State flags and a plaque indicating when they became part of the United States. It wasn't very crowded because of the time of year which was great. We watched a short movie on how they did the carvings which was just fascinating. One man's dream turned into this incredible sculpture. We then did a mile walk which gave you closer views of the sculptures and led you to an artists studio. Great stuff.
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| Close up view seen from short hike |
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| Model used, but lots of changes were made, especially Roosevelt |
We stayed in a bed and breakfast for the next 3 nights and it turned out to be a great spot. The home was decorated in a western style and we stayed in the "Big Jake Room". We had a nice little deck and watched the turkeys walking all around. Dinner in the town of Keystone one night at a restaurant they kept authentic to the old western way. The hostess and the cocktail waitresses were all dressed in fancy dresses or short outfits with garter belts. Great pictures and guns and things all over the walls and the food was good too!.
The next day we first visited the Crazy Horse Memorial. This thing is huge. The head of Crazy Horse alone is as large as all of Mt. Rushmore. If you look closely at the pictures you can see a bulldozer on top of his arm. Several times during the year they do an explosion at night which is supposed to be pretty cool. Again, it was a man with a dream and his family has carried it on.
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| white statue is what the mountain will look like when completed....not in my lifetime |
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| Chief Sitting Bull's 5th generation grandson telling stories and dancing |
Our next stop was Custer State Park. Large park, full of beautiful scenery and animals.
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| this mountain goat was playing chicken with a motorcycle coming at him |
After a wonderful day, we had dinner and then headed back to Mt. Rushmore for the evening ceremony.
The park ranger does a brief story and then they show a 20 minute movie which was great. As the movie is ending, you notice that Mt. Rushmore is being lit. They then call all veterans up onto the stage and each one is introduced and tells where they served our country. We walked away from that feeling extremely happy to be an American and very proud of our country, and with a little tear in our eye.
Our last day in the area was spent driving to Devil's Tower, which is a huge rock formation in Wyoming. Legend says that 3 Indian girls were running from a bear and when they sat on the rock, it rose out of the ground and the bear kept scratching at it trying to reach the girls, but never did. You can see his scratches up the sides of the mountain. It is supposed to be a spiritual place. We walked around the whole perimeter and it is so different from every angle. Fascinating.
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| Greg, open your eyes I am taking your picture! |
On our way back, we stopped in Sturgis and Deadwood. Had to have a drink in a Sturgis motorcycle bar.
Deadwood was totally disappointing. They "remodeled" the old town so it is now nice little buildings with a brick street. Not at all what we had hoped for. We stopped at a bar that does a reenactment of the killing of Wild Bill Hickock, which was comical.
Our drive the next day was to Bozeman, Montana. Long boring drive with nothing but endless dirt and scrubgrass. So happy our car didn't choose to break down as I don't know how you would ever get help. We stayed at another bed and breakfast and I was a little scared when we pulled up. The front looked like The Munsters house. Tall grass and shrubs, with a rickety old porch made me wonder why I picked this place. Once we got inside it was great. Old Victorian house with cool rooms and the best breakfast ever. We caught up with an old friend of Greg's that he hasn't seen in 42 years. We had a great dinner with Bill and Evelyn Franklin, so it was a nice stop in Bozeman.
We then headed to Glacier National Park which for me, was somewhere new and exciting. Easy 6 hour drive from Bozeman except for the cows which walk onto the road....bizarre.
Once we arrived, the views were spectacular!
We checked into our room in the Many Glacier area and then this huge storm came through with hail falling like crazy. Everybody was running for cover and I was worried about our car getting dented. Since it was later in the day, we wandered around getting our feel for the area. Dinner that night in the Inn was great except that Greg ordered buffalo meatloaf. First, who orders meatloaf in a restaurant and second, buffalo!!!! He paid for that for a few days as his system was in chaos.
The next day we took the drive along the Going-to-the Sun-Road which should have been absolutely spectacular, but instead was super foggy. We knew there were mountains in front of us, but couldn't see anything. We stopped for a small hike and found our first sign indicating there were bears in the area....really, an actual sign, not what you were thinking. No worries though as we had our bear spray and air horn.
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| Open your eyes too! |
We stopped at the Logan Pass Visitor Center and took a 3 mile hike to the Hidden Lake Overlook. The first part of the hike was actually a boardwalk they had built, but it was tough as the elevation rose quickly.
See what I mean about the fog/clouds. What a great day for a hike! LOL! We kept going because people told us that the sun peaks out once in a while and you do indeed see the lake. We did. It was worth the hike as everything was beautiful.
On the way back, everything started clearing and it was like we were on a different hike. Mountains everywhere, glaciers, waterfalls. Just spectacular.
The drive along the long windy roads takes hours as you stop everywhere and take pictures. It is an incredible road with long drop offs.
The drive took the entire day as we stopped everywhere, hiked a bit, took pictures and enjoyed the beautiful day. We even had a black bear run across the road in front of us and climb the hillside.
The next day we felt ready to take a longer hike to Iceberg Lake which was a 10 mile hike. The first half mile was all uphill and we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Greg took a nose dive, with his bear bell flying out of his hand and then banging his shin on a rock. His shin immediately started swelling and bruising, but he moved on. The scenery was beautiful and the trail fairly easy. It was a little nerve wracking knowing that a grizzly bear could come out any time so we were constantly talking and ringing our bells. It started raining a quarter way through the hike which was nasty, but we continued on. Soooooooo glad we did. The lake was beautiful with icebergs floating all around. Because the day was so cold we didn't get to see any caving from the glacier, but it was still awesome. The only downside was my foot. I had been getting shots prior to our trip, but this hike was too much and on the way back I was in agony. Back in the room, Greg said all he knew was drugs and alcohol to make me feel better, so he gave me some aspirin and we opened a bottle of wine. That and an ice pack calmed my foot down.
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| Ring that bell....scare those bears! |
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Wonderful hike in the rain |
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| Made it to Iceberg Lake! |
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| Yeah, a mountain goat |
We decided to do a much smaller hike the next day so we did the Swiftcurrent Nature Trail which was only 2 1/2 miles. Super flat trail, and we really didn't get to see much other than the lake. We then did 2 other small hikes to waterfalls. The one was really cool as it looked like the water was coming right out of the rocks.
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| OK, the hat is starting to get heavy with all my travel pins |
Our last day was beautiful so we did a 4 mile hike to Redrock Falls. Super nice hike and we passed Lake MacDonald and got to see a Mama and baby moose. Really cool.
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| Cool shadow picture |
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| Red Rock Falls |
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| The Thinker LOL |
We sadly left Glacier and headed to Yellowstone National Park. We arrived in the late afternoon and stayed at the Mammoth Springs Hotel. The hotel is known for the elk roaming around, and sure enough they were. We forgot to get pictures! The old hotel is cute and I had huckleberry BBQ chicken for dinner and fell in love with the sauce. We bought two bottles so we can make it at home
The good news was that our hotel room was on the 4th floor and we had a beautiful view of where the elk would eat and roam from dusk till dawn. The bad news was that it was rutting season and the bull elks bugled all night long. At first it was cool, but after awhile we were just plain annoyed with the sound. A few of the males were huge, with enormous antlers. Visitors are just stupid and would start walking up to them until the rangers would yell.
The next day we went to see the hot springs which were awesome.
We wandered around the boardwalks for a few hours and then headed to our next place - Canyon Lodge. Along the way we were super psyched to see more animals, but only saw pronghorn, bison and 2 bull moose laying down.
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| The male bison are just crazy, wandering all over |
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| This is right next to the car |
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| Two bull moose laying down |
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| Pronghorn |
We spent two days in this part of the park, riding around, checking out the sights and looking for animals. We did spot a coyote and watched him for awhile.
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| There really is a coyote here, just hard to see.
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Our next stop was to head to the Old Faithful area. So many hot springs around there and every one as pretty as the next. Old Faithful did it's thing and exploded every 90 minutes or so. There are boardwalk areas all around the geysers because otherwise people would be wandering over areas they shouldn't. There are signs about the scalding waters, but apparently every year people have to test the water to see if they are hot enough. Those that get caught get fined, so many people don't report that they were badly burned. Another bad thing is that visitors throw anything from money to clothing into the geysers and springs, which eventually ruins them.
We were having breakfast the one morning and the whole building shook. It was an earthquake! One had happened earlier that morning that Greg felt. This one was a whopper and the waiter said he had been there 2 years and never felt one like that. Kind of scary.
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| small geyser |
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| Loved the ones with mud sputtering up |
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| Old Faithful on a cloudy day |
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| Awwww, heart springs |
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| More geysers |
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| Morning Glory |
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| Sapphire Springs |
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| Old Faithful on a sunny day - awesome! |
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| This one hasn't spouted for 40 years |
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| Colors are amazing |
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| Geysers and springs everywhere |
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| Bald Eagle overlooking the springs |
On the very first day we were in the Old Faithful area I dropped my little luggage keys, but didn't realize it until that night when we got back to our cabin. Fortunately I had another set in the car.
The lodge at Old Faithful had a great sitting room with a huge window where you could sit and watch the geyser while enjoying huckleberry ice cream, which became one of my favorite things.
All in all, we loved the hot springs and geysers and the grand canyon of Yellowstone, but were highly disappointed with the wildlife. I had been here 25 years ago and remember stopping on the road constantly to see moose, elk, bison, etc. We had hoped to see wolves and bear, but it was not to be. Locals tell us there isn't enough for the animals to eat in the lowlands so they stayed up in the mountains.
After spending two nights in our little cabin, we then headed to our last stop, the Grand Teton National Park.
The Tetons are just south of Yellowstone, so an easy drive. We were happy to be seeing mountains again and they were just magnificent. We took a long slow drive towards Jackson Hole where we would be spending the next two nights. There are lots of pull offs where you can stop and take in the views.
We stayed at a cute little cabin in Jackson Hole. Great little town with lots of restaurants. We loved our cabin and got thai take out the first night and sat and drank wine and ate at our little picnic table.
Our last night in Jackson Hole was spent at the Silver Dollar Bar & Grill where we saw they had a bluegrass band playing. The band didn't start until 7:30 p.m., we showed up at 6:30 p.m. and the place was packed. The band was fabulous, and not bluegrass in the way that we know it. Everyone was dancing and having a wonderful time. Another couple joined us at our table and at the end of the night invited us to visit them and enjoy the music in Austin, Texas.
After 2 3/4 weeks of travel, we were ready to head home. We usually only drive 7 - 7.5 hours a day, but we decided to step it up and drove 9-11 hours each day so we could get home earlier. We drove through some horrendous storms where we kept thinking tornadoes were coming. Thankfully we arrived home safely.
After 2 3/4 weeks of travel, we were ready to head home. We usually only drive 7 - 7.5 hours a day, but we decided to step it up and drove 9-11 hours each day so we could get home earlier. We drove through some horrendous storms where we kept thinking tornadoes were coming. Thankfully we arrived home safely.
So happy to be back in Ohio and our "borrowed" dog is happy too.
Stay tuned for our next adventure - Africa - February 2014.
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