We started off on our drive to Seattle. The plan was to only use back roads. We took a path by the water and spotted big sign advertising the Maritime Fest. It was quickly decided that we must have stumbled upon it for a reason, so we found the last free parking spot and headed toward the festival. We passed stands selling funnel cakes and chocolate covered frozen bananas. We came upon a dock jumping competition for dogs and watched that for a brief time. From there we headed down the line of tents grabbing pamphlets for a historical house tour from the historical society and various other things. We stopped at the Tall Ships Festival tent and Dave got information at volunteering there this summer from the 3rd to the 7th of July and I talked about seeing the Tall Ships Festival this summer in Ostend, Belgium, which was an amazing experience.
Dave heard someone talking about free tickets to a Port tour, so we got some and hopped on the boat just before it left. We went through all the channels of the port and watched a crane demonstration. I happened to be standing out on the upper deck next to the Port Commissioner and we talked for a while about the plans for the port in the future. In the years to come it is expected to jump from handling 2.1 million TEUs, cargo containers, to 8 million. If you lined that many TEUs up end to end, that would go from the port to the Washington Monument and back a total of four times. He also recommended some towns for us to explore that are sort of like Port Townsend. He suggested we check out Liberty and Monte Cristo, two late 1800’s mining ghost towns that have some pretty spectacular hikes by them from what I’ve found so far. But from what I found they sounded very deserted.
As we left I helped an elderly woman carry her walker and she told me how to pick mushrooms correctly. You’re supposed to cut them just below the soil level so they grow back again the following year. Very useful information if you can differentiate the edible from the deadly mushrooms, which I can’t.
We walked around past a lot of tents not related to the Maritime theme in the least (like Wells Fargo and a tent selling glass dragons). We grabbed some cheep t-shirts from last years festival and left feeling satisfied after another great Sunday Trip.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
The last leg of the roadtrip
Day 18
We got to arches early. It is much different than the other rock formation parks, I guess this is because they don’t claim to be a canyon. It was less spectacular cliffs and more – well – arches. Some were absolutely spectacular, there were two that were right next to each other and you could look through them both from the right angle. Another one, called landscape arch, was incredible by it’s sheer size. In pictures, even the ones I took, it looks like it might be 50 feet wide. Impressive. However, actual measurements show it to be over 300 feet in length. I couldn’t imagine a game of football being played underneath it but there was enough room. In 1991 a group of people were standing on a path under the arch when they heard a thunderous crack, they ran for their lives as 720 tons of sandstone broke off of the arch, crashing behind them. Remarkably the arch itself was not broken. (Someone had a video camera rolling when it happened and I’m sure you could google landscape arch 1991 video and watch it yourself). However, they did close the path that led under the arch.
We got to Monument Valley in time to watch the sunset. However, we were both captivated by a thrilling lightening storm so we drove to a point where we could get some of the valley’s landmarks in view with the lightening and pulled over to take pictures. The lightening had died down a little, but as we pulled up a huge bolt shot down and we got excited. I wasted a set of batteries and about 300 pictures failing, Kyle on the other hand succeeded in getting a mediocre picture of lightening and a video of it, which was too grainy to be worthwhile. We left.
Less than 5 minutes after we left we started seeing the most incredible lightening we’d ever seen, huge bolts zig zagging like zorro cut the sky. I laughed.
Day 19
Valley of the Gods: This is a misnomer, it should be called the Navajo’s revenge at the White Man. It is a beautiful valley on a Navajo reservation, however the roads were a death trap. No speed limits, no “left turn ahead” signs, and absolutely no railings. It was a gravel road and they spared just about every expense within 10 miles in creating the road. It had hills and valleys, valleys and hills, rapidly, and turns at the bottom that you couldn’t see until you were over the top of the hill. We weren’t really looking to go 5 miles an hour so this caused us some trouble and more than once we lost contr… we made the road our rollercoaster. And it was a blast till we were going 25 over this hill and immediately it dropped off and had a 90 degree turn to the right we couldn’t see. We created an intersection and went straight for some feet till the car stopped before coming back to make the turn. Kyle remarked that he would have been embarrassed for driving off the road, had there not been two other tire trails leading off the road.
Mesa Verde, our next stop, added a dimension to the cliffs we’d been seeing during the last few days. The inhabitants there built their houses out of the stone of the cliffs, sandstone. They could score it much like you do glass, and then hitting it sharply, you could sheer off a flat section of rock. They would do this to each chunk of sandstone to make them brick-like. They would use the dirt in the area, a dirt rich in clay, as mortar to cement the stones together. For their time they had some incredible technologies, they had made levels out of clay tubes and jugs to ensure their buildings were straight and level, and they are, incredibly straight. They also used a light calendar, in order to help their farming practices. They had holes in one of the rooms that light shone through every day. They used these in many ways to determine times, some of which being, they had a non shaped rock in the room, and only on the spring and fall equinox (21st of March and September), did the light shine on that rock. It still works today.
After that we stopped for dinner in a park outside Durango and cooked some pasta. They had an incredible playground in the park we were cooking in so I went over to play while my water was boiling. I met some girls, one around my age and one younger, her cousin, playing on this zip line like mechanism that I’d never seen before at a playground. Instead of the monkey bars, and having to move your arms, you could hold on to this thing and it would zip you across. They also had this three foot tube coming out of the ground with a platform on it near the ground. If you stepped on it it would start spinning, it had almost no friction so you could jump on and spin and spin for minutes. If you leaned out you would slow down and if you pulled yourself in, if you could, you would spin really fast. The girls had recently immigrated from Mexico City, the older one did so three years ago and was fluent in English, the other, a couple weeks ago and spoke little to no English. The older one and I talked about the differences between the US and Mexico, she claimed there were little visible ones to her, maybe that would change in time.
We sat down to eat pasta and as we did a biker guy came up and asked what was cookin’. We talked to him about his bike trips, and what bike he recommended for beginners. I could see he respected us for our adventurous youthful nature. And in return, we respected him for revisiting that adventurous youthfulness at retirement.
I made contact with Dave who had just got all four wisdom teeth removed, and set a time to meet him on day 20.
Day 20-22
Arrive at Dave’s and hang out with Him, Liz, Ali G. from Puget Sound, and his high school friends.
Day 23
Dave impaled his car on a small log a little while back and needed to pick it up from Glenwood Springs. On the way there we stopped through Independence Pass, an elevation of 12,095 feet, and hit up a great barbeque place in Aspen called The Hickory House. We all got full slabs of baby back ribs. I was about 3 ribs in when I looked over at Dave who was sucking the meat off the last rib from his slab. Looks like his minor tooth surgery didn’t slow him down too much.
On the way back, for dinner we stopped into Brackenridge at Downstairs at Eric’s, because everywhere else just sucks (their slogan). Good food.
Day 24
Drive through beautiful Kansas back to St. Louis.
We got to arches early. It is much different than the other rock formation parks, I guess this is because they don’t claim to be a canyon. It was less spectacular cliffs and more – well – arches. Some were absolutely spectacular, there were two that were right next to each other and you could look through them both from the right angle. Another one, called landscape arch, was incredible by it’s sheer size. In pictures, even the ones I took, it looks like it might be 50 feet wide. Impressive. However, actual measurements show it to be over 300 feet in length. I couldn’t imagine a game of football being played underneath it but there was enough room. In 1991 a group of people were standing on a path under the arch when they heard a thunderous crack, they ran for their lives as 720 tons of sandstone broke off of the arch, crashing behind them. Remarkably the arch itself was not broken. (Someone had a video camera rolling when it happened and I’m sure you could google landscape arch 1991 video and watch it yourself). However, they did close the path that led under the arch.
We got to Monument Valley in time to watch the sunset. However, we were both captivated by a thrilling lightening storm so we drove to a point where we could get some of the valley’s landmarks in view with the lightening and pulled over to take pictures. The lightening had died down a little, but as we pulled up a huge bolt shot down and we got excited. I wasted a set of batteries and about 300 pictures failing, Kyle on the other hand succeeded in getting a mediocre picture of lightening and a video of it, which was too grainy to be worthwhile. We left.
Less than 5 minutes after we left we started seeing the most incredible lightening we’d ever seen, huge bolts zig zagging like zorro cut the sky. I laughed.
Day 19
Valley of the Gods: This is a misnomer, it should be called the Navajo’s revenge at the White Man. It is a beautiful valley on a Navajo reservation, however the roads were a death trap. No speed limits, no “left turn ahead” signs, and absolutely no railings. It was a gravel road and they spared just about every expense within 10 miles in creating the road. It had hills and valleys, valleys and hills, rapidly, and turns at the bottom that you couldn’t see until you were over the top of the hill. We weren’t really looking to go 5 miles an hour so this caused us some trouble and more than once we lost contr… we made the road our rollercoaster. And it was a blast till we were going 25 over this hill and immediately it dropped off and had a 90 degree turn to the right we couldn’t see. We created an intersection and went straight for some feet till the car stopped before coming back to make the turn. Kyle remarked that he would have been embarrassed for driving off the road, had there not been two other tire trails leading off the road.
Mesa Verde, our next stop, added a dimension to the cliffs we’d been seeing during the last few days. The inhabitants there built their houses out of the stone of the cliffs, sandstone. They could score it much like you do glass, and then hitting it sharply, you could sheer off a flat section of rock. They would do this to each chunk of sandstone to make them brick-like. They would use the dirt in the area, a dirt rich in clay, as mortar to cement the stones together. For their time they had some incredible technologies, they had made levels out of clay tubes and jugs to ensure their buildings were straight and level, and they are, incredibly straight. They also used a light calendar, in order to help their farming practices. They had holes in one of the rooms that light shone through every day. They used these in many ways to determine times, some of which being, they had a non shaped rock in the room, and only on the spring and fall equinox (21st of March and September), did the light shine on that rock. It still works today.
After that we stopped for dinner in a park outside Durango and cooked some pasta. They had an incredible playground in the park we were cooking in so I went over to play while my water was boiling. I met some girls, one around my age and one younger, her cousin, playing on this zip line like mechanism that I’d never seen before at a playground. Instead of the monkey bars, and having to move your arms, you could hold on to this thing and it would zip you across. They also had this three foot tube coming out of the ground with a platform on it near the ground. If you stepped on it it would start spinning, it had almost no friction so you could jump on and spin and spin for minutes. If you leaned out you would slow down and if you pulled yourself in, if you could, you would spin really fast. The girls had recently immigrated from Mexico City, the older one did so three years ago and was fluent in English, the other, a couple weeks ago and spoke little to no English. The older one and I talked about the differences between the US and Mexico, she claimed there were little visible ones to her, maybe that would change in time.
We sat down to eat pasta and as we did a biker guy came up and asked what was cookin’. We talked to him about his bike trips, and what bike he recommended for beginners. I could see he respected us for our adventurous youthful nature. And in return, we respected him for revisiting that adventurous youthfulness at retirement.
I made contact with Dave who had just got all four wisdom teeth removed, and set a time to meet him on day 20.
Day 20-22
Arrive at Dave’s and hang out with Him, Liz, Ali G. from Puget Sound, and his high school friends.
Day 23
Dave impaled his car on a small log a little while back and needed to pick it up from Glenwood Springs. On the way there we stopped through Independence Pass, an elevation of 12,095 feet, and hit up a great barbeque place in Aspen called The Hickory House. We all got full slabs of baby back ribs. I was about 3 ribs in when I looked over at Dave who was sucking the meat off the last rib from his slab. Looks like his minor tooth surgery didn’t slow him down too much.
On the way back, for dinner we stopped into Brackenridge at Downstairs at Eric’s, because everywhere else just sucks (their slogan). Good food.
Day 24
Drive through beautiful Kansas back to St. Louis.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Finally, another update. More to come, soon.
Warning: I wrote a lot of this with the screen turned off in the car while Kyle drove at night. If I looked at the screen I got carsick. There may or may not be a lot of typo's, it should be an adventure, I didn't proofread. Enjoy
(I will proofread and repost when I get back to st. louis)
UPDATE: I decided against proofreading because the typos entertained me when I read through it. (And I really didn't want to fix everything)
Day 14
After waking up in Ely, we make our way towards Las VBegas. On the way we stop at Great Basin NationalPark, something we weren’t too thrilled at bisually, don’t get me wrong it was beautiful, but we had just come from the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, and before that Beartooth Pass. We decided to take the cave tourt here and as little as the caves are advertised, we found out that the caves were really why the park was named a national park, they were beautiful. Incredible draperies of minerals the water had depositedin the vaves dripping over millions of years. They were my favorite caves I’d visited so far on the trip and I really
Something we did learn about the vac about the park while in the ccaves weasw that the oldest tree in the world had exidted in the park, I believe the tree was Prometheus, bristlecone pear ws the name of the species. It was 5000 years old… it got cut down by a guy that wanted to bore the tree to lean about it.. he got his bore stuck and asked if he could cut the tree down to receive it, they let him, only to find out the tree was the oldest living tree. They still have bristlecone pines there that are over 3000 years old, but none as old as promethius at5000 ears.
We left and went to vegas, which is a story of its own.. we get there, not knowing where to go, so I see a free parking sign and take it, not knowing it was 3 miles from the mainstrip. Well we walk and walk and get to the strip… we got there at 8 and it was now 9:30 we’re at the strop. We wandered going in and out of casinos, stopping to watch little fire shows aand see peole on ships dancing and as we did this and wandered the odds at the casino, debating whether a casino could make money even if the odds were against them, si in things like roulette, simply because people tend to camble till ehy have no money left.
We explored the Luxor and the other famours casinos and were offered many free drinks as we wandered through. We eventually, at about decided we should head back, the casinos were closing down the restaurants and people were heading up to their rooms… so we started the walk back… a walk I though was going to be a mile or two tops. We got to the car at 4:30. At the car I was so tired I could think of nothing but calculating the exact distance that caused my exaustion and psined my feet. … so I did, driving to the Luxor. In the course of the night we had wandered six and a half miles away from the car straight down las vegas bullevord as measured by the car’s odometer. We slept for a couple hours and,,,
Day 15
Decided to take the day off. We relaxed till 11 and then headed toward the stip again. I called my parents to see if they could help us locate some good vegas bbuffets. They did. We found one at the Palace Station and stayed there for 5 hours, eatind, reading, usimg internet, and recovering from the night before.
That night we took off towards the National Parks in Utah, stopping in Georgetown. We found a nice hotel with an outdoor pool and hot tub, which were easily accessible to the public, Kyle got in and I changed. When I got back Kyle had chatted up a local who had been using the pools for the past 4 months without conflict. Unfortunately before I could get in, they heard lightening and came and kicked us out. The local told us we could go to the hotel next door because it was owned by the same guy and say we were staying at the first hotel, and use their indoor pool and hot tub. We did. We were confronted by there management who harassed us about our staying at the hotel, we said we were staying at the one across the way. For something that seemed like a very small deal, they were becoming very upset and started calling the other hotel. When we agreed to leave, we found out that the police had called not 5 minutes before we had showed up warning them of two escaped convicts on the loose. The guy took our license plate number and we left.
Day 16
Started off the day with Zion National park, an incrediblely beautiful place and well worth the $25 to get in that we didn’t pay because we bought a national park pass. We did the scenic bus tour and did little hikes off the tour stops, one to seeping rock, my favorte place in the park. Aside from it being incredible that water just flowed out of the sandstone allowing ferns to grow in really strange positions, the view was incredible, it looked like a prehistoric landscape to me, untouched, tropical, yet still resembling that of an arid place merely because of the huge sandstone bluffs that acted as the backdrop for the river trees and small incredible rcok formations.
We then went up to a point that was an old fire watch point and, from there we were promised we could look over the entire park. We could, and we did, meeting a ranger who was communicating the most recent visual on the two fires spreading across the park. The night before, they had more than 200 lightening strikes in the park and two fires had been started, one near the tourist area, one outside it. We watched planes and helicopters drop different chemicals and water to estinguish it with little effect, to what we could see, but it was interesting. We learned that we bring all of the huge forrest fires upon ourselves. When small forest fires start, the natural ones that burn the brush away, but are too weak to take the trees, we stop them. By doing this we force the buildup of brush, eventually leading to a fire with significantly more fuel, enough to kill and light the trees as it moves. Although never explained to us, we figurered they decided they needed to control the fires because of ignorant liberals protesting in favor of eliminating forest fires, and because people would build their houses in and near forests. In the later case, if they were to let the fire spread, even a small brush fire, it could endanger the people and their houses.
We ate near the lookout and I checked up on the fire periodically. As we left, three more fire patrol rangers had made it to the point and were discussing the fire. I hope everything turned out well.
Day 17
Today we briefly toured Bryce Canyon, making it to the famous Susnet point. Even in the morning light it was spectacular. In our short time there I talked with a man who was doing three dimensional photraphy there, both film and digital. I could tell he was in heaven when he walked up, his eyes lit up and a huge smile broke across his face. It was a perfect place to do 3d photraphy, there were hundreds of monuments (interesting rock formations) sprawled along the canyon.
From there we went to Capital Reef national park. This park is a great place because you can drive down the canyons and watch the walls close in on you. There was a huge storm going on nearby, so when we saw the “Warning: Do not enter canyon drive if storm visible. Flash floods are frequent,” we rushed into the canyon drive. We hiked around and after some time found ourselves really high up, but close to our car, without a trail. We decided we would rather climb down than walk the mile or so back around and hope to find the trail, and we did, with little difficulty, but a lot of strange looks.
Pictures will be up in the next few days. Thanks for reading.
Eric
(I will proofread and repost when I get back to st. louis)
UPDATE: I decided against proofreading because the typos entertained me when I read through it. (And I really didn't want to fix everything)
Day 14
After waking up in Ely, we make our way towards Las VBegas. On the way we stop at Great Basin NationalPark, something we weren’t too thrilled at bisually, don’t get me wrong it was beautiful, but we had just come from the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, and before that Beartooth Pass. We decided to take the cave tourt here and as little as the caves are advertised, we found out that the caves were really why the park was named a national park, they were beautiful. Incredible draperies of minerals the water had depositedin the vaves dripping over millions of years. They were my favorite caves I’d visited so far on the trip and I really
Something we did learn about the vac about the park while in the ccaves weasw that the oldest tree in the world had exidted in the park, I believe the tree was Prometheus, bristlecone pear ws the name of the species. It was 5000 years old… it got cut down by a guy that wanted to bore the tree to lean about it.. he got his bore stuck and asked if he could cut the tree down to receive it, they let him, only to find out the tree was the oldest living tree. They still have bristlecone pines there that are over 3000 years old, but none as old as promethius at5000 ears.
We left and went to vegas, which is a story of its own.. we get there, not knowing where to go, so I see a free parking sign and take it, not knowing it was 3 miles from the mainstrip. Well we walk and walk and get to the strip… we got there at 8 and it was now 9:30 we’re at the strop. We wandered going in and out of casinos, stopping to watch little fire shows aand see peole on ships dancing and as we did this and wandered the odds at the casino, debating whether a casino could make money even if the odds were against them, si in things like roulette, simply because people tend to camble till ehy have no money left.
We explored the Luxor and the other famours casinos and were offered many free drinks as we wandered through. We eventually, at about decided we should head back, the casinos were closing down the restaurants and people were heading up to their rooms… so we started the walk back… a walk I though was going to be a mile or two tops. We got to the car at 4:30. At the car I was so tired I could think of nothing but calculating the exact distance that caused my exaustion and psined my feet. … so I did, driving to the Luxor. In the course of the night we had wandered six and a half miles away from the car straight down las vegas bullevord as measured by the car’s odometer. We slept for a couple hours and,,,
Day 15
Decided to take the day off. We relaxed till 11 and then headed toward the stip again. I called my parents to see if they could help us locate some good vegas bbuffets. They did. We found one at the Palace Station and stayed there for 5 hours, eatind, reading, usimg internet, and recovering from the night before.
That night we took off towards the National Parks in Utah, stopping in Georgetown. We found a nice hotel with an outdoor pool and hot tub, which were easily accessible to the public, Kyle got in and I changed. When I got back Kyle had chatted up a local who had been using the pools for the past 4 months without conflict. Unfortunately before I could get in, they heard lightening and came and kicked us out. The local told us we could go to the hotel next door because it was owned by the same guy and say we were staying at the first hotel, and use their indoor pool and hot tub. We did. We were confronted by there management who harassed us about our staying at the hotel, we said we were staying at the one across the way. For something that seemed like a very small deal, they were becoming very upset and started calling the other hotel. When we agreed to leave, we found out that the police had called not 5 minutes before we had showed up warning them of two escaped convicts on the loose. The guy took our license plate number and we left.
Day 16
Started off the day with Zion National park, an incrediblely beautiful place and well worth the $25 to get in that we didn’t pay because we bought a national park pass. We did the scenic bus tour and did little hikes off the tour stops, one to seeping rock, my favorte place in the park. Aside from it being incredible that water just flowed out of the sandstone allowing ferns to grow in really strange positions, the view was incredible, it looked like a prehistoric landscape to me, untouched, tropical, yet still resembling that of an arid place merely because of the huge sandstone bluffs that acted as the backdrop for the river trees and small incredible rcok formations.
We then went up to a point that was an old fire watch point and, from there we were promised we could look over the entire park. We could, and we did, meeting a ranger who was communicating the most recent visual on the two fires spreading across the park. The night before, they had more than 200 lightening strikes in the park and two fires had been started, one near the tourist area, one outside it. We watched planes and helicopters drop different chemicals and water to estinguish it with little effect, to what we could see, but it was interesting. We learned that we bring all of the huge forrest fires upon ourselves. When small forest fires start, the natural ones that burn the brush away, but are too weak to take the trees, we stop them. By doing this we force the buildup of brush, eventually leading to a fire with significantly more fuel, enough to kill and light the trees as it moves. Although never explained to us, we figurered they decided they needed to control the fires because of ignorant liberals protesting in favor of eliminating forest fires, and because people would build their houses in and near forests. In the later case, if they were to let the fire spread, even a small brush fire, it could endanger the people and their houses.
We ate near the lookout and I checked up on the fire periodically. As we left, three more fire patrol rangers had made it to the point and were discussing the fire. I hope everything turned out well.
Day 17
Today we briefly toured Bryce Canyon, making it to the famous Susnet point. Even in the morning light it was spectacular. In our short time there I talked with a man who was doing three dimensional photraphy there, both film and digital. I could tell he was in heaven when he walked up, his eyes lit up and a huge smile broke across his face. It was a perfect place to do 3d photraphy, there were hundreds of monuments (interesting rock formations) sprawled along the canyon.
From there we went to Capital Reef national park. This park is a great place because you can drive down the canyons and watch the walls close in on you. There was a huge storm going on nearby, so when we saw the “Warning: Do not enter canyon drive if storm visible. Flash floods are frequent,” we rushed into the canyon drive. We hiked around and after some time found ourselves really high up, but close to our car, without a trail. We decided we would rather climb down than walk the mile or so back around and hope to find the trail, and we did, with little difficulty, but a lot of strange looks.
Pictures will be up in the next few days. Thanks for reading.
Eric
Monday, July 16, 2007
Oops. Day 8 and a couple other days...
Day 8
We left Dan’s place at around 1 and headed North to Thermopolis. We stopped briefly and spent a half hour in the hotsprings. Before we left, we walked through the Holiday Inn that has the big game museum in it. It had heads of everything from zebra’s to black rhino’s. I asked about the black rhino since I know it’s endangered and I was told about a new “catch and release” method of hunting that the owner of the Holiday Inn aided in starting. He designed the tip to the arrow that would safely knock the animal out for a short time just long enough to take the measurements necessary to create the mounts I had seen on the wall in the hotel.
We made it to Cody around 6 and lounged for a while in a bar that had internet. We left for a grocery store around 7 and then cooked dinner in a park. We came back to the bar at 9 for and hung out for a few hours, playing a Japanese game called Shogi. Kyle killed me, and we went to sleep.
Day 11
Finishing up Yellowstone National Park
Upper and Lower Falls- Artist Point closed
Virginia Cascade
Gibbon Falls
Fountain Paint Pot
Midway Geyser Basin
Black Sand Basin
And end by eating at a picnic table next to a lake by the Teton Mountains.
We slept at a Day’s Inn in Jackson Hole, WY, which had the best night attendant one could ask for. He was a goofy Mexican named Manuel and he let locals come in to the hotel to watch cable tv etc. We were sitting there using the internet in the lobby at 1am and two dripping guys in swimming suits came up to him and asked him to turn up the heat on the pool, he did. The pool had “closed” at 10. He also stationed himself in the lobby rather than at the desk so he could use the free computers and play chess online. Kyle played a few with him, giving him tips on moves etc. And I woke up early (6:30) to talk to him again before he left and get the free continental breakfast the Day’s Inn so generously provided to it’s customers who paid up to $290 off season for a room.
Day 12
Spent a couple hours exploring Jackson Hole and I talked to a lady in a camera shop who helped explain some settings on my Cannon S1IS. Jackson Hole was pretty grosely built up, and the park in the center of the town had four huge archways made out of hundreds of sets of antlers each. Each was probably 20 feet high and the entire arch , a bent cylinder, was easily 5 feet in diameter.
We drove North for a few miles to grab some shots of the Teatons in the mid morning light, then headed across the Teaton Pass to Idaho Falls, where we stayed for the night at Dad’s, a renowned truckstop, unfortunately lacking internet while they changed providers.
Day 13
Went West to Craters of the Moon, drove around the park and toured two of the four caves there. The caves were created when the surface of the lava flow cooled, while the hot lava flowed underneath. The lava flowing underneath released gasses which I presume created the hollowed caverns. I could of course be wrong, I only read half the sign.
From there we headed South and got lost. We realized this when we realized we were going North. We turned around and went South again. Apparently I had missed a turn… and then asked directions 15 miles later, and got wrong directions, and got an additional 15 miles lost.
We came to a resting area with a stream and talked to a couple families, grilled some burgers, Kyle swam, and watched a beaver build his dam. I explained that this was our way of bathing to the dad driving North with his daughter to see family in Montana in his ’76 car that had a pickup back. (He told me the name of the kind of car, but I forgot). The conversation went as follows:
Me: We rinse off every other day or so, this is a pretty good spot to do it.
Him: You should bring some soap in there to really wash off
Me: Yeah, get some Irish Spring, really freshen up the place (the park was nice, but grungy)
Him: Yeah, you’d get the beaver nice and clean too…. Nothing better than a nice clean beaver.
We stayed and talked for a while and then left.
The first town we came to, Wells, did not have a truck stop or hotel with free internet. The only place we found advertising free internet was Donna’s Ranch, a Nevada style Gentleman’s Club that was nicely outfitted with a hot tubs and other things I wouldn’t want to use after what might have happened in them previously.
I sat in the car there to see if I could get internet and a sign in page came up that said “Please cum inside for access ;)”
We passed.
We finally stopped in Ely, pronounced Ellie, as I was corrected by a gas station attendant when asking for the location of a truck stop. We found it and went to sleep, too tired to bother finding internet.
Keep readin,
Eric
We left Dan’s place at around 1 and headed North to Thermopolis. We stopped briefly and spent a half hour in the hotsprings. Before we left, we walked through the Holiday Inn that has the big game museum in it. It had heads of everything from zebra’s to black rhino’s. I asked about the black rhino since I know it’s endangered and I was told about a new “catch and release” method of hunting that the owner of the Holiday Inn aided in starting. He designed the tip to the arrow that would safely knock the animal out for a short time just long enough to take the measurements necessary to create the mounts I had seen on the wall in the hotel.
We made it to Cody around 6 and lounged for a while in a bar that had internet. We left for a grocery store around 7 and then cooked dinner in a park. We came back to the bar at 9 for and hung out for a few hours, playing a Japanese game called Shogi. Kyle killed me, and we went to sleep.
Day 11
Finishing up Yellowstone National Park
Upper and Lower Falls- Artist Point closed
Virginia Cascade
Gibbon Falls
Fountain Paint Pot
Midway Geyser Basin
Black Sand Basin
And end by eating at a picnic table next to a lake by the Teton Mountains.
We slept at a Day’s Inn in Jackson Hole, WY, which had the best night attendant one could ask for. He was a goofy Mexican named Manuel and he let locals come in to the hotel to watch cable tv etc. We were sitting there using the internet in the lobby at 1am and two dripping guys in swimming suits came up to him and asked him to turn up the heat on the pool, he did. The pool had “closed” at 10. He also stationed himself in the lobby rather than at the desk so he could use the free computers and play chess online. Kyle played a few with him, giving him tips on moves etc. And I woke up early (6:30) to talk to him again before he left and get the free continental breakfast the Day’s Inn so generously provided to it’s customers who paid up to $290 off season for a room.
Day 12
Spent a couple hours exploring Jackson Hole and I talked to a lady in a camera shop who helped explain some settings on my Cannon S1IS. Jackson Hole was pretty grosely built up, and the park in the center of the town had four huge archways made out of hundreds of sets of antlers each. Each was probably 20 feet high and the entire arch , a bent cylinder, was easily 5 feet in diameter.
We drove North for a few miles to grab some shots of the Teatons in the mid morning light, then headed across the Teaton Pass to Idaho Falls, where we stayed for the night at Dad’s, a renowned truckstop, unfortunately lacking internet while they changed providers.
Day 13
Went West to Craters of the Moon, drove around the park and toured two of the four caves there. The caves were created when the surface of the lava flow cooled, while the hot lava flowed underneath. The lava flowing underneath released gasses which I presume created the hollowed caverns. I could of course be wrong, I only read half the sign.
From there we headed South and got lost. We realized this when we realized we were going North. We turned around and went South again. Apparently I had missed a turn… and then asked directions 15 miles later, and got wrong directions, and got an additional 15 miles lost.
We came to a resting area with a stream and talked to a couple families, grilled some burgers, Kyle swam, and watched a beaver build his dam. I explained that this was our way of bathing to the dad driving North with his daughter to see family in Montana in his ’76 car that had a pickup back. (He told me the name of the kind of car, but I forgot). The conversation went as follows:
Me: We rinse off every other day or so, this is a pretty good spot to do it.
Him: You should bring some soap in there to really wash off
Me: Yeah, get some Irish Spring, really freshen up the place (the park was nice, but grungy)
Him: Yeah, you’d get the beaver nice and clean too…. Nothing better than a nice clean beaver.
We stayed and talked for a while and then left.
The first town we came to, Wells, did not have a truck stop or hotel with free internet. The only place we found advertising free internet was Donna’s Ranch, a Nevada style Gentleman’s Club that was nicely outfitted with a hot tubs and other things I wouldn’t want to use after what might have happened in them previously.
I sat in the car there to see if I could get internet and a sign in page came up that said “Please cum inside for access ;)”
We passed.
We finally stopped in Ely, pronounced Ellie, as I was corrected by a gas station attendant when asking for the location of a truck stop. We found it and went to sleep, too tired to bother finding internet.
Keep readin,
Eric
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Day's 9 and 10 (july 9th and 10th) "The Spot"
New Photo's http://www.flickr.com/photos/88287340@N00/
Day 9
We left there in the morning taking bear tooth pass up to Red Lodge. The drive was incredible, and what should have been an hour and a half drive took 5 on the way there because we would stop every 500 feet and take pictures. We turned around at Red Lodge and then headed back.
We had “lunch” at around 3 at Beartooth Lake, and were going to eat there again on the way back. We stopped, Kyle got out and went swimming for some time in the freezing snowmelt lake and I took some pictures. There were too many mosquitoes there so we decided to make it to Yellowstone and eat there. We did, and ended up in Gardiner for the night.
Day 10
We woke up in Gardiner and went back into the Northern entrance. We stopped to take pictures of Mammoth Hot Springs and stopped for gas. The guy in the gas station told us about a place to bathe in the hot springs just past the 45 latitude marker 2 miles North of Mammoth Hot Springs. We drove past the entrance to the place a few times, looking for a building with hot springs inside, like the one we went in at Thermopolis. What we eventually found was a small parking lot and a half-mile trail up the Gardiner River. They called it the boiling river because at the end of the trail was an area where underground hot springs flowed into the river. The hot springs were too hot to get in themselves, but the mixture of ice water and the hot springs made for a perfect place to relax. If you got too hot, you’d move toward the river, if you got too cold, you’d move toward the springs. This easily made my top 3 spots of the trip so far.
After we bathed for an hour and a half we got out and I chatted up a park ranger named Sean. He was testing the water for chlorides if I remember correctly. I asked him what he did for the park, whether he was a typical park ranger or something special. He worked for the head geologist and was himself a hydrologist. I asked a few questions about the attractions in Yellowstone and he recommended the Black Sand Basin as a great place to visit. We had planned on visiting the petrified tree that day so we asked about it. He told us that it was a Redwood and that it was by far the larger than any tree currently growing in the park. It formed from silica being absorbed shortly after the tree died, protecting it from rot and bugs. He mentioned a whole forest of petrified trees a mile and a half hike from the road and after we expressed interest in it, told us to go to the information center back at Mammoth Hot Springs to get a map and more information. We did. I went in and heard great things from the woman working there in a special office for hikers. She said she’d heard awesome things and she almost made it up but had to turn back due to a lightening storm. So we left to find the trailhead.
It was virtually unmarked, with no reference to the petrified trees, just a sign that said trailhead. We started up with 6 apples, our cameras, and 7 bottles of water. To make a very long and painful story short, the hike was marked “Extremely Strenuous” for a reason.
I went ahead of kyle with the water and apples and took a wrong path almost immediately, getting lost, and on the wrong trail, leaving a water bottle for Kyle. He didn’t get it. The whole thing was up about a 20% grade and for non-hikers, we were not prepared for that much cardio. I, after wandering through a huge field of densely packed sage, climbed a large hill and spotted a dot of a person on a path getting to the path sometime later, about halfway up the hike. Kyle met up with me at that point about a half hour later. He was dying of thirst.
Oh, and we never found the petrified trees.
After four hours of this, we could think of nothing better than that hot spring we found in the morning. We got there and spent a full 3 and a half hours soaking, accidentally leaving a half-hour after it closed. We went back to Gardiner, went to a restaurant next to a hotel so I could use Internet and Kyle could eat. Kyle ate and left to go to sleep and I chatted up a local girl working there, and she generously let me stay till she locked up, about an hour after it closed.
Day 9
We left there in the morning taking bear tooth pass up to Red Lodge. The drive was incredible, and what should have been an hour and a half drive took 5 on the way there because we would stop every 500 feet and take pictures. We turned around at Red Lodge and then headed back.
We had “lunch” at around 3 at Beartooth Lake, and were going to eat there again on the way back. We stopped, Kyle got out and went swimming for some time in the freezing snowmelt lake and I took some pictures. There were too many mosquitoes there so we decided to make it to Yellowstone and eat there. We did, and ended up in Gardiner for the night.
Day 10
We woke up in Gardiner and went back into the Northern entrance. We stopped to take pictures of Mammoth Hot Springs and stopped for gas. The guy in the gas station told us about a place to bathe in the hot springs just past the 45 latitude marker 2 miles North of Mammoth Hot Springs. We drove past the entrance to the place a few times, looking for a building with hot springs inside, like the one we went in at Thermopolis. What we eventually found was a small parking lot and a half-mile trail up the Gardiner River. They called it the boiling river because at the end of the trail was an area where underground hot springs flowed into the river. The hot springs were too hot to get in themselves, but the mixture of ice water and the hot springs made for a perfect place to relax. If you got too hot, you’d move toward the river, if you got too cold, you’d move toward the springs. This easily made my top 3 spots of the trip so far.
After we bathed for an hour and a half we got out and I chatted up a park ranger named Sean. He was testing the water for chlorides if I remember correctly. I asked him what he did for the park, whether he was a typical park ranger or something special. He worked for the head geologist and was himself a hydrologist. I asked a few questions about the attractions in Yellowstone and he recommended the Black Sand Basin as a great place to visit. We had planned on visiting the petrified tree that day so we asked about it. He told us that it was a Redwood and that it was by far the larger than any tree currently growing in the park. It formed from silica being absorbed shortly after the tree died, protecting it from rot and bugs. He mentioned a whole forest of petrified trees a mile and a half hike from the road and after we expressed interest in it, told us to go to the information center back at Mammoth Hot Springs to get a map and more information. We did. I went in and heard great things from the woman working there in a special office for hikers. She said she’d heard awesome things and she almost made it up but had to turn back due to a lightening storm. So we left to find the trailhead.
It was virtually unmarked, with no reference to the petrified trees, just a sign that said trailhead. We started up with 6 apples, our cameras, and 7 bottles of water. To make a very long and painful story short, the hike was marked “Extremely Strenuous” for a reason.
I went ahead of kyle with the water and apples and took a wrong path almost immediately, getting lost, and on the wrong trail, leaving a water bottle for Kyle. He didn’t get it. The whole thing was up about a 20% grade and for non-hikers, we were not prepared for that much cardio. I, after wandering through a huge field of densely packed sage, climbed a large hill and spotted a dot of a person on a path getting to the path sometime later, about halfway up the hike. Kyle met up with me at that point about a half hour later. He was dying of thirst.
Oh, and we never found the petrified trees.
After four hours of this, we could think of nothing better than that hot spring we found in the morning. We got there and spent a full 3 and a half hours soaking, accidentally leaving a half-hour after it closed. We went back to Gardiner, went to a restaurant next to a hotel so I could use Internet and Kyle could eat. Kyle ate and left to go to sleep and I chatted up a local girl working there, and she generously let me stay till she locked up, about an hour after it closed.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Black Thunder and Neelon
Day 6 (July 6th)
Devil’s tower: We woke up in the trunk of the bright blue Ford Focus and looked up to see Devil’s Tower glowing in the morning sun. It was awesome. We cleaned up and drove into the national monument finding a free campground inside. Once there we registered as climbers and signed things that said if we died we wouldn’t sue. We climbed up as high as we could go without ropes and enjoyed the view.
Black Thunder: After that we drove to Newcastle, WY so we could go west on 450 through the Powder River Basin, to pass the largest open pit coalmine in the world. I, not knowing there were many coalmines, had us pull off to the first one we saw, Jake’s Ranch Coal, part of Rio Tinto. We pulled up and I talked to the guard. I asked if we could get a tour and they somewhat rudely said no, tours were only for special people and personal friends of the employees. So we left. Driving down the road we saw another mine, Black Thunder, and although we didn’t expect to get a tour, we parked and I walked up to the security booth. I asked about tours and he made an unsuccessful phone call and sent us to talk to Bonnie, the woman in charge of tours, at the administrative office. As we walked in a middle aged woman with curly hair crossed our path and I asked for Bonnie, she was Bonnie and I inquired about a tour. We couldn’t have gotten luckier, two other people had just asked for a tour and Bonnie was setting one up. We waited less than 2 minutes and a girl our age came out and introduced herself as Amanda, our tour guide. She asked where we were from and we said Missouri, this led us through a lot of questions and answers to which she responded, “Oh wow, really?” and led to finding out that her and Kyle were in the same year at University of Rolla, in Missouri. She was interning out there for around $20 an hour, driving the huge dump trucks, giving tours, and recording data for the Mine.
We toured around in a white minivan seeing the largest active dragline crane in the world. It cost 50 million dollars, was built on site taking 3 years, and moves by waddling like a duck, very slowly at 7-9 feet per step.
Picture descriptions (I hope to include these at some point....)
She also told us that there was a new employee a couple days ago that was driving one of their 78 huge dump trucks and accidentally backed up over a school bus (used to take workers to their jobsite). He destroyed it. Here’s a picture of the dump truck next to one of the workers’ school busses.
After that we drove through a lot of oil fields, eventually arriving at Kyle’s Dad’s place in Riverton. He cooked us some really good NY strip steaks and we talked about sea shanty’s. We slept on his temperpedic bed, slightly more comfortable than the back of the Focus.
Day 7
The night before, Dan, Kyle’s dad, told us that Dusty, a friend of his that ran the truck shop for his company, would be in the shop and he could show us how to break 18 wheeler’s tires. I thought this would be cool, but Dan ended up not being able to get in contact with Dusty.
So, we saw the shop and continued on passed the place that makes the sulfuric acid that Dan transports and headed through an Indian reservation, stopping at a store there that has a famous tanner. In the store I found a cool lamp that was entirely made out of wood, including the shade.
After that we drove to Dan’s friend Neelon’s house. They were in the Peace Corps together and both used that experience to start careers in photography. As we drove over the hill a huge wind turbine appeared marking his house. He had recently put it up as a display unit (that ran his house) for a dealership he opened selling wind power units.
He introduced us to his wife, Susan, who taught psychology at a 2-year program on the reservation. When she heard I had animal allergies she persisted that the house should be vacuumed (they had 2 dogs and at least 2 cats and I was thankful she did that because I would’ve been dead after dinner if she hadn’t). I said that it wasn’t necessary and Neelon said “Don’t say anything to discourage Susan from cleaning the house.”
Neelon showed us around his property, there was a beautiful stream called Bull Creak running by his house, making it possible for plants other than sage and brown grass to grow in his front yard. We then toured around back to see unfinished (and untouched in a year) sauna and his Stonehenge like garden that he made using a very large truck (I think he said it was a backhoe). Some of the stones are 30,000 lbs.
I then went and took pictures of a bird that had nested in their backyard. It was a large bird that fished in their stream and the ponds nearby. I have pictures, but can’t remember the name of it, maybe one of you could help me name it. Susan told me about how she saved one that was caught in some fishing line high up on a tree a year or so back.
We relaxed on their back porch and watched the very rare rainstorm sprinkle much needed water along the Wyoming hillside for a few hours. Neelon eventually brought me out a book called Tools of Vision that he put together with pictures and page-long writings by various scientists, including a Nobel prize winning physicist, Leon Lederman, that ran Fermilab (the huge particle accelerator), and a goof friend of Neelon’s.
Neelon cooked us some delicious burgers, and Susan made red beans and rice and salad. The beef was great, and came from a ranch whose owner they knew personally. Very good meal.
Before we left, Neelon gave Kyle a copy of his book and invited us to go along with him to Mr. Lederman’s 85th birthday party in a week. Unfortunately, we decided, we wouldn’t have time to spend a week in the area, and we declined the offer.
If you guys have thoughts or comments about likes or dislikes, please comment.
Thanks for reading,
Eric
Devil’s tower: We woke up in the trunk of the bright blue Ford Focus and looked up to see Devil’s Tower glowing in the morning sun. It was awesome. We cleaned up and drove into the national monument finding a free campground inside. Once there we registered as climbers and signed things that said if we died we wouldn’t sue. We climbed up as high as we could go without ropes and enjoyed the view.
Black Thunder: After that we drove to Newcastle, WY so we could go west on 450 through the Powder River Basin, to pass the largest open pit coalmine in the world. I, not knowing there were many coalmines, had us pull off to the first one we saw, Jake’s Ranch Coal, part of Rio Tinto. We pulled up and I talked to the guard. I asked if we could get a tour and they somewhat rudely said no, tours were only for special people and personal friends of the employees. So we left. Driving down the road we saw another mine, Black Thunder, and although we didn’t expect to get a tour, we parked and I walked up to the security booth. I asked about tours and he made an unsuccessful phone call and sent us to talk to Bonnie, the woman in charge of tours, at the administrative office. As we walked in a middle aged woman with curly hair crossed our path and I asked for Bonnie, she was Bonnie and I inquired about a tour. We couldn’t have gotten luckier, two other people had just asked for a tour and Bonnie was setting one up. We waited less than 2 minutes and a girl our age came out and introduced herself as Amanda, our tour guide. She asked where we were from and we said Missouri, this led us through a lot of questions and answers to which she responded, “Oh wow, really?” and led to finding out that her and Kyle were in the same year at University of Rolla, in Missouri. She was interning out there for around $20 an hour, driving the huge dump trucks, giving tours, and recording data for the Mine.
We toured around in a white minivan seeing the largest active dragline crane in the world. It cost 50 million dollars, was built on site taking 3 years, and moves by waddling like a duck, very slowly at 7-9 feet per step.
Picture descriptions (I hope to include these at some point....)
She also told us that there was a new employee a couple days ago that was driving one of their 78 huge dump trucks and accidentally backed up over a school bus (used to take workers to their jobsite). He destroyed it. Here’s a picture of the dump truck next to one of the workers’ school busses.
After that we drove through a lot of oil fields, eventually arriving at Kyle’s Dad’s place in Riverton. He cooked us some really good NY strip steaks and we talked about sea shanty’s. We slept on his temperpedic bed, slightly more comfortable than the back of the Focus.
Day 7
The night before, Dan, Kyle’s dad, told us that Dusty, a friend of his that ran the truck shop for his company, would be in the shop and he could show us how to break 18 wheeler’s tires. I thought this would be cool, but Dan ended up not being able to get in contact with Dusty.
So, we saw the shop and continued on passed the place that makes the sulfuric acid that Dan transports and headed through an Indian reservation, stopping at a store there that has a famous tanner. In the store I found a cool lamp that was entirely made out of wood, including the shade.
After that we drove to Dan’s friend Neelon’s house. They were in the Peace Corps together and both used that experience to start careers in photography. As we drove over the hill a huge wind turbine appeared marking his house. He had recently put it up as a display unit (that ran his house) for a dealership he opened selling wind power units.
He introduced us to his wife, Susan, who taught psychology at a 2-year program on the reservation. When she heard I had animal allergies she persisted that the house should be vacuumed (they had 2 dogs and at least 2 cats and I was thankful she did that because I would’ve been dead after dinner if she hadn’t). I said that it wasn’t necessary and Neelon said “Don’t say anything to discourage Susan from cleaning the house.”
Neelon showed us around his property, there was a beautiful stream called Bull Creak running by his house, making it possible for plants other than sage and brown grass to grow in his front yard. We then toured around back to see unfinished (and untouched in a year) sauna and his Stonehenge like garden that he made using a very large truck (I think he said it was a backhoe). Some of the stones are 30,000 lbs.
I then went and took pictures of a bird that had nested in their backyard. It was a large bird that fished in their stream and the ponds nearby. I have pictures, but can’t remember the name of it, maybe one of you could help me name it. Susan told me about how she saved one that was caught in some fishing line high up on a tree a year or so back.
We relaxed on their back porch and watched the very rare rainstorm sprinkle much needed water along the Wyoming hillside for a few hours. Neelon eventually brought me out a book called Tools of Vision that he put together with pictures and page-long writings by various scientists, including a Nobel prize winning physicist, Leon Lederman, that ran Fermilab (the huge particle accelerator), and a goof friend of Neelon’s.
Neelon cooked us some delicious burgers, and Susan made red beans and rice and salad. The beef was great, and came from a ranch whose owner they knew personally. Very good meal.
Before we left, Neelon gave Kyle a copy of his book and invited us to go along with him to Mr. Lederman’s 85th birthday party in a week. Unfortunately, we decided, we wouldn’t have time to spend a week in the area, and we declined the offer.
If you guys have thoughts or comments about likes or dislikes, please comment.
Thanks for reading,
Eric
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Day 5,
Day 5
Wind Cave National Park. The 7th national park to be created, Wind Cave has over 124 miles of caves (4th longest gave system in the world) all compressed within 1 square mile of land, no more than 500 fee deep. It’s pretty impressive, and they think they’ve only explored 5% of it. On the 3rd of July, they actually found a new room that they didn’t cross to continue exploration because the ground was covered with rare crystal formations.
Something the wind cave is known for are its boxwork formations. They have 95% of the world’s boxwork formations which are actually older than the cave itself. Here’s a picture and some more information on it, like how it’s formed.
Before heading to Mount Rushmore, Kyle decides to pick up another pair of sunglasses.
Buffalo: Both on the way to Wind Cave and leaving it, we saw herds of buffalo, hundreds of prairie dogs, deer, and prong horned antelope. The buffalo liked to cross the street at a very leisurely pace, and in doing so held up traffic a little. This was what we though was the reason for a huge line of cars leaving Wind Cave, however, we eventually found that it was a donkey on the side of the road that, like a homeless person, begged for food from every car. We saw someone feed it half a bag of strawberry Twizlers, yum.
Mount Rushmore: The biggest disappointment on the trip so far short of not seeing a rattlesnake. (Kyle does not share this opinion, he doesn’t want to see a rattlesnake). We expected a few picnic tables, and a large field with trees in front of a majestic cliff with huge faces blasted into the side. What we found was a four story parking garage with an $8 parking fee, 3 gift stores (excluding 2 more that called themselves “bookstores”), a full food court, and a very small, hidden, museum. I suppose it’s a true symbol of America, but I’d rather have Devil’s tower be that image in my mind.
After leaving Mount Rushmore, we headed straight for Devil’s Tower, stopping once to cook and eat all our remaining food (6 hotdogs, 2 hamburgers, 10 eggs, and 3 kiwi’s). It was delicious.
We then made it to Devil’s tower just in time for sunset and climbed some barbed wire and went up this huge hill for a good view. We stayed there for awhile and as it got dark, Kyle said he heard a noise, a growl. I was farther away and said all I could hear was traffic, then started giving him trouble about it. I walked over to where he was to take some pictures and it happened again. It was distinct, short, deep, and loud. We decided it couldn’t be a large cat, and ended up concluding that it could only be one thing: a bear. Well, we ignored it for awhile taking pictures, still hearing it every minute or so, then right as I was taking a picture, and standing on a cliff, the noise came from right behind me (or so it sounded). I jumped, but thankfully not off the cliff. I turned to see a bird fly by, and no bear. We never actually saw the bear, but we don’t think it could have been the bird… could it?
We drove to a campsite, a KOA. They wanted $26 for us to stay. So we left and went toward the nearest town (10 miles away). It’s about 11PM now and I went into all of the motel’s asking for prices. On the last motel, after hearing it was still over $50 a night, I asked where I could park, and explained the situation. No help. We ended up parking in a gas station that looked like it could be a truck stop, but some dickhead called the 5-oh on us and I had to explain the situation. He was very helpful after he realized we weren’t trying to rob the place and after a lot of thinking, he suggested we sleep on the side of the road close to the KOA back by Devil’s Tower. So we did.
I'll have more updates soon!
Eric
Wind Cave National Park. The 7th national park to be created, Wind Cave has over 124 miles of caves (4th longest gave system in the world) all compressed within 1 square mile of land, no more than 500 fee deep. It’s pretty impressive, and they think they’ve only explored 5% of it. On the 3rd of July, they actually found a new room that they didn’t cross to continue exploration because the ground was covered with rare crystal formations.
Something the wind cave is known for are its boxwork formations. They have 95% of the world’s boxwork formations which are actually older than the cave itself. Here’s a picture and some more information on it, like how it’s formed.
Before heading to Mount Rushmore, Kyle decides to pick up another pair of sunglasses.
Buffalo: Both on the way to Wind Cave and leaving it, we saw herds of buffalo, hundreds of prairie dogs, deer, and prong horned antelope. The buffalo liked to cross the street at a very leisurely pace, and in doing so held up traffic a little. This was what we though was the reason for a huge line of cars leaving Wind Cave, however, we eventually found that it was a donkey on the side of the road that, like a homeless person, begged for food from every car. We saw someone feed it half a bag of strawberry Twizlers, yum.
Mount Rushmore: The biggest disappointment on the trip so far short of not seeing a rattlesnake. (Kyle does not share this opinion, he doesn’t want to see a rattlesnake). We expected a few picnic tables, and a large field with trees in front of a majestic cliff with huge faces blasted into the side. What we found was a four story parking garage with an $8 parking fee, 3 gift stores (excluding 2 more that called themselves “bookstores”), a full food court, and a very small, hidden, museum. I suppose it’s a true symbol of America, but I’d rather have Devil’s tower be that image in my mind.
After leaving Mount Rushmore, we headed straight for Devil’s Tower, stopping once to cook and eat all our remaining food (6 hotdogs, 2 hamburgers, 10 eggs, and 3 kiwi’s). It was delicious.
We then made it to Devil’s tower just in time for sunset and climbed some barbed wire and went up this huge hill for a good view. We stayed there for awhile and as it got dark, Kyle said he heard a noise, a growl. I was farther away and said all I could hear was traffic, then started giving him trouble about it. I walked over to where he was to take some pictures and it happened again. It was distinct, short, deep, and loud. We decided it couldn’t be a large cat, and ended up concluding that it could only be one thing: a bear. Well, we ignored it for awhile taking pictures, still hearing it every minute or so, then right as I was taking a picture, and standing on a cliff, the noise came from right behind me (or so it sounded). I jumped, but thankfully not off the cliff. I turned to see a bird fly by, and no bear. We never actually saw the bear, but we don’t think it could have been the bird… could it?
We drove to a campsite, a KOA. They wanted $26 for us to stay. So we left and went toward the nearest town (10 miles away). It’s about 11PM now and I went into all of the motel’s asking for prices. On the last motel, after hearing it was still over $50 a night, I asked where I could park, and explained the situation. No help. We ended up parking in a gas station that looked like it could be a truck stop, but some dickhead called the 5-oh on us and I had to explain the situation. He was very helpful after he realized we weren’t trying to rob the place and after a lot of thinking, he suggested we sleep on the side of the road close to the KOA back by Devil’s Tower. So we did.
I'll have more updates soon!
Eric
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