May 24, 2010 Day 34 Heading North to Mammoth


We were so cold last night. It was 47 degrees inside the RV and 33 outside when we got up this morning. PTCC jumped in bed with us and snuggled until 7 am. We got up and ate breakfast in the cold with the gas heat going until 8 am when we turned on the generator for 30 minutes before we left to head north. We had to brush the snow off the car because it had 1.5 inches on it. The road to the south entrance was closed today because of too much snow.

We head out towards Canyon Village and of course see bison grazing in the valleys, we also see another headed up the side of the road again. I wonder if it is the same one from yesterday? We stop in Canyon for a second to use restrooms and take a quick look in the visitor center but we don’t stay long because we will stop on the way back. Our idea is to go to the north entrance and turn around and come back and do do most of our stops then. We continue on to Norris and take a right to go north. We do stop at a pull out to take a picture of Roaring Mountain which is covered in snow. Good thing I put snow boots in the car for PTCC and me. We then drive until we come to Sheepeater Cliff where the Shoshone Indians lived. It is all basalt lava that looks stacked in columns and marmots are said to live in the joints. We weren’t lucky enough to see any of them. We continue on past Golden Gate where we ended up driving through the clouds where it was very hard to see anything. We finally get it to Mammoth Hot Springs. PTCC spied some mule deer on the side of the mountain so we once again stopped to take pictures and where we pulled off was the horse ranch near Mammoth. Good thing we saw it because we were going to try to ride horses here too but the ranch is closed to rides right now. The Yellowstone newspaper said it was open so that saves a drive back up here later. Then we looked around and saw part of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. It was the upper part and very beautiful with all the different colors mixed together.

We drive through Mammoth and see the Mammoth Hotel and one of the Yellow Tour buses in the parking lot. On the road outside of town we pass a wooden sign that said entering Montana. We come to the exit of the park and go through the entrance arch and are now in the town of Gardiner, MT. We park and walk back to the arch to take our pictures. Then get back in the car and go back into the park through the north entrance. The entrance station is not as nice as the one in West Yellowstone even though it is the only one open all year long. We come to another sign that advertises the 45th parallel. This is the halfway point between the north pole and the equator. We then see the sign that says entering Wyoming, which is on the back side of the entering Montana sign. We make it back to Mammoth and stop at the visitors center and look around. It seems really small compared to the others in the park but it is in an original building from 1909. Most of Mammoth is part of Fort Yellowstone when the army ran the park until the National Park service was formed. There are lots of historic buildings in the town. We then head over to the lower terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs to look at the geysers there. This area is one of the world’s best examples of travertine -depositing hot springs. The features here are changing constantly so every time you see them they will look different from the last time. The Minerva Terrace looked like huge blocks of ice stacked on top of each other in a staggered array. No water was running down them at the time. The Palette Spring looked active and we also took pictures of the Liberty Cap with looks like a large African anthill. We then walked on another boardwalk to get to the front of the Palette Spring to see the water cascading down it creating awesome colors. The travertine pools in the Main Terrace looked as smooth as glass with steps coming down.

We ate lunch and warmed up then drove up to the Upper Terrace area. This is on a one way road that is very narrow so no RVs or buses can drive on it because of the way it twists back and forth. We stopped and took photos of the Orange Spring Mound, which was as the names implies bright orange. It actually had water seeping down it. Then we went to see White Elephant Back Terrace which did look like the back end of an elephant lying down. Then on to Angel Terrace which wasn’t as impressive since the water wasn’t flowing down it.

Then we get back on the road and drive until we see a side road that leads into a miniature canyon across from the Hoodoos. They are huge boulders made from travertine that look kind of spooky to people. The fog has become so thick it is very hard to see beyond the road. We have 3 NP rangers pass us with their lights and sirens on in this area so it’s possible there was an accident in the fog. We head back to the Golden Gate, so called because of the color of the rocks. It is a bridge that pretty much hangs suspended from the cliff. You do not realize it unless you are traveling northbound since you can’t see the structure from the southbound road. Here is also where we found Rustic Falls. They are about 40 feet high and if you don’t look for them you will miss them because they are not marked by any signs.

As we come to Norris we decide we are still good on time so we will stop at the Geyser Basin here for a walk around. They seem to be pretty active with some beautiful blue pools of water. There are also some bacteria pools which make the water green. So we walk the boardwalk area through the Porcelain Basin to view all the geysers. We were able to see 2 actually in action. The colors come from chlorophyll(green), sulfur(yellow), iron(dark brown and red), and algae(dark blackish green). Some of these get up to 200 degrees F.

Then we headed up the road to the Canyon Visitors Center to look more in depth at their displays. We hammed around with the bison display acting like PTCC was petting and kissing the baby bison, and I was kissing the back end of the adult bison. It looks really funny in the picture. CC didn’t want a picture of him with the bison, I don’t know why? We looked at their volcano and caldera information and then want to the bookstore. We were stopping by the sporting goods store there as well because on my hike around the Lower Geyser Basin at Mammoth I discovered my hiking shoes soles were peeling apart so I was looking for new shoes. As it turned out they had 2 types that fit and were a good price so I was able to replace the old ones today. It was not so fun walking everywhere in my snow boots but I was lucky I had them in the car with me. At the store CC was able to get a photo of a tiny chipmunk that was hanging around the trash can area. It looked like it could fit in your hand. Hopefully PTCC doesn’t see the pictures or she will want one as a pet. The last thing we did today was stop at the Fishing Bridge visitor center. It isn’t open yet but the view of the mountains and lake behind it were beautiful at the end of the day so we had to get a photo of them. Then back to the RV to charge the batteries and warm it up for tonight. Early dinner and another early night. Tomorrow we will try to see Grand Tetons if the road is open. PS It is starting to snow again. When will it ever end?

May 25, 2010 Day 35 We Think We’re Going to the Tetons

Motorhome_car_with_snow

We get up and find out it has snowed all night. It is 30 degrees outside and still snowing. The car is covered and so is everything else. It is melting off the roads so we are hopeful that the roads aren’t closed where we want to go today. We’re going to try to make it to the Tetons which are south of where we are but we need to climb in elevation because we will go over the Continental Divide once more at 7988 ft. So we get everything together and jump in the car. We stop at the camp office to check the roads and the workers tell CC that the roads are open except Dunraven Pass which has been closed since we got here. We then head south passing through Lake Village, Bridge Bay and West Thumb. The plan goes awry when we get to Grant Village and see flashing signs and the barricades up across the road. So we pull in to the gas station in Grant Village and ask about the conditions there. The clerk said anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours since they were sanding the road. So we decide to do plan B which was to do the lower circle and concentrate on what we haven’t seen yet. So we head back to Old Faithful area to do the Upper Geyser Basin area. We passed a few elk on the sides of the road on the way but didn’t see any other wildlife out yet. Probably just too cold for them. We pass the Continental Divide twice again and stop to view the Kepler Cascades before arriving at Old Faithful. It was scheduled to go off at 12:17 pm, but I think we will miss it because we will be on the boardwalk 1.5 miles north.
Geyser Trail in Old Faithful Basin
We get on the boardwalk and head to the Castle Geyser which is quite tall. It was steaming but not scheduled to go off until late afternoon. There were quite a few bison roaming around the area. The best geyser to view was the Spasmodic Geyser because it was so erratic with its bubbling and spewing. The most colorful was the Chromatic Pool which had all the colors we’ve seen in the geysers all together. I took a video of PTCC in front of the Grotto Geyser in which she leaned backward and looked liked she was spitting water with the geyser shooting up behind her. We then took another look at the stores and bought my stuffed bison but we can’t find a name for it yet. We saw Canada Geese on the lawn of the Old Faithful Inn and took their photo. We got back to the car and ate our lunch then went on towards Norris. On the way we saw a mother bison with her calf next to the Firehole River. The park ranger was waving away the tourists because they were getting too close to them. We saw a few more elk near the river as well. Photos from the Old Faithful area are here.

Bison on roadside

We get to Madison and know there is construction ahead between Madison and Norris. They are building a new overpass on the Gibbon River. So traffic will be stopped at times up to 30 minutes. We are so lucky though because we come upon the work and get there as they are letting the cars go. Because of the work this means we won’t get to see Gibbons Falls which is one of the tallest in the park since that is where the work is taking place on the road. We do get to stop at the Artist Paintpots but I think we were all a little disappointed here. We thought we would see very colorful geysers and paintpots but they were rather bland. The walk is was nice though. It felt almost like walking through a Christmas forest with all the pine trees on the path and you could smell the pine scent in the air. We did see an interesting sight there though. There was a pine tree that was all twisted like a candy cane looks. Don’t know how it happened, maybe the wind pushed it and twisted it as it grew.

Lower Falls from Lookout Point

From Norris to Canyon we did not stop because there was nothing that we hadn’t already seen. So we get to Canyon and take the Brink of the Lower Falls road to check out what we could see there. There were some spectacular views of the Lower Falls from this area. We then took the North Rim drive to see more of the Lower Falls. The Fall has a green streak in it which is very unique. We then drive to Lookout Point and Grand View to take more pictures. All of our pictures are beautiful of the Lower Falls. Then we drive to Inspiration Point and see a huge Glacial Boulder and then walk down the steps at Inspiration Point for more photo ops. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone walls were gorgeous in the light. It looked like an artist had painted some beautiful watercolors of oranges, reds, pinks and greens with a lot of yellow added in.

We then drive back to the Brink of the Upper Falls to see what it has to offer. We stop and take lots of photos here as well. There was still much snow on the canyon walls and it was very cold here as well. We drove all the way to the end of the road at Artist Point and walked the overlooks here. A nice young lady offered to take our family picture for us with the waterfall as a back drop. We tried to see Uncle Tom’s Trail but there was a medical emergency and the park rangers had closed off the parking lot to bring a helicopter in to airlift the person out. He said they were hurt in the back country. So unless we have some extra time we won’t be able to get back to this area again.

So now that we’ve seen the loop we head back to Fishing Bridge and on the way we see lots of cars stopped ahead and look at what is on the top of a rise. A coyote is up there alone and is scoping out the area. He is probably hoping to jump on a baby bison if the mom is not paying enough attention. We get some good shots of it running along the ridge and then it disappears just like we do when we continue back to the RV.

We get back and turn on the generators and throw all our stuff inside and then head out to the Fishing Bridge store and diner. We are going to eat out tonight and then shop and walk on the old Fishing Bridge and look around. After we eat PTCC wants a jacket like CC and I have from Yosemite but instead says Yellowstone. We have seen many people in these since they probably didn’t expect it to be so cold here and had to buy a jacket once they got here. She also wants some T shirts and I will get another Yellowstone frame. CC just buys milk for breakfast. He already got a shirt earlier at Old Faithful and I guess we do need the milk. We then go walk on the bridge and see the ice flows in the Yellowstone River and take some pictures of the mountains in the distance. It has gotten warmer and is a comfortable 43 degrees outside now. Probably I think because the sun has finally come out of hiding. We walk back along the opposite side and get back in the car to head to the campsite for the night. I think I will call it a day now, it has been a long one. Hopefully we will get to see the Tetons tomorrow.

May 26, 2010 Day 36 Will This be the Day We See the Tetons???

Elk Near Grant Village

Last night was not as cold as the others. In fact there was NO SNOW on the ground or cars. So today we are going to do our best to get to the Tetons. First we are stopping at Fishing Bridge for my park stamps since the visitor center opens today and then we are going up to West Thumb and Grant Village for more park stamps. On the way to Grant Village we see some elk out grazing next to the road. We then get on the road going south and pass another Continental Divide sign elev. 7988. We keep going until we get to Lewis Lake which has a waterfall you can see from the road. So we stop and take photos of it and then continue on to Moose Falls on the Lewis River. This one was very nice because it was a short fall about 30 ft high with the path right next to it leading down. It also had a rock bridge spanning the river. There was a nice path down to the falls, not too hard to walk and not too many steps.

We continue driving and soon come to the park boundary. We were so happy this morning when we called to see if there were any road closures and found out everything except the road construction area was open finally. We get to Flagg Ranch and find out this area will be closed until tomorrow, so we continue on to Colter Bay. We run into the road construction here. They are scrapping the roads and adding new asphalt so we have to wait about 10 minutes. The holds can be up to 30 minutes at a time here. It is a large area they are working on. We notice the temperature is rising as we drop in elevation, it is 52 degrees here. Almost balmy to us. In fact no one wore a jacket all day because we thought it was so warm. We make it out of the mess and get moving to Colter Bay.

We see lots of people stopped up ahead and ask what they are looking at and find out there is a black bear feeding in the woods. So we get out and look. You could see him clearly with the binoculars but not so much with the camera. It looked like he was eating a moose or elk from the size of the carcass. We keep driving and are seeing beautiful views of the Grand Tetons. Today is very nice with clear skies that are bright blue as a backdrop for them.

We stop at the visitor center so PTCC can work on her Jr Ranger badge. They don’t have any ranger programs right now so they give her a scavenger hunt to do in the Indian museum here. And the auditorium doesn’t have the movie right now since they are training their summer hires in there. So we wander around the museum looking at displays and answering questions and she finishes and gets her badge. We look around the gift shop for CC’s pin and a stuffed moose for LCC.

Right after we leave the visitor center we see more cars and the people tell us a moose is in the woods. So we look and right in a stand of aspen trees near the water is a lone moose eating. So we try to get some pictures and then move on. We are now heading towards Moran Junction where the road turns south. We stop at one of the pullouts with the mountain range behind us and get someone to take our family picture.

We tried to see the Cunningham Cabin but there was more construction in the area so we passed it by. We did stop at the Craig Thomas Discovery Visitor Center to look around. It looked like it was just built and very nice inside. It had lines on the floor that you could stand on and look to see which mountain it coordinated with outside the large windows so you knew which one you were taking pictures of. We then left to go up to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center and before we got to it we saw another moose eating near the river. This one we were able to get really good pictures of as well as video. It was only about 20 feet away but on the other side of a sandbar in the river.

After looking around the visitor area and getting our stamps we continued on. The Grand Tetons are so different from Yellowstone because they are so flat on the interior. There are mountains ringing the area but on the inside it is very level with not much change in elevation. So it is easy to see wildlife if it is out here. In the grassy area we saw some pronghorn sheep eating in the fields. We of course stopped to get their picture. I think this is the first sighting we’ve had of them. Meanwhile we are still in awe of the Tetons and are taking lots of pictures of them as well.

We now get moving north as it is getting late so we pass Signal Mountain, but find out the road was closed anyway. We get to Jackson Lake Dam and find out there is construction here too. So we wait awhile till they let us pass. We take some pictures of the work they are doing and some of the dam as well. We get going only to stop in the same place as we did on arriving where they are working on the road. CC gets out to stretch since the signal lady told him it was about 20 minutes to go. He strikes up a conversation with her but I and PTCC just lay on the seats and try to nap. It has been a long day of driving. In Yellowstone you drive about 20 minutes and then get out to view something or walk a trail. Here in Grand Tetons there is much more driving and not as much to see or do right now because of the season. Also there is a lot more road work going on with longer waits.

Finally we are allowed to precede and we are now heading back to Yellowstone. As we climb it starts getting colder again. Our high in the Tetons was 62 degrees, when we got back the car read 53 degrees. This was our longest day out yet. We left this morning at 9 am and didn’t get back until 5:30 pm. We usually stop by 3 pm but didn’t have a choice today since we decided to leave early tomorrow so we will have more time in South Dakota.

May 27, 2010 Day 37 Driving Out the East Entrance of Yellowstone

Sylvan Pass

CC went to check us out early from Fishing Bridge so we could be on our way to South Dakota. He came back and we hooked up the car and left out the east entrance to Yellowstone. On the way we passed Steamboat Springs, a frozen Mary Bay, some bison near the fumeroles, an avalanche area near Sylvan Pass with a cool recoilless rifled cannon for shooting snow cornices so they don’t cause avalanches and more bison once we got to the park boundary at Pahaska Teepee. The road wasn’t nearly as bad as people told us it would be. There was only about 20 minutes where the RV felt like it was on the edge of the canyon. At Pahaska Teepee we encounter the never ending road work that goes on in Wyoming in the summer. We were stopped at a bridge construction but it was only for about 3 minutes. The problem was the light would only let 1 car through at a time.

There were unique cliff formations as we drove along. I was able to get many pictures as the speed limit was pretty low in some passes. We neared Cody and went through 3 tunnel passes near the Buffalo Bill dam. We wished we had more time because there was a visitor center there. Everyone always talks about the Buffalo Bill museum which we didn’t have interest in but we would have made time for the dam if we had known it was there. Something for the next trip I guess.

We make a short stop at Walmart in Cody for supplies and gas and get back on the road. The temperature is more like home in FL right now. It was up in the high 80’s. It felt so good after freezing for so long. PTCC even changed into shorts and a T shirt. After stopping in Cody so did CC and I as well.

We can see the Big Horn Mountains in the distance and it seems forever to get to them. We go through another rough road with construction between Cody and Greybull. Then we turn south towards Worland and get ready for a climb towards the peak. The actual road was nice with many turnouts to view the North Fork Powder River. The mountains still had a lot of snow on them with the high elevation. We finally came to the top of the road at 9666 elev and passed the Powder river pass in Ten Sleep Canyon. We saw plenty of mule deer and pronghorn deer up in the canyons. No antelope though. Almost as soon as we passed the summit we get stopped by road construction again. This time the flagger was very talkative and told us what was ahead. I guess it gets lonely with vehicles passing you all day long.

East Side of Powder River Pass

Right as you see the “Welcome to Buffalo, WY” sign the asphalt turns red. I wonder what they have in it that makes that causes that?

Yesterday CC asked what if we pushed on to Devil’s Tower instead of staying in Ten Sleep or Buffalo? I said I was OK with that as long as he wasn’t too tired driving through the passes we had to go through to get there. So we decided if he didn’t feel too bad we would try. So when we got to Buffalo and it was still early enough to make Devil’s Tower, we calledl the KOA there to see if they will have room since we are coming up on a holiday weekend. They say they did, so we reset the GPS to go there. We take the turn off to the tower and you can see it in the distance. It takes about 45 minutes to actually get there though. We pass some steers with huge horns grazing  near the road as we turned onto the park road. We see the KOA ahead and turn in to register. We pick a nice sight and start dinner, eat and then PTCC goes out to the playground to let off some steam. CC and I walk around and take pictures of the grounds and the Devil’s Tower sign as the national park is right next to the KOA. We get PTCC and go across the street for ice cream and just make it before the store closes for the evening. As we talked to the lady working there we asked if some strange weather phenomenon was going on as we had seen these interesting weather trucks from all over passing us today. She told us there was a tornado in Wyoming which hardly ever happens and the trucks had been coming by all day. Several of them went into the park, probably to camp for the night.

Tomorrow we will tour the park and then head for South Dakota.

May 28, 2010 Day 38 We Make it to South Dakota

Steve Nadine and Kelsea Devils Tower

We start the day by going to Devil’s Tower which is right next to the KOA we are staying in. On the drive in are 3 pullouts where you can stop and watch prairie dogs. They were adorable and there were signs everywhere telling you not to feed them. It was funny watching them pop up and down their burrows. We even saw some babies playing with each other. You had to watch the road closely because they would scamper across it so quickly. We continue on the road and took pictures of the tower which was covered in clouds this morning. We arrive at the visitor center and park and get ready to walk the circle trail around the tower. We saw some climbers getting their gear ready to go up the tower. The visitor center doesn’t open until 9 am so we decided last night to walk first then do the Jr Ranger and displays in the visitor area afterwards.

The walk was only about 1 mile in length but a lot of it was uphill since it was near the base of the tower. On the way in we saw a deer in the woods and as we rounded a bend around the tower we saw another one. We took pictures of the valley and of the tower with the sun rising behind it. It is considered a sacred place by the local Indian tribes and the tower is closed to climbing in the month of June. The walk around was peaceful and you could hear the wind whistling through the cracks in the columns. Signs told us that there are 4,5,6, and 7 sided columns that have fallen. There is still a set of wooden ladders in some cracks that were left there by the first climbers. We could see them with binoculars they had on the path. There were lots of birds flying around the top. They must have nests up there. We were enjoying the walk and reading the signs for information when we walked around the bend and heard this strange noise. It was a group of young people who were working on the path that wound around the tower. They had these mechanical wheelbarrrows that pulled their loads of asphalt uphill.

We finished the walk in about an hour and headed back to the visitor center. CC got his postcard and pin and PTCC started working on her Jr Ranger badge. We all looked around the visitor displays in the original log house. After answering all the questions she was awarded her badge. We then headed back to prairie dog town and took some more pictures and then back to the KOA to get ready to leave.

We head out back to Moorcroft to get gas and catch US 16 to Hill City, SD. This was our worst experience gassing up so far. There was a gas truck filling the pumps and the way the station was arranged it had to go between all the pumps making it hard to get in or out. Compounding our problem to fuel was a stupid old man on a motorcycle who acted like he had never put gas in it before. He had to go in and then came out of the store and then put about 3 gallons in and then had to go back inside again instead of moving his bike out of the way. Then when he does come back he just stands around waiting on something. Finally an old lady walks out to him and then they stand there talking forever. We waited 20 minutes to get to a gas pump here because of him and his rudeness. Unfortunately when we did get to a pump we had to block the guy filling the tanks from getting out. He was cool about it he said as long as we didn’t have to go inside to pay. CC assured him he wouldn’t. The guy said he hated delivering to this station because it was always a mess to get in.

After that hassle we get back on US 16 to head to South Dakota. We’ve decided to stop at Jewel Cave on the way to Hill City to see if we can get in on a cave tour. We make pretty good time and get there within 2 hours so we are good for the 1:35 pm tour which is a short one of about 20 minutes instead of the 1.5 hour long one. I don’t think I can take the cold that long again after Timpangonos. PTCC gets her Jr Ranger book and CC goes back to the RV because I can’t take my purse in with me, so I had to empty everything I wanted to keep with me to my jacket pockets and he took it back because we forgot to lock the car. So PTCC starts working on her booklet while we wait for our tour and has it almost finished by the time it starts. They have a block outside the visitor center to demonstrate how small a space you have to crawl through if you take the Wild Cave tour. So PTCC has to try it and it is a tight fit even for her. We get the luck of the draw with rangers for our program. I think we got the guy who Overdosed on caffeine today, he was so peppy. On the Discovery tour they take you down in an elevator and you spend 20 minutes in one room only on a platform while the ranger tells you about different areas of the cave. It was enough for us for today. We go back up and PTCC finishes her book and gets her badge and we move on to find the Rafter J.

We go about 20 miles down the road and we find it so we register and drive to our site. It looks like a nice place. There is some up and down to the sites and it is centered on a bowl meadow. After leveling, our front right tire isn’t touching the ground anymore. Wi-Fi stinks here but we do have very basic cable in our area. Best of all they have a hot tub and it is open as well as a heated pool. PTCC hits the new playground while we set up and then we pick her up to go to Mount Rushmore since we have time and it is open late.

Mount Rushmore

We drive about 10 miles and we are there. The whole experience here to me feels so commercial. Not at all like a national park. There are parking decks to park in and a boulevard of flags to walk through to see the heads on a mountain. This stop is mostly for CC since he was adamant that we stop here on our trip. PTCC gets a JR Ranger book here as well. Actually she did 2, one for her age range and one for older kids. The heads were impressive and we walked the path all the way around the park, stopping to read about how they came to be. We watched the movie and visited the exhibit hall for answers to PTCC’s books. The artists studio was closed when we got there but the walk was OK. There are a lot of stairs so beware if that’s not your thing. Unfortunately the late afternoon sun made it harder to take pictures without getting the sun in most of them. We make it back and go to the bookstore. Inside they had one of the original workers who was signing his book appearing today. I get a stuffed prairie dog to add to my collection and CC gets his pin. They don’t seem to have the WPA postcards here that he has been buying. We go back to the visitor center and PTCC gets her Jr Ranger badge and we take off. There is a lighting ceremony with veterans honored at 9 pm but we don’t want to stay that late so we leave.

After we get back we cook out and hit the pool and hot tub. It is fun talking to others who are traveling too. We like to ask where they’ve been and where they are going next. We are camped next to a couple from Inverness, FL and met a couple in the hot tub from Weeki Wachee, FL. Small world isn’t it?

May 29, 2010 Day 39 Wind Cave and Custer State Park

Bison in Custer State Park

We get on the road by 9 am to go to Wind Cave. Our plan today is to start as far south as we can and work our way back up towards home. So we travel to Custer State Park and pay the entrance fee which is $15, kind of steep but it IS an awesome park. We travel the 16A to the 87. On the way in I want to see the Coolidge Fire Tower which sits at the top of a very curvy gravel road. Only 1 problem: today it is very foggy and we really can’t see in front of us. So hardy adventurers we are we go but real slow straight up the mountain road. We get to the top and see the fire tower barely through the fog. We climb the stairs and find out if it was a nice day we could see the Badlands, Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, and some other locations but today is soup and we can’t see our hands in front of our faces. So we leave and follow the road back down to connect to SD 87 and the prairie dog town. These prairie dogs were not as cute or playful as the ones in Devil’s Tower yesterday. Maybe no one is feeding them?

On our drive we see lots of bison and a white tail deer herd, and a few pronghorn antelopes. After a few miles we come to Wind Cave’s property line and cross over. There were lots of bison and pronghorns here as well. There were also 2 one lane bridges built by the CCC we went over.

We get to the visitor center and inquire about cave tours. Unfortunately they had only 2 tickets to the easier tour that had less stairs in it. I volunteered to stay behind because of my knee but CC wouldn’t let me. So we went on the tour that has the most stairs (450) a half hour later. PTCC got her book and started working on her Jr Ranger badge while we waited to go. She had it almost finished by the time the tour started. CC wandered in the gift shop and displays while she worked and I got my NP stamp for my book and looked at the displays as well.

Our tour starts down the path that leads to an elevator that the CCC installed in the 1930’s. It has been updated since then though. We go down in groups of 10 so it takes 4 trips to get everyone below. We went in the last group so we could walk slow and ended up with a guy near the end who thought he was a professional photographer. I think he took 1000 pictures in the cave. We never heard anything the ranger said because this guy held us up taking his pictures, so we were always lagging behind. The only things I found out about this cave is that they have mapped 134 miles of it, it has boxwork, popcorn, and frosted formations. It is also what is known as a dry cave. It was discovered by a guy that saw a hole in the ground that was whistling and when he went nearer his hat blew off. He then climbed inside this hole that is no wider than 18 inches across to get inside. After doing that a few times he dynamited a hole next to the original one to make it easier to get inside. Our tour lasted 1.5 hours which we decide was much too long to be in 53 degree temperatures. There was not a lot of info passed down the line- so it was for us, a mostly silent tour. We learned more from the guide behind us bringing a new group in as we were exiting than we did on our own tour.

We go back up and eat lunch then we looked at the original hole and PTCC finished her badge and got her pin and we took off for Custer SP again.

We retraced our steps back to prairie dog town and took Hwy 14 which is the wildlife loop to the next visitor center. It was originally a park ranger’s log cabin. On the way there we saw more bison, many with babies, and wild burros that used to be work animals in the park but were released a long time ago and live wild now. We pick up the Jr Naturalist book for PTCC. This is Custer’s version of Jr Ranger. She works on it as we drive to the next visitor center. We pass Game Lodge which is an original hotel that people stayed in when they came to hunt. Hunting is still allowed in the winter in the park. Also each September they have a buffalo roundup to cull the herd, because in summer it gets to 1500 and they can only winter about 960 so they sell the surplus at auction.

We arrive at the Peter Norbeck visitor center and PTCC joins in a group of Jr Naturalists doing a program. Meanwhile CC and I check out the displays and bookstore until she is finished. When the program is over we help her to complete her 2 pages she has left and she gets her certificate with a seal on it. If we were able to go to 3 or more sessions she would get a patch but we can’t as we only have one day here. I would love to come back in the future as it is a really nice park and just spend a week camping inside it.

Needles Eye

We have a family vote and decide to take the Needles Hwy back to Rafter J. We will go through 3 tunnels and see unique rock formations on this path. W e are on a very winding road which is why all the motorcyclists like it. Every turn seems to be an “S” curve. We come to the first tunnel and it is not too long but it is only wide enough for one car to go through at a time. Most of the tunnels aren’t wider than 8-10 ft and 9-10ft high. We then start seeing the rock formations that stick straight up in the air like needles for which they are named. We come to the second tunnel and it is about as long as the first one, it just seems skinner to us. As you come out you can see the formation that looks like a needle in the rock. Everybody stops here so it gets really crowded quickly. We take some video and pictures and go on our way since it is starting to rain. Just before the third tunnel we see a wild turkey in the road and then the tunnel. It is the shortest one we go through, maybe 10 ft long. As we exit we see a camper coming up the road to go through it. We hope he made it, we couldn’t stay to watch because we had 2 U turns to make to get out of there. A mile or so later we pass Sylvan Lake and then we are home. We ended up right across the street from Rafter J so it was easy to find for us. It started to rain so we will spend the evening inside since it is getting colder as well. I guess the cold just follows us.

May 30, 2010 Day 40 Badlands and Wall Drug

The Badlands Visitors Center

Today we are off for the Badlands. It is about an hour and a half from where we are staying but a lot of it is on I-90 so it goes by quicker than driving the MH. In the MH we only do 62 mph because that’s the sweet spot for towing for us. But in the car we feel like we are flying because we can go 75 mph. So in no time we are turning off the road on Hwy 240 for the northeast entrance to the Badlands. First we see a sign for Minuteman Missile Site so we stop there knowing it is closed on Sundays. They have very specific hours for this National HS. We check the hours and leave because we know we can stop off on Tuesday as we go through to see it then.

We continue down the road and see the entrance sign for the Badlands. If we had to pay it would be $15, but we bought the annual park pass back in September 2009 because we knew we were coming on this trip and we were at Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine for Labor Day camping.

So we get waved through and head into the park. The first turnout was jammed packed so we skipped it and stopped at the next, which had a boardwalk running uphill to get you closer to the rock formations. These are pretty neat. It is kind of like looking at huge sand sculptures without a beach nearby or what the Grand Canyon would look like if all of the canyon was above ground. The rocks and sand had many varied colors. Today we saw oranges, mustard yellows, pinks, greens, greys, an whites. After a few turnouts to take pictures we stop at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. PTCC starts working on her Jr Ranger here and we all go in to watch the movie they have. There is also a nice museum with displays explaining how the Badlands were formed and what animals live there. After looking around at everything PTCC has finished her booklet and takes it up to the desk for her badge. We then look in the bookstore for CC’s pin but there is no postcard here. Then we go outside and have our lunch at one of the picnic tables with these strange wind blockers attached to them. After eating we get back in the car to do the Badland Loop Road tour. Parts of it will be bumpy because they are working on the road but not today or tomorrow so we won’t be stopped like at the other National parks we’ve been to. It is very dusty and dry here though so we really can’t keep the windows open for too long taking pictures. PTCC even tried to stand up through the sunroof to take video but the wind was so strong she gave it up.

The road itself is about 35 miles long and we stopped at the Fossil Exhibit Trail and walked the boardwalk here. They have displays of fossils in Plexiglas cases so you can see where they were discovered as you walk along. Then we stopped at the White River Overlook which is the only water around and it isn’t that close by. Some of the rock formations looked similar to the needles we saw yesterday leaving Custer SP. One of the scientists in the movie we watched said it gets to about 112 degrees out here in the summer. It feels warm enough today at 67 degrees as we ride around the loop.

There is lots of prairie grass out here that the pioneers used to make their sod houses from. Now there are bison herds, antelope, foxes, black footed ferrets and prairie dogs all living in the grasslands. We saw the bison herd from far away but didn’t see any other animals here except birds. Wish we had time to spend walking the trails but after 2 days of up and down stairs in caves my knee can’t take the hills here.

We come to the Yellow Mud Overlook and the colors are striated and beautiful. There are gorgeous yellows, greens and oranges all mixed in together in the formations. We finally come to the end of the road at the Pinnacles Overlook. We can walk out here on the rock formations. What is surprising here is as you look down into the canyon you see conifers. They are nowhere else in the park but in this one spot well hidden from the road. If you don’t stop here you would not know they were down there. We then exit the park on Hwy 240 and continue in to the most famous city in South Dakota: Wall.

Wall Drugs

Of course we have to stop here, everyone does. We’ve been reading the signs since we drove into the state of South Dakota. So here we are. It takes up nearly a city block, with a soda shop, cafe, and too many to name shops. We first stop for a refreshment. CC and PTCC opt for a milkshake and a root beer float but I saw the sign that said pie so I grab a slice of apple pie, and a refreshing glass of ice water. Which is how the owners got people into this small town. They put up signs on the highways advertising free ice water at their drugstore. People came and when they did they bought other stuff. It is now in the 3rd generation of the family.

After we finished out treats we walk around and look at all the shops. PTCC bought a t shirt and we bought some fudge to eat on the way back home. They really seem to have everything you need or never knew you needed. In fact this past winter they added on what they are calling a “backyard area.” That makes them about 3 blocks deep.

Now we are heading back to Rapid City to pick up a few supplies and eat dinner out. We stop at our favorite place: Walmart. Then we look for a place to eat. CC wants to try something local so we head back towards Hill City. We get into town and need to fill up so he does and then goes in to ask around about a restaurant. We end up in the Slate Grill where I get a sirloin and CC tries Buffalo for the first time. PTCC and I had it before in Washington, DC at the American Indian Museum there. He said my steak was better. The buffalo wasn’t as tender as it could have been.

We arrive back at the Rafter J and take a walk and PTCC heads for the playground. Then we download pictures and find out that both of us are out of room on our hard drives. We are going to have to dump some picture files to CC’s external drive so we can still download more since we have 20 days of travel left to document.

May 31, 2010 Day 41 Today We Take a Rest

Today we sleep in late and have a pancake breakfast. Then I go to do laundry and read a book while PTCC plays and CC works on his photos. Then we meet for lunch and head to the pool and hot tub. Only today the tub isn’t hot and it is a little breezy but very sunny. So CC and I sit at the pool and read while PTCC hangs out in the lukewarm tub. Then we come back to the RV where PTCC takes a shower and CC and I talk to the guys next door. They mentioned a good place for dinner so we think we will try that today. PTCC comes out and we go up to the camp store for ice cream and then play ball in the field. This is where the day goes bad for her. I suggest we play h-o-r-s-e and the loser will have to clean the RV. Everyone agreed and it was a way to play together for awhile. So at first I’m ahead then PTCC catches up and CC is last. Then he catches up and passes PTCC and I, then he’s done and it is just PTCC and I. She gets ahead of me then I catch up and finally I pass her and I’m out. She starts screaming and crying like a banshee. What a bad sport she was being. Tears are running down her face and she won’t stop crying and screaming. CC and I are laughing at her. Imagine a 12 year old acting like such a spoiled brat.

We all come back to the RV and PTCC crawls under the picnic table and cries how she just wants to die here. CC and I ignore her and get to cleaning up the RV. We were always going to help but we knew if she won she wouldn’t have helped at all. She’s becoming real spoiled lately. So after her conniption fit she comes inside and starts to clean. After we are done (it took a total of 25 minutes to do everything) she said it wasn’t so bad after all. Go figure!. I told her I was putting this into the blog so everyone can read how juvenile she acted.

After cleaning we played around on the computers for awhile and then went into Custer to the Purple Pie for dinner. They were running a special for a sandwich, side and a slice a pie for $7.50, so we ordered that and enjoyed our meals.

We came back and took a walk along the George Michelson trail that was an old railroad line. The temperature was getting nippy so we walked back to the campsite. CC checked all the tires and fluids so we are good to go tomorrow. I think we are trying to get to Mitchell so we have 2 days of 350 miles each instead of 1 really long push to Omaha.

June 1, 2010 Day 42 A Long Day of South Dakota

We leave Rafter J this morning and push on to Sioux Falls, SD. We have only 2 stops to make before reaching Sioux Falls today: Minuteman Missile NHS and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. It’s just as kitschy as Wall Drug was but it’s a must see for us. We’ve already driven the portion to Minuteman because that’s where we started our Badlands tour. CC wants to top off at the Conoco that is next door to the Missile site. So we arrive at Minuteman and find out that is pretty much a short movie to watch and some displays in the office. I got my stamps and PTCC did a very short Jr Ranger book and received a patch. We read the outside displays and found out if we had wanted to do a tour they will only let you if you call a week in advance and they only offer it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On the tour they take you down in a silo and show you the missile launch facility. Since we didn’t book in advance we just finished reading what was there and left.

Once back on the road, since I knew it was going to be a mind numbing day so I watched a movie in the back with PTCC. CC kept getting off and on the road since SD DOT had several overpasses closed to work on them so he had to take the exit and get right back on which is how they diverted traffic.

Corn Palace

200 miles later we get off I-90 for the Corn Palace. We got a great tour of Mitchell first since the directions drive you by everything they have in town before you arrive there. Once there we take our pictures and if you want they have a movie to watch about how it came to be. They show the same movie in the lobby and gift shop though. They sell popcorn and drinks just like a movie theater. On the walls are the pictures of each year’s theme and design all the way back to 1895(?) Some years are much more elaborate than others. In the center of the palace which must be used as a theater and basketball court is a gift shop selling everything to do with corn that you could imagine.

After our stop in Mitchell we find an easier way to get back to I-90 and move on to Sioux Falls. CC and I had talked about staying in Vermillion Lake SP in Canistota but as soon as he heard there were falls in Sioux Falls he had to see them so we will stay in a KOA there.

About an hour later we arrive in Sioux Falls and pull in to the KOA. This is the priciest KOA we have stayed in to date. $53 a night. The state park was less than $20. But CC gets to see his falls in the morning. I’m just glad we have changed to the central time zone. It means we are getting closer to the end and home. We all play a game of mini golf and eat dinner then relax for the night.

June 2, 2010 Day 42 We Leave SD and head for Nebraska


Sioux Falls at Falls Park

We get up and out by 8:30 am so we can view Sioux Falls. We have readied the RV so we can make a quick departure when we get back. We drive about 10 minutes down the road and we are there. It is a little cold out this morning, something in the 50’s or so. The falls are quite beautiful as all the rocks around them are pink quartz. The water was churning up and creating a lot of foam on the rocks. In a way it looks like someone cut chunks of rocks and placed them here. PTCC asked me if it was natural or man made. The falls drop about 100 ft over the course of the run in the park and then meander downstream. We walked all along one side and took lots of pictures in the overlooks. As we were walking a train came along the bridge that goes over the river and we waved at the engineer. We then walked back to the visitor’s center. It had just opened at 9 am, the building has an observatory area in the top that you can walk out on and overlook the falls. We walked around the deck and took pictures then went downstairs and looked in the gift shop. CC wanted one more opportunity to take shots of the other side so we walked to the first overlook and then left.

We go back to the KOA and finish disconnecting and head out. We had a very uneventful day of driving. One thing we noticed was that Iowa and Nebraska both tear up their roads completely when they are working on them. In FL they just scrap off a layer or two and repave it. We had many miles of one lane road several times over the day’s drive, because the other side was essentially a dirt road. We paralleled the Missouri River in Iowa for about 80 miles finally crossing into Nebraska closer to Omaha.

Not too long after we passed through Omaha we arrived at Mahoney SP. The first thing they want from you is $$ for a parking pass. We had to pay $30 for both vehicles. The first one was $20 and the second was $10. If we had paid by the day it would have been $72. Either way it is a rip off. Most states only charge you for 1 vehicle since they know you are camping and not driving both. But NE charges you each and every day you stay even if your vehicle never moves. They should just add that cost to the camping fee and be done with it. The park is great though. We only have an electric hookup so we stopped to dump and load water before going to our campsite.

We are in the Lakeside Campground which is supposed to have wi-fi but we can’t get it, so CC is leaving the mi-fi with us. Our site is in full sun which is OK since we have been freezing since we started this trip. We checked out the bathhouses and they look really old with only 2 showers which seems weird since only 5 of the 150 sites have FHU. Pretty much everyone has to use these baths, so there will probably be a wait on the weekend.

We finished setting up and took PTCC over to the theater for a Jr Naturalist photography class. I think she really enjoys taking pictures. AmberLee was the instructor and spoke about how to frame pictures and look for unusual things to capture in the shot. PTCC took about 45 shots and AmberLee loaded them on her I-Pad and told us some of them will make it on the bulleting board or webpage for the park. Then we came back to the RV for a minute and then went to find a grocery store. This was a comedy of errors as CC didn’t want to get the GPS and his phone wasn’t giving good directions today. PTCC refused to let us buy milk at a convenience store because she thought that was yucky for some reason. So we ended up in Gretna at a very small grocery store. We will find a Walmart tomorrow when we take CC to the airport in Omaha.

We get back and make dinner and then go for a bike ride- first down from the campground where there is a small rock garden with a stream and then up to the lodge. It looked like they had a really good buffett. PTCC and I will probably try it since they have theater packages for dinner and a show on the weekend. They have a theater that shows several melodramas over the summer.. They sound like a lot of fun to see. The park also has several playgrounds, water park ,rock climbing, craft house, indoor playground, and a marina.

We all went to get showers and found them really weird. First there were no doors just flimsy curtains that didn’t cover the door openings and then the shower had a button you had to push to start the shower. It would only turn the water on for about a minute or so and you could not adjust the temperature at all. Then as you got out of the shower there was a fan attached to the ceiling that blew on you so you got chilled. We have to use them but I don’t think I’ll like it much. We came back after showers and planned our day for tomorrow. We’re trying to do some things so CC gets to experience something since he has to leave tomorrow.