Blog Slideshow

This Blog is Over

There are daily posts with highlights from every day of our trip from June 6 through June 22. To go back to the beginning and read in order, or to read any single day, use the archive to the left. Happy reading. Really hope this was not a "once in a lifetime" trip.

Road Trip, By the Numbers

[aka: The End]

4,285 miles
100s of Buffalo (3 up-close)
15 post cards
10 states (counting Montana, which we were only in for about five minutes as we took the photo of the North Entrance to Yellowstone.)
6 national parks/monuments
3 puzzle post cards (extra postage)
3 big horn sheep
2 coyotes
2 yellow-bellied marmots
2 moose
2 flat tires
2 state high points (Iowa, South Dakota)
LOTS of prairie dogs
TONS of petrified wood
About one-hundred Wall Drug billboards
2/3 of the world’s geysers (OK we probably didn’t see every single one, but they are all there in Yellowstone)
1 black bear
1 graduation
1 Crazy Horse (in progress)

AND...

Some good quotes from the trip:
Will, as we are looking over the upper falls brink on the Yellowstone River, “It’s a good thing water molecules don’t feel pain.”

* * *

Will: “If a grizzly attacks me you know what to do, right?”
Me, totally serious and slightly frightened at the thought: “No. What?”
Will: “Keeping filming. It'll make you millions.”

Posted some videos

We're sort of "stuck" in Wisconsin right now. So I've spent some quality You Tube time getting lots of videos posted.

BUFFALO GRAZING IN FRONT OF OLD FAITHFUL:


SPASMODIC GEYSER:


MUD POTS:


There are a few others from the trip all posted on YouTube if you want to look.

Headin’ East

It’s not completely over, but now there is no denying that we are firmly heading East. I guess technically the minute we left Yellowstone we were heading East, but it didn’t feel like vacation was over. Today it does. I even thought about work today for the first time since leaving back on the 7th.

Last night we stopped in Spearfish, SD. This morning we drove down toward the Badlands and did one of the hikes we missed earlier in the trip because of the tire trials. It was a short, four-mile flat trek through prairie and the floor of the Badlands.

Last week when we were here it would have been bliss in the 70-degree temperatures. Today however, it was in the 90s and … “difficult” is the adjective that comes to mind . (I think I used “brutal” as we were walking.) I’m really glad I took so many pics of the Badlands last week, because it was hazy today and everything looked very one-dimensional. Also, the few flowers we saw today were beginning to whither in the heat – nothing like the colors we saw last week.

After the walk: back in the car, across the rest of South Dakota, then Minnesota, over the river and up to Menomonie, WI (back to Will’s bro’s). Tomorrow we will be on the road heading back to Jersey.

It occurred to me today that it may have been unclear in this travel log who was on this trip and when. Just to clarify, most of the trip was just me and Will. Our trip intersected with Will’s bro, mom, sister Linda and nephew Scott just that one day - the Jewel Cave, Crazy Horse, Rushmore, Devil’s Tower day. They were all on a different trip, ultimately heading up to ND where – just to confuse things even more – they met up with Judy and GP3 for GP3’s two-day college orientation.

That's it for today.

Saying Goodbye to Yellowstone

Ed note: We were in Yellowstone without internet access the past few days (no access anywhere in the park... something silly about wanting visitors to enjoy the wildlife and scenery and whatnot... whatever!). So in addition to today, I've just posted the last few days too.

Today we hiked along the south rim of the Yellowstone Canyon. Pretty much vista, vista, vista.



We then followed another trail down though an active geothermic field – the stinkiest yet. We learned from a film at a visitor’s center this morning that more stink = more acidic elements, which = bubbling mud (vs. water), because the acidic stuff breaks down the clay in the soil.



After that, we wandered through an open meadow and walked right past a grazing buffalo. He turned his butt to us just as we were going by, so no photos.

Before leaving the park, we stopped by the Mud Volcano area. (It erupted long ago and is just a gurgling pool of mud now.) I have a video of this, but I'm struggling with You Tube from this connection. I actually plan on putting up a lot more videos when I have a better connection and will provide links in a future post.

Leaving the East gate of the park we then went to Cody, Wyoming and stopped at the Old Trail Town Museum where they have relocated many original old west buildings, including the Hole-in-the-Wall Cabin. (Will doesn’t look much like an outlaw.)





Note to self: Rent Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid when you get home.

Mammoth Hot Springs to Yellowstone Canyon

Writing at the end of our third full day in Yellowstone NP.

This morning we walked around the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs. (The white ones are dry and colored by silica and other mineral deposits left when the spring that formed the terrace was active. The orange and other colors are caused by heat-loving living things in the water.)

This is the oldest area of the park and there were some great photos of people in the late 1800s and early 1900s sitting on these terraces – literally in chairs placed on the rock formations. Ladies in full Victorian regalia - parasols, lace, yards of fabric and all. Also some historic buildings there as well. We also drove up to the North Entrance to see the stone gate that was once the only way into the park.

We then found our way over to the Fossil Forest walk. Saw lots of petrified wood.

Non-stop wildflower fiesta on this walk.

Wildlife spotted today included: black bear, moose, trumpeter swans, more marmots, picas and buffalo and – my personal favorite of the day - big horn sheep.

Other interesting sights from today:

45th parallel.

Cool bear sculpture outside the Yellowstone post office.