Road Trip

Day 5: Keystone, South Dakota. We spent night 4 about 2 miles from Mount Rushmore. We drove up to the monument about 8 pm. After wandering the presidential trail, we waited and watched the slow illumination of the carvings as the sun set in the background. It was gorgeous! Today we are heading to Crazy Horse and through the Badlands, hoping to make it to Sioux Falls. I am excited for Wisconsin because it will be our first Cracker Barrel, Texas Roadhouse AND Trader Joe’s. It is about time for a Trader Joe’s because I’m running low on cereal. I’m sure we passed a TJs during the first leg of our trip, but I didn’t need one then. Here is a quick rundown of our trip so far:

Day 1: Left Vancouver, WA at 8:15 am. We skipped the life-size replica of Stonehenge so we weren’t too late for lunch with our friends in Walla Walla. I drove S through my old college town/campus and then we had a great lunch of shabu shabu with friends before heading East. We took Highway 12 all the way to Missoula, MT. It was a really long day of driving, but it was absolutely spectacular! It was the Nez Perce, Clearwater and Lolo National Forests. The tiny twisty road wove its way through Idaho. The best thing about this leg was the availability of pullouts with outhouses along the way. We got into Missoula pretty late and caught dinner in the hotel 10 minutes before closing.

Eastern Washington Windmills

National Forest

Murdered bugs of Idaho (sounded like rain on the windshield)

Day 2: Left Missoula, MT. Heading south, we made it to Yellowstone around 3 pm. This time of year they had plenty of rooms available and we had our pick of rooms. We chose a 2-queen cabin with a private bathroom. (Yes, you still have to make that decision here.) Yellowstone was the part of the trip I was most looking forward to. After unloading, we went to Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar Valley for wildlife viewing. We saw elk, bears, bison (LOTS of bison), moose and many others. S and I saw a half-tan half-black colored bear and S decided that it was a grizzly, but I showed its picture to a bear aficionado who dubbed it a “cinnamon bear,” much to S’s chagrin. So as it stands, we did not see any grizzly bears, despite the warning signs everywhere.

E posing while overlooking Mammoth Hot Springs

S in front of an orange hot spring

Why did the bison cross the street?

Day 3: Left Mammoth Hot Springs, WY. Continuing south, we stopped at many of the sights on our way to Old Faithful. Unfortunately, Old Faithful was pretty anti-climatic. They said 1:31 pm +/- 10 minutes. I was out there by 1:21. There were a few puny squirts and at about 1:53 it finally had its “big” blast, which wasn’t that big. S tells me that in its old age it is becoming less predictable and has less water because the water table is lower. Some of the roads we were driving on had just opened for the season the same day, but we didn’t face any problems. I think we had the best two days of weather and sightseeing possible in Yellowstone. There were very few people there and we could stop in the road to take pictures and we weren’t blocking someone from passing. We could do whatever we wanted, when we wanted. S remembers visiting with his family and having to sit in traffic to traverse the park. The biggest worry for early-May visits is the weather. We had two bright sunny days in the 50s and 60s. Perfect for the high-altitude sun!

We left the park and spent the night in Cody, WY. In a town of ~9,000, the two best restaurants had 1-2 hour-long waits because we didn’t have a reservation. We ended up eating at the hotel restaurant, which was fine.

E mid-sneeze in front of a Geyser Basin

S in front of his favorite mud pots (boiling mud, bubbling up)

Day 4: Left Cody, WY. Besides a 9,033 ft pass and a drive-by of Devil’s Tower, this was a dull driving day to get us closer to Mount Rushmore. Many hotels in the Black Hills have yet to open for the season, but we found a hotel that charges LESS than the government per diem rate. I didn’t know that was even possible! Granted it was only $0.50 less, but that was the rate without having to show any travel orders. (Pictures posted later, they are still on the camera.)