Slowing Down

After nearly 5 weeks on various vacations and over 4,000 miles in the car, we're finally winding down. After finishing up Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, we haven't been doing as much the last couple of days.

On Saturday, we drove to northern Colorado from western Wyoming. Jess did the drive across Wyoming and it was the first time we saw a speed limit of 80 (though with straight roads and no one around, I think Jess was hitting 95 occasionally. The drive was pretty unremarkable - there were some mountains but it was more of a desert with nothing out there. The only kind of neat thing was there were a lot of fences near the highway, most of which were slightly slanted. They didn't actually fence anything in - cows and horses could just walk around them if they wanted to. We figured there was a reason to them but since the internet hasn't reached that part of the country, we couldn't look it up on our phones until later. When we go to Colorado, I looked it up and found out they were snow fences that break up the wind as it blows snow. Obviously snow still passes through them but by changing the wind, the snow falls on the side of the road instead of on the highway. I guess when I-80 opened in Wyoming in the early 70's it was closed most of the winter because it was too dangerous with the blowing snow and they almost closed it permanently until some guy figured out the fences by using a model that old railroads used to use. I guess now it works so well it reduces the need to re-plow almost completely.

We got into Loveland, CO and there wasn't much there except for a Cracker Barrel, so that's about all we did. After getting up on Sunday, we drove to downtown Denver with the intent of going to zoo. Unfortunately, there was some kind of run going on so there was literally no parking anywhere near the zoo. We bagged that idea and went to our downtown hotel hoping to check in early and thankfully our room was ready.  Football and napping took up our afternoon until the Colorado Avalanche game in the evening.

The weather this trip has been near perfect and we kept saying how lucky we were. Of course, that was the jinx since as we walked the mile to the arena from our hotel, it began to sprinkle. Jess got concerned but I thought it was no big deal - after all, the forecast called for maybe some light passing showers and we only had to walk 10-15 minutes. Obviously, halfway through the walk it became a monsoon with pouring rain and 30-40 mph winds blowing right at us. We got to the cold arena completely drenched so that stunk. At least we had good seats (since it was preseason, we got 2nd row seats for relatively cheap) and the game was fun. It's sad that for a preseason game, their attendance will probably be better than a weekday game in December for the Canes.

Today we're taking it easy before doing a tour at the U.S. Mint in Denver and then meeting a friend for dinner. Tomorrow we fly back and by Friday afternoon we'll be back in NC and life will start to return to normal. Good thing I have two more weeks off once we get back home. As they say in Wyoming, "home is where the snow fence is." Note: no one says this.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton

We arrived in Yellowstone Thursday morning and drove around the upper loop.  First stop: Mammoth Hot Springs where it was crazy to see steam coming out of the ground.  The ground was white and trickles of water were all around.  There were many boardwalks and stairs leading to many different views.  It was something I had never seen but I wouldn't say it was pretty or scenic - just interesting and smelled terrible.  The sulfur smell from the hot springs fills the air with what I would describe as someone burning rotten eggs, It was hard not to hurry back to the car.

My favorite view of the whole trip happened next in Calcite Springs.  It was a view from the top of a cliff where you look down over the Yellowstone River with one bank being white (I believe that would be the calcite).  You could hear the rushing water of the river and it was so peaceful.

Supporting the Hurricanes from Yellowstone!

After a few more stops to view waterfalls and other scenery we made our way to our room for the night at the Old Faithful Inn.  Our room wasn't ready yet so we took a tour of the property and saw the geyser go off.  Old Faithful is impressive and a huge tourist attraction.   We have had almost every other park to ourselves but Yellowstone was jumping. 

So Old Faithful Inn...what to say...it is a large wooden cabin looking lodge.  It was pretty and you felt like you went back in time especially in the rooms.  No AC, internet, phone or TV made for a long night.  Some find it nice and relaxing to get away from it all but we aren't those people.  I was actually ok after I put my ear plugs in since I couldn't hear people, doors, toilets or creaking floors and I went to sleep.

We did decide to only stay the one night instead of our planned two because rain is heading in and we wanted to see the Grand Teton National Park in nicer weather (not to mention some of the road closures in Yellowstone added an extra few hours of driving time if we stayed another night).

Friday started still in Yellowstone seeing the Grand Prismatic Spring and whoa tourists.  We could barely find a parking spot and walking on the boardwalk wasn't easy with people stopping in the middle and flipping their hair to do a selfie.  We got to see the spring along with other geysers but it was very steamy and you really couldn't see the color variation like on the postcards.

Next we went to the Grand Canyon in Yellowstone and it made me want to see the real Grand Canyon.  It was beautiful with waterfalls going over steep canyon walls.

Yellowstone Lake was huge and had some of the best views of the trip.  It had everything - mountains, water, changing leaves and wasn't as crowded as the rest of the park.

Also, Yellowstone has giant Ravens that are loud and not afraid of people. They will walk right up to and either take food or squawk for a handout.

Grand Teton National Park is just south of Yellowstone so we made our way there and because you only have to pay once for both parks we didn't have to stop at a ranger station so we didn't have  a map.  We first came to Jackson Lake and then headed toward Lake Jenny and took a scenic drive along the edge of the mountains.  I think I liked this better than Yellowstone.  Yellowstone was a lot of driving through pine trees so it was hard to see the mountains but Grand Tetons you can see the whole time.  It was less crowded and made our stops to see the sites more enjoyable.

Old Chicago Redemption

We hit our first dud of the trip - congratulations, Billings! In planning the trip, it looked like an ideal place to stop for a couple of days. It was close to the Little Bighorn National Battlefield and it seemed like it had enough stuff to do for an extra day. Well, I was wrong. The Battlefield and Monument were good but we ended up going back to our hotel relatively early yesterday with nothing left to do. I had booked a Billings tour and there was some historic mansion to visit but other than Montana's only zoo (which Jess found), there wasn't much. After looking into it more closely, the tour was really expensive for no real history (Calamity Jane once passed through here! Some guy ate near here!) so we cancelled it and booked a room for tonight in Bozeman, MT instead of Billings. Thankfully we got out of our reservation without penalty so it made sense to get closer to Yellowstone instead of wasting time and money in Billings.

We got on the road and headed towards a place called Virginia City. That, along with nearby Nevada City, were classified as ghost towns. Jess was pretty interested in visiting ghost towns so I thought this might be fun. We originally planned on doing that before Yellowstone but after staying in SD an extra day, we decided against it. With a day opening up because we left Billings early, I decided to give a try since it was only an hour past Bozeman.

The drive out there was beautiful - the mountains are bigger and there are wide open valleys. We also crossed the Madison River and that had some fantastic scenery. Unfortunately, once we got to Virginia City it went downhill. Now, most of the tourists are gone and half the shops are closed. Even if it was busy, however, it still would have been just ok. There was a free museum that was like someone's basement full of junk. Between an old wagon, some period dress and old printing presses, there were modern items like a CareBear with a Carolina Panthers logo. When we went upstairs, there was more junk along with a little shop. Jess started to get creeped out and it didn't help when the old guy running the place was talking about wanting to get to a bigger town but he "was in too deep now." We quickly got in the car and drove to Nevada City, which is a collection of original old buildings from the mining town plus other old buildings from around Montana in various states of repair. It was neat to look at for a minute but there wasn't much to do. We headed back to Bozeman to get dinner and find our hotel since we'd like to hit the road early tomorrow for our first day at Yellowstone.

Madison River

Virginia City

Approaching our hotel, I saw a wonderful sign: there was an Old Chicago nearby! Yes, this is a chain pizza restaurant but everyone knows I love chains and pizza. There used to be one in Wake Forest that we went to all the time - even though I typically don't like deep dish pizza, I love theirs for some reason. As time went on, Old Chicago was better to go to because there were no crowds, even on a Friday night. Of course, that was a bad since they ended up closing shortly thereafter. This chain is mostly in the Midwest and West so I haven't had it in at least 6 years. I looked up where they were before we left for the trip and I knew we'd cross paths with a couple but as the trip went on, I completely forgot about it. Driving out of Billings today (going in a direction we hadn't gone before), we saw a sign about a mile from our hotel. I was so crestfallen for the next hour, I don't even remember driving. So when we pulled up to our hotel and saw the sign for it, it was sweet redemption. We did have it for dinner and it was delicious, though I think I built it up too much in my head (or it slightly changed since 2008).

Bozeman is a neat town. It's very pretty here and they have everything in terms of stores and places to eat. We went down their Main St. and it was pretty lively. All in all, if you ever go to Montana, skip Billings and go to Bozeman - you won't regret it.

Tomorrow we go to Yellowstone National Park and are staying at the Old Faithful Inn.  We don't know if we'll have internet or cell coverage so there may not be any posts until Saturday. It should be fun, since as they say in Billings, "any day you're not in Billings is a good day." Note: No says this, though they should.

Billings Blah

Everyday, we head out to see the beautiful landscapes and learn some history about the West.  Today was Little Bighorn Battlefield and from the minute I got out of the car next to the National Cemetery there was this sad feeling (I don't handle death well and am often overwhelmed in cemeteries) but this felt exaggerated.  Walking up to the monument and seeing the stones where the men fell was eye-opening and heart-breaking.   Reading all the accounts of what happened seems like such a tragedy on both sides.  I noticed walking around it was different than all the other historic or tourist sites we have seen this trip since no one really spoke above a whisper and there was an overall heavy feeling.  It was still beautiful and you can see why everyone wanted to be there but it was a very solemn experience.

 Just a portion of the National Cemetery.

These are stones marking where the soldiers fell.  Custer is in the middle of the field and shows he fought and stayed with his troops.

This is the monument for the soldiers.

This is the Indian memorial.

 
On our way to Billings we saw a sign for a National Monument and decided to check it out. Pompeys Pillar looks like a large flat top rock formation from a distance.  When you get closer it is 150 feet tall and is close to the Yellowstone river.  The interesting part is William Clark named it after Sacagawea's son, who he called Pomp.  William Clark climbed the rock and wrote of it in his journal, even signing and dating the rock.  They have added stairs and the climb to the top was kinda tough but worth it since the view was impressive.   It's a really neat little piece of history and a nicely done visitor area.

W Clark July 25, 1806

View from the top.

I conquered all 215 stairs on this 90 degree Montana day.

Now we are back in Billings with nothing to do.  It is super boring here and instead of wasting tomorrow learning how nothing happens here we are leaving a day early and going to Bozeman.  At least that gets us closer to Yellowstone.

I Own North Dakota

It was about time Ryan had a break from driving so I took the wheel for a while today.  We left Deadwood, SD around 9:30 am and got to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota around 1 pm.  The open roads and 75 MPH speed limit make for a fun drive.  I then slowed down to about 20 MPH in the park.  The park had some more fantastic views and crazy wild life.  Wild horses and more bison were on the road, including right next to a visitor center where you had to walk close by a bison to get to the restrooms. 

After a couple hours we got back on the highway and I drove into Montana so out of the two of us, one can say they drove in ND and one can't.  I handed over driving duties soon after but I hope Ryan enjoyed being a passenger in a National Park as much as I did.

We have also seen a lot of highway animal casualties during this road trip but today marks the first time either of us has seen a huge porcupine on the side of the road, We didn't know they ran wild out here.

It was a long day in the car but this sunset welcomed us to Big Sky Country.

Bears, Lizards and Sorta Eli Young Band

Today was our last full day in Deadwood. We've already extended our stay once and we kind of want to stay more, but unfortunately there's a lot of driving coming up so it's best we move on.

With our extra day, we decided to hit some of the touristy places around Rapid (that's what the locals call Rapid City, apparently, based on the one local we talked to who said the name of the city). First up was Bear Country USA. We left our passports at home but luckily they still let us in. It was kind of pricey for a 2 mile drive-through wildlife park but it was neat to be close to animals like arctic wolves, elk and bears. It's rut time for the elk so they handed us a flyer telling us that they sometime charge cars; thankfully our Kia Sportage wasn't sexy enough for the male elk to bother chasing. Recently seeing bison and bighorn sheep in the wild did make the park lose some of its luster but it was still fun. At the end, they had a pen full of bear cubs that you could walk around and that was pretty good since they were active. The enormous gift shop did put me off a little but I guess you only make money 4 months of the year so you gotta do it.

Next we went a few miles up the road to Reptile Gardens. Jess was quite intrigued since there are signs for this everywhere around Rapid City and when I looked at TripAdvisor, it got decent reviews. I will say that it did have a large array of reptiles but it was a bit smaller than we had hoped. It wasn't a disappointment but I'm sure seeing so many animals lately made it seem less special.

After lunch at a local place called TGI Fridays, we headed up to the mining town of Lead. It was an active gold mine from 1876-2002 and was owned by George Hearst at one point. Now that they left it, they do tours of the upper areas of the mine and the town that grew from it (the actual mine, 8000 ft. down, is now used for scientific purposes). Unfortunately the last tour just left when we got there so we didn't get to see much. After Labor Day, a lot of places do limited hours and they don't really tell you what those hours are. Even in Deadwood, yesterday seemed like the last big day since the town was half deserted today.

Our day ended with doing laundry, booking hotels for tomorrow (we decided to stay 3 nights in Billing, MT) and a little gambling. The Eli Young Band were playing at our hotel tonight and while we decided not to go since we just wanted to relax before getting up early tomorrow, we could open our hotel window and still hear the songs somewhat clearly.

Tomorrow we head to North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park and then ending the day in Montana. As the Deadwoodians say (quoting Wild Bill Hickok), "it's a good day when you don't leave Deadwood in a casket." Note: no one says this.