And Then There Were Mountains

After our time at the Badlands, we stopped by Mount Rushmore and spent the night in Buffalo, WY. We had initially planned to stop by Devil’s Tower, but in the moment decided it would be cut from the itinerary. We wanted to get to the Tetons, pronto. Rachel drove for a few hours, mostly winding through the Bighorn Mountains, where our highest elevation was just below ten thousand feet. Eventually, we made it into the park, flashed our spiffy access pass, and drove to our site at Colter Bay. Previously we had to deal with rattlesnakes. Now there weren’t any snakes, but instead much larger, furrier creatures. Yes, we were officially in bear country. The sites at the campground all had their own bear boxes, a steel case about two feet by three by three. We chose to keep all our bear attracting items in the car. We, of course, still slept in the tent. 

After an uneventful first night, we spent the day cruising around on the road, reading all the little roadside information displays. The really cool thing about the Tetons is that they rise out of the land without any foothills. They are just standing there, by themselves, like sentinels. Bam.

We did go for a short hike, to Phelps Lake. The trail followed a stream on the way up, and it was quite beautiful. I had the bear spray on my hip and a bell on the pack. It was our first hike in bear country and I was thankful it was a popular trail, since that way there were more people making noise, scaring the bears away. The view from the lake was spectacular.

We also went to the Murie Center, which is a conservation organization. They have a campus which they bring youth and school groups to and run environmental education programming. After this full day, we headed back to camp, got some sleep, and packed up for our next park, only a few miles away. We turned north and headed to Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone teaser:

America the Beautiful

We arrived in the Badlands mid-afternoon with a nice window of time to arrange our campsite, explore the visitors’ center, and cook a decent dinner.  Getting our America the Beautiful pass was really exciting.  This was for real!

The visitors’ center had some of the awesome water fountains with filtered, cold water spouts for water bottles.  It may not seem like much but after way too many hours in the hot car drinking hot water, we were psyched.  We took some time to relax and get settled and set some rice noodles to soak for pad thai later that evening.  However, we soon noticed some storm clouds rolling in and just as we were rigging up the tarp, the wind became ferocious.  That may seem hyperbolic, but it was some crazy wind, blowing people’s tents across the fields, threatening to tear our tarp, and just generally causing chaos.  We quickly threw everything into the car and huddled inside as huge raindrops began to pelt the ground.  Our dinner plans were quickly changed to leftovers and we ate while being amused by a group of Boy Scouts screaming like little girls and trying hopelessly to raise their tents.  No sooner than one tent was erected, another was reduced to a pile of nylon and a few broken poles.  It was actually quite hilarious.  Sometime later that evening, they surrendered and slept in the vans.  I am so glad not to have been chaperoning that trip.  It kept Michael and I entertained, though, and eventually the storm quieted enough so we could crawl into our tent and not risk being blown to Kansas.

We woke early the next morning as it was hot and we wanted to beat the crowds (plus the Boy Scouts weren’t exactly quiet…).  Much of the day was spent doing short hikes through the formations in the park.  It was quite surreal.  The massive forms are not so much stone as they are piles of clay that simply are eroding with time.  They say that if you return to the Badlands within just a few years, everything will be different.  It seemed to me as if we were on a foreign planet.  The landscape was monochromatic and eerily stark, but after a turn in the road, sunflowers dotted the fields.  I don’t think there is anything else like it but sadly, it is more or less melting with every passing year due to its nature.

I really wanted to find a fossil as it is quite common, but I wasn’t so lucky.  Oddly, they encourage people to traverse the park at will, not following marked trails and I imagine it is those people who find fossils.  We weren’t so brave as there are prairie rattlesnakes in the area and the tall grasses weren’t exactly inviting.  

 After exploring the Rim Road through the park, we drove Sage Creek Road which is a dirt road that passes through the preserved prairie.   It was cool to see the endless fields with prairie dogs, bison, and pronghorn deer.  I even drove for awhile and we just enjoyed the views.  The highlight of our day was seeing a golden eagle fly ever so close over us as we drove.  I didn’t get a great picture since we were traveling about 40 mph and the bird was flying, but it was definitely something we won’t forget.

We finally had a calm night although this time we were prepared for a storm.  The next morning, we left the park for the long drive to the Tetons, stopping in Buffalo, WY for a night.  It was nice to get a simple dinner from a family food truck and walk around the little town, ending the night with some ice cream.  Next stop: Grand Tetons National Park.

Apologies for the Delay

Our apologies as we are behind on posting.  We haven't had nearly as much wireless access as we expected, but, more importantly, we are enjoying every possible moment outdoors in the parks.  A few posts will be forthcoming.