This is to be our last day of "all-out" driving before getting roughly to our destination (which is northwest Wyoming, where Yellowstone and Grand Teton NPs are located). Several in the group, however, have indicated an interest in some of the neat attractions of the Western-South Dakota and eastern-Wyoming region. So pencilled into the day's agenda are stops at Badlands National Park, Mt. Rushmore, and Devil's Tower.
We start off in a pea-soup fog, that, much to my annoyance, prevents us from exploiting the very useful 125km/hr+ speed limit of the interstates around here. Eventually we drive west out of the stuff and into a dry hot day. We are now fully in prairie country, although it is not always flat. Driving west on I-90, we pass endless cheesy billboards, not the least of which are the infamous "Wall Drug" signs.
courtesy Markus
courtesy Markus
A quick breakfast stop at McDonalds (which Ewart refers to as McYukYuks) satisfies the grumbling belly of Markus. Soon we're at the entrance to Badlands NP, where Markus buys a Golden Eagle pass (which for $50 allows access to all National Park Units for 1 year). It is a super-hot but clear day, and the badlands formations shimmer in the heat-haze. We opt for a short hike (< 2k) to a lookout in the badlands.... which we do in full touron garb: sandals, no packs, minimal water, no sunscreen, etc..... very bad! It gets us out of the vehicles and into the landscape, though. Luc goes "Egyptian" style, taking his t-shirt off and tying it around his head.
courtesy Markus
courtesy Markus
I'm driving Markus' car at this point, and notice that the A/C does work, albeit only for brief intervals. Our day continues with a drive through the rest of the park on the Badlands loop, and then its on to the Black Hills and a brief look at Mt Rushmore. We balk at the $8 per person entrance charge and decide to instead snap a few pics from the entrance lot... and then its off to Wyoming and Devil's Tower (whew, quite a whirlind tour for just one day!).
Devil's
Tower, of course, was made famous by the Speilberg movie "Close
Encounters of the Third Kind" (
http://www.filmsite.org/clos.html).
The striking tower features prominently in the movie and I can't
help but hear the 5-tone sequence made famous by the movie every
time I see it. In the movie, the final sequence has the principle
characters "hiking" to the top of the tower.... which
is impossible when you see the tower for real. From all sides it
is a technical rock climb to the top.
Although most of us are content with a drive-stop-drive type of stop, Markus is feeling that we haven't done this place justice and makes waves about not doing the short circumnavigation hike of the tower. So we agree to do just that and we make the [admittedly pleasant] stroll around the tower. We note a few climbers on the tower.
courtesy Markus
[no text specified]
Through the grapevine I hear that it is Peter's birthday today. I'm thinking we need to do something special, but so far the opportunity has not presented itself....
At this point it is getting to the end of the day and thoughts turn to what we are going to do for the night and for tomorrow. My hope is to get our first major adventure underway tomorrow.... namely a two-day backpack in Yellowstone national park. A bit of careful
In Their Own Words...
Peter: "Today we are in the badlands of South Dakota, where we hop out for a short hike. Later we take a few snaps of Mt. Rushmore, but didn't enter the tourist area. Later in the day we came upon Devils Tower in Wyoming which we hiked around taking many pictures."
planning is required, however: we're still a good 500 km away from Yellowstone, and we haven't yet been to a grocery store to get the supplies we need for the backpack. Additionally, tomorrow is a Sunday and we are in sleepy Wyoming.... and we're afraid that everything will be closed (we've all experienced what closing hours are like in the rural west before). So the first order of business is to hit a grocery store before closing hours hit, then drive as far as possible before nightfall so that our drive to Yellowstone tomorrow is minimized.
We drive south from Devil's Tower back to I-90 (on gas fumes, since the Van is very nearly empty). At I-90 we stop in the town of Moorcroft to fill up. Right next to the gas station is a reasonable-sized grocery store that is open! Great! A short shopping session gets us completely ready food-wise for the backpack. All we have to do now is drive as far west as we can.
In Their Own Words...
Caroline: "The Badlands... not bad, really. You 've got to appreciate the diversity of this desolate landscape and the occasional striking colors... I've always been drawn by desertic places such as this one. It's definitely worth coming back.
When I was old enough to read, I reveled in the Atlas and encyclopedias we had at home. In one of them, was a section on the United States which included pictures of Mount Rushmore and the Devil's Tower. Since that time, I have been wanting to see those marvels. My earlier travels took me elswhere, but now I would finally get my chance. I didn't expect to climb anything, to hike on trails... only one glimpse would be rewarding... well, it was totally worth it!
As I recalled my "stone sculpting" days in university, I was simply impressed by the monumental work."
With Ewart and Markus in Markus' car and the rest of us in the Van we head west into the setting sun. Wyoming is really quite a pleasant place to drive through - very western-ranchy type of feel. Ewart's avoidance skills are useful in a very close encounter between Markus' car and a deer on I-90. Meanwhile, back in the van, the laptop has become a veritable information centre: picture repository, real-time map display, music centre, and video game console. Luc has taken to playing his eclectic selection of CDs for the listening pleasure (or non-pleasure) of the Van's occupants. There are a few testy words between PG and Luc over the value (or lack of value) of some of Luc's Jazz selections, and on the merits of Jazz in general, but on the whole everything is fairly harmonious.
A
large mountain range looms ahead of us as we drive west. They are
the Bighorn mountains, and are the first major range of the rockies
that we have encountered. We need to cross that range in order to
get to Yellowstone. We have decided to take the northern route across
(US 14) and so we head up I-90 to the little town of Sheridan. It
is getting dark and we decide to settle down there for the night.
Ewart and Luc are not up for the motel experience, so with Markus'
car they go off to find a quiet field outside of town. The rest
of us opt for a bed and a shower at the very "home-y"
Parkway Motel in Sheridan. Turns out they have some very useful
room accommodations for the light sleepers among us. They have a
couple of units for us which each have separate beds in separate
rooms. Very handy, and not very expensive. Also I'm feeling a bit
bad that we haven't been able to work in a Birthday surprise for
Peter, but the opportunity never really presented itself properly.
Oh well, perhaps we can give him a belated birthday sometime over
the next few days.
We agree to meet Luc and Ewart a little ways up the highway at 6am sharp the next morning. From there, we proceed up twisty and turny highway 14 up into the Bighorn mountains. I drive Markus' car in order to get some enjoyment out of the twisties! For some reason, Markus' A/C has started to operate solidly again, which is most handy.
Highway 14 continues to gain altitude and brings us into completely different scenery. We encounter a lot of open range signs... and they mean it. Herds of cattle and sheep are everywhere, frequently blocking the road. As Markus has noted before... in the east you sometimes see cattle warning signs but you never encounter them, whereas out west you see the signs more rarely but you always seem to encounter cattle blocking your path. I had to slowly drive my car towards a mass of sheep blocking the road to get them to move.
courtesy Luc
The highway, having crossed the spine of the Bighorn Mountains, descends down into the basin to the west. As it does so, it passes through some very Colorado plateau-ish scenery (very Grand-Canyon like). Not to mention that the road is even more superbly twisty than on the way up. After a bit of spirited driving (we've left behind the van a while back, it not being a very sporting vehicle), I stop Markus' car at a lookout for a picture.
Is this the Colorado Plateau?
Very quickly I notice brake smoke coming up from the front fenders..... ok, no stopping here! we continue along at a slower pace to cool off the red-hot brakes. Eventually the van (being driven by Ewart) catches up and we are off straight west to Cody, Wyoming - the last stop before Yellowstone National Park.
Airport Graveyard?
Along the way we encounter an old airplane graveyard/storage facility of sorts - with many interesting vintage planes in storage or in salvage. A long row of what look like B-29 bombers sit silent in the distance. We stop for a bit of poking around and picture-taking.
Cruisin' in the Markusmobile
The road continues west, straight west (and I mean straight) to Cody. The landscape is open, dry and the road deserted.... so we take advantage of that with some goodly speeds (and with Notre-dame-de-protection as protection, of course). It isn't long before we are in Cody, WY, for a gas stop and a "McYukYuk's" [Ewart's term for McDonald's] stop. Ewart happens to be driving, and so much to his displeasure he has his first drive-through experience. The drive-through staff royally screws up a bunch of our orders (never seen it quite that bad before).
courtesy Markus
I must've said something
As an aside, you'll notice I'm not giving too much story space to the weather. That's because the weather is turning out to be pretty consistent : clear, dry, hot, sunny. So unless I say otherwise, you can assume that's what the weather is like.
In Their Own Words...
Ewart: "This is the first time I have ever been through a MacDonalds, or MacMuckYucks as I prefer to call it, drive-thru. I refuse to order anything from this establishment myself, but take the orders for the others in the van. I have real difficulty understanding Caroline's pronunciation of "hash browns", with her heavy French accent, and not having heard of "hash browns" before/not being familiar with MacTalk. After 3 unsuccessful attempts at trying to understand what she wants, we mutually decide that it is probably better for Caroline to place the order herself. The MacGal on the other end of the microphone is a few slices short of a loaf. As Caroline speaks "Sausage and egg MacMuffin with cheese, and hash browns" into the microphone, she is asked whether she wants cheese, and to repeat the last portion of her order. At this point, Peter and I are in laughter. On repeating, Caroline is not sure that she has included the "hash browns" as the price for the order has not changed. We drive through to the hatch to pick up the order, at which point the MacGal asks her to repeat the last part of her order again. So I am not the only one that does not understand Caroline's MacParlez. I begrudgingly accept the brown bag through the hatch, and pass on to the occupants to consume."
Caroline:
[On McDonalds]
"What you have to admire about McD is that where ever you are on this planet, it always tastes the same, and things are called the same. I tought I would instill in Ewart some McCulture by letting him order my breakfast. Ewart is hopeless. I'm thinking he needs more training on the subject. As I try to order my exra "hash browns", both Ewart and Peter are laughing at the conversation taking place between me and the machine. I don't think there is another item on the menu that even comes close to sound like "hash browns". How hard can it be to understand ? There are no "cash crowns" or "mash frowns" on the menu. That, I know for sure !!!! I miss Timmy's...."
[On cows and sheep]
"wow ! This certainly has a europeen feel to it ! In any case I got to practice my cow and sheep calls.."
