Road Trip Home - Day 2

Today was filled with with sightseeing activities. We started the day at the Mammoth Site across the street from our hotel in Hot Springs, SD. We arrived when they opened at 8am since we had so many things to do today. 

The site has the largest concentration of mammoth remains. They have uncovered 58 Columbian mammoths and 3 wooly mammoths so far at this sinkhole site. 

After our 30-minute tour and some time to roam around the display areas, we headed north to drive by the Crazy Horse Monument currently being constructed. 

We continued on to Mount Rushmore and stopped for a visit. 

Then we headed north to interstate 90 and stopped off at the infamously touristy Wall Drugs before driving through the Badlands National Park. 

The drive through Badlands was beautiful. We stopped at many of the pullouts and the visitors center along highway 240. 

We returned to I-90 and headed towards Mitchell, SD; home of the Corn Palace. About halfway there we had a problem with the van. It started shaking and dashboard lights came on. Luckily there was a rest area right in front of us so we pulled off the road to check things out. A state trooper took Vince to a service station to get some oil since it was low. We added some oil but couldn't figure out what else was wrong. All the lights on the dash turned off except the engine light. We decided to proceed cautiously, stopping every couple of hours and setting the speed a little lower.

A little engine trouble didn't stop us from visiting the Corn Palace. It was closed by the time we got there and they were doing major remodeling in the front of the building. 

We decided to drive through the night instead do stopping in Sioux Falls so the engine wouldn't be stressed by the hotter temperatures during the day. We finally arrived home at 9am after a total of 4700 miles of driving. 

We were all tired and happy to be home. It was a pleasure to have been able to experience such a beautiful and exciting trip. 

Road Trip Home - Day 1

This morning we left Flagg Ranch and drove through Yellowstone to the east exit. We said goodbye to the elk and bison. 

We drove east on ALT 14 through the Bighorn National Forest. 

We took a slight detour to visit Devils Tower. 

Then we headed south to Hot Springs, SD. We arrived late so we plan to start our day tomorrow at the Mammoth Site across the street from our hotel. 

Last Day in Yellowstone - Grand Canyon

We started our last day in the parks by heading up to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. 

We saw several bison on our trip. Many of them were causing traffic jams. 

We stopped at Mud Volcano and Dragon's Breath. It smelled so bad; we didn't stay long. 

Then we continued to the Canyon Village Visitor Center to get some advice on how to best see the canyon and falls. 

We drove up the one-way North Side Rim Road and stopped at the first parking spot we found. We walked along the rim taking pictures along the way. 

We decided to hike down into the canyon a bit on the Red Rock Trail to get a better view of the falls. 

We hiked back up and returned to the car. Vince was the only one with enough energy to complete the last hike, Brink of the Lower Falls. The end of this trail is a platform hovering above the top of the falls. 

(Picture coming soon)

Our next stop, a 2 hour drive later, was Leeks Pizzaria, about 15 miles south of the south entrance. It was crowded so we figured it must be good. 

We'll head back to our cabin now and pack up for our 3-day road trip home. 

Grand Tetons - Death Canyon and Swan Lake

Today we drove south to Moose Junction so we could hike the Death Canyon trail. 

The trail climbed up for a mile to the Phelps Lake Overlook. 

Then we hiked down towards the lake before heading into the canyon. 

We hiked a couple of miles into the canyon before heading back. We stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge for a late lunch/early dinner at the Pioneer Grill. 

Then we drove to Colter Bay for one last hike - a 3-mile loop alongside Swan Lake and Jackson Lake. 

We were all done hiking so we headed back to our cabin for the night. We'll plan our last day in the parks before our drive back home on Friday. 

Major accomplishment of the trip... Today we found license plates from the last 2 states... Delaware and West Virginia. Seventeen days into the trip we have found license plates from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (We also found 7 Canadian Provinces.) Yeah!!! Now we can stop looking at license plates. 

Grand Teton National Park - Jenny Lake

Today was another memorable day. We headed south from our cabin at Flagg Ranch and entered Grand Teton National Park. 

We stopped at the Colter Bay Visitor Center for trail recommendations and the location of moose habitats. 

Based on those recommendations, we headed to the String Lake trailhead. From there we walked south to the northern tip of Jenny Lake.  We walked along the western side of the lake then hiked up to Hidden Falls...

then climbed the steep and rocky trail to Inpiration Point.

We took a break at here before walking into Cascade Canyon. As we started to enter the canyon, we could see that a storm was coming. 

We secured all of our electronics in plastic ziplock bags. We decided to continue on since there was no lightning and thunder, just rain. 

But then the lightning appeared and the thunder echoed in the canyon. We sought shelter under a group of pine trees along with 3 other families caught in the storm. When the next bolt of lightning appeared, Amanda took a video (just audio since the camera was in her pocket staying dry) of the the thunder echoing in the canyon. 

(I'll post the video here soon, if possible)

A few seconds later we saw dust rising on the mountain to our right and the roar of a rock slide that lasted a couple of minutes. We figure that lightning strike must have hit the mountain. We hoped the rock slide didn't block our trail back to the car. 

After about 20 minutes the storm had passed through. The other families headed back down the trail but we decided to keep hiking into the canyon, giving the steep trail down a chance to dry out. 

The weather in the canyon was beautiful and we were nearly the only people there since everyone else had headed down. 

We headed back down to Jenny Lake and took pictures of our storm shelter on the way down. 

When we finally returned to our car, after 10 miles of hiking, we decided to drive down to Jackson Hole for dinner and ice cream. 

On our drive back to our cabin, we took a detour to drive down a road that goes along a stream that the rangers told us they had seen moose in the past. We got lucky and saw 2 bull moose on our drive. Again, it was getting dark so picture-taking was difficult. 

We finally got back to our cabin at 10:30, took showers and decided we would sleep in tomorrow morning before heading up to the geyser basins in Yellowstone tomorrow. 

Yellowstone National Park - Geyser Basins

Today we traveled north into Yellowstone to visit the geyser basins on the southwest side of the park. We started at the north end by driving along the one-way Firehole Lake Drive in the Lower Geyser Basin. 

We stopped for a picnic lunch at the Firehole picnic area before heading to the Midway Geyser Basin to see the Silex Spring and the Grand Prismatic Spring. 

We also stopped at Biscuit Basin before ending up at the Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful. 

We walked around the boardwalks to view the other geysers in the area. Castle Geyser went off as Amanda and Vince were passing by. 

(Picture coming soon)

We ended our evening with one last eruption at Old Faithful with front-row, upwind seats that Vince and Amanda secured for us. 

(Picture coming soon)

While the sights we saw today were amazing and beautiful, we will be happy to leave the crowds behind tomorrow and hit the hiking trails again. 

Road Trip - Glacier to Yellowstone

We hit the road early this morning. We stayed up late watching bears on our hotel porch. First a cinnamon colored black bear walked by then a momma black bear and her cub. 

Our first stop on the trip was in Helena, MT where we stopped for lunch at Steve's Cafe. Kasey's order was the best - huckleberry stuffed French toast. 

We arrived at the north entrance to Yellowstone around 5:30 pm and saw elk grazing in the construction area near the hotel. 

We stopped at Mammouth Hot Springs and walked along the boardwalks and climbed to the top of the springs. The sulfur smell was strong but it was such an unusual sight to see so we endured the smell. 

We headed south to Old Faithful but it was almost 8 pm when we arrived. The visitors' center closed at 8 and Old Faithful  wasn't expected to erupt for another hour so we decided to come back another time during our stay. We continued driving to our cabin just south of the south entrance.

We saw bison on the way...

and a beautiful sunset over the lake. 

We finally reached our cabin just after 9pm.