South Dakota

Outside Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota

I’ve been pretty busy with work so not much time to post, but I’m still  trying to finish up the posts about the remainder of our cross-country trip. When we last left our intrepid family, they were experiencing varied adventures in and around Yellowstone National Park. From The Buffalo In The Road, to Where The Heck Is Our Cabin, to The Cow Skull Of Doom, it was quite the couple of days.

The creek right outside our Yellowstone cabin

We were sad to leave Yellowstone with so much left to see, but were happy to get on the road again. We had already been on the road for 11 days and were only in Wyoming! Time to get moving.

So on the morning of August 13^th we bade farewell to my Aunt and Uncle and headed out for points east. We made it to Rapid City, South Dakota after a long day on the road. Our route took us through Bighorn National Forest, which had some beautiful scenery.

At Bighorn National Forest. 

A while after getting on highway 90, we detoured off to see the Devil’s Tower, which is of course mandatory for any self-respecting fan of Close Encounters of The Third Kind. We didn’t make it all the way there, but got close enough for a scenic view:

 At the scenic overlook

With Charlie photobomb

We stayed in Rapid City SD that night. The next morning, the 14^th, we visited Mt. Rushmore. 

Heading to the colonnade

The carvings are incredibly impressive, and the visitor’s center was very nicely done. I particularly enjoyed learning how they carved the monument. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, made scale models which the workers used to figure out the location of the finished surface in order to calculate where to dynamite. This method was so successful that 90% of the carving was done by dynamite. We also took a walk for a closer view, although it was pretty hot out.

A closer look

The Nostril Viewpoint. No, that's not an official name or anything. :)

Apparently Thomas Jefferson was big on ice cream, so of course we had to have some while we were there:

Tasty!

Ice Cream = Thomas Jefferson

After Mount Rushmore, we headed to Wall Drug for some lunch and homemade donuts. I had no idea what to expect from Wall Drug – all I knew was that everybody said not to miss it so I expected something epic.

I was not disappointed.

Wall Drug is basically an Old West tourist trap on steroids, but with enough character and originality to make the kitchy-ness seem appealing and not overwhelming. We ate lunch in the Western Art Gallery room, where every wall was covered with Western paintings. We of course took advantage of the Free Ice Water and 5 Cent Coffee (well, I was the only one who had coffee).

FREE ICE WATER!!!11!!!1

After lunch we did some souvenir shopping, tried the shooting gallery, and admired the giant Jackalope statue. Outside there was also a water play area with water fountains shooting up out of the ground. Alice thought this was the best thing ever and played there for about 30 minutes. No surprise to anyone who follows me on facebook - my kids (especially Alice) are notorious for getting soaking wet whenever they possibly can.

She got soaked and was deliriously happy.

On the Jackalope

Sadly, we didn’t get to explore all of Wall Drug but we had a lot of ground yet to cover that day, so we bade farewell to the Jackalope, bought some housemade doughnuts to eat in the car, and headed out. That pretty much ended our Western adventures – we sped through the rest of South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois en route to my Dad’s house in Michigan. Partly because we were getting a bit tired of being on the road, and partly because there was not a whole lot to do along our route in those states. 

Yellowstone

Unfortunately we got a late start out of Teton Village on the 11th, so by the time we got up to Yellowstone we only had  few hours to look around. We started out at Old Faithful, of course. Alice was more interested by the many small logs near the boardwalk, so halfway through our walk around Old Faithful, she and Dan ran back so she could have some building time.

Dan and Charlie walking towards a non-erupting Old Faithful

Alice and her log creation. She was not happy when we had to go.

I had this plan to take a bicycle ride to see the Grand Prismatic Spring, so we decided not to stay to see Old Faithful erupt. Next time I guess. So we drove to the Fairy Falls trailhead.

Charlie at the beginning of the trail.

The Grand Prismatic Spring! Third largest hot spring in the world.

We walked up the hillside for a bit for a better view. 

After grabbing a late dinner in the park (worst noodle bowl I have ever had, but that's another story), we followed my Aunt and Uncle’s car to the nearby Ranch where we would spend the next two nights. Or rather, the Ranch that we thought was nearby. Turns out it was not near the park entrance like we thought, but was over 25 miles outside the park. Plus, the directions we had were less than precise, so we spent a while driving in the dark, wondering where the ranch was and hoping we didn’t miss it. We were exhausted but very relieved when we finally found it at 10pm. It was at this point Alice had her epic Cow Skull Meltdown.

As previously described, we all felt better the next morning after a good sleep (helped by my Aunt’s thoughtful offer of use of her jacket to cover the cow skull) and headed back into Yellowstone.

About 30 miles into the park, we were stopped dead in a  traffic jam. Knowing that traffic jams are frequently caused by wildlife gawkers, I decided to leave the minivan (which was not going anywhere) and see what I could find. 

What I found was a bison standing in the road, blocking traffic. Obeying the park regulations to stay at least 100 ft away from bison, this is the best picture I could take:

 

Fortunately a few minutes later the bison finished its slow crossing of the road, and traffic started to flow again. I managed to get a picture out of the window of the nearby bison herd. By pure luck it turned out to be a quintessential Yellowstone bison photo, with steam vents (fumaroles) and everything:

A few miles later there was another slowdown, this time caused by a bison walking right next to the road. I got a good photo of that one too:

  It was only about 8 feet away!

So, Bison In Yellowstone: CHECK. Plus, it gave me a great opportunity to trot out my favorite sentence in the English language: Buffalo buffalo, Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo. Yep, it actually makes sense.

Our main stop for the day was the Norris Geyser Basin. It was so neat to walk around all of the geysers, hot springs and fumaroles.

View of the basin. The two large fumaroles on the right were so powerful that they emitted a continuous roaring sound.

The kids and I with the large fumaroles in the background.

Some of the hot springs smelled strongly of sulfur.

It was so hot that Charlie was breathing steam (photo by Dan, who is the good photographer of the family) 

And Alice had steam coming out of her ears! (photo also by Dan)

Later, we visited one of the iconic Yellowstone General Stores:

We passed on the $850 willow rockers, but they were sure comfy!

We managed to get back to the Ranch with plenty of daylight left and even in time for a yummy al fresco BBQ dinner and s’mores! Our Yellowstone adventure thus ended on a positive note. 

Animal tally for day two: LOTS of bison, some elk eating by the side of the road, trumpeter swans in Yellowstone river, and some antelope. The only animal we missed was a bear, which, frankly, I was OK not seeing (Dan: "I'd like to see a bear, as long as it's across the river")

After enduring some more bison slowdowns on our way out (we were totally jaded by then), we summarized our day this way:

Bison Blocking.

Elks Eating.

Swans Swimming.

Unless it's a bear,

We don't care.

 

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