Starting East

We had originally planned to drive all the way to the Pacific Ocean, but decided to scrap that plan as it would have added more miles than we wanted and felt rushed.  So, after Glacier we started to head east.  After Montana we went back into Wyoming briefly and across South Dakota.  Here's some of what we saw on that stretch.

This is Devil's Tower in northeastern Wyoming.  It is a giant rock in the middle of nowhere basically that was formed by an igneous intrusion.  That is, magma cooling and solidifying before it reaches the surface and then the surrounding area eroding away and you have what you see today.  It's pretty big, you can see a speck of a person on the rocks at the bottom.

There are large caves in the Black Hills in western South Dakota.  We visited two and both have interesting calcite formations.  Jewel Cave is on top and that calcite looks kinda like brains.  If it wasn't dirty it would be white and glisten like crystal.  Wind Cave is the second picture and it has the greatest collection of boxwork in the world.  It's still calcite but it forms (from erosion because it's harder than the limestone around it) in a thin box like pattern.  Pictures in caves never come out great but the boxwork can be really creepy looking.  It would be a good setting for a horror movie.

Wind Cave also has some nice hikes.  Christiana did this one herself and is relaxing by a creek here.

Custer, South Dakota is one of the main tourist towns in the Black Hills because it's right in the middle of most of the attractions.  Caves, parks, Mount Rushmore are all less than a half hour away.  This also attracts some quirky museums as well like the National Museum of Woodcarving.  It's really a showcase of the life's work of Harvey Niblack.  He did thousands of elaborate animated wood carvings and even did some work for Disneyland.  A lot them of are pretty strange scenes like an 1800's dentist office complete with movement to simulate ripping out a tooth.

Mount Rushmore is an interesting place to visit to learn about its creation, but it honestly doesn't look a ton different in person than in pictures.  They were supposed to do more (like give Washington a full coat) but the creator died and then World War II happened so work stopped.  

One cool story: workers had a baseball team in the South Dakota amateur league and there was a famous game where both pitchers had no hitters going into the 10th before Mount Rushmore had a walk and a triple to score the winning run.  They guy who hit the triple is the only surviving driller who worked on Mount Rushmore and was there signing books when we visited.

The workers played cribbage in their downtime so we had to play a game their too.  This was when we were waiting for the nightly lighting ceremony which is so patriotic it feels like American propaganda.  That small bit of cynicism aside, it was a cool ceremony and they call down all active and former military at the end and have them give their names and branch which is nice.

Here's the Badlands.  Nice to look at for a second driving through and then you move on.  Also the ranger didn't want to give Christiana a junior ranger book so we didn't stay long.  On to Minnesota!

Crown of the Continent, Backbone of the World: Part II, East Glacier

Driving around to the east side of Glacier, we stopped at Two Medicine to check out the "trick" waterfalls. Notice there are two.

Also, the rocks. Their color variation in the combination in which we see it is also caused by glacial movement. Each color essentially  represents a different set of millions of years. We get to see them all together because the glaciers grind things up and push them together. Also at Two Medicine, we were treated to some lovely lunch conversation.  We sidled  up next to a picnic bench with the best view, and got to chatting with Shawn and Kim. A heart attack at 51 prompted a life change and they sold everything, bought an RV and are traveling the US 150 miles at a time. Check out their blog here: ktmissouri.blogspot.com . We never cease to bump into fellow travelers who just reinforce that  if you work to make it real, anything is possible. Shawn and I both agreed, it's amazing what you can manage to do if you're willing to crunch a few numbers. 

Up to Many Glacier, this is the view from our "lake level" room

We were excited for the hiking at Many Glacier, and kicked off the day with a boat ride and the ranger guided hike to Grinnell Lake

Check us out at Grinnell Lake

Looking back at the boat on Lake Josephine

Our second hike of the day was to get as far up the Grinnell Glacier Lookout trail as the park service would let us go (the full trail won't  open until July when they blast away the remaining snow with dynamite). This is the bear grass glacier post card shot.  Misnomer on bear grass though, bears don't eat it, and it is not a grass.

On the trail we met a couple celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. They took this photo for us. Maybe in 20 years we'll  be able to hike this trail again, we'll have to see how the knees hold up, it is well over 5 miles with a 1600ft elevation change.

This was as far as we could get, but it proved to be probably our favorite hike in the park, and maybe a favorite view too. On the upper left-middle, the round snow section is Gem glacier, next to it on, the right, sort of in the bowl of the mountain, Grinnell Glacier, and to the right of that, Salamander glacier. Feast your eyes now, because it's  likely that by 2030, these won't  be glaciers anymore (global warming is real!)

Looking back at the Many Glacier lodge, this swiss chalet style attracted wealthy Americans back in the 20's under the slogan, "See America First", as promoted by the great northern railroad  company. Now it feels a little hokey, and kind of big. If you could pick up Lake MacDonald Lodge and put it down here instead, you'd have a pretty winning combination. But seriosuly, no complaints,  this park is awesome.

Crown of the Continent, Backbone of the World: Part one, West Glacier

Glacier National Park.  I've wanted to visit since I did that project back in elementary school. Very happy to finally get here, as it did not disappoint.  The park  is big, not quite Yellowstone, but still rather large. One road bisects the park in two, but  it doesn't fully open until  later in June, sometimes July.  So we started on one side, and went the long way around to the other. Here, we start with West Glacier.

Glaciers hikes are awesome in their approachability and variety. We started with the Hidden Lake Hike up at Logan Pass. Yes, there's  still at least a foot of snow on the ground here.

And the trail is straight  up this slippery hill, see those tiny people, center left?

But this awesome glacial lake view is the pay off

And so is this, the mom and baby mountain goat who followed us for a little while

To get to Logan Pass, you travel that road that bisects the park. It's  called the Going to the Sun road, named for the mountain at the center of the pass. You can only get to Logan Pass because the rest of the road has not been plowed yet. And yes, it's the first week in June. This plow crew sometimes moves drifts up to 90ft thick. And take a look at that view, a minor retaining wall, and a giant valley, I wouldn't want to be this plow driver.

Hike to Avalanche Lake, one of Jim's  favorite for its 3 waterfalls

The national parks service also provided us this haiku

Since the road opened in the 20s, one of the things you could do was take a red bus up the Going to the Sun road, since, when driving it yourself, it's a little tricky to fully take in all the scenery.  Though we had driven this road the day before, we opted in for the red bus tour, because you know, scenery plus history. The frame of the bus is orinially, a 1938 chasis built by White motor company Ohio. The engine is a 2000 Ford propane experiment. 

MacDonald creek, this  bright blue comes from "glacial flour" : the grinding of rocks into a fine powder by glacial movement. If you see this in the water,  you know you're around glaciers

The Lake MacDonald Lodge. Has a hostel in a refurbished 1920s log cabin. Since it gets below freezing at night,  we opted not to camp. The lodge, on the register of national historic places, was delightful. 

We added a few new stickers, and a hefty amount of dirt, to the Hamburglar.  Next stop, East Glacier.

Montana

Christiana has wanted to go to Montana ever since she was randomly assigned to do a project on it in the 5th grade.  I'm told there was a pretty sweet diorama of a mountain and a glacier but I digress.  It's a massive state (the 4th largest) but I think we hit some of the best parts.  I believe it lived up to the 20 years of hype created.

Missoula was a really fun place.  Big enough to have stuff going on, but still a relatively small town feel.  As you can see they have a carousel which was awesome in it's own right but also because as far as carousels go it hauled.  We also enjoyed Downtown Tonight which is a fair every Thursday in the summer with lots of local food and beer.

This is the ghost town of Garnet which we reached via an 11 mile dirt road.  It was a mining boomtown but completely dried up once the gold was gone.  It's one of the better preserved old mining ghost towns.   The old three story hotel is still preserved which was cool, but other than that it's mostly just small log buildings.

Bison art at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Great Falls.  The center gives a real nice overview of their journey.  In Great Falls they had to portage their boats 18 miles past five waterfalls.  It added about two weeks to their trip unexpectedly.

This monument signifies where Custer's last stand took place at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.  Of course this was the only major victory for Native Americans in the Sioux War.  The visitor center does a good job summarizing the events.

Of course probably the coolest part of Montana is Glacier National Park which we'll get to next.

Grand Teton

After the craze and vastness of Yellowstone, Grand Teton and it's relative smallness were a welcome respite. Plus, you can't  really beat the view. Interestingly,  Grand Teton is a recent  addition to the NPS, having only become one in the 1950's due to some philanthropic  and also perhaps underhanded land grabbing by the Rockefellers.

First order of business, float trip down the Snake river to take in the view

Walk around the glacial cold Lake Jackson. The Teton themselves, while impacted by glacial movements  over the past thousands of years, we're actually formed by what's called a common fault block. But it's actually not that common, only occurring elsewhere in Italy. It's the reason the mountains rise so dramatically,  as opposed to gradually in a range.

Hiking to Inspiration point on Jenny Lake

Hidden Falls 

Completing my Jr. Ranger Badge, I've lost count. 

And the wildlife highliht, this guy. We saw bears and goats and big horn sheep and wolves and pronghorn and bison and marmots and western Tangers, but couldn't manage to find a moose. On our way out of the park, after  complaining to a ranger that we couldn't  seem to find them ( and we went on several dusk hours long searches), she said to try one last area, Gros Venture. We almost didn't do it, feeling like we just didn't have the luck. Not even 100 feet down the road, there he was. Chomping away. Finally, our first North American Moose sighting.

Yellowstone highlights

Yellowstone is a massive park, bigger than Rhode Island plus Delaware. We spent 3 days exploring it, but surely it was not enough time. Luckily, the sun doesn't  set until after 10pm so you can put in 13 hour days exploring.

Here's  Jim at the Natural bridge off our campsite , Bridge Bay near Yellowstone Lake

As part of the ambitious Jr. Ranger program at Yellowstone, I was required to observe and measure scat. Here,you can see me measuring a nearly 9 inch buffalo chip.

Speaking of, check out this Buffalo relaxing in the Mud Volcano area of the park. As you likely know, what makes the unique features at Yellowstone, is the giant Caldera (a bowl like volcano). The proximity of all the molten magma and moving tectonic plates creates the unique geographic features. As our ranger reminded us, we were sleeping on  a giant volcano.

Watching Yellowstones's most famous feature,  Old Faithful.

Morning Glory pool

Travertines at Mammoth Hot Springs.  The second travertines we've seen after Pamukkale, Turkey.

Walking the trails around the Beaverponds

Pausing for a buffalo traffic jam

"The full Bean": LLBEAN shorts, long underwear, pullover, headlamp, etc...

Enjoying the view over Lake Yelowstone