The Drive out West:
We left Chicago and headed towards the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone taking interstate 80.
The drive was actually fun and not long and boring as I had thought… to see the country in this way is actually very exciting. You see the farms of Illinois turn into farms in Iowa; to grazing land in Nebraska to long stretches of dirt in Wyoming and all very beautiful in their own way. Nothing is boring about it.
The first night we pulled into our reserved hotel room in Cozad NE. This was about half way to Grand Teton and Jackson Hole. And Cozad is about in the center of Nebraska
We stayed in a very clean and small Rodeway Inn.
The next day we traveled through Nebraska driving by Cabela%26#39;s world headquarters along Interstate 80 in Sidney, Nebraska.
In an hour or so we passed by Sierra Trading Company, which is headquartered n the eastern outskirts of Cheyenne …
As we got closer to Jackson, the land certainly changed from the farms of Illinois. The land was very hilly, brown and we could see mountain ranges. On the way in a few spots, we saw Pronghorn Antelope.
At Rock Springs, Wyoming, we turned onto Highway 191 and traveled north. In less than a hour, we started seeing the range that would make up the Tetons. We stopped for dinner at Pinedale.
We kept driving towards the mountains, which at this point were kind of forming a half circle around or “U” around the highway. We seemed to be heading straight towards the center of this. We entered the Bridger Teton National Forest and followed a river. The road followed a river and therefore was very windy. On each side of the river was towering mountains.
We arrived around 6 PM at the KOA at Hoback Junction, about 15 miles south of Jackson, Wyoming. This was a perfect place to spend the first night. This KOA had a great rate, a clean little cabin and a river running right below our cabin with the mountains on the other side.
Both of our driving days were beautiful sunny days. We loved the drive out west and seeing the country… it was very enjoyable.
Jackson:
Our third day on vacation, which was the Saturday of Labor day weekend, we arrived at the Grand Tetons and Jackson.
Right from the start we loved this very cute western town. They do a great job with keeping it well managed, clean, cute, western and for lack of better word… “cowboyish”.
We drove past the Snow King where we would be staying that night. We were very pleased with what we saw. We then traveled into the Grand Tetons. Our first stop was at the Moose Visitor Center. We loved the architecture of this building, looked around at all of the very nicely done exhibits and saw the movie.
We then drove into the park further and stopped at many official “stops/turnouts” places to see the beautiful Grand Teton range on this beautiful blue-sky day with no clouds. We even saw our first bison/buffalo. This beautiful western animal was in the far off distance.
At one of the “turnouts”, we met an older gentleman taking photos with a huge “expensive” older camera and then using a laptop. He mentioned to me to go to the Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve. They had just opened the visitor center in June and the hiking areas last fall. He said it was beautiful.
We continued driving north on highway 191 and got all the way up to Cunningham Cabin Historic Site. We marveled at the structure that this brave frontiersman built and were deeply impressed at how he had designed it with the little window. The little window perfectly built with the best view.
We then went back into Jackson. We stopped at the Buffalo meat place and looked around this cute little store. We then stopped at the Snow King and checked in. Knowing it was barely past 1 PM and check in was not until 4 PM, we knew that all we would be doing is the check in, but we were happily surprised that they got us into our room. We could not believe it. We brought our stuff in and just took it easy for a few minutes.
After a quick little rest, off we went walking into downtown Jackson. Downtown Jackson is a very cute town with a large green “town Square” in the center of the town. I had two things on my agenda of places to see – Cowboy bar and the Silver Dollar Inn. We wanted to have a nice lunch.
We sat at the Cowboy bar for a little bit and then went and had a very tasty lunch at the Silver Dollar.
I had heard of the Silver Dollar online, when enquiring into where to have a quality lunch. Many of the finer eating establishments in Jackson do not open until 5 PM and this did not fit well into our schedule. But, I got this info from someone really nice on tripadvisor.com and checked it out. We were very happy with the Silver Dollar… the food was excellent and just what I had been looking for. Quality Meat… just like what we had in Banff and Calgary. I guess it is called free-range beef. Tad had a buffalo burger and I had a hamburger.
This meat is so much better than a normal hamburger. It was similar to the hamburgers we had at the Calgary Stampede last year. I will never forget how tasty these hamburgers at the Calgary Stampede were. We had gone on a float trip a few days before going to the Stampede and all the families were telling us that we must have a hamburger there. I did not quite “get it” until I was at the Stampede and ate one – ever since then – I have been very hungry for one. So my main priority was to eat one… and that we did at the Silver Dollar. (this is from a person, that never makes food a priority, especially not on a vacation was to get one of these hamburgers while in Jackson)
We loved the décor of the Silver Dollar. The Silver Dollar truly was western and you truly felt like you were eating in a cowboy bar/restaurant. To me the place was much more of a restaurant than a bar. Although there was a bar in the corner, most people were sitting at tables and eating. (Which I much preferred over it being a bar - with a bar like atmosphere) I truly thank this very helpful person on the tripadvisor.com.
After lunch, we walked around a little more. I saw some of the other places I wanted to see in downtown Jackson and had read about. This included seeing the beautiful photography in the photography shops and seeing a few of the other fine restaurants. (That do not open up until 5 PM.)
We walked back to the Snow King and took it easy for a few hours. We then took the free bus back into downtown Jackson for the shoot-out at 6 PM. The bus driver said that there is bus that you can pick up from the rodeo that goes to the Snow King at 9:30 PM. He also mentioned that he is the driver of this bus. We said good-by to this very helpful bus driver.
We walked over to the Green/Town Square. Many people were assembling there and getting ready to see the shoot-out. This is a “must see” when visiting Jackson. The shoot-out was much bigger and better than I thought it was going to be. It is performed by singers/dancers/actors from a nightly western show in Jackson. They do an excellent job. There are a lot of guns that go off, much singing, dancing and silly cowboy stuff. It is a quality entertainment and very fun.
We then went to the Rodeo. It starts at 8 PM. We really liked it. It is small, but that is what we liked about it. We were close up the action of the rodeo and could see it very clearly. The only other rodeo we had been too was at the Calgary Stampede. We liked the Calgary stampede so much that we wanted to see another rodeo. So we went to the one in Jackson. We knew that we had seen the largest and best rodeo in Calgary and we knew that the rodeo in Jackson would be much smaller, but that it what we wanted. It was good to get closer to the action.
And… sure enough we boarded the bus at 9:30 PM right across the street from the rodeo and it was the same bus driver… he picked us up and then dropped us off at the Snow King.
We got back to the Snow King and walked around a bit. There were a couple of weddings going on and it was beautiful.
Phelps Lake Day:
We began the day by stopping at the Moose Visitor Center once again to find out how to get to Phelps Lake. On our way down Moose road and into Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve, we saw a moose running at full speed across the road. This was the only moose we saw on our trip and it is funny that we saw the moose on Moose road near Moose Visitor Center.
(the following is a paragraph from the dictionary about the Preserve)
Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve is a 1,106 acre refuge within Grand Teton National Park on the southern end of Phelps Lake. The site was originally known as the JY Ranch, a dude ranch. Starting in 1927, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. purchased much of the land in Jackson Hole for the creation of Jackson Hole National Monument and the expansion of Grand Teton National Park. But he retained the 3,100 acre (12.5 km²) JY Ranch as a family retreat.[1] Over the years the family gave most of the ranch to the national park. Laurance S. Rockefeller donated the final parcel in 2001. The donation came with special preservation and maintenance restrictions, with the vision that the preserve remain a place where visitors can experience a spiritual and emotional connection to the beauty of the lake and the Teton Range.
Yep, Phelps Lake…. We just had to go there this year… the Year of PHELPS. I found it funny how this beautiful place was opened up so beautifully this year… the year of Phelps….
The area that Phelps Lake is located in is called the Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve. The hiking paths opened up last fall and the beautiful very “green” visitor center opened in June. We just loved this place.
We hiked all around Phelps Lake. The hike was about 6 miles. It is relatively flat, but a little hilly in spots. I was amazed to find out that Phelps Lake had somewhat the appearance of the grand lakes up in the Canadian Rockies. Phelps Lake is glacier fed and therefore has the glacier silt which makes the water this beautiful color. They purposely put the visitor center away from the lake with a nice little hike over to the lake. Everything is very planned out and very “green”.
After the hike we saw more of the “green” visitor center. We really admired how they built and designed this building. I particularly liked the “sound” display in back. We heard from the nice attendant at the information desk that a ranger would be speaking about the building in the next few minutes. We stayed and very much enjoyed learning more about the creation of this very well thought out building, the history of the Rockefeller preserve and the design of the land.
We were very glad that we had met up with the guy with the old expensive camera and heard from him about beautiful Phelps Lake and the Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve.
After the hike, we drove up to Colter Bay were we would stay for 3 nights. On the way up, we took Teton Park Road. This road is built closer to the mountains. We stopped at Jenny Lake and a few other stops. It was “gray out” and as we got closer to Colter Bay it began to rain. It did not bother us because the weather had been beautiful for our hike at Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve.
When we reached Colter Bay, it was raining out. We checked in and got settled into our cabin room. We were in a building with 4 rooms all sharing a bathroom. This was not bad at all and for the price of $50 a night no complaints from us. Everything was very clean and well kept. We were also very happy with the location of this building because we were close to the lake and also to the restaurants. For dinner, we had a buffalo burger from the cafeteria. That night we took it easy and planned our next few days in the Grand Tetons. The rain continued to come down.
That night, we did take the time to try to cancel our float trip. We wanted to cancel it because it was much colder in the mornings than we thought it would be and I had a sore throat.
Rainy Day at the Tetons….
When I think of this day the first thing that comes to my mind is rain, but also with that comes “boy the Tetons are so beautiful that they are even beautiful in the rain”. The clouds hitting the mountains actually seemed very interesting and had a certain kind of beauty to them.
We started this rainy day with a drive up Signal Mountain. Even though it was very cloudy, we could still see the views.
We then did the Jenny Lake scenic drive and stopped at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center. My initial plan was to take the boat over to the waterfall/Inspiration Point (this is the boat’s destination point) and then hike 8 miles in the canyan/mountains. But, with the rain and uncertain weather conditions being so far away on a hike into the mountains did not seem like the thing to do. So we took the Jenny Lake hike from the visitor center to the waterfall and up to Inspiration Point. The waterfall was very beautiful and worth seeing and Inspiration point was equally as good. From Inspiration Point, one can truly see the glaciers in the mountains. It was very obvious that it had snowed up there that night.
Jenny Lake’s Visitor Center is nice, but not nearly as nice as the other ones we had seen in the park.
We drove back to Colter Bay and checked in to see what was going on with our float trip. The cancellation policy is to cancel 72 hours before the event. We had cancelled after that time. So we were not sure what was going to happen. We thought, worst-case scenario, we just go later in the day or possibly with all this rain and cold maybe they would cancel it. We checked and they were very nice. They let us cancel the trip and then we just had to take another trip. We choose the sunset boat cruise for the following day hoping that the weather would be better.
We had planned on eating at Jackson Lake Lodge the last night there, but due to the float trip, which is now a scenic cruise, we had no choice but to head on over for dinner.
We got there early about 4 PM and walked around and saw the beautiful National Park Lodge. We loved the location. The mountains were spectacular and the huge prairie/wetland in front of the mountains that the lodge overlooked…where we knew that moose and elk, bears, etc could be seen was amazing. When we got there, we could see all of this.
We got a 5 PM Dinner reservation and got in right at 5 PM. We loved the service, the food, the murals and the décor of the room. The most outstanding feature is the view that everyone in the whole dinning room can see. We sat at a table right at the window. The view was great even when the sky became grayer and the clouds covered up the mountains.
As we drove back to Colter Bay, we could not believe our eyes… as we were driving a wolf and a very large wolf at that… ran at full speed across the road… almost in a leap across to the other side of the road.
(I picture a wolf with outstretched front legs and outstretched backlegs - in a full – leap across the road) we were in shock for a minute after it happened. I do not think I will ever forget that…
Last Day in the Tetons:
This day we started off early, once again it was gray and cloudy, but we could tell that the sun would be out today. (The previous day was Labor Day. Why is it that on every Labor Day and Memorial Day it rains (lol))
We accidentally missed our turn on the highway and we were very thankful we did. This put us at Oxbow Bend area right at dawn. Here we saw huge herds of elk with some having huge antlers. We pulled off here, had breakfast and just hung out until the sun started coming out and breaking up the clouds. Although there were still a lot of dark looking clouds in spots.
Our hike today was the Lupine Meadows Hike and then onto Amphitheater Lake. We got a much later start than we had wanted to.
The hike goes straight up for about 4 miles. We had done this many times in the last couple of years. This was nothing new to us. We got almost all the way to the top to the smaller switchbacks and noticed dark clouds coming in again. We have never not gotten to our destination on a hike, but decided to turn around and go down. I was disappointed at first.
As we hiked, we had heard that it had snowed up there that night. We saw about 10 men who had backpacked up there the previous day (most likely in the rain) and had camped. They were a backpacking club out of Texas. They were coming down from Lupine Meadows and reported snow. They said that the snow had melted in spots along the trail. We also saw people carrying up snowboards. I was sad that we were not going to continue, but knew that the weather was threatening and that we had to get back for the Sunset cruise. We also wanted to take advantage that it was still a sunny day, although in spots were threatening clouds. We also knew that if we were to get to the top that the top was covered in clouds and that we would not have a good view.
I loved the beautiful lake that you see on this hike. It looked like Lake Louise and had that beautiful color to it. I believe it is Bradley Lake.
We got down, stopped at a few stops and did the scenic Jenny Lake Drive again. We stopped at String Lake. It was sunnier over here. String Lake’s water was an amazing color. I really loved this area. We hiked here along the banks of this waterway for about 2 or 3 miles. String Lake sits in the middle and connects Leigh Lake to the north and Jenny Lake to the south.
We then made a stop at the scenic lookout at Jenny Lake. This is very nice place to see Jenny Lake. It seems like this “stop” is directly across from the waterfall and Inspiration Point. We could see the Jenny Lake Marina and knew that the Jenny Lake Visitor Center is very close to that.
On our way to Colter Bay we decided to drive up Signal Mountain and see the views. This time the weather was better and we were in luck with better views.
We got into Colter Bay and found out that the cafeteria was closed for the season. We just ate tuna and crackers. No time to wait for the opening of the restaurant at 5:30 that night. We had to get on board our cruise at 5:45.
We then went to the Colter Bay Marina… and hopped on board.
I was so happy that we did this cruise. It was worth it. The cruise director was a fun loving person who shared a lot of interesting info about the area.
On this trip, we first saw huge Roosevelt Elk, then bald eagles sitting in a tree and other wildlife. The scenery was beautiful. I loved how the mountains seemed to go all the way down to the lake.
The sunset cruise on Jackson Lake was a great way to end the Grand Teton segment of out trip.
Of course here I have to mention that we got off the boat and walked around the water area and bumped into a couple from Appleton (my hometown). (lol) I was wearing a Green Bay Sweatshirt… so they asked me about it … and they said that they were from a town near Green Bay. Tad asked which town – they said Appleton. (lol)
Yellowstone:
Today we got up very early and made our way in almost dark to Yellowstone.
We passed by Flagg Ranch and I thought of Becky and family who had camped here a year ago. It seemed like a really good place to be if you wanted to be close to both National Parks, were camping and had a trailer. Once in Yellowstone and being in Canyon, I really appreciated Flagg Ranch. It was actually closer to Old Faithful than Canyon is.
We ate a really nice buffet breakfast at the Lake House at Grant Village. I really liked this casual restaurant on the lake. I also noticed the newer looking places to stay in Grant Village. It was too early to visit the Visitor Center had not opened for the day yet.
We made our way to the West Thumb area and had our first “geo-thermal” adventure and taste. Once we parked, we noticed all the elk in this area. We took many pictures and then we walked around the geysers. This was a beautiful area.
It was raining….. I got an idea and thought “why don’t we go all the way over to Mammoth Hot Springs today” on this rainy day and get the furthest place to drive to done on a rainy day and not on a nice day when we would much more prefer to be hiking or seeing the sights. I also was on my 10th day of a sore throat (I have never been sick on a trip except for catching something on the last few days of a Caribbean trip a few years ago and I really do not get sick that much, but for a frustrating sore throat once a year. This year the sore throat thing hit a couple of times – yuk. Why now I say… yikes) I am not sure why on this vacation I had to be sick. But, I was “dealing with it”. We drove all the way to Mammoth and it was a bit of a drive.
Going past Hayden Valley we saw a ton of buffalo.
We hiked and saw the Mammoth Terraces.
We then drove down to Gardiner. We particularly liked the scenery on the way down to this very small touristy town. We stopped at the pharmacy. This very nice and helpful pharmacist helped us. We called our doctor and found out that he was out for the day. The nurses said that he would most likely tell me to go to a clinic. I decided to “just grin and bear it” and deal with out an antibiotic…(oh well). On the way back on up to Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped and took pictures of the North entrance stone structure called the Roosevelt Arch.
I particularly liked the beautiful elk with the big antlers just sitting in the middle of Mammoth Hot Springs. There are so many buildings here for the park that it kind of looks like a town… it is a sight to be hold.
The sun was out now and everything looked great.
We then drove back to Canyon. Near Tower we saw a grizzly bear high up on the hill.
We checked into our room at Canyon. Here is where we truly lucked out on this trip. At the same time I was getting a sore throat while still back in Chicago, a room opened up in Canyon a type of basic room given the name Pioneer Room. We booked Yellowstone about two months before we left and no rooms were available so we were set up for camping. I had even bought one of those very expensive down sleeping bags. From reading tripadivisr.com, I knew that if you kept looking at zanterra.com, especially the last week a room could open up and sure enough about two nights before we left a room opened up. So we took it. The first morning in Wyoming we were thankful for this. It was very cold. I am not sure what we would have done if we had been camping. I think the first night we would have tried it and then we would have gone into the nearest towns, West Yellowstone etc… and paid for a room…. Yikess….
So we checked into our Pioneer room in Canyon. Yes these rooms are basic, and yes they area like trailers from the 50s, however they are very clean and they do take care of them. Most importantly, we were extremely thankful to have one. For only $70 a night, they are a bargain. To be in a National Park and paying less than a $100 a night is a bargain. I much prefer to stay in an OK room within a National Park than stay in a very nice room outside of the park. You just feel more apart of things. If it did not get so cold during the nights, we would have camped. (I have camped a couple of times this summer in upper WI, but it does not get as cold up there as it does in the mountains) The next time we go to a National Park we will book earlier.
An interesting note on our room in general is this, we noticed on one of the last days new “cowpie” made by a buffalo right outside our room. It is kind of cool to think that a buffalo went right by the room at night.
We looked around at Canyon Village. We noticed that the cafeteria was closed for the winter, the restaurant opened, a place for ice cream and sandwiches, a store of finer camping gear, and a huge store of souvenirs, groceries etc. with a diner inside that was opened. We had dinner here. This was very fun. We then went and saw the Visitor Center at Canyon and were very impressed with it.
I found out that Canyon shuts down for the winter on September 21.
We went and saw the Canyon. They call this the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and I believe it. It is not as huge as the Grand Canyon, but majestic in its own right. The canyon area is a very beautiful place. We saw this from the south rim at a place called Artist Point. I can see why it is called Artist point. It has the best view in town and many of the photos I have seen of the canyon seem to have come from this area. The north rim was closed this summer.
Old Faithful Day:
Today is our 9th wedding anniversary… I booked dinner reservations at the Old Faithful Inn this night before leaving Chicago.
Our intention was to stop and see Old Faithful, then drive and see other geysers/geo-features in the nearby area and then go back for dinner and see old faithful again.
We got there at about 8 AM walked around, saw the clock/Old Faithful time that is set up to show the time that Old Faithful is to go off at and saw both Old Faithful Inn and Old Faithful Lodge. We loved both buildings. They truly are a work of art in themselves and truly are an inspiration of architecture.
We happened to walk outside to see Old Faithful right when the ranger started. We joined in the group and listened to the very interesting things he had to say. The ranger then took us on the path. This path was located to the right side of Old Faithful. We walked over a bridge and up a little hill, from there we had a perfect view of Old Faithful. From this viewpoint, one can see Old Faithful, the Lodge and the Inn. One has a much better perspective of how large Old Faithful can be.
We soon saw Old Faithful go off… it was GREAT. This would be the first of 5 times that day seeing Old Faithful go off.
The ranger then led us to other geysers and geo-thermal features on the hill. He ended about 10 minutes before Old Faithful went off again.
We truly enjoyed learning more about the geysers, Old Faithful and many other interesting things about Yellowstone… I highly recommend joining in on one of these Ranger talks.
We then went beyond the hill and saw more geysers and saw Old Faithful go off for our second time. (again from a distance)
After lunch, we hiked up a mountain to a viewing area and saw Old Faithful go off for our third time. There were about 15 people up there seeing it. We continued the hike and saw Solitude geyser go off.
We then hiked to the far off geysers. On the way we saw people waiting to see this really giant geyser go off. It was about an hour and a half before this one was to go off, but there were a ton of people waiting for it. This geyser had built in bleachers near it.
We then took it easy on the second floor of Old Faithful Inn… sitting in one of their very comfortable chairs. It was very relaxing. We joined in a second half of the speech on the Old Faithful Inn, which was very interesting. We heard that the Inn was the first National Park Lodge and used as a model from that time on. We peeked into the dinning room from the second floor viewing area and saw were we would have dinner…
At about 4:30 we checked into dinner reservations. People were beginning to make a line. Dinner reservations said that we must have a reservation. I said we did…J
We soon found out why, one should have dinner reservations before going to Yellowstone or at least a few days out. There are many people trying to eat there. We were eating at 5 PM (which usually is a slow time for a “nicer” meal….) But, at the Old Faithful Inn every time is busy time for dinner…
We Loved our dinner…
In conclusion of this day, we had meant to stay at Old Faithful for a while and then go see other things and come back. Due to it being cloudy (at times a light sprinkle) and with a ton of things to do at Old Faithful, we stayed the whole day and we were very happy about it. We were very surprised to see how many geyser areas there are to see at the Old Faithful area. This whole area was much larger than we had thought it would be.
On our way back to Colter Bay, we went through Norris. We had not been to this part of the park yet. On our way, we saw many buffalo. Some were on the road and people had to wait for them. So we were in a Buffalo Jam. We waited for a while for the buffalo jam to clear up and and then we drove past. We were pretty close to them.
Geo-Thermal Day:
This morning was very cloudy also… we started the day at Norris Geyser… Boy, did this place seem weird for a while, steam coming up from everywhere, burnt trees, and clouds everywhere and deserted…. Eventually the sun did peak through the clouds….
We then got back in our cars and headed south (traveling towards Old Faithful) we stopped at every stop along this route and there were many. They all featured a ton of geo-thermal activity.
The sun soon came out and those COLORS are amazing. Things truly looked incredible…
We pulled into the Madison area near the picnic area and saw a buffalo just standing there. Kind of sleeping.
we even took the scenic route at Fire hole Canyon Drive and had lunch.
More stops and more dazzling color….
We decided to stop at Old Faithful and we were glad that we did. We were just in time to see Old Faithful go off….
On the way back to Canyon, we then went to the Grant Visitor Center, tried to stop at West thumb once again, but missed it, and then stopped at Lake. We saw both the Lake Hotel and the Lake Lodge.
We also saw the Buffalo as we drove through Hayden Valley
This was certainly a day of much geo-thermal seeing…
Wild Kingdom Day:
When watching videos about Yellowstone and reading up on it – Lamar Valley comes up as a place to see wildlife. With this said, I also would read that sometimes people just drive through there and do not see anything. I did not know what to make of it, but knew to go there and where we glad that we did.
We woke up very early today and got into Lamar Valley at about 7:30 AM. Note: if I was to do this again, I would even get there earlier. It takes about an hour to drive there from Canyon.
Our first sight was a herd of buffalo walking over the bridge that was on the highway we were driving on. This may have been near Slough Creek. We noticed other people out of their vehicles and did the same. We got out and watched the buffalo. Then all of sudden the buffalo started running…. A buffalo stampede or close to it. We could hear the distant sounds of wolves. We sat and watched this for a while.
We then drove up the highway further and stopped a few times. We then saw a place where vehicles where on the sides of the road and people were up in the hills.
We decided to climb up the hill as we did so we could not see anything. A nice ranger told us that if we went up a little further that some very nice people would let us see out of their scopes. We went up to the highest point where about 6 people were. They said that what they were looking at a couple of wolves across the street and in the distance.
From looking through the scopes, we were amazed at what we saw. Thank you to those very nice people with the scopes up on that hill. It was amazing to see the wolves we then saw the wolves playing. We stayed up on the hill for a while.
Next time back to Yellowstone we will have our own scope. They are worth it. We could only see dots with our binoculars. With a powerful spotting scope you could see the animal.
We then drove for a mile and saw the car in front of us pulled over to the side of the road and stopped. We pulled over and stopped too. The driver of this car was out of his car. We asked him what was going on. He said that a wolf had just cut in front of his car. There were about 5 other people (happened to be very close to a “pull off” area)
We all started talking about this wolf.
We stayed for a while and were about to leave when we saw this very same wolf return from behind some hills… it was on a hiking path…. And everyone knew that it would cross the street again. (By this time even more people had stopped) So everyone went “crazy” people all ran to where the path ends and where the wolf would go across the road. The wolf was getting close and you could really see it (even without the help of a scope or binoculars) (but It was still a very safe distance away) people ran up to this spot. I moved closer to it, but remained a safe distance from it. A ranger came by and managed the situation. The excitement and the people moving to where the wolf would pass forced the wolf further down the road. Some of the people could see it… (I could not).
A few people then took off to the other side of the road and up on the grass – some went high up into the higher areas of this grass area… I was over there – but not as high up. Everyone knew that this is where the wolf was going. The ranger told the people to back off from this area. We soon found out what may have been happening. The ranger explained to us that a carcass was spotted the day before in the hills. This was a distance from the road. The wolf was trying to possibly get to that carcass.
After that excitement, we stayed there for a while and then went further down the road. We drove pass soda-butte. (some name like this) We could not believe that there was a geyser out this far. It no longer was an active geyser. We drove a little further and saw the mountains a little closer up and then turned around and came back. Almost immediately, we saw a coyote on the highway. The coyote was walking right at us. It was hugging the curb of the road and walking towards us. The coyote eventually got very close to our car and kept on its track on the road – hugging the curb of the other lane. (There were no cars coming from that direction…the coyote was all alone on that lane.
We then went back towards the bridge and saw another herd of buffalo and hung out for a while. It was nearing 11 AM and the action was quieting down for the day…
We then went and saw Tower falls. The waterfall is beautiful. We hiked down to the river, but, do not see the waterfall down there. There were people down at the river. But.. we just went to the end of the hike. It looked really steep to get all the way down to the river. Maybe the people got down there from some other hike.
Had lunch back at our hotel room at canyon.
On the way to the bridge area, we saw buffalo crossing the river. They were swimming in the center of the river in order to get from one side to the other. This was a very interesting site. Once they crossed they did like I had seen dogs do, they shake themselves off….lol. It is very fun to watch…
We went and saw the Fishing Bridge area, Yellowstone Lake, the Visitor Center and even hiked up the river a little bit.
On the way back to Canyon, we stopped and did the mud pots at Mud Volcano. We found these very interesting – all that mud…stirring/steaming like a brew… yikes
We then stopped for the second time at both Sulfur Caldron and the Canyon. There seemed to be a lot more people here at this hour. The canyon is very beautiful. What a great way to end the Yellowstone segment of our trip.
Travel day, from Yellowstone to South Dakota’s Black Hills:
We began this day driving at 5:30 AM (Mountain Time) it was still dark out. When we checked out of canyon, they reported that a couple from Naperville had just checked out. We took it slow and knew that once we got beyond Fishing Bridge that it would start getting really mountainous and yep, it did. By this time, there was some light. In the wee hours of the mourning we knew that it was very possible that deer could be out. We kept a close look our for them and saw about five. Some of these deer were on the road.
The mountains were very beautiful. The clouds were cool too, but it definitely was another cloudy rainy day.
We passed by Cody. We had meant to stop, but got past the town before we could decide on where to eat a quick breakfast. We ended up eating at the next town we went through.
At Cody, there are two choices to get to interstate 90 Highway 14 and Alternate Highway 14 both end up meeting in Wyoming’s high country at Burgess Junction. This mountain range is called the Bighorn Mountains. By the time we reached Burgess Junction, it really did seem like there most likely was not much of a difference in them and they appeared to take about the same amount of time. We took what we thought was the scenic route, Alternate Highway 14. When we stopped at Cheyenne’s Visitor center on our second day, we had gotten a flyer on about the Bighorn Mountains and it showed a pretty picture of the lake that Alternate Highway 14 crosses and it seemed like this route would go through this pretty area.
Alternate Highway 14 is a very beautiful route to take.
This drive was very scenic. The lake that we crossed was very pretty. After crossing the lake, the highway takes up through the Bighorn Mountains. The highway seems to go up and up some more. We saw Black Angus cattle - free range (we believe). And up and up we went some more. At this point, we were among the clouds and before we knew it we were in a very beautiful winter wonderland. There was snow. IN the Bighorn Mountains there was beautiful pine forests and snow. We were up in the high country for quite a while. I was surprised by how long we were up there. We saw more cattle and then we saw cowboys/ranchers herding the cattle.
We then got to a point where you can turn off and go and see Medicine Wheel. Due to the snow, somewhat icy road conditions and how steep the medicine mountain/hill looked, we decided to pass. After a long while, we met up with Highway 14 at Burgess Junction in Wyoming’s high country.
Then the highway goes down… and eventually hooks up to 90 just north of Sheridan, Wyoming.
After a couple of hours of driving, we pulled off of Interstate 90 and went and saw Devils Tower. This is about a half hour north of 90. The country highway curves around a bit and meets back up with 90. About an hour later, we exited Interstate 90 for the day at Sturgis. Tad had wanted to go and see this Motorcycle town, where the big rally is once a year.
From Sturgis we went and saw Deadwood, we drove up and down the main street twice.
We took Highway 385 from Deadwood into Hill City. We checked into the Comfort Inn and walked the downtown. We soon decided that we really liked the Bumpin’ Buffalo. We were immediately greeted by happy smiling faces and sat down at a booth and ordered buffalo burgers, onion rings and beverage. This was a very nice western inspired bar/restaurant like a brew/pub. They had a few buffalo heads on the wall. It was very cute and very clean. The food was very tasty and we were very hungry from driving all day.
We had meant to see Crazy horse night time show this night, but it was cold and wet. Next time we will go and see the laser show.
Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and the Black Hills:
We started this very beautiful and sunny day off by going to Crazy Horse. Michael and I had passed by the Black Hills and seen the sight 10 years earlier reroute to his job in Los Angeles. Crazy Horse is really something to see. It really touches the beholder and hearing about the story of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski.
Custer State Park was our next destination. Our first stop was Sylvan Lake. I loved the National Treasure Movies and loved seeing the lake that they had filmed the part of the movie having to do with Mount Rushmore. We hiked around the lake to the back and saw the stairs. We also came pretty close to a Mountain Goat that was just off the path. I think they filmed from back here too. It will be interesting to see the movie again.
We then drove further down Needles highway and stopped at all the stops. This is just breath taking. We got out and did a little hike to see more of the needles. This area is just spectacular.
We then stopped at the State Game Lodge at Custer State Park. The State Game Lodge served as the ';Summer White House'; for President Calvin Coolidge in 1927 and was visited by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for several days in 1953. It was built in 1920
We then took Iron Mountain Road into Mount Rushmore. I just loved seeing Mount Rushmore going this way. I loved seeing it from a distance and then getting closer and closer to it. This to me is the BEST way to get to Mount Rushmore.
Soon enough we were starring up in “AWE” at Mount Rushmore and walking down the hall of flags. We made sure to see the Wisconsin and Illinois flags. The Wisconsin one is at the end and is blue.
When I was here 10 years ago with my brother Michael we got there about an hour before the nighttime show and did the walk that gets you closer up to Mount Rushmore and then saw the show. I was totally awestricken by it then and this day was also equally in “awe” seeing it for the second time.
Taking the walk that gets closer up to Mount Rushmore is the best way to see it. I particularly liked the views from the left side of Mount Rushmore. These views show George Washington. I also very much enjoyed see the studio. When I was there 10 years ago, we did not see the studio – most likely because we got there later in the day. This time at Mount Rushmore I found out that Mount Rushmore was never completed. I was very interested in the view that you could get from seeing the large sculpture of Mount Rushmore in the studio and then seeing the actual Mount Rushmore through the window. I stood there comparing what had been done and what was left undone.
I truly believe that everyone living in our country should see Mount Rushmore at least once…
Time for dinner, we ended up back at the Bumpin Bufallo we just loved their buffalo burgers and the cozy western modern atmosphere.
Badlands:
Started the day driving past Mount Rushmore. What a great way to start a day J. We then drove through Keystone and into Rapid City where you get back onto Interstate 90. We drove for about an hour and got to Wall…
Of course, can not go to Wall without stopping at Wall Drug and one can not miss the many signs for it as you drive towards it. We were in and out of Wall Drug pretty quickly, but just enough time to say that we had stopped.
Now onto the Badlands, ten years ago my brother and I had driven through here in fast forward style, got out of our car, hiked, stopped at a few places and drove onto Custer State Park. We did not have much time at any one place.
This time around I had the whole day. Another interesting thing was that we were coming into it driving eastward instead of westward. Today was a beautiful sunny day. (I am not sure why I mention the weather every day, but it does make a difference visually each day. We do not mind the rain or gray skies, but the colors of things are much better on a sunny day)
The Badlands is a beautiful National Park. There is nothing quite like it. The deserts and stuff of Arizona/New Mexico located in a harsh northern climate and then prairie. It is amazing…
The colors are excellent and to see it on a sunny day was great. We also realized that we might be seeing this park on one of the few nice days… it probably gets really hot in the peak of summer and then brutally cold in the winter…
But, today was perfect. We stopped at all the stops and then climbed at the hiking spot. We climbed all the way to the top of this hill. We stopped at the Badlands National Park Visitor Center. On the way of the Badlands we did the nature hike thing with boardwalks and bridges and then the stop just beyond it.
On the way to Mitchell, we stopped in Chamberlain, South Dakota at the rest stop. This is a very good place to take a break from driving. I love how they combined their rest stop with their visitor center and then have a great exhibit on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Finally got to Mitchell, checked in, drove past the corn palace and went and got pizza at Godfather Pizza. Godfathers Pizza was located basically in the parking lot and had just opened.
We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Mitchell (we tried to stay at all choice hotels – so that we could get free nights) This was a brand new hotel and had a water park…
And of course we had to go down their water slide not just once but I think we went down it 10 times.
Forever a kid is my moto… at least at heart….
And like all kids…. that was our summer vacation. We loved every minute of it, enjoyed seeing new things, seeing the “pride” of our nation… not only the first National Park, but also Mount Rushmore. And seeing everything else. No wonder Ansel Adams took so many photos of the Grand Tetons. The buffalo are an amazing animal….. I could go and on… simply put… The vacation was GREAT… WE WILL BE BACK…
And like all kids – summer vacation is over - time to get back to work…
Driving Home:
We got up fairly early, enjoyed a very good continental breakfast and were on the road again… taking Interstate 90 then turning and going south to Des Moines and picking up Interstate 80. Yes we could have stayed on Interstate 90 through Wisconsin and into the Chicago area. But, we went this way to get into the Chicago area and miss Chicago construction and the countless tolls on Interstate 90 outside of Chicago (we were in a rental and we did not have our I-Pass.
The thing to note this day is that we saw a number of wind farms and even the turbine blades and nacelles being taken down the highway in convoys. We had seen a number of wind farms on the way out to Yellowstone also… This is GREAT J
We arrived around 6 PM, returned our rental car and grabbed some pizza.
I have done individual reports for each of the places we have stayed and for the dinners we ate out. This is a list of them:
Hotels:
Rodeway Inn, Cozed, NE
Snake River KOA (just outside Jackson)
Snow King Resort, Jackson
Colter Bay, Grand Tetons
Canyan Lodge, Pioneer Cabin, Yellowstone
Comfort Inn, Hill City, SD
Comfort Inn and Suites, Mitchell, SD
Lunch/Dinner:
Silver Dollar, Jackson
Colter Bay cafe
Jackson Lodge, Grand Tetons
Old Faithful Inn
Bumpin Buffalo, Hill City, SD
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