"What do you want to do this weekend?" I asked.
Greg thought a moment, then I suggested, "We could go to Mt Rushmore." Greg has always wanted to go there.
"We could!" he responded.
We brought ice chests with snacks and breakfast items so we could get an early start each day. That is always the goal, but on vacation, we never seem to get away very early.
It was a bright sunny morning as we drove east through the mountain passes. The unusually high rainfall of the last few months covered the mountains in emerald green velvet dotted with sunny yellow flowers and bright blue penstemon. The sky was intensely blue with huge puffy white clouds.
After a couple of hours, we crossed the border into Wyoming. When we came this way last year, the area was very dry and desolate, although I enjoyed seeing the scoured cliffs and rugged terrain with its distinctive layers of colors and textures. But this year it was green! The whole way through the state was lush with green grass from the rains. There are many small oil wells everywhere. You can usually see several in every direction.
We stopped for a little while at Martin's Cove, the site of an encampment by the Mormon handcart. pioneers during their trek to Salt Lake City. There was a nice little museum there where volunteers presented the history of the site. There were handcarts that people could use on a trail to the actual cove to see what it would be like for the pioneers.
After about 10 hours of driving, we finally pulled into our motel in Casper, Wyoming. We went to Olive Garden for dinner then drove over for a short, rather late night visit with Tracey and her family. It was fun to see their two beautiful little girls and one of the boys. (The other one was in bed.) I feel like I know them because I see them on facebook. There were very solemn because they don't know me, but so sweet.
The next day we drove across the border into South Dakota! We were excited because we have never been to this state before. In fact, I've never been that far east before. I had always pictured South Dakota as being like Wyoming, dry and desolate. But I was completely wrong. It was green and beautiful with long grass and winding rivers through pine tree covered small mountains.
From the road we saw the Chef Crazy Horse Monument. It is very slowly being carved out of the mountain. Perhaps in a hundred years it may be finished. It will be several times the size of Mt Rushmore.As we got closer to Mt Rushmore, the mountains turned into stone spires and towering rocks in fantastic shapes. We came around the corner, and there it was!
We parked in the underground parking area. There were many, many people coming into the park, and we heard many different languages. It was a very hot day. We walked up to the entrance where the walkway is framed by flags from every state. We found the Idaho flag.We stopped to rent the devices for the audio tour. We held them to our ears to hear more information about how the site was created, and why they selected each president.
There was a short hike on a boardwalk that took us closer to the mountain. It was mostly shady from the pine trees - which was good, because it was at least 90 degrees. We were wearing cooling ties around our necks. You get them wet and they help keep you cool. There were some clouds that floated over for a little while and we even got a few drops of rain.
After the hike, we were very hot, so we went into the theater to watch the movie about Mt Rushmore. It was nice and cool in there. So refreshing! And the movie was interesting.
We visited more exhibits and bought some postcards. We saw the models the artist used to design the mountain. The used a simple plumb-bob and careful measurement of the model. Then they n scaled it up 12 times to create the sculptures on the mountain. Most of the "carving' was done by precise dynamite.
As we were leaving, we saw 4 Presidential actors who were also leaving!
Greg had hoped to see fireworks over the statues, but they don't do that any more.
This is what the mountain looked like before they carved it.
The next day we drove back over the border to Devil's Tower.
It is also in a forest of pine trees. It was huge! It's hard to realize how huge until you see the climbers on it. We saw about 6 or 7 people climbing the tower. We took the hike around the tower.
It is a sacred place to some Indian tribes, and cloth ribbons are hung from the trees as prayers or offerings. There are signs asking that you not disturb them. The Indians anciently called this place "Bear Lodge." There are legends about it.Scientist believe that deep underground, lava extruded upward then cracked into the columns. Eventually the land around it was eroded away.
After leaving Devil's Tower we drove toward our next destination.
I can't remember exactly where this was, but we stopped to see a beautiful waterfall. It's rare, because it is one of a few waterfalls created by a fault zone.
We went through switchbacks up the green, piney mountain. The clouds were flowing down into the valley.
We got closer to the cloud, then drove into it. For about 30 minutes we were in dense fog. We were grateful for the car ahead of us because we could see his taillights which warned Greg which way to turn next as we drove up the winding roads of the mountain. When we finally came down out of the cloud, the land had flattened.
We went though another little valley and saw a curious formation ahead. It was like a miniature Devil's Tower. It turned out to be Chimney Rock. We took a picture then continued on to Cody, Wyoming for the night. We stayed in "The Cowboy Motel." Each room was in it's own log cabin. But although it was rustic outside, it was very nice inside with a very comfortable king-sized bed. There were cowboy hats and boots on the wallpaper in the bathroom.
Cody is just outside Yellowstone National Park. The next morning we got up and drove to the entrance of the park. We were given a brochure warning about wild animals. I remember last time I was at Yellowstone we saw a man approaching a herd of buffalo to get a photo. He climbed down the embankment and approached one bull. It began snorting, but he still approached. I told Greg to drive away from there because I didn't want to see someone get gored! I actually watched the news for a few days to see if anyone was killed in Yellowstone! (They weren't)
I was sad to see many dead trees, victims of a forest fire. We drove thought a long tunnel and came out near a large lake.As we drove on it became greener. Finally we came to a place where the ground was densely covered with small ( 8 - 16 foot) pine trees which had grown after the huge fire a decade ago. Most of the park is now recovered with this thick growth of new trees. We took the more northern route through the park because we haven't gone that way for a long time. We drove to the Yellowstone falls and took some pictures.
We stopped to walk out to see deep, clear, colorful hot springs, geysers, and mud pots. There were signs, warning us to stay on the trail. Some of the hot springs had colorful mats of flaming orange bacteria in fantastic patterns.At one geyser the spray went over the trail. We ran though the hot water.
We saw lots of wild animals including a herd of buffalo and their calves, and an elk herd with their fawns.
In one place many people had parked and were looking at something. We finally found a place to pull over and I walked back to see what it was. I was trying not to get in the way of anyone's photo because I thought they were looking down into a little glen so I walked near some bushes. The low bushes moved, as if a rabbit was in there. Suddenly a park ranger appeared said it was a mother grizzly bear and two cubs, and ordered everyone to get back in their cars. I had probably been 10 feet from the cub. I immediately turned to go back to my car, but Greg was further back and watched for just a moment more and saw the little bear poke his head out of the bushes.
At another place, many people were using binoculars to look as something on the other side of a small hill. The cars were just creeping along because there had also been an accident on the road.
I finally got out of the car, walked quickly up to the hill, and took a picture. When I looked back at the road, our car had passed me. I ran to catch up and got back in the car. It turned out that it was another grizzly with two cubs. They were far away, but when I enlarged the photo, I could see the bear.
We finally got to geyser basin. We took one of the boardwalk trails and saw more geysers. As we were coming back, we saw the people gathering to wait for Old Faithful to erupt. We were hungry and hot, so we went into the cafeteria and found a table overlooking the geyser. So we watched it from inside.
After that, it was getting late, and we had a long drive to get home, and we had to go to work the next day. So we got in the car and Greg drove home. It was a fun trip we will always remember.
