Notes to Myself

The Trip Recap

Finale (I promise!):

(It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over...)

My purpose for writing about our summer cross country road trip in such detail was to remember and chronicle as much as I could as soon as I could (POACA, you know...). For those of you who have ventured along for the written ride, it was a privilege to have you share this experience with us. I hope you enjoyed it and were at least faintly entertained on the way. Though we drove another 500 miles after we left Fairmont, it was over familiar roads in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, visiting family, so I won't add that to the trip annals. I will, however, spend some time talking to myself for a few more paragraphs, thanking various people and recording some random thoughts about The Trip...

Thank You, God, for being truly gracious to us. Thank You that my husband and I enjoyed each others company on this adventure and still liked each other after spending 6,000 miles together in a car. Thank You for the amazing weather, safe travel and protection from a shootout. We missed the worst of the crowds, got good parking spaces and experienced (mostly) wonderful shuttle bus service. Our hotels were clean comfortable and reasonable, and the food choices on the road were sufficient both for one person who will eat anything and for one person who would like to eat anything, but is functionally gluten-free. Thank You for being an...awe...some...Creator, and that the national parks reflect that ...awe...some...ness... Thank You for the created wonders - the towering red rocks, towering gray rocks, sandstone spires, canyons, rivers, waterfalls, the Pacific Ocean, the snow/glacier covered mountains, assorted wildlife we had never seen before, wildflowers we had never seen before, and trees, trees, trees. And thank You for all those surprise adventures...

Thank you, Stephen Mather and Horace Albright, for deciding the lands that are now national parks were worth preserving as such, and for convincing President Woodrow Wilson that a National Park Service was something worth mandating. Thank you, Dwight D. Eisenhower, for setting the wheels in motion for the interstate highway system that got us to where we were going in a fast, safe and scenic manner. Thank you, rangers and shuttle bus drivers, for sharing your natural and practical knowledge of the various parks with those of us who wander through them. Thank you, all the people we encountered on this trip, for sharing your stories, your friendliness, for the times you took our picture and for the times you asked us to take yours. And thank you, Sam and Amy, for the invitation to your wedding, giving us the perfect incentive and time frame to plan the trip around.

Notes for the next trip:

Pray early, plan early. God and Expedia are your friends...

Check park websites thoroughly when planning trip and print up park maps and individual hiking maps beforehand...

Check shuttle bus availability. Decide if it looks like it will work for a particular park...

Spend the big bucks and stay as close to a park as possible. Big park? – try to spend more than one day there or “...sit by the Merced River and cry...

Get up early, go early, get a parking spot and beat the crowds and heat...

Tuna pouches and applesauce cups make great hiking foods to plan lunch around...

Don't expect/plan to eat within or near the parks - exorbitant fast food prices and long lines. That said, maybe stumble upon an unexpected meal off-hours at a less well-known park restaurant...

Hat, sunscreen, sunglasses and water, water, water...

Plan the hiking early. Have a late afternoon rest plan – museum, nature center, something indoors in case of heat or afternoon storms...

Check the Weather Channel every night for the next day...

Check Google Maps for surprise adventures nearby...

Don't be afraid to take more scenic side roads...

Bring a good camera, extra memory card, extra batteries and charger...

Bring laptop and charger and transfer pictures each night...

Bring road atlas and the book, The Next Exit, for traveling on interstates...

Get a smart phone with a GPS (My husband made me write that...)

A final note...the only disappointment of this trip was the lack of wild animal sightings. There was a moose and her calf we heard about but did not see at the Grand Tetons. We saw no elk in its huge elk refuge. We looked for mountain goats, mountain lions, and big horn sheep in multiple places without seeing any. There were many serious bear warnings in several of the parks but no bears, and we opted out of a chance to see a herd of bison due to time restraints and an unpaved road. We did see antelope and prairie dogs, species new to us, and many western birds and lizards we had never seen before. We did manage to see all those animals we missed, however, stuffed, and in one place, when we stopped at a Cabela's in Owatonna, Minnesota. And, of course, pictures were taken...

 

 

The Trip at a Glance

 

Day	Miles Driven	From	To	Park	Surprise Adventure	Food Shout Outs
1	570	Antioch IL	Lincoln, NE
2	470	Lincoln, NE	Denver, CO		Calvary Chapel (Richie Furay)
3	251	Denver, CO	Grand Junction, CO		Dillon Reservoir Overlook, Glenwood Canyon
4	233	Grand Junction, CO	Richfield, UT	Colorado National Monument		R & R Frontier Village Restaurant, Richfield, UT
5	157	Richfield, UT	Hurricane, UT	Kolob Canyon, Zion National Park
6	50			Zion National Park
7	381	Hurricane, UT	Valle, AZ		Las Vegas, Hoover Dam
8	48			Grand Canyon National Park		Yavapai Lodge, Grand Canyon
9	483	Valle, AZ	Bakersfield, CA
10	355	Bakersfield, CA	Cupertino, CA		Sea Cliff State Park, The Coastal Highway, The Road to La Honda
11	20				The Wedding Sanborn County Park
12	159	Cupertino, CA	Mariposa, CA			The Happy Burger, Mariposa, CA
13	86			Yosemite Valley Yosemite Nation Park		The Happy Burger, Mariposa, CA, Again!
14	313	Mariposa, CA	Fernley, NV
15	479	Fernley, NV	Salt Lake City, UT		Bonneville Salt Flats
16	243	Salt Lake City, UT	Rexburg, ID		Idaho Falls	Neilsen's Frozen Custard, Rexburg, ID
17	195	Rexburg, ID	Dubois, WY	Grand Tetons National Park		Village Cafe, Dubois, WY
18	393	Dubois, WY	Gillette, WY
19	170	Gillette, WY	Rapid City, SD	Devils Tower National Monument Mount Rushmore National Memorial
20	155	Rapid City, SD	Murdo, SD	Badlands National Park		Murdo Drive-In, Murdo, SD
21	322	Murdo, SD	Fairmont, MN		Lewis and Clark Exhibit, Sioux Falls

In God’s wilderness lies the hope of the world―the great fresh unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. - John Muir

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. - John Muir

The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark. – John Muir

We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us. - Unknown

Finis

Winding Down

The Trip – Day 21

Murdo, South Dakota – Fairmont, Minnesota

Missouri River Sioux Falls

322 miles

Falls Park, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

The Badlands of Day 20 was the last planned national park visit of our cross country trip. We were now headed to Minneapolis to visit our daughters and their husbands before heading home. (After driving over 6,000 miles, the 50 miles off the interstate made the Twin Cities “on our way”...) We had spent the night after the Badlands in the small town of Murdo, not quite halfway across South Dakota, a state we had never been in before this trip, so we looked out for surprise adventures that might appear in the rest of that state on Day 21. We found two.

South Dakota Rest Stop Teepee

Surprise Adventure #1 happened when we crossed the Missouri River a little more than halfway across the state and stopped at a nearby rest area in Chamberlain, South Dakota. As we had come to expect of the rest areas on this trip, it was rich with views, overlooks and, in this case, a museum. The Lewis and Clark expedition of the the early 1800s camped on the banks of the Missouri River here, so the rest area thought it a good place to have a Lewis and Clark interpretive center complete with a keelboat replica. There was an

outdoor balcony with panoramic views of the Missouri River, and for those willing to take a short hike on the rest area trails, closer views of the river. There was also a stylistic teepee, a reoccurring structure at most of the state's rest areas. We hiked a short trail, went to the interpretive center, went out on the balcony, and, of course, took many pictures.

View of Missouri River from rest stop trail

Train bridge over the Missouri River

Interstate I90 over the Missouri River

Surprise Adventure #2 happened when we looked for a place to stop for lunch. Sioux Falls seemed a likely town. (“Falls? Did someone say falls?”) Idaho Falls was named for the falls on its river. Sioux Falls must have some to have earned its name. After lunch we went in search of Falls Park on the Big Sioux River and found a wonderful park area with a five story viewing tower, a cafe, historical ruins of an old mill, and a beautiful series of falls. More natural in formation than the man-engineered falls in Idaho Falls, the Sioux Falls tumble over a series of reddish quartzite rocks, rocks one can climb out on to experience the falls from the midst of them. We climbed the tower, a substantial brick building with an information center and gift shop on the first floor. The view from the fifth floor of the tower gave a good view of the entire falls area, which extends almost a half mile. We had already eaten lunch, so we did not check out the matching brick cafe across the river from the tower, but from the look of the people eating on the outdoor patio, it was a popular spot for lunch on a weekday. The remains of the Queen Bee Flour Mill was

Inside of the remains of Queen Bee flour mill

nearby, a once seven-story brick mill built in the 1870s, now a remnant of walls, its interior space used as a summer music venue. The falls themselves were beautiful, not huge, but a series of cascades varied in direction and height, all spilling over reddish chunks of quartzite. We walked up and down both sides of the river and out on most of the rock outcroppings within the river itself, taking what would be the last excesses of photos for this trip.

Five story viewing tower at Falls Park

 

 

 

 

After a few hours, we hit the road again, traveling I 90 toward western Minnesota. Ninety miles later we were no longer traveling roads new to us but back in the familiar middle of the country. We stopped at a hotel in Fairmont, Minnesota, our last official night of our trip. Tomorrow we would be on all familiar roads, heading up toward Minneapolis for the July 4^th weekend. After not seeing real rain since Day 1 of our trip, we would also end up driving through severe storms and torrential pull-off-to-the-side-of-the-road downpours the next day. Welcome back to the midwest...

Seems like that guy singin' this song

Been doin' it for a long time

Is there anything (s)he knows

That (s)he ain't said?

 - Neil Young, Falling From Above, Greendale

Next and Final (I promise!):

(It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over...)

Notes to Myself

The Trip Recap

 

Urban Dictionary Bad

The Trip – Day 20

Rapid City, South Dakota – Murdo, South Dakota

Badlands National Park

155 miles 

When the first settlers saw the dry terrain of western South Dakota, they may or may not have appreciated the scenic beauty of its miles of sedimentary rocks, formed from sand, silt and clay and heavily eroded by eons of wind and water. Then, those who traveled through the area, and those brave enough to attempt to live there, would soon come to refer to that area as the “badlands”, “bad” in the classic Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of the word - “unfavorable, disagreeable, unpleasant”. Those coming to see the area today, now Badlands National Park, would be more likely to use the the Urban Dictionary definition of the word “bad” - “dope, good, tight”. (Translation for the unhip: “cool, neat”...)

Sun-clouds-shadow-wind God-art

We left Rapid City early on Day 20 to arrive at the Badlands early to beat the heat and the possible afternoon storms. (We beat the storms, but not the heat...) The park has almost 40 miles of road with scenic overlooks and short trails amid the rock formations and extensive prairie. There were dirt roads we opted out of, roads that would have led us to free-roaming bison and an extensive prairie dog town, but we drove 25 miles of the main paved road section, stopping at every overlook and hiking some of the shorter trails. Like so much of the rock formations in the west, the Badlands formations kept changing in color, size, and vantage point. The day was sunny, but there were big puffy cumulus clouds blowing across the sky, casting moving shadows on the landscape, making for some pretty impressive God-art. While the Grand Tetons was my favorite park on the trip, the Badlands would be my husband's favorite park. He described it as a smaller Grand Canyon, one you could easily walk into, sometimes from the bottom, looking up at the eroded rocks formations, sometimes from above, looking down into its small canyons, sometimes walking through or on the formations themselves. Despite the erosion potential of the sandstone structures, climbing them seemed to be

"Great to get out of that car!"

the thing to do, especially if one was between the ages of eight and eighteen. There were large sections of the park that had relatively safe climbing potential for kids, and climb they did. My husband said it appeared that travel-weary families, the parents, likely confined to cars for hundreds of miles with their kids, had found this perfect place to let their kids out to blow off all that pent-up energy in surroundings where they weren't likely to do too much damage to themselves. To those kids, and probably their road-tired parents, these lands were “bad” as in “great”...

The day did get hot, too hot for me to do all the hiking I would have liked to have done, though it didn't stop my husband and his camera. Fortunately, there was a great visitor center to cool off in. In addition to the usual geological displays and orientation films, this one had a paleontology lab, also known as the Fossil Preparation Lab, a place one could see some of the important fossils found in the Badlands and watch and talk to some very friendly working paleontologists. Visitors to the Badlands are highly encouraged to find fossils in the surrounding fossil-rich area, instructed to not touch their finds, but to get GPS readings on the location or, for the less technological, carefully articulated hand drawn maps, and report the find to a ranger or one of the paleontologists in the lab. Significant and rare fossils have been found by kids as young as seven (possibly blowing off steam climbing the formations after hours in the car...). While in the lab, I noticed a board with photos of kids and adults, paired with accompanying cards documenting the fossils they had found. There were about forty photos, and the ranger explaining the fossil-finding process said those were people who had found fossils at the Badlands in the past month alone! He told about a college student who had been so excited with her recent visit to the fossil lab and the information she received about the scientific discoveries made in that area that she said, “I'm going out today and find a fossil!” She did. How bad is that?

We didn't find any fossils ourselves, though we really didn't look very hard. We left the cool of the visitor center and did a little more hiking before parting company, my husband to check out a trail with warnings such as “Watch for drop-offs. Not recommended for anyone with a fear of heights. Treacherous during or after heavy rains”, me to the car to find some shade and pull the ice packs out of the cooler and put them down my shirt. The heat was bad, in the Merriam-Webster definition of the word, but the rest of the Badlands was dope and tight, definitely Urban Dictionary “bad”...

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt – John Muir

Next:

Winding Down

The Trip – Day 21

Murdo, South Dakota – Fairmont, Minnesota

Missouri River Sioux Falls

322 miles