Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands National Park

We left our hotel at 7:40 a.m. for the 20 minute drive to Mount Rushmore.  Arriving, we were immediately struck by the size of the monument and the work involved in the mountain transformation.  We toured the visitor's center, saw a file and then looked at the various exhibits which took us through the original idea to the completion.  Its hard to believe men using dynamite and rills, could make a jagged mountain look like four presidents.
From here, we left for the Badlands National Park.  We drove most of the scenic drive, saw bison, pronghorn deer and lots of prairie dogs. This park was very diverse with prarie grasslands to canyons to large rock formations, it reminded us of the national parks in Utah. 

The realization that our trip was about to end brought mixed feelings of eagerness to be home but, already missing adventures on the road and seeing new places. 

We have estimated, in our lifetime, we have visited about 20 national parks.

The rest of the day and tomorrow will be long driving days home.

Pictures can be seen at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/2011612MtRushmoreAndBadlands?authkey=Gv1sRgCPq0xtOF9aHhzAE&feat=directlink

More later . . .

On the Road to Mount Rushmore

We had breakfast in the Jackson Lake Lodge this morning.  Our waitress told us that a grizzly bear had been seen recently just North of the lodge.  Our route to Mount Rushmore was South from the lodge.  So, we decided to go North anyway on the chance that we might see a grizzly on our last day at the park.  Boy were we happy when just North of the lodge we saw what appeared to be a bear jam.  We parked along the side of the road and sure enough, there was a grizzly in a meadow.  We took some pictures and watched the bear dig for food.  It was about 40 yards from us and very visible.  It was quite exciting.  We learned from a local bear watcher that this bear was named Blondie because of it's blond fur.  We have been on bear watch for the past six days.  We probably will no longer need to pack our bear spray when we hike.

We got back into the car and turned around for our eight hour 475 mile drive to Custer, South Dakota.  We had pizza at a local resturant and got comfortable for the evening.  We will visit Mount Rushmore and the Badlands tomorrow before heading home.

More later . . .

Grand Teton National Park

We left Yellowstone NP around 8:00 a.m. and headed South to Grand Teton.  Before leaving Yellowstone, we stopped at the Kepler Cascades.  This is a series of small waterfalls that are located within close proximity of each other.  The fast moving Firehole River provided a dramatic view.  We drove on South and into Grand Teton NP.  We stopped at the Flagg Ranch information center on the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.  We picked up maps and hiking information from the ranger and set off on our day. 

We stopped at many locations during our 62 mile drive around the park.  These included:  Mount Moran, the towering Cathedral Group, Jackson Lake, Signal Mountain Summit, Oxbow Bend Tournout, Jenny Lake, and Hidden Falls.  We stopped into many different tournouts to look at the Grand Teton range.

At Jenny Lake, we took the ferry to the West side of the lake in order to visit Hidden Falls.  We then hiked the 2 1/2 mile trail back to the East side of the Lake.  The trail ranged from snowy and dry to muddy.  It ran close to the lake in many areas and provided very dramatic views to the East of the lake and to the West of the Teton mountain range.

Throughout the day we saw moose, a black bear, bison, elk, trumpeter swans, pelican, geese and marmots.  

We spent time after dinner in the lodge that has floor to ceiling windows looking out over wetlands and the Grand Teton mountains.  


We leave Grand Teton in the morning for a long day's drive to Mount Rushmore.

Pictures can be found at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/2011610GrandTetonNationalPark?authkey=Gv1sRgCKDR9r7Zvqy_fw&feat=directlink


More later . . .

Yellowstone National Park - Day 2

Our plan for the day was to hike in the Old Faithful area.  We stopped at the lodge front desk and asked for trail suggestions.  We decided to hike the Fairy Falls trail after first visiting Midway Geyser Basin.  As we were driving down the road, we saw a group of bison lying down just off the roadway.  We stopped and took a couple of pictures.  It is hard to believe these very large animals simply roam free absolutely any where they want.  We have seen them walking down the middle of the road and in the lodge parking lot in addition to the meadows and woods.

Here is our tour book description of Midway Geyser Basin.

The Midway Geyser Basin extends for about a mile along the Firehole River.  The major attractions here are the Excelsior Geyser, the third largest geyser in the world and once the park’s most powerful geyser, and the well known Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in Yellowstone and the second largest in the world.The colors of the springs surrounding area were like a beautiful rainbow on land.

We next hiked the Fairy Falls trail which took us about 2 ½ hours.  There is a section of the trail that passes to the West of the Midway Geyser Basin.  Just off the trail was a high slope that we climbed in order to get a high view of the Grand Prismatic Spring.  The climb was difficult over fallen trees and loose terrain.  It was worth it for this upper view of the geyser area.  We met a couple from China who had the same idea as us.  The wife asked if she could have her picture taken with Ellen.  Her husband took the picture and then got into another picture with Ellen and me.  It was very cute.  I gave them our email address and asked that they send a copy of the picture to us. 

The Fairy Falls trail was easy, but muddy in spots.  Some of the trail was very narrow and passed through a new growth area of pine trees.  We were a bit concerned about bears in this area.  We tried to make noise and shouted out loud on a regular basis.  The falls were beautiful and the long hike was worth the effort. 

We finished the day by visiting other sites in the area.  Specific locations of sites visited can be found in Frommer’s National Park of the American West, pages 413-418. 

We returned to the lodge which is located less than 100 years from Old Faithful.  It erupts approximately every 90 minutes and was right on schedule.  The eruption lasted less than five minutes.

We got back to our room and spent a relaxing afternoon in the lodge.  Ellen took a tour of the lodge, which included how it was built and  almost destroyed by both fire and an earthquake.

This has been a wonderful visit.  The geysers reminded us of many coffee pots perking at once.  The problem is that the geysers smell like sulfuric acid instead of Starbucks.  It reinforces the fact that we have been on top of a live volcano.  Since this place could blow at any minute, we leave for the Grand Tetons in the morning. 

Pictures can be found at  https://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/201169YellowstoneDay2?authkey=Gv1sRgCKeTnfHGtKuf5AE&feat=directlink

More later . . .

Yellowstone National Park - Day 1

We left the city of West Yellowstone and entered Yellowstone National Park at 7:30 a.m. with plans to see as much North to Norris, Mammoth Hot Springs, West to Roosevelt and Tower Fall, South to Canyon Village, Fishing Bridge, Lake Village, Bridge Bay, West Thumb arriving at Old Faithful.  This loop was a total of 152 miles and took 11 hours.  We make lots of stops along the way and saw lots of wildlife including bison, elk, bald eagle, coyote and a sandhill crane.  We saw numerous geysers, waterfalls, mountains and steam vents.

Specific locations of sites visited can be found in Frommer’s National Park of the American West, pages 413-418.
 
The weather prediction was for cold and rain.  We have learned to not alter our plans based on the weather prediction.  The day ended up being partly sunny and comfortable until around 3:30 p.m. when we had rain.  However, the rain was short lasting and soon the sun came out once again.  It was a very full day.

We checked into our room at the Old Faithful Motor Inn.  We were not sure what to expect based on the description on the web site and our conversation with the reservationist.  We believed our room was going to be in a cabin and not connected to the lodge.  We were quite surprised to learn that our room was in the rustic main lodge.  We grabbed dinner in the lounge and then wandered around the lodge. 

We have plans to hike some of the trails in the Old Faithful area tomorrow.

Pictures can be seen at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/201168YellowstoneDay1?authkey=Gv1sRgCPbBtfWr4vnwgAE&feat=directlink

More later . . .

On the Road to Yellowstone National Park

We left Glacier at 8:00 a.m. for Yellowstone.  We stopped in Helena at a Starbucks to make our room reservations for the next three nights.  We decided to spend the night at West Yellowstone just outside the park and the next two nights at the Old Faithful Inn.  We were lucky to get these rooms as most of the lodging in the park was unavailable.

As we were driving into West Yellowstone we saw groups of kayaks traveling along the very swift running river which ran along side the roadway.  It looked like fun, but only for those with a high skill level.

Since leaving Painesville on April 16, 2011 we have driven 6206 miles to date.  The balance of the day was doing laundry and resting up for our adventures to come.

More later . . .

Glacier National Park -- Day 3

We learned that the drive time from West Glacier to East Glacier was about an hour.  So, we decided to move our location to East Glacier so that we could see this section of the park.  We made our evening's reservation at the Glacier Park Lodge which is constructed with huge 40 foot long Douglas Fir timbers supporting the lobby. This historic building was called "Oom-Coo-La-Mush-Taw", The Big Tree Lodge by the Blackfeet Indians. 

East Glacier is described at the Switzerland of North America and is very beautiful.  We drove to the St. Mary's Visitor's Center and watched a video about the park and talked with the park rangers about possible hikes.  We drove 13 miles on the Going to the Sun highway to St. Mary Falls and hiked the .8 mile one way trail.  We then hiked the Sunrift Gorge trail which was .3 miles one way. Our final hike of the day was Baring Falls which was .7 miles one way. 

We then drove to the Many Glacier Lodge.  Here we saw a mountain goat right on the roadway and big horn sheep up on the mountain side.  The lodge look very pretty.  We could not go inside since is was not yet open for the season. 

We returned to St. Mary and stopped into a grocery store to pick up some food.  The shelves were very bare and there was very little fruit and vegetables.  We asked why there was so little food and were amazed to learn than the store had only opened for the season last week.  The Going to the Sun road is not yet open and there is very little tourist traffic in the town.  Therefore, little food at the grocery store.  

We were very tired and happy to return to our room at the Glacier Park Lodge.  We changed for dinner and had a view of the mountains from our window side table.  It was quite beautiful.

We leave for Yellowstone in the morning.

Pictures can be seen at:  https://picasaweb.google.com/tschick62/201166GlacierNationalParkDay3?authkey=Gv1sRgCO2z76Dsz4jGqgE&feat=directlink

More later . . .