Woke up in Rapid City at 5:30 am. It seems my body has already adjusted to the early 5:30am wake-up call and it doesn't take mass amounts of caffeine to get going. Great. Had a fantastic continental breakfast at the hotel.We made our way from Rapid City south heading towards Mt. Rushmore through the Black Hills of South Dakota. On our way we saw a few billboards for Bear Country U.S.A, and usually I am not interested in a tourist trap, but we decided to pull in and see what it was about. The girl in the ticket line said it was $15 PER-person, which immediately turned me off, but we decided to just go for it. Man I am glad we did.
The park was basically a drive-through "safari". We knew we would see bears, but I was expecting them to be in cages and for the experience to be slightly cheesy. It wasn't. Pulling into the park entrance the signs said keep windows up and DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR under any circumstances. We continued into the park entrance and were pleased to see huge Elk just roaming about. Each animal species seemed to have its own enclosed area, but each habitat was quite large. They were separated by a grate that everyone just drove over. Continuing on we went through various sections and saw reindeer, big horn sheep, and white and gray wolves.
After the black bear section we parked and walked through more of the park where they had large grizzly bears among many other types of animals. This section was very nice and the enclosures seemed to be large enough to mimic the animals wild environments. The most popular section was the bear cub section. There were around 15-20 bear cubs all playing and rolling around. We were able to watch a feeding and saw them playing in a pool of water.
After Bear Country USA we made it to Mount Rushmore, which was a short distance down the road.. It was surreal being at one of the most visited monuments in the United States. The place was absolutely packed with tourists from all over the world. There was a museum that showed a scale model that the original sculptors used, and we learned some information on how they achieved such a monumental task. There was a foot path to the base of the monument, and we walked around the entire thing. After seeing the monument from different angles, you could really get a feel for how amazing this place was.
We then drove through the black hills of South Dakota to get back to I90. The landscapes were quite amazing. There were remnants of forest-fires all over the hills, charred trees and blackened fields with new growth popping up around them. There were piles of dead-fall neatly gathered to eventually limit the spread of any future fires. Fire is a very important part of any forest eco-system. Some trees even require fire to reproduce, we will be seeing these trees later in the trip.
We reconnected with route 90 from the black hills route and continued west. Our goal was to make it to Cody for the night and have a relaxing first day in Yellowstone National Park. We drove across 90 and made it to the Bighorn Mountain Range in eastern Wyoming. This is where the roads started to get tricky. We had to cross over the range and eventually rise 5000 feet in elevation. The road needed much attention. There were switchbacks with hairpin turns and drop offs down the mountain on either side of the vehicle. If I was tired and bored of driving this woke me up. We made it to the top of the pass and there was road construction all over the place. The roads were ripped apart, and there was dirt and mud for a few miles. I saw a guy in a sporty car with a look of sheer terror on his face. This was not the terrain for a vehicle without a 4x4.
On the other side of the Bighorn range we ascended down into an amazing valley and canyon. There was a creek running through the valley called Shell Creek and we stopped to take a look at Shell Falls. We met a man there that was asking where we were from and where we were headed. He stated that we really should have reservations if we want to stay in Cody since he worked in the area for years and was very familiar. Great. We did not have any. This could be our first night sleeping in the vehicle. After checking out the view we descended into a large canyon and the driving became quite complex. We had to slow down to 10 mph on some corners and were very close to the edge of cliffs during most of the drive. It was nerve-wracking to say the least.
We continued on Route 14 across a very wide open and windy plain. There was actually a town that had a population of 10. It consisted of 3 houses and a post office. Wyoming just seems so vast and empty, yet somehow it was beautiful. This being the longest day yet, we were filled with the fear of possibly sleeping in the car. Heather got a crash-course in using the Droid and was able to find a place to stay, complete with positive reviews online. It was bizarre using technology in such a way in such a primitive environment, but it really saved us. We ended up at the Americ-Inn in Cody, Wy. The place was quite nice and right next door was a BBQ place called Bubba's. You cant really get any more stereotypical than BBQ, Bubba's and Cody Wyoming. There was even a beat up truck outside. The food was very fair and the pulled pork that I had was not so good. But, the beer was tasty, cold and refreshing after an exhausting day. We crashed early and were very excited to visit our first planned destination, Yellowstone National Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment