Christina and Robert's Cross-Country Trip: Part 9
We spent Thursday night 7/16 in Rapid City, then on Friday drove through Sturgis, seeing many motorcycle buffs early for the 8/2 rally and the original and famous Roadkill Cafe--too bad we had already eaten (we had just had apple pie and ice cream and coffee all for $1 for each of us!) We drove through Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hickok died, and drove through scenic Spearfish Canyon, where we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls and hiked all the way up to it--it was little but pretty, and I tested the waterproofness of my new, rugged hiking boots, while Robert got a sneaker full of water. There is a Corvette convention in Spearfish tonight, so we saw lots of nice Corvettes on the roads.
Then we headed into Wyoming to Devil's Tower Natl. Monument, the core of an ancient volcano. It is still very hot, but we drove happily in air conditioning past beautiful red rocks on the way there, and then walked around the base of the Tower in 98 degree heat and sun. That day we kept driving West in Wyoming, up to and through the Big Horn mountains, till after dark. The last mountain road we were on was a cool mountain pass with rock on the sides from the Pre-Cambrian period!! A cowboy Wyomer we asked how far it was to the next town sized up Robert and said 2 hours, when it really only took 1.5 hours--we showed him. He told us to beware of critters, which meant deer. We stayed in a small town in the middle of the state.
Saturday, 7/18, we got up early and drove the rest of the way across WY to Yellowstone. We saw a large dam, a deep canyon, and lots of rock formations caused by volcanic mudflows long ago-- Chimney Rock, Elephant Head, and others. We got to Yellowstone about noon and stayed till 8pm. During our day there, we saw an eagle, lots of buffalo, chipmunks, deer (including a whole family in the middle of the mountain road when we were leaving that Robert masterfully avoided), an elk, a moose, an osprey, and pronghorn deer. We stopped at every waterfall around the lower loop and picnicked lunch by a river. We walked around the whole Mud Volcano, Norris Geyser, and West Thumb Geyser areas, seeing bizarre otherworldly sulfur smelling things-- Robert couldn't take the smell too well, though. Most of those parts of the park looked too much like a non-class-M-planet to be considered beautiful, but they were definitely something to see. and smell. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and lots of parts on the loop road were pretty, though, and it was neat the way cars kept stopping by the side of the road whenever an animal was in the nearby area. The binoculars Mom and Dad gave Robert came in handy for peering at buffalo. Old Faithful was impressive, and non-smelly!! It was extremely hot all day, and the little self-guided trails around the features were exposed to the sun. Lots of the trees were decimated from the 1988 forest fires even now--huge areas just full of knocked down burnt trees. Right near the shore of the lake was a cool cone-like feature nicknamed the Chowda Pot--supposedly you could catch a trout in the lake, spin around and dip him in the pot and cook him even with o taking him off your line. On the way home we took narrow winding mountain roads through Grand Teton National Park, and the sunset in the mountains was gorgeous. Just at dusk we were hit with a rain of bugs on our windshield.
