Retroblogging the megatrip: Part 8d

We had one heck of a driving day to get between Yellowstone Park and South Dakota. Well, it was a bit more than a day, but I'll cover the whole shebang in this post.

I feel like we got out of the Park sometime around 3:00 or so and we still had about 4 hours of driving to get to our destination that evening: Riverton, WY. The stretch between the two places was amazing. First of all, there was no traffic. We weren't on an interstate or anything - it was just a state highway - but still, we may have seen half a dozen oncoming cars the whole way. Second, this part of the state earned Wyoming the title of "state I was most pleasantly surprised by on the trip". Immediately to the south of Yellowstone is Grand Teton National Park (and yes, we listened to this while driving through the Park), featuring a beautiful view of the majestic Rocky Mountains across Jackson Lake. We pulled over to stretch our legs and chuck rocks into the lake. Just beautiful. Then, after turning off at Moran, we were driving through lush valleys with stands of trees tucked in amongst smaller rocky peaks. We pulled off somewhere along the way here too for a bathroom break. Holly was in the middle of doing her thing when she was swarmed by biting bugs. Yikes! Here are some pictures of the first leg of the Wyoming drive:

We got to Dubois, WY for dinnertime. Dubois was a really cute little place with a rustic Western theme and boardwalks for sidewalks. The only place that looked really appealing was Paya. Unfortunately, the food took a while to come out so we put in our order and then took turns strolling down Main Street and reading to whoever wanted to stay behind. I must say that the food was delicious when it came and we ate our fill before moving on. Around the town of Dubois were a number of dude ranches. I'm not sure I've knowingly seen one before, but it seemed to be the area's main industry. Also, the landscape changed completely in that part of the state. Grey rocks and greenery were replaced by red rocks and scrubland. The colours were unbelievable, particularly as we were getting them as lit by sunset. We've been to Sedona and this sort of red holds up very well against Sedona's. The sheer size of some of the rock faces on the side of the road were staggering too. Witness:

Note that in these last couple of pictures, I tried fooling with the camera. I sampled the colour of the van and then extracted the van hue from everything that had that colour and then converted everything else into black and white. Fun with photography!

I really was trying to get off the road before dark, but there always seemed to be too much to explore and too much driving to do to pull it off. I can't remember how we pulled it off in Western Canada but we were failing pretty badly in the NW States (late into Seattle, late into Spokane, two late nights into Idaho Falls and now late into Riverton). It wasn't too bad as the kids hadn't actually fallen asleep by the time we pulled in. We did our standard "enter the hotel in batches so that nobody knows that we're five to a room" when things went very, very wrong. The desk clerk gave Holly and the boys with her a room key to a room that was already occupied. Holly reports that the lone gentleman in the room was under the sheets when she burst in and there was screaming on both sides. Holly raced back to the desk to get us an unoccupied room. That has never happened to us before. Horrifying. Here is Max's reenactment of The Moment:

The next morning got off to a good start. We popped into the hotel restaurant to load the kids up with an eggs 'n OJ breakfast after they had a morning swim. I loaded the van in 94-degree weather while the boys watched a game show from some past decade that involved making gross sandwiches and racing around a fake shopping mall. The boys erupted into their 349th fight over Pokemon paraphernalia somewhere around Sweetwater Station and shortly after that, we crossed the Continental Divide for the final time (it's tough to say how many times we crossed it - I believe it was 9 or 10).

We blazed across the state (now we were dealing with rolling hills, farmland and these weird fences set up everywhere that we figure were wind breakers...it was extremely windy in those parts!) but were completely unable to escape country music on the radio (seriously about 12/13 stations were country). Eventually, we pulled off the interstate at the Wagonhound Rest Area to celebrate our 10,000th kilometre on the road. I think originally, we were aiming to be home within 10k-12k km so we were starting to see how much extra tootling around we were doing instead of just bombing out to the ocean and back. The shelter at the rest area actually had these little alcoves with picnic tables inside to allow people to grab a bite out of the wind (did I mention it was windy?).

We eventually got back in the van, drove for another 45 minutes and then pulled off the road to try The Iron Skillet for lunch. It turns out the only thing iron you need is an iron stomach to eat there. But at least two of the kids were free! And, as you can see from the picture, we did our best to make it look good.

Just outside the restaurant, by the off-ramp from the highway, we pulled off the road to look at a map and we noticed a "Magic: the Gathering" card on the side of the road. Then another and another. The kids had played the trading card game before so we scrambled around and ended up picking up about 200 cards on the shoulder. The kids sorted and traded them over the course of the next hour, which gave Holly enough time to wander the streets of Laramie, WY. Holly's sister is named Laramie and Holly thought it would be great to get her something that actually had her name on it. Too bad that 90% of businesses were closed by the time to rolled into town. Holly eventually did find a place to pick up some gear and then we split out of there to try to reach our hotel for the night before the kids erupted.

It was already 4 or so and we had 5 hours of driving ahead of us. Thankfully we had a pile of audiobooks to get us through this stretch. The boys latched on to "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", a funny book in which the protagonist has some serious character flaws yet tries to pass them off as assets. We had to point out to the kids a few times that what this guy thought were "great ideas" were in fact kind of mean. I know, we're wet blankets. Sue us.

Somewhere around Wheatland, we pulled off for some Arby's and to grab a couple last Wyoming souvenirs before we left the state. There really isn't much more to say about this leg of the trip. We got off the beaten path a bit and took the scenic route through Fort Laramie. The kids passed out somewhere before getting into South Dakota and then woke up with about 45 minutes left to go before arriving at our destination in Rapid City. The bummer was that Max and Henry were uncomfortable/upset enough that they cried in the dark for the remainder of the drive. That was pretty nerve-wracking. We all arrived in one piece though and tucked into bed in South Dakota just before 1:00 a.m.

It's funny how close we came to crossing over into Colorado and Nebraska that day but just couldn't justify it. We'll just have to go back sometime. Here are some closing pictures from the road in Wyoming.

Retroblogging the megatrip: Part 8c

So we didn't exactly get up early the next morning. For the first time in a while, we rolled into the hotel the previous evening without enough time or energy to get ourselves prepped to hit the road bright and early the next day. So part of the morning was spent doing dishes, packing snacks for the day and sorting out the plan while the kids binge watched Jessie on the Disney Channel (we have NO IDEA what it was about this show that the kids fell in love with, but they could not get enough). The nice part was that we were staying put for two nights in a row so we didn't need to pack everything, just what we would need for the day.

The big plan was to head in to Yellowstone, do the park all day, come back for a sleep and then go back for more the next day. For starters, we headed in to Idaho Falls to grab a little Subway breakfast (although the Jack in the Box right there was pretty tempting). Everyone tucked into their egg sandwiches except Max, who wasn't quite himself that morning. We popped into the local Walmart to pick up some stuff for lunch and the trip and that's when Max hurled in the van. Hm. That wasn't on the menu. After Holly got back to the van with the shopping, she turned tail to go and find some Gravol to help Max get through the two hour drive to Yellowstone. But the meds we were looking for were nowhere to be found. It turns out that they don't sell Gravol in the U.S. I remember we gave him something we hoped would hold him together and then got on the road to at least try to get on site by 1 p.m.

I remember the dawning horror of rolling into West Yellowstone (yes Max made it there in one piece) and seeing hotels with rooms to rent. When we were trying to figure out the best base of operations for our Yellowstone days, we thought we were limited to Bozeman MT (75 minutes out) or Idaho Falls. And boom, there were rooms (in admittedly pretty bare bones digs, but we'd already proven on this trip that our floor was pretty questionable) 10 minutes away. And we couldn't even abandon our Idaho Falls pad for somewhere in W. Yellowstone for night 2 as we'd left a bunch of our stuff in Idaho. Ugh. Regardless, we kept our heads held high and drove up to the gates of the park...

There it is. We officially made it to one of the U.S.'s iconic road trip destinations. I remember the kids weren't much in the mood to take a picture at this point but these turned out pretty good anyway! Once we were through the gates, we finally started to get a sense of how HUGE the park was. There are about 10 amazing things to see (well, depending on your definition of amazing, it might actually be closer to 100 or 1000) but to get between most of them, you're driving on the order of 20-30 minutes. Amazing. The impact of the 1988 forest fire was obvious all over the place. We decided that in order to make our next stop after the Park in southern Wyoming, we would do the north part of the Park on Day 1 and then come back and hit the southern swing on Day 2. Crossing our fingers the whole way that Max would hold up.

So the first stop was Gibbon Falls. There was a pull-out by the side of the road and then a path you could take to backtrack in order to see the falls. I saw a woman wearing a Winnipeg Jets t-shirt and I threw her a "Go Jets!". Then we got chatting and it turns out that she and her family were road tripping from Canada too. From Manitoba, natch. Actually from the small town of 300 people where my grandmother is buried. WEIRD!!! It doesn't happen too often, but every now and then you make a connection that is just plain mind-boggling. I think this was the one for the trip. The falls were beautiful and we got some nice pictures. Leo noticed that there were some green birds flying strangely over by a sheer rock face. We got a little closer to check it out and it turned out that the birds had homes in the rock wall! They'd swoop out to grab some food and then bank and dive back into their holes. Pretty cool.

After a bathroom stop, the next point of interest was way up by the Roosevelt Arch at the north end of the Park: The Boiling River. As I learned in a Bill Bryson book I read after I got back, Yellowstone Park sits atop a monstrous volcanic caldera (the largest super volcano on the continent) which explains all of the geysers throughout the park. There are a couple of places where the geothermal byproducts of the caldera created some pretty awesome natural hot springs and the Boiling River is a great place for people to go and soak in a very bizarre mix of frigid and scalding water (you really do have to get in just the right place...but then it's magic!). Signs warned us about going Wreck Beach so we kept our clothes on. I'm fairly certain that, through the years, some others have not been so modest.

Max posing with an elk friend in the background. This young animal had quite the time crossing the river on his own.

After drying off and grabbing a snack, we bounced up to the Roosevelt Arch so that Holly could get this picture:

It actually took a while to get this shot. Cars were lined up taking turns, waiting for traffic through the arch to clear out and then thrusting someone in the middle of the road for a pose and then a quick exit. Worth it, though. President Teddy Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for this arch.

The last adventure on Day 1 would be a hike on the boardwalks leading to the top of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces to see the sunset. Toward the bottom of the hike was the Albright Visitor Centre and Park HQ where there was a campus of buildings on very green lawns. It turns out this is a prime place for elk to just camp out all day. So we stopped to check out the elk for a bit. I'm really not sure how close a person could have gotten to them before they batted an eye, but I think it's fairly close.

Then on to Mammoth! There was a really funny sign at the bottom suggesting that maybe people might not want to venture out on foot onto the crusty deposits by the geysers as they might fall through and essentially melt. I remember we counted the number of steps we climbed on the way down and were surprised by how many there were (something in the 300 range I think). The kids were total troopers (Henry was being carried, but the other guys were on foot) and managed the entire climb to the top. Max and Leo went quite far in the wrong direction at one point to boot. There were lots of pools with thermophile organisms in them, turning the colour of the water something like rust. A very scenic lookout at the very top too. Here's what the hike looked like:

This is "Where's Waldo". Max and Leo went roaring down the wrong path and I took this picture of them from afar. You might have to seriously blow this up to see how far away from me they were. I convinced myself that there were no safety concerns in the direction they ran.

One of many hats we saw, blown off of their owner's heads and lying in a boiling pool, out of reach. Poor pink cowboy hat.

On the way out of the park, the Park had one last treat in store for us. First up, we encountered a pair of bison trudging along the side of the road. We drove beside them for a minute or two, long enough to snap a picture, before carrying on. Then, with the light fading, we pulled off to check out some roadside geysers. The sulphuric smell is something that amazed the kids and Henry still talks about how farts smell like geysers.

So back to Idaho Falls, sleep, pack up and then back to the Park. Man that drive got old. Good thing we had "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" on audio book! The kids loved it and it became our Yellowstone soundtrack. On the way back to the Park, we stopped off at FROSTOP!! for a root beer. And a picture of a wicked salt-and-pepper-holding centrepiece. Once back in the park, we pulled off for a scenic picnic lunch by the Firehole River. Another beautiful day.

We had our sights set on visiting southern Wyoming after Yellowstone, so our path through the park on day 2 was going to take us through to the Southern Entrance. After the picnic lunch, the first must-see attraction on the road was the Grand Prismatic Spring. We were originally going to pull off the road so that Holly could quickly nip in and grab a few pictures and then hop back in the van. The parking lot was jammed so it was unlikely that we'd find a spot anyway. But then a spot opened up. And then someone had to go to the bathroom. And then another. So then we just caught up with Holly and checked out the Spring. It was really stunning. The water covered the spectrum of colours from turquoise to purple to gold to orange. The wind was something fierce around the pools (we lost a hat briefly but recovered it before it flew off the boardwalk) and, with the heat of the springs, it created an eerie warm breeze. See the beauty for yourself:

That left just one stop between us and the Park exit: you guessed it, Old Faithful. We did a loop of the parking lot and couldn't find a place to park (though we did find an elusive Connecticut plate). We took a guess that this was because people had been gathering for a while, waiting for Old Faithful to blow. The geyser erupts about every 90 minutes or so...if you don't time it right, you're waiting for a while. Not so fun with young kids. Anyway, I dropped Holly and the boys off at the entryway and zoomed off to go find a spot. I parked the van, walked back to the geyser and met up with everyone...minutes after the eruption. Noooooooo! Oh well, at least most of us got to experience the wonder. There's a streaming webcam you can check out here.

This last picture is of Max collecting pieces of coloured glass on the trails by Old Faithful. For some reason, the trails were littered (intentionally, I think) with little cubes of the stuff. The pieces were pretty but they certainly weren't dull. A strange thing to put on a walking path.

So there you have it: Yellowstone Park. Originally, we weren't going to go as it was too far south. I have to say that would have been a monumental error. In the end, we weren't sure if we'd ever be back in that part of the country so it would be silly not to go. Absolutely no regrets.