2009 National Park Trip, Day 2

Got up and Michelle wanted pictures of Wall Drug. I was not as excited. As you can see from the pictures, this was not a good combination. We got through it and got on the road.

Next stop, Mt Rushmore. Now I was pretty excited about Mt Rushmore. But you know what? It’s faces on a mountain. And there were about a hundred zillion people there. And since this was a national park tour where we see wilderness, this didn’t exactly fit. Don’t get me wrong. Faces on a mountain is impressive. Hard to believe they were actually carved in there. But we saw them, walked around on the walkway (with the other zillion people). Got a few shots (I like this one with the faces behind us), and got out of there!

Our next stop was scheduled to be Crazy Horse. But well, we’ve already seen faces on a mountain. And Crazy Horse is one fine face on the mountain. We turned left into the entrance, took a picture, and parked at the info booth. On our drive down there we noticed a bike trail all along the road. With bicyclists on it. And we had our bikes on the back. AND we hadn’t gotten any exercise that day (other than fighting the zillion people at Rushmore). Turns out the bike trail was just below us at the info center parking lot. So we unhooked them, took them down the embankment over the barbed wire, and off we went.

It seemed like a good idea to go right from there (south). And we were right. It was downhill. This is one of those old railroad beds converted into a bikepath. So it was a easy slope downward through beautiful scenery. The only wildlife we encountered was a cow that had gotten through the fence and was grazing on the path. We went the 5 or so miles down to Cody. Then we turned around. Remember how I mentioned it was downhill? Well when you’re going downhill and turn around, it turns into uphill. Luckily it was an easy grade and getting back to the car wasn’t too bad. Nice stop.

Next stop, Devil’s Tower. After a fine lunch in Cody, we decided to go west to Wyoming from there. After the beauty that is the Black Hills, Wyoming was, at first, a bit of a disappointment. First thing we saw was a huge cattle pen. And everything was pretty flat and brown. But we turned north and started going uphill and came to a turnout with a view. And what a view! I immediately decided I wanted to live there. And decided that Wyoming was quite beautiful after all.

Michelle got to drive through these 2-lane roads up to DT. She sure enjoyed it! Lots of climbs and turns and mountains and bluffs. Very pretty drive. We were tired when we got to Devil’s Tower and were tempted to just take some pictures and drive on, but after some ice cream and fudge, we went in. We wanted to so some hiking so we took the “moderate” 3-mile trail around the base and through the park – the Red Bed Trail. Once again, it started easy because it was going downhill. The punishment for going downhill is the uphill to get back. And it was a heck of an uphill. The trail had lots of dead trees (I’m guessing they had a fire), so parts of it weren’t very pretty. But then we got to the “red” of red bed and that was beautiful. We also got some nice walks through grassland. Nice, “moderate” hike. I’d say what we were doing on the “easy” hike in the Badlands was more difficult, but this one was not easy.

Near the end, we were walking through the woods and I heard what sounded to me like cracking and falling branch – directly above my head. Michelle made a noise (she was behind me) and I turned back and ran. Turned out it was a flock of buzzards up in the tree above me – and I scared them as much as they scared me (OK, I bet I was more scared). Michelle and I had a good laugh.

After the hike, we continued our journey through the beautiful part of Wyoming. We spotted many more antelope and deer (I haven’t mentioned the prairie dogs yet – they were everywhere, too). As we were driving through a small town getting back on the e-way, Michelle spotted a dog racing across the street. I turned and saw another herd of antelope – right in the middle of town! Odd place, Wyoming.

We found a place to stay in Gillette and ate at a 20’s style “speakeasy”. Had spaghetti and a nice salad. And some wine. We were ready for bed. Another VERY active and fun day.