So as it turns out, blogging while traveling is very
difficult! Trying to use the computer
while driving doesn’t really work and by the time we get to a camp site there
is probably no service and we are too tired to even think about blogging. And during the day we have been busy either
driving, hiking, touring or trying to plan our next leg – which has turned into
a bit of a struggle! So I thought the
best way to update everyone was a quick journal of where we’ve been in the last
three weeks with a few photos thrown in.
I’m trying to keep a hand written journal of our day by day stuff, so
after we weed through our photos when we get back East, I can give some more
detail of our travels.
Our journey started from Southern Berkshire County in
Massachusetts where both of our family’s live and where we are going to
eventually be moving back to. We started
out West towards Adirondack Park in upstate New York on Friday the 3rd
of August. We stayed at Golden Beach
Campground on Raquette Lake. It was
absolutely beautiful and after a day of hiking on Saturday we took a relaxing
dip in the warm water! It was wonderful to finally unwind and hike
after the craziness of July.
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| Golden Beach Campground |
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| Raquette Lake |
We left the Adirondack’s on the 5th and headed
toward Niagara, New York. On the way we
hit some torrential downpours outside of Rochester and finally got a chance to
see how our weather proofing worked!
Amazingly there was only one leak on the passenger side door along the
hinge… wah hoo! We stayed at Golden Hill State Park which was 45 mins outside of the Falls and absolutely
beautiful. Our site was right on Lake
Ontario and it had free showers! The
next day was spent at Niagara Falls and Old Fort Niagara which were both a lot
of fun. There’s nothing better then
getting our learn on at historical sites… and the falls were pretty too! Unfortunately my camera battery died, so I
didn’t get any photos at the fort, but I highly recommend it!
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| Golden Hill State Park |
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| Niagara Falls |
Our next major stop was with friends in Michigan and on
the way we got to drive along Lake Erie and into Ohio which was a pretty
drive. I never knew that there were so
many vineyards in New York! I also never
thought about how many power stations there were along the great lakes either –
hydro, coal and nuclear. We pulled into
East Harbor State Park in Ohio on Tuesday the 7th which was nothing
to write home about. It was huge (over
300 sites) and very much a city dwellers campground. I didn’t even take any photos. The next couple of nights were spent in
Haslet, Michigan with our high school friend Robin and her boyfriend John. It was a wonderful couple of day’s of
relaxing and swimming in the nearby lake and planning. The only photo I really managed to take was
of the Big Boy restaurant’s sign where we had lunch one of the days… it was our
first time and delicious!
Taking the suggestion of Robin and John we headed up
North to Pictured Rocks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We were going to go South to Chicago, but
decided trying to navigate a city with the trailer would be to stressful. Pulling in on a Friday night was a little
crazy, but we managed to fine one campground that had open spots, Forrest
Lake. It was really out of the way (and
about a half hour from the National Lakeshore) but beautifully quiet and almost
empty! It was a hidden gem. Pictured Rocks was not at all what we were
expecting from a Lakeshore. The whole
cost line is made up of towering sand stone cliffs along Lake Superior – which
I swear is an ocean with the waves it had that day! There were even a few beaches as well though
the water was too cold for me to handle swimming… the hiking was easy though
and the scenery beautiful!
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| Forrest Lake Campground |
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| Beaches along Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks |
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| Pictured Rocks |
From Pictured Rocks we headed south again out of
Michigan, through Wisconsin and into Minnesota.
It was just a driving day but we did manage to stop at Humbird Cheese in
Tomah, Wisconsin to buy some delicious cheese and sausage before heading into
Minnesota. We spent a rainy night in
Myre-Big Island State Park and finally saw our first home built teardrop on the
trip! It was fun chatting with the
owners and seeing how they did things compared to us.
The drive through Minnesota along interstate 90 was
actually really interesting. Mixed in
with all of the farms were literally hundreds of windmills, not something I
expected to see here. Once we crossed
the border into South Dakota we could get back to doing some touristy
stuff. I wanted to stop in De Smet to
see the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead and from there we got to see the worlds
largest Pheasant in Huron and the Corn Palace in Mitchell. All were really fun and worth the stops. That night was spent in the Fort Pierre
National Grassland which was amazing.
Though you can camp there, there aren’t any official campgrounds. One of the websites we found about the
grassland literally gave you GPS coordinates for a fishing spot where people
had camped in the past. It was just off
a gravel road and so peaceful since we were the only ones there!
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| Windmills in Minnesota |
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| The Ingalls house in De Smet, SD |
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| Worlds Largest Pheasant!! |
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| The Corn Palace |
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| Ft. Pierre National Grassland |
On Tuesday the 14th, we finally rolled into
our first National Park, Badlands.
Driving in was breathtaking!
After miles of flat grazing land, the rock formations of the Badlands
suddenly appeared seemingly from nothing.
Once we were in the park, the landscape got even more spectacular with
deep canyons, high peaks and stunning rock formations. The rock itself almost seemed like it would
crumble away if you were to touch it, but for the most part it was pretty
solid… but the wind! The second day we
were there hiking we ended up with headaches from the wind blowing so strongly
and constantly. But it was worth
it. Of the two campgrounds, we stayed at
the one with water – Cedar Pass.
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| Approaching the Badlands |
We also swung by Mount Rushmore while we were staying at
the Badlands. Though I’m not overly
patriotic, it was a very impressive site and even after a lifetime of hype, it
didn’t disappoint.
About an hour and a half further west of the Badlands is
another small National Park, Wind Cave.
It is tiny but worth it because while you’re there you can wander into
Custer State Park and the Black Hills which are in complete contrast to the
Badlands – mountains, forests and green rolling grasslands. The cave system at Wind Cave is definitely
worth the tour too. It is one of the
longest cave systems in the world and is completely dry, at least in the areas
that the different tours go though. It
doesn’t have the traditional stalactites and stalagmites but boxwork and
different beautiful formations. After the cave tour we went on a hike in the
northern end of the park. We were
disappointed in our lack of animal sightings until at the end of the hike there
was a huge male bison standing in the middle of the trail! We did a large loop around him, but it was so
cool so see one so close in the wild.
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| Boxwork at Wind Cave |
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| The bison is scratching his head on the trail marker! |
On the way out of Wind Cave, we drove North through the
Black Hills along the Needles Highway.
The rock formations through the mountains were stunning and worth the
drive! From here we linked back up with
interstate 90 and began our trek into Wyoming.
Our first stop in Wyoming was Devils Tower. I’ve seen it countless times in photos
before, but the real thing can’t be compared.
It rises out of a sea of prairie and the faceted sides are so different
to any rock formations around it. Like
so many other places we’ve seen, our first thought is that it can’t be
real. After a quick hike around the base
of the tower and some lunch, we continued our journey West to Big Horn National
Forrest for the night. We managed to
snag the last campsite at Lost Cabin Campground.
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| Rock formation on Needles Highway |
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| Devils Tower |
The change in landscape out of Big Horn National Forest
was stunning all over again. The
mountains of the forest gave way to deep, rocky gorges and then as we exited
the rolling dry hills of northern Wyoming opened up. They red, brown ground was covered with light
green sage brush and small yellow and white flowers. We drove through the small town of Ten Sleep
and then stopped for a break at Castle Gardens Scenic Area in the surrounding
BLM. The rock formations were amazing
and well worth the stop to explore. The
day ended in Cody, Wyoming just outside of Yellowstone where we stayed at a KOA
campground. It wasn’t my favorite but we
could do laundry and take hot showers, plus there were free pancakes in the
morning. That night we went into Cody
and had a delicious dinner at the Prime Cut Saloon and then when to the famous
nite rodeo. It was a little touristy
but super fun.
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| Wyoming landscape outside of Ten Sleep |
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| Castle Gardens - can you find Darrell? |
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| Cody Nite Rodeo! |
Since we had been able to make reservations for our
campground at Yellowstone we took our time heading out in the morning. Before heading into the Shoshone National
Forrest, we stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam.
When it was completed in 1910 it was the tallest dam in the world at 325
feet. There was a great visitor center
there and it was a fun stop. Next stop
was in Yellowstone National Park!
Driving it we knew that we would need to extend our stay. The entire park is larger than the state of
Rhode Island and it takes hours to drive around the whole thing. The scenery was beautiful though and there is
no way I could possibly describe it in a paragraph. From corner to corner, each section was
different and the thermal areas were spectacular. We ended up spending four nights and three
full days there and I still felt that it wasn’t long enough. We definitely want to go back.
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| Buffalo Bill Dam |
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| Formations at Mammoth Hot Springs |
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| Grand Prismatic Spring |
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| 'bobby sock' trees near Old Faithful |
We managed to leave Yellowstone on the 23rd of
August and headed south to Grand Teton National Park for a night. Unfortunately the mountains were shrouded in
haze from the wildfires in Idaho and Nevada, but they were still stunning. Their jagged peaks rising from the planes
surrounding the park. At night they were
even more unreal because all you could see was the solid outlines of the
mountains in flat colors of grey and blue.
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| The Grand Tetons |
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| Hiking with Mount Moran in the background |
Our original plan was to travel up to Glacier
National park next, but as we were charting our course, we realized we are
quickly running out of time to get through the country! So plan B, we are heading directly west to
Yosemite National Park and then into San Francisco. This will save us at least 5 days on our
schedule giving us more time to stop at the parks in Arizona and Utah. Either way, our trip so far has been amazing
and we have seen so much of the country.
Though we are both a tad road weary, we are still excited to see what
adventures lie before us in California and beyond!
