Jackson, Wyoming Night 1

 

Today we had a later start than usual. Luggage had to be outside our room by 8:30 and our departure was at 10 AM.  We took advantage of the time to walking the trails to more geysers. It was amazing seeing all the steam. 

We traversed away from Yellowstone and soon entered Grand Teton National Park. Even seeing it in person, it looks like a painting.  We had a great lunch at the Jackson Lake Lodge. They had an outdoor bar that had amazing views.  

 I think no matter what you ordered, it would taste good. Angie had a grilled chicken sandwich and I had the chicken green Chile nachos.

At 4 PM we arrived at the Rustic Inn, our home for the next two nights. Each room is it's own cabin, along with a porch with two Adirondack chairs.

  Today was also laundry day.  We had hoped to do it at the last two hotels but neither had that amenity. They had many open machines here so as soon as our luggage arrived, I went to the machines.  

For dinner, we walked down to Snake River Brewing. They have a good selection of beers.  My favorite was the Le Serpente Cerise which was a cherry sour. We also had our dinner. Angie has a great pizza with spicy sausage. I had a mixed green salad with candied walnuts and gorgonzola along with Elk Bolognese.  The Bolognese was so tasty. I was afraid it might be dry but it wasn't.  Great flavors from the elk in a lighter sauce than I'm used to in a Bolognese.   

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park

 

Yesterday we made our way from Mammoth Hot Springs to the Old Faithful Inn. Along the way we stopped at some scenic view points including one area that had all kinds of thermal pools. The most interesting was the one that is called the Painter's Pot. Amazing to see bubbling mud!!  

We were soon at the resort.  Our resort was directly at Old Faithful and there were so many people gathered.  At the front desk they have a schedule of the estimated eruptions of the geysers.  

 We figured that it would be a good time to grab lunch before the crowds descended. It was a great idea!!  We had some local beers, burgers and wings. All staples of Yellowstone National Park!!We explored the visitor center and listened to a ranger talk. We decided to take a stroll around the Geyser Point. On our way we happened to catch Old Faithful irrupting. Lots of oohs and aahs from the large crowd gathered. 

We made our way to the Geyser Point trail. It was so fascinating to see all these smaller geysers and pools. In my mind I thought there was just Old Faithful, and that's it. Old Faithful is interesting to see, and you should see it.  But if you don't take at least some time to walk around to see the others, you're really missing out. After the walk we had a mandatory rest period in our room.

Our tour director has made us reservations at the hotel restaurant and we headed there at 6:45. We both had the most amazing wedge salads as starters!  This was both halves of a small head of iceberg!!   In addition to a creamy blue cheese dressing, it came with some nice additions of pickled onion, pickled crunchy sweet peppers, sundried tomato and of course some bacon.

Angie enjoyed the trout for her main and I had some tasty fried chicken which was accompanied by cheese grits and a tasty vinegar slaw with sweet peppers.   After dinner we headed to the mezzanine and enjoyed some local bourbon while we saw a nighttime viewing of Old Faithful.   

Mammoth Springs, Yellowstone National Park

 

Yesterday we decided to change things up and have breakfast outside the hotel.  The included breakfasts have all been buffets with mostly the same items.  Angie found a place called The Station which was a converted gas station which has delicious crepes.  After breakfast we headed back to the hotel for our 7:50 departure. We were headed to the Buffalo Bill Cody Center.   

What a fascinating place. It's five museums in one!!  In addition to a museum about the life of William F Cody, there is also a firearms museum, a natural History museum, an Indian Lands museum and a western art gallery.  We had two hours to explore and did the best we could. We both thought the natural history museum was the best part. Focused on the geology and wildlife of the area. If you are interested in firearms, they have a collection of over 7000!!  So many!!

After the museum we started the trek towards Yellowstone. 

 We'd be using the Northwest entrance so would be making a brief stop in Cooke City Montana. This town (officially an incorporated community) is literally only a few blocks long and has ~75 residents.  It's about as "small town" as you can get without being a ghost town.  We had some pizza from Trailhead Grill that we brought with us and that was our lunch as we sat near the mountains. We also visited the general store which had an old fashioned cash register!!  And no stop in a mining town would be complete without visiting the saloon for some liquid refreshment. 

Soon we entered the park.  I had no idea how massive this park is. Over two million acres and covering three states. We arrived at the hotel and before we got our keys we took a short stroll on the boardwalk to what is known as the terraces.  These are calcium formations from the hot underwater springs.

We received our keys and luggage and headed to the beautiful Map Room prior to our dinner. They have a wooden map using wood from all over the world. 

Dinner highlights were a wonderfully smoky trout dip and mushroom tortellini. After dinner we returned to find about twenty elk just grazing for their dinner out front of the hotel.   

Cody, Wyoming

 Yesterday was the equivalent of a day of scenic sailing on a cruise.  We left the Spearfish Canyon Lodge at 8:30 on our way to our final destination of Cody, Wyoming and the Holiday Inn. Along the way we cut through the Bighorn Mountains getting as high as an elevation of 9000 feet!  It was so interesting to see the landscape change from plains to beautiful mountains and then desert. We had about twelve moose sightings along the way plus plenty of pronghorn and mule deer. And of course cattle!!  We had a few rest stops and one of them was Burgess Junction which had a display showing the geologic change this area went through. Because the layers of the earth "folded", the rock layers on top are actually older than what is on the bottom. The exact opposite of what you would expect.  

We made it to the hotel about 4:30. We were handed our keys and waited in our room for our bags to be delivered. About 4:45 this arrived. We had a brief mandatory rest period and then headed to dinner. Tonight wasn't a group dinner. We'd be hitting the town on our own!  I had looked up the Trailhead restaurant as we were driving through the mountains. It had a great menu.  We had the most amazing fried Brussels Sprouts with a bourbon honey molasses gastrique and garnished with pistachios and brinoised apples!  So good!!  Also some tasty chicken wings with espresso BBQ sauce and a pork green chili soup.  And two pizzas. One was Fungi topped with arugula and the other was Bandiera which had roasted garlic, salami and pesto!   Why two pizzas?  Our tour guide said that the lunch options today will be limited.  So now we have our lunch.

After dinner we also checked out a brewery called Pat O'Hara's and had a delicious sour beer called Violet Delights.

Mount Rushmore

 

Yesterday was a day for dead Presidents and Deadwood!!  After our buffet breakfast, we left the Custer State Park Game Resort at 8:30 on our way to Mount Rushmore.  About an hour later we arrived and headed to the Grand Terrace.   I'd only ever seen pictures of the memorial so seeing it in person was fascinating.  It certainly seemed a lot bigger than I imagined.  

We took a short stroll on part of the Presidential Walk where you can get all kinds of viewpoints. Then we went to the Sculptors Center where they had one of the models.  Nine models in total were created and this was the final one, version 9.0.

The sculpture has quite a history.  It started as an idea from South Dakota historian Doane Robinson who had seen how a Confederate mountain sculpture called Stone Mountain in Georgia had been attracting tourists (and their money) to that area. How could he do that in South Dakota?  His idea was to have a sculpture of frontier heroes such as Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea and Buffalo Bull Cody.  He started discussions with Gutzon Borglum, the Stone Mountain sculptor. Gutzon had a very different idea to include significant Presidents that had shaped the nation. He agreed to do the sculpture only if this was the theme. 

Mount Rushmore was chosen as the location since it had granite and also faced southeast, providing the most amount of sunlight during the day. Work started in 1927 and the faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Originally the plan was to  show the Presidents from head to waist.  Only Washington has any significant detail below the chin. Unfortunately funding ran out and construction officially ended on October 31st, 1941.  Gutzon had also died unexpectedly earlier that year and his son had to complete the sculpture.   It was just a short time before the United States was to enter World War II.  Did you also know that the sculpture is named "Shrine of Democracy"?

The land where the monument is located is also controversial.  The Sioux tribe said the land belonged to them and was stolen. The United States Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that only compensation was owed to the Sioux tribe in the form of $102 million USD.  The Sioux refused that, only wanting the land and the dispute is still unsettled as far as they are concerned. 

During construction many changes had to be made based on the conditions of the granite on the mountain. Originally, Jefferson was supposed to be to the left of Washington. Carving started and soon it became obvious there wasn't enough rockface. So Jefferson was then started to the right of Washington. As Jefferson's face was being completed, a large piece of quartz would have been right above his lip. It would have looked like a cold sore!!  Quartz is not able to be carved,  so the orientation of his face was changed slightly so he looks more toward than the other Presidents. For Roosevelt, the front facing rock was also not suitable so his carving had to be further back.

After two hours at the memorial we boarded the bus and took an hour ride to Deadwood, the historical mining town. Perhaps more infamously known as where Wild Bull Hickok was killed with the Dead Man's Hand.  We had forty five minutes of free time so we explored Main Street and had a root beer float before it was time for a bus tour of downtown and a visit to the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok is buried alongside Calamity Jane.  That tour was an hour and right afterwards we boarded our coach for the forty minute drive to Spearfish Canyon Lodge where we'd be for the night. We checked into our room and then took a one mile hike to Roughlock Falls. 

Mammoth Site and Crazy Horse Memorial

 

We boarded our bus at 8:30 and were off to Hot Springs and the Mammoth Site.  Upon arrival we learned a bit about the history of this place.  The land had a huge mound of dirt which had become a town eyesore.  In 1972 the land owner was going to start construction on the site in order to build a new development.  On the first days of digging, they encountered bones.  Upon further analysis by a local archaeologist, these were mammoth bones. He immediately ceased further work and this started the paleontologist work. They discovered that the mound was an old sinkhole developed millions of years ago. And more recently (about 20,000 years ago), mammoths and other creatures had used the sinkhole since it offered warm water and vegetation.  Unfortunately, there was slippery sandstone surrounding the sinkhole.  So once the mammoths got into the water, they weren't able to get back out. And the ultimately died from starvation and/or fatigue.

The land owner sold the land at cost to another group who built what is there now. An enclosed building that preserves the bones found in the sinkhole.  We had a tour guide take us around the site.    It was fascinating to walk around and see all the various bones.

 And what is (and isn't) there. The site reminded me of when we visited the Terra Cotta soldiers in Xian. And coincidentally, those soldiers were also found by a landowner in the early 1970"s. 

After our visit, we boarded the bus and headed to Crazy Horse. I knew hardly anything about this place. It's a memorial to the Lakota warrior Crazy Horse who was a true icon to the Native Americans who lived in the area in the late 19th century and today.  In 1948 Korczak Ziolkowski agreed to sculpt the monument.  He initially thought it was too big of a project.  And in hindsight, he was absolutely correct.  Seventy six years later and they have only completed the head, part of the arm and finger. 

Angie's favorite part was that you could take a piece of rock with you. They use dynamite to carve the memorial. That creates a lot of rocks. They bring some into the visitor center for people to take with them. 

And Korczak died in 1982.  His wife helped while she was alive. Some of his ten children are still involved in the project.   When will it be done?  No one really knows. The joke here in South Dakota is that it will be done on Monday.  But what year they can't say.  Reminds me of Sagrada Familia.   Still an impressive place.  And an inspiration to the spirit of not giving up!!  To keep on going. 

We then headed back to the hotel.  We headed to the outdoor patio to enjoy a few adult beverages. And got to experience a South Dakota hail storm. We had dinner at the our hotel: The State Game Lodge at Custer State Park. It was known as the Summer White House for President Coolidge in 1927. 

Custer State Park and Buffalo Safari

 

On Sunday we had an early start as luggage had to be outside the rooms by 6:45 and the bus was leaving at 8 AM.  First stop was the Badlands!! 

The visitor center had a fossil lab where someone was actively removing rock and sediment to expose a fossil!!  Also many fossil examples.  And a replica of an extinct creature called an Archaeotherium. Kind of a large warthog.  What a crazy looking creature!  

We also stopped at a couple of viewpoints including the Yellow Mounds whose color comes from the mineral Goethite. Such amazing vistas!! 

Next up was a stop at Wall Drug which is best described as a large frontier mall. Probably where Bucees got their inspiration.  We had some lunch of BBQ Beef sandwiches from their specials menu. Really a Sloppy Joe in BBQ sauce. Pretty tasty.  Also tried a couple of their cake donuts.

We then headed to our hotel for the next two nights which is the Custer State Park Resort. Beautiful spot on a huge park of over 70,000 acres!!  We had a chance for a mandatory rest period before it was time for our Buffalo Safari with chuck wagon dinner.  We saw so many bison (buffalo only exist in Africa and Asia).   No need for binoculars. They were so close!! 

Dinner was tasty steak with all the campfire sides you'd expect including Cole slaw, potato salad and corn bread.  During the safari, we had torrential rains where we got soaked.  It actually added to this amazing experience.

Rapid City Day 2

 

We had an early start to the day!!  Wonderful breakfast at Tally's Silver Spoon with a breakfast burrito covered in green chili sauce and house made granola with yogurt and fresh fruit.  Then a quick Lyft ride to Dinosaur Park for such amazing views. 

We had a fantastic afternoon in Rapid City!!  We took a short Lyft from Dinosaur Park to the Journey museum. And we had the same driver that had picked us up after breakfast.  To my disappointment, Steve Perry wasn't there!!   He had to go his separate ways!! But they do let you experience the museum any way you want it.   Seriously, this is a museum that showcases much of the geologic , paleontologic and general history of this area.  

If you are into rocks and sediment, this would be the place for you. They also have a very impressive collection of native American art and artifacts. Plus a massive collection of pieces found from Custer's expeditions. 

After the museum we needed some lunch.  Angie found Independent Ale House back in the downtown area. We got our Lyft and headed there.  They had an impressive list of fifty beers!!  My favorite was Toppling Goliath's Fandango Dragon. It is a milkshake IPA sour with hints of passion fruit and mango. I also enjoyed the Spread It PBJ sour from Drekker. Much better than a similar beer we had at Woodland Republic.  You immediately tasted jammy goodness followed by hints of peanut butter.  Truly an adult liquid Uncrustable.  Honorable mention to the Resist Mango from Brewing Projekt.  Angie's favorite was Fairy Nectar from Kris Strain, her first beer from a brewery in Nebraska.

They also had some amazing flatbreads.  We had an Italian Pesto with sausage.  And the most surprisingly tasty one was their flatbread of the day.  It had succulent pork belly along with cucumber, thin red onion and watermelon. Sounds like a strange combination but was so delicious.  Kind of like a watermelon feta salad.

After lunch we went next door to Presidential Pawn.  They had some fascinating collections of clocks as well as a piece of the carpet that Saddam Hussein had that was made from US dollar bills!!  

And nearby was the Prairie Edge gallery and gift shop. They had an impressive display of native American art.  And something I had never seen before: A bead library. Multiple rows filled with every kind of bead imaginable. 

We then headed back to the hotel for a mandatory rest period. We had a meeting at 6 pm to meet our Tour Director and group. It was about an hour and a half introductions, briefing and questions. We are going to see a lot. We went to Kathmandu Bistro for a great Nepalese dinner. 

Rapid City, South Dakota

We had a smooth flight into Rapid City this morning!!!  A new state for both of us!!  We left Carmel at 5 AM and landed in Rapid City at 10:30 AM. Of course it's Mountain Time so we gained two hours.  The Rushmore hotel had a shuttle we arranged and it was an easy twenty minute ride to the hotel.  We checked in and our room was ready!!  

After we brought our luggage to the room, the first priority was getting some lunch.  Angie had looked at some recommended restaurants and Bokujo Ramen was highly rated.   It didn't disappoint!!  

Then some brewery tours began. First was Hay Camp followed by Woodland Republic and Firehouse Brewing.   Woodland was my favorite.  

They had a Bramble Berry Milkshake Sour that was outstanding.  The Uncrust-A-Beer was also very inventive. Jammy with hints of peanut butter. The Muchos Alohas Percolate was Angie's favorite. An imaginative combination of ginger, coconut and coffee. First time ever seeing (or trying) a beer with those flavors.  Very well balanced.

Tomorrow we'll do some more exploring of the downtown area. And then we'll meet our tour group as we start a ten night tour of the National Parks.