I thought we had left the crowds behind after we had left Yellowstone a couple days ago. We did our best to avoid those inevitable crowds by staying an extra day with Dan and Laura Ginty, especially after they insisted we stay and enjoy the sometimes leisurely life of being on a ranch. It took us a couple hours from there place on Monday morning and even before we entered Yellowstone, after driving back through Teton, we spotted buffalo off in a field. Mo said we needed to stick around Yellowstone until we got good views of buffalo. I asked if this counted as we had to use binoculars and even then they were mostly just brown spots. She said no, which I agreed with her.
We drove on the east side of the park toward a couple valleys that had the potential for buffalo viewing. Before those valleys, we did see some elk on a spit of landing on Yellowstone Lake. We also saw people getting much too close, and moving closer to these beautiful animals. If you want a really good up close photograph of wildlife, buy one!
Well further up the road we suddenly hit a traffic jam. We feared another rock slide or accident but at least in the valley below us we could see a buffalo roaming along a river. Then as we slowly moved along, I realized that just over the bend in the road was a huge valley and I got my hopes up to see more than a singular buffalo.
When we finally rounded that bend we were treated to seeing hundreds of the majestic beasts. Of course a couple idiots got out of their vehicles and walked along the road toward them. Quinn was the most excited of all of us. The rangers did a great job keeping people slowly moving along and helping the beasts to get out of the road. Not an easy job for these rangers and we drove so close to some you could hear them breathing in the fresh Wyoming air.
Of course we had to stop further up the road so the kids could finish their junior ranger programs. They had already finished their Teton requirements earlier in the day and we stopped at a visitor center so they could attend a ranger program. Well Mo did misread the brochure and there wouldn't be a talk for over another hour, but sweetly one ranger gave us a worksheet for them to do together in the natural museum to fulfill the requirement. I was already a little irked that Yellowstone was the only park to charge for the books, and got even more irked when the next ranger was giving us and thus the kids a little hard time that they both didn't do the worksheet. He went ahead with giving them badges, as really the rangers do provide excellent customer service but you do need to have at least one who is a little sub par to remember how good the rest of them are.
Even though it was getting into the afternoon there was a hike we wanted to do up Mount Washburn before we left the park. About 2.5 up to over 10,000 feet sounded a little daunting but then once on the 'trail' we found it real easy going as it was actually an old road bed leading to the fire tower. We nearly made it to the top when we heard some heavy thunder. We didn't mess around, we headed down. There were a few other people who kept going and I talked with Maggie about taking responsibility of yourself in the wilderness.
As we really turned more east on our way out of the park and into Lamar Valley we were treated to seeing a huge herd of buffalo again. The road wasn't as packed as before and most were off in the distance but enough close to the road for a few more good photos.
Outside the park we found a campsite still in Wyoming. We had to unload all our food into a bear storage container and this gave us the chance to throw out some edibles that we just were not eating.
In the morning we, well I, drove us up Bear Tooth Pass toward Montana. Clouds lingered and some rain fell preventing us from totally enjoying a spectacular road. The rain picked up as we got to just under 11,000 feet and I was white knuckle driving making Mo a little uptight. These passes we've driven on are amazing and this one was probably the most stunning even in the clouds but I have never looked forward more to driving along the flat, straight roads in the Midwest more in my life.
The rains finally let up before we headed into Billings, Montana for lunch. The town kind of depressed us as we drove in following directions on the GPS to a restaurant Mo found on Yelp. But just off the main drag and past a hospital we found ourselves in a lovely neighborhood and were real surprised to find this restaurant sitting far away from any other businesses. Three gentlemen sitting at an outside table inquired a little about our journey and how we found this place. We decided to take a table next to them after placing our order and we had a great time talking sports and travel with them. Jake, Jerry and Robert gave Billings a real great name and some stories to remember and tell with people at another time.
Our destination for the day was to get to Nouth Dakota, so we pushed on and made it oh about another half an hour before we stopped again. This time at a national monument, Pompey's Pillar. This butte stands above the prairie and has the only physical proof anywhere that Lewis and Clark traveled across our nation over two hundred years ago. Clark carved his name into the sandstone, unfortunately so have many other people, but his carving is kept under glass as well as video surveillance.
Many hours later we finally crossed the border and into the forty-ninth state for Mo. She now only has to get to Hawaii for all fifty and well Bam Bam has been awesome but I don't think we'll be taking her to the islands anytime soon. Theodore Roosevelt NP was our destination in North Dakota and we were surprised to find all the campsites full in this remote park. Luckily there was a campsite close by not far from the Little Missouri River.
Up a little earlier than usual we wanted to beat the predicted heat of the day and got ourselves into the park before the visitor center opened. We were treated to seeing more buffalo in this park, a much smaller herd and we stopped for a few photos as they were right next to the road.
We found a place to hike hoping to do a loop trail roughly five miles. Very early on we had to take off shoes to wade across the muddy Missouri, well actually just Quinn and me, as Mo decided to walk her shoes dry and I carried Maggie across. Up the trail we passed by a prairie dog village who chirped at us when they weren't scurrying away and into their holes. The trail wasn't very pleasant and we didn't know what big reward it had to offer other than tramping through some field,cross more muddy streams and around some beautiful rock formations. Maybe we are getting a little wimpy on this trip so we turned around after about an hour deciding we would be seeing many vistas on our planned drive around the park. We did get in some rock skipping of course after we crossed the Missouri.
Back to the visitor center for junior ranger info and a little tour of Teddy's rebuilt cabin. The ensuing drive around the park was nice and gave the kids time to do their work and we did a couple pull offs for views. The last of which I could spot more buffalo.
After the kids got sworn in as junior rangers we left the park and headed south. Even though there was absolutely nothing around on the roads leading us into South Dakota it is amazing to look across miles and miles of countryside. Buttes lay off in the distance, fences keep herds of cattle grazing the land and I thought it would be a great place for the state of Maine to put up some billboards to entice visitors to our state for their next vacation.
There were a few signs of the bike rally as we crossed into South Dakota but when we hit our first time we were stunned by the amount of bikers we saw. We weren't even that close to Sturgis yet and gas station parking lots, hotel and restaurant lots all sparkled with chrome and the roads thundered with the patented Harley howl.
The next town of Deadwood was even worse as the road was reduced to two lanes in this little historic town that we were hoping to grab a bite to eat in. Instead we ended up at a Subway in the next town of Lead. Really a sad little town that just was not benefiting as much as Deadwood from all the bikers.
We were hoping to get as close to Mount Rushmore as we could and the gas station owner in Deadwood told us we would be seeing even more bikers as we traveled south. Apparently it is the 75th anniversary of the rally and more than a million bikers were expected in the area. But what else could we do besides go where we wanted to go. Packs of bikers would cruise by us in the north bound lane and we were able to keep comfortably ahead of just a small pack of about five. I asked the kids if they have seen more bikers or buffalo the past couple of days and they agreed bikers far outnumbered the buffalo.
Mo of course had a lead for a free campsite but after the GPS didn't properly lead us to it we stumbled across a campground on a back road. Despite seeing a number of bikers we did see some open spots so we turned around. We had also just seen some amazing lightning so when we were told there was space and a ten o'clock quiet time we took a site.
The bikers were fine, the only real trouble here was the rain and lightning had us crammed inside the bus. It was blisteringly hot but we had to keep all closed in with all of us losing our patience. Our moods turned around once we got some cool air inside and the kids fell asleep just after reading time.
It will be interesting to see just how many more bikers we may see around this area but we will be heading back east after our couple stops here in this area.
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