Mountain West Day Trip Day 9: Nebraska National Forest back to Home

This is written on Sunday July 29, 2018, but reflects happenings and photos from Sunday, July 22, 2018.

We left the Nebraska National Forest south of Chadron, NE this morning and made it back home around 9:30PM same day.  Long drive.  Kinda glad we didn't have to start 2 hrs north at the South Dakota Badland's National Park.

Not a lot of sights and pictures to share....just a long 11.5 hour drive back home.

Welcome to Kansas....

Welcome to Oklahoma....

Welcome Home....

3,954.8 miles

9 days

8 nights, 6 nights in tent

5 National Parks

5+ National Forests

Lots of fast food and PBJ sandwiches.

One flat tire.

We made it home.  Great trip.

Thanks for reading.

Mountain West Road Trip Day 8: Roosevelt/Medora to Flat Tire to Rushmore to Nebraska National Forest

This is written Saturday July 28, 2018, but reflects happenings and photographs from Saturday, July 21, 2018.

Samuel got to hammock camp for this first night of this trip.  I was in the tent, giving him a plan B in case it rained.

First stop: Returning to Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  Another $30 park entry fee avoided by the previous purchase of the Annual Park Access Pass.

Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite President.  (But, I was wearing Ronald Reagan socks in the park on this day.  I hope this is OK.)

"I will make this speech or die."

"I am as strong as a bull moose."

This is the undershirt Roosevelt was wearing when he was shot by a potential assassin at a convention in Milwaukee.  He insisted on continuing the speech.

This is Roosevelt's restored and relocated Maltese Cross Cabin.  Neat.

Panoramic vista in the North Dakota Badlands of TRNP.

Good trail maintenance at TRNP.  This was a neat set of stairs on a climb to a peak.

Panoramic vistas at TRNP.

More bison.....

 Painted Canyon in TRNP.

After that quick drive and hike through parts of TRNP, it was on to an ambitious planned day to Mt Rushmore and to South Dakota's Badlands National Park.

Pop!  Just north of Amidon, North Dakota on US 85, we heard a noise.  Then, the road noise from the tires changed.  I stopped on the shoulder just north of Amidon and inspected our tires.  We had a ginormous lag bolt in the tread of our RR P185/55R15 tire.  Hissing air.  Still inflated.

We decided to drive slowly through Amidon looking for a shop.  Amidon population: Maybe 150.  No shops.

We decided we'd drive as much farther as we could before we had to stop, not sure if it was a really fast leak or just a medium fast leak.  We got through Amidon and the TPMS light turned on.  Another half mile, we got off US 85 on a gravel farm road and prepared to weigh our options.  Tire was nearly flat.

Unfortunately, Chevy decided to not install spare tire kits in their economy cars years ago.  Fortunately, I scabbed a spare tire kit from my broken down Chevy Aveo and packed it in the Spark last week before departure.  It has the slickest best little scissor jack I've ever used.

Time!  It's critical.  It's Saturday.  Everything closes at noon.  I think it's 11AM, but we're right on the jagged border of the CDT and the MDT, and if we're central, then everything's closed.

Fortunately, a nice farmer drove by to check on us, told us we were still Mountain time, and gave us two phone numbers of tire shops in Bowman, ND, 25 miles to our south on US 85.

We had to completely unpack the car to get to the spare.  Then did a near-NASCAR style tire change.  Everything went perfect.  Repacked the car.  Got to Bowman, ND at Northwest Tire at 11:45 and met Garrett and a ND Highway Patrolman who was very friendly.  Garrett did not have any new or used replacement tires in our size, and he was reluctant to patch this tire because the sidewall was damaged.  But, I talked him into it, paid him, shook his hand, and we made it home.

Thanks Garrett!!!  Thanks Bowman Northwest Tire!!

But we lost about 90 min of critical time in the tire changes, tire repairs, and waiting.

On to a quick side excursion through Sturgis.  My phone camera messed up and I missed most of the interesting biker photos.  This town is full of biker bars.  I'm sure it's chaotic in a week or two.

On to Mt Rushmore.  Neat.  Not much else to do other than see it.  Samuel went full Clark W. Griswold on this one.  He saw it, we took two pictures, and he said: "Come on Dad.  Let's go."  I laughed.

Now, with our lost 90 min, no available reservable tent sites in Badlands, and the possibility of arriving there at 8pm without a plan, we made the decision reluctantly to cut out the Badlands National Park.  But, this left us with about 2 free hours and nothing planned.

We tried to get to Wind Cave National Park, but took some wrong turns, and missed getting there by about 10 min.  Had a less than stellar dining experience in the Dairy Queen in Hot Springs, SD.  Finally made the decision to get a little closer to home for the final day tomorrow, and it was off to Chadron, NE to camp in the Nebraska National Forest.  Did you know Nebraska had a National Forest?

We both hammock camped for this night.  We had a tent set up in case.  We got rained on overnight modestly, but both just stayed in the hammocks.  A good night's sleep!

Thanks for reading!

Mountain West Road Trip Day 7: Bozeman to Little Bighorn to Roosevelt National Park

This is written on Friday July 27, 2018, but reflects happenings and photographs from Friday, July 20, 2018.

We arrived in Bozeman last night.  Stayed with the Smiths in their RV.  Welcomed hospitality, and not out of the tent and on a more comfortable sleeping surface.

Just before departing the Smiths.  Dr. Steve Smith has done very well, currently serving as the Interim Director of the Montana Veterinary Diagnostic Lab.  He did pathology training at Oklahoma State, and he sends greetings to Mel, Jerry, Tony, Rez, Keith, Curtis, Roger and many others.

Two museums on the agenda today.  Both in Bozeman.  First is the Museum of the Rockies.  Second is the American Computer and Robotics Museum.

The Museum of the Rockies is world renowned and part of the Smithsonian.  It possessed the second and third complete T. rex skeletons we got to see on this trip.

At the specimen lab....

The MOR's most famous T. rex.

And a Stegosaurus.  Woops, a little blurry there.

A collection of several T. rex skulls of different ages.

To me, this was the most fascinating exhibit in the museum.  This is part of a T. rex bone that was discovered in the early 2000s that had intact soft tissue still attached to fossilized bone.  It is still under some analysis and is not fully displayed below.  Scientists have actually shown intact vessel structures in it.  It was published in Science or Nature.

The MOR's current traveling exhibit is the National Guitar Museum.  A nice bonus attraction for me as I love the guitar.  Neat mural.  Samuel snapped my photo.

The Museum of the Rockies was a success.  We enjoyed it.

Next, on to the American Computer and Robotics Museum.

This museum did a good job tracing the history of the oldest computers and their development over the years.  Do you recognize these?  I told Samuel I had personally used all but two of these on display.  He did not believe me.

Robots!!

The founders and staff of this small museum are hard working and well meaning.  However, the museum was a big disappointment to Samuel.  He wanted to see at least one current superpower computer.  It was a modest disappointment to me, at least from a size and presentation standpoint.  It exists in a small space in a strip mall-like business center.  Hey, though, it was free, minus our little $5 donation.

Next, an ambitious late morning to early evening trek eastward, with a jog south to the Little Bighorn National Battlefield.  We got in free due to the National Park Access Pass I mentioned in an earlier post.  Now up to $40 overall savings.

Scenes and photographs from Last Stand Hill.  I've always been fascinated by this battle, its history, and its most intriguing unknown points of controversy.  But, being there brought it all together.  I was most impressed by the vast landscapes on which the battle ebbed and flowed from Benteen's first assault to Custer's flank to the northwest to the movements of all the Indian encampments.

On to North Dakota.  We eventually made it to Medora and then the Teddy Roosevelt National Park.

Unfortunately, we were told upon entry to the park that all tentsites were reserved, but not occupied.  I asked permission to speak to campground host directly, and I drove up there, only to be denied twice.  We ended up camping overnight outside the park in Medora Campground.  It wasn't too bad, it just lacked the nostalgia of camping in the national park.

Thanks for reading.

Mountain West Road Trip Day 6: Cherry Creek (Hebgen) back to Yellowstone and on to Bozeman

This is written on Thursday July 26, 2018, but reflects happenings and photos of Thursday July 19, 2018. 

The highlight of this day was day 2 in Yellowstone.

We began by packing up camp at Hebgen Lake, Cherry Creek Campground in the Gallatin Forest of Montana.  The borrowed generator ran out of gas in the middle of the night.  The generator supplied power to my CPAP, and according to Samuel I did not snore.

As we did the South Entrance and the West Side of the lower loop yesterday, we were going to try to concentrate on the connectors of the two loops and yo-yo between the upper and lower loops as much as we could.

First stop on the loop connector road was Gibbon Falls.

Then on to Canyon Village.  The hope was to hike the trail on the South Rim that takes you to the brink of the upper falls and the lower falls, but that trail was closed. Darn.

We took the South Rim Drive, parked at Artists Point (?) and took a hike down the south rim on a trail whose name I have forgotten.  Before arriving, we saw some antlered elk.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and the Lower Falls.

We took a side trail to see the Lilypad Pond.

And the elk were on the move on the drive back through....

Next, driving south on the east side of the lower loop, we encountered two herds of bison and major traffic slowdowns.....

Then, we made it to Yellowstone Lake, pausing at the Fishing Bridge over the Yellowstone River, and then getting to the shores of Yellowstone Lake.

Then back northbound toward Canyon Village on the lower loop.  With the day advancing, and with our prediction those bison weren't moving very far, we anticipated a worse wildlife traffic jam.  We were correct, but not by half.  There was one period where we moved less than 1 mile in 50 minutes.  I had the engine off most of the time - doing my part to decrease my carbon footprint.

The significant delay had one fringe benefit: We got to see a bison swim the Yellowstone River.  I didn't know bison could swim.  Yet, they swim quite well.

We wanted to do the North Rim Drive, but so did about 500 other people.  We settled for a drive to the Upper Falls Brink.

 Then on to Roosevelt-Tower Village.  We saw scenic vistas and the Tower Falls.

Then, another waterfall (name escapes me) on the north side of the northern (upper) loop.

Next, approaching Mammoth Hot Springs Village, we saw a 60+ sized very quiet elk herd.  I about wrote docile, then throught twice about it.  Also, historic Fort Yellowstone.

After a souvenir run through the Mammoth Hot Springs Village souvenir shop, we did the driving tour of Mammoth Hot Springs.

Next, back through Mammoth Hot Springs and Fort Yellowstone, we found quite a few elk hanging out in the streets and parks.  Again - quiet.  Again - not so docile.

Next, a few miles further north, we cross the Wyoming-Montana state line, but we're still in Yellowstone.  This is/was the Gardner or the Boiling River.  Swimming not prohibited on the Montana side, but is prohibited on the Wyoming side.  This was a nice break from the hot weather and the confining car.

Exiting on the north side through the Roosevelt Arch.

Then on to Bozeman.  This night was a quasi camping night.  We stayed at the property of a departed pathology resident Dr. Steve Smith, who offered his mother in law's travel trailer which was semi hooked up.

Dr. Smith and his wife Farica gave us an opportunity to shower, and even fed us a really hearty hamburger meal.  It was very nice Montana hospitality and a good night's sleep.

Thanks for reading.