Huge post!

So day 3 already has passed and we are on day 4. This trip is going by very fast! Yesterday we drove from middle of Iowa to the outside of Mt. Rushmore. It was about 12 hours of driving but went by really fast. It seems like every couple of hours or so the terrain starts to change and it becomes really exciting. The black hills and badlands are amazing…so interesting to see higher elevation and the different colors of the soils.

Yesterday we stopped at the Sioux Falls in the southeast corner of South Dakota. They were worth stopping to check out but wouldn’t want to make that a prime destination. Once again last night we managed to camp for free. I am becoming quiet comfortable with this. So far we have been lucky enough to shower every night as well.

This morning we woke up at 6 am (Mountain time) to leave the campground we visited this place called Wall Drug. Let me tell you about Wall Drug. Ever since Iowa we have been looking at wooden billboards for Wall Drug in South Dakota which was over 200 miles away at the time. All the billboards have funny sayings and random attractions. At the time Matt said no way to visiting it but after 200 miles of these billboards, curiousity killed the cat and he caved in. Its in the middle of this town called Wall, SD and there is an older western town. This is just a normal pharmacy but with souvenirs and things to look at. It was worth the stop…interesting to check out. I picked up some souvenirs for my family. We decided to eat some overpriced breakfast considering we were in the middle of no where. We will never do that again….not worth it.

After about an hour of driving we made it to Mt. Rushmore. We were bummed because they charge 10 dollars to park and wouldn’t accept our National Parks pass. But it was great to see the monument. It is really incredible to see all the manual labor and hard work that these men went through to make this possible. We were there for about an hour and went over to crazy horse. Unfortunately it is not finished but I think we honestly enjoyed this better than Mt. Rushmore. There was a lot more things to see and do. It does cost 10 dollars per person for the entrance fee which our National Parks Pass did not cover and we were kind of pissed about it…but it turns out that they use the money from the entrance fees to continue the work instead of accepting government grants which was neat.


Day 6

Sorry to skip ahead, we haven’t had any time or opportunities to stop for wifi…but we have done so much in the past few days since Mt. Rushmore. On our way toward Yellowstone, we stopped at Battle of Little Bighorn memorial. Then we spent the night about an hour way from Yellowstone at a campground that had very nice showers but unfortunately we were so tired we skipped showering. We also were finally able to see the Rocky Mountains so close up. It was so interesting to watch the terrain change the further west we went….started with hills in the black hills area…then mountains…then Rocky Moutains…some flat lands and then Mountains again. Yellowstone National Park is just breath taking. Nothing can compare to the mountains and scenery. We didn’t know that there are hot springs everywhere in Yellowstone, we were under the impression that there was like one or two big ones. But they do bubble and steam everywhere, and they even smell like sulfur. We explored some hot spring areas and took many pictures of them which don’t do justice. We headed about 50 miles through the park to go see Old Faithful. We got there just in time to wait 45 minutes for the next eruption. We got very lucky because we sat in front of some dude that knew everything about Yellowstone and he was talking about the details of Old faithful. It turned out he is a “naturalist” and has been with Yellowstone for 27 years. I learned a lot about the geyser from him. The eruption was very neat to see! Quite impressive to see how much water comes out of there. On our way back out through Yellowstone we were so excited to see Bison and Elk! They are right along the road and people would stop and take pictures of them. The animals are obviously use to the attention because they just would mind their own business. I would have to say that was a highlight of Yellowstone.

After Yellowstone, we didn’t have much of a route or game plan set except for Seattle and Portland so we went through the lower portion of Idaho to go see craters of the moon. Southern Idaho has a very desert like terrain. Everywhere around us was flat and dry. Idaho reminded us of Ohio…very dull and with a ridiculous speed limit. Idahoians love to drive at the EXACT speed limit or under. It felt like they set their cruise at the speed limit and that was it. I mean…okay cool you drive the speed limit…but when you are in the middle of NO WHERE driving along a two lane highway, you can pick it up a bit. It was very awkward. So what seemed like forever to get through, we made it to Craters of the Moon. As the description says on their website, “weird and unusual” would best describe this place! There is nothing quite like it. As you are approaching the park, there are miles and miles of old lava fields. In the park, there are remnants of old volcanoes and magma from 2000 years ago. It was so neat to see the different types of volcanoes. The magma was so neat to see up close! It was so preserved. I honestly have never seen anything like this place in my life and probably won’t every again.

After our stop, we continued along to see how far we can get to Seattle. The drive through Idaho just seemed to take forever. The only thing that got us through was the approaching mountain terrain. After some long hours of driving we stopped at a Taco Bell for a cheap dinner but of course this particular Taco Bell was way overpriced. Oh well. We drove about 2-3 more hours and finally made it to Oregon! We decided to stop at a campground and spend the night. We did some planning and realized that we have so much time to spend up here in the North West so we are going to have a relaxing day today. We are going to drive up near Seattle to set up camp early and relax!