Great faces, great places.

...or so says the South Dakota state slogan.

SD has been good to Katy and I, but we do feel like we are not making enough headway. This whole losing an hour as we move east is really doing a number on us... Regardless, we are creeping our way to the easy side.

We are also feeling a little land locked. I need a coast soon, or at least a great lake, tomorrow.

So, we were happy to depart Buffalo, as you read about in the previous blog. We set off to get in touch with our patriotic side, paid the $11 entry fee, and went to see Mt. Rushmore. Did you know Washington's nose is longer then all the other presidents? (by one foot in stone). It was a really great memorial to see for a total of 15 minutes; its one in which I do not have to see again, forever.

Badlands: yet another spectacular sight for the eyes. It makes you think you no longer are on earth, much like the trend of the other parks. We wanted to climb and go exploring but we are on a ridiculous schedule, today. Once we left the park, we were still looking at 10+ hour day, and thats if we get to our best destination- middle of Iowa somewhere.

Side note: I have been collecting national park stickers and I am really excited about my amazing water bottle. (see pics)

Just in: No snow or 9000 foot peaks in the forecast for tonight...

An Icy Hell...

Picture this... We've been driving since 7a, seen some amazing sights; we're pumped to make it to our final destination of Buffalo, WY.

Fast forward 4 hours... It's 915, dark and the temperature is dropping. We have just entered Big Horn National Forest at the least opportune time. Starting the accent at 4500 feet we are aware there are some 13k foot mountains ahead of us. Little did we know we were about to go over the 'cloud sky pass' in Central Wyoming. Fast forward 30 minutes we are crawling up the mountain with a ton of shoes and clothes in the back of the mini. It's completely dark and cloud covered. We enter a construction zone and for the next -what feels like- 10 miles we are driving on dirt. Finally that ends and we see the mile marker for our end destination, 42 miles. Oh hell, improv had done us wrong.

We keep going up, not able to see anything around us, passing a few sporadic cars and SKI resorts. Virtually no one around. Then the temperature starts really dropping. Finally at a temp of 34 degrees it begins to snow and now we realize we are at the top, or at least we have to be close. I look down, we have less then 1/4 tank of gas left. Oh hell.

Thank god for the radio station out of Worland, otherwise we would be faced to listen to more of my horrific mixed CDs. Pink never sounded so good on the radio.

The windshield wipers are only subpar so this makes things more complicated then they already are. Only 30 miles to go. Now I am beginning to plan for the worst.  I make a mental note that  I have my green hunter boots in the back, two ski jackets, my red leather gloves and wool hat somewhere. If something goes wrong, I am going to look like a fool to passersby.  Just what I need.

Finally, after an excruciating hour of not knowing when we would decent to the hotel and soft pillows, the snow stopped and the temp started to rise to a comfortable 40. Our white knuckles started to have some blood flow and headaches slightly diminished  However, this is the slowest decent we have ever driven.  I advise Katy to coast the way down the mountain, we're now nearly on empty.

Buffalo couldn't have come any sooner on our 7.5% grade drop in the last few miles back down to 4500 ft. (come to find out some parts of the pass are over 9000ft).

We did this all for Hilton points. That's love.

(in the pics are Katy and I smiling little did we know what was in store & a view of the range from Buffalo the next morning- satisfaction)

Yellowstone = Magical

What we saw in Yellowstone:

Bison (almost hit one going around a bend)
Baby bison everywhere
Mooseys
Baby mooseys jumping
A Crane (thinking it was a wolf lol)
Black bear sleeping on a log
Grizzly mama
Grizzly cub
Black tailed deer fighting
Pronghorn deer like antelope things
White foot rabbits
Old faithful
Crazy Canyons
Mammoth hot springs
Mean tourists (was honked at 3 times, people are so lame)

I think I want to be a NP ranger now. Career path #235.

Yellowstone was an amazing sight. I can't wait to upload all the pictures to show everyone all the amazing things we witnessed. It's awe inspiring how such places can make humans feel so insignificant and powerless.  Sometimes this is a refreshing revelation.

We knew that after leaving the park we would have to drive a few hours to make some headway. Little did we know it would turn into a 5 hour trek...

(see next blog)

To the moon and back...

When we got on the road at 8a, we immediately started to tear up.  Then we realized this wasn't because we were emotional, it was because our hotel was located next to a an onion farm. Great way to start the day, smelling of onions.  After missing Boise on the road, clearly not a large city, we started our treck to Craters of the Moon, Idaho.  Moving in and out of small towns we finally approached what looked like a very well-tilled garden.  Somehow lava fields filled a 50 mile space of route 26 with some caldrons as high as a few hundred feet.  It amazing to think that this has existed for more then 11 million years. Weird.

We set off listening to various tunes from Abba and Madonna, toward West Yellowstone. Before I knew it we were entering the VERY small town of Arco, only to find myself being pulled over, within minutes.  Figures. Its been 6 years since Ive been pulled over and it happens in Arco, ID (population like 10) when I have a car full of things.  Meanwhile, he let me off with a reduced ticket. Whatever, I plan to never go back to Arco.  Losers.

We arrived a solid few hours later in West Yellowstone. Cold but adorable. We immediately went into the park to get our exploration on, afterall we had about 2-3 hours to spare before the sun would go down. This was the start of a very exciting visit to Yellowstone.  First, Katy and I almost had heart attacks when we almost hit a bison. #parkrangerproblems

Stay tuned for more details on our visit... Its gets really good...

Holler-ing from the Road

Ill keep it quick because we lost an hour on the road today, making it a 14 hour day.  Also, because I was lazy last night, I skipped Day 1 so I'll update both.

Katy and I have had a great time, as expected. We are trying to wing things as much as possible... keeping things interesting. Improv. We have both resisted this considering our need to be organized and plan, but who's to say we shouldn't be challenging ourselves on this trip...

The Redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants and in Redwood National Park were an amazing way to keep us occupied on our Day 1, 400 mile journey. I made Kates get out and hug a tree... makes sence (will post that pic later). After going through some interesting towns, we finally landed in Crescent City, a tiny little beach town as high as you can go in Northern California. At this point I realized I was very far from SF. It was a quiet but beautiful way to end my time in Cali (for now).

Day 2 we knew was going to be tough, leaving Cali at 7a, visiting Crater Lake and then heading as far east as we could.  With so many beautiful sights along the way, it was hard to keep our eyes on the road.  We watched a beautiful sunset on the butte's, after forcing Katy to pull over at any vista point we found.  In Kates book, I think I have surpassed my 'vista point' quota. 15 mix CD's later and 600+ miles, we have arrived at the border of Oregon and Idaho.

Looking forward to the journey east tomorrow, with an end point of West Yellowstone! Hopefully we get a chance to see the Craters of the Earth National Monument. We will keep you updated.

BTW I miss San Francisco already and the food on this trip has been sub-par (they may be synonymous).  Ew and the bugs on my winshield / grill, way gross. I'm making Katy clean it in the morning- torturous little sister.