early gysers and grand peeks

7/28 Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and the Snake River

The morning went by in a slow manner and we packed up camp quite lazily. The day called for a drive to Cody in which we were to (hopefully) procure not-too-expensive lodgings before we hightailed it up to Yellowstone.

Hopeful, schmopeful, we got one of the last rooms in a swanky safari themed hotel complete with cuddly stuffed lion on the bed. Crazy. We simmered down on the crankiness and went to bed early so we could be up and out before the sun. It would take about two hours to get to the park and we wanted to see pretty not people.Even up as early as we are there were still all sorts of cars zipping here and there both TO and IN the park. We still took our time and moseyed about. We stopped for thermal vents, pretty flowers, a bison and a moose! We stood still and listened to bees and birds. I even used my pstyle on the side of the road and waved at a passing truck.Eventually we made our way to the visitor's center and the ever famous Old Faithful geyser. We lucked out and arrived about twenty minutes before the next "show". Old Faithful did not disappoint but we enjoyed the crowd's reaction a wee bit more than the geyser itself. Show over, we hitched up the cameras and adventure bag and took a walk along the path in search of other geysers and chromatic pools.While there were (was?) a good number of other people about, arriving when we did saved us from major traffic and people blues. While our fellow early risers camped out by Grand geyser, mr. a-go-go and I took a somewhat empty path and wandered for another mile or so. While traipsing across a wooden bridge, we stopped to watch the swallows and swifts. mr. a-go-go suddenly noticed the gaping open mouths of baby birdies peeking out from a knothole in one of the bridge's posts. I snuck in for a closer look and even caught a tiny bit on video. Like I mentioned before, we definitely lean towards being birding dorks.As luck would have it, we managed to hit Grotto not too long after it "erupted" and gazed upon it for about half an hour checking out its blurts and fizzes and shoots and steam. Grotto may be the oldest active geyser in the park, while Old Faithful can be quite showy and predictable, we think we enjoyed Grotto a bit more as it had a lot of character and grumbled about in a lackadaisical way. You can't really time it though but if you get it "just" right yer in for a treat! After we had our fill, we wandered back through passing Grand (which STILL had not blown), more people and the chromatic pools. Tired and weary we decided to pile back into Rodney to continue through the park.Upon seeing the number of cars all about, we decided to pass on exploring the rest of the park and continued on out to the south side of the park towards Shoshone. It was a good decision for us a-go-gos once we saw the long, long line of cars waiting to enter on our way out. We motored on out with a stop here and there to admire the Tetons, fuel up poor Rodney (and pick up more cheetos), and continue on to Idaho.

big horn time travel and the search for not-too-expensive lodgings

7/27 Devil's Tower to Cody, Wyoming

It's pretty fantastic, isn't it? Truth be told, we didn't get any closer. The view from our tent was pretty spectacular and we were well...fast approaching laziness. So fast in fact that we fell asleep before the sunset thus missing the campground's outdoor screening of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I know, but we were very very tired.
mr. a-go-go woke up before i did (this is mrs. a-go-go writing here). Way, way before, and he managed to grab the camera and take that picture up there of sunrise on the tower. The color is unreal, I wish he woke me up for it. He also got a quick sound bite of the mad gang of nuthatches in the tree over our tent. They were chattering up a comical storm and yes, we tend to lean towards geeky bird watching and listening.

After a bite of breakfast and packing up we struck out west once more on I-90. A few stops were in order. First we had to slow down, creep to a halt, and get out of the car very slowly to watch three pronghorn, the first time either of us had seen them in person. We were far enough down the road that they made a few alarm grunts (or honks or whatever you want to call the funny sound they make) but didn't spook right away. They bounded away when we tried to slowly walk closer, so our pictures are not worth mentioning.Later, waves of wind in the grass prompted us to stop for some barb wire and another short film.

Leaving I-90 on highway 14 we climbed up into the Big Horn National Forest and back through time. At least according to the roadside signs that highlighted the name and age of each strata of geology the road cut exposed.I recognised some of the names from didactic displays about the geology of the Grand Canyon. It's remarkable how far some of the sedimentary geology of North America reaches. The layers of rock here have been turned up on a steep angle so in spite of the feeling that we were driving up through the layers the road cut was actually exposing ever older formations as we drove West. This must be a favorite place for geology students. On the far side of these mountains the landscape dried out and the plats thinned. The rest of the drive to Cody, Wyoming was right out of a serial western. We knew Yellowstone would be a very popular place this time of year and figured our best bet was another early morning. Onward to Cody it was where we were hopeful to find a not-too-expensive bed to rest our heads.

all sorts of south dakota and wyoming

7/26 Badlands, Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, and Devil's Tower

We were up just before the sun and hurried out of Wall, South Dakota to see Badlands National Park at dawn. We had a real payoff for getting out of bed early.
There was a cool morning breeze, puffy clouds dribbled just enough moisture for a rainbow, the sun was still below the horizon and the full moon was still up. We couldn't get enough of the sights and sounds of the morning.
mrs. a-go-go clicked the shutter madly in every direction while the early light held up but we couldn't really catch it. Remembering that we had not used the old Powershot's short video capabilities for a long time I did my best to make some short recordings.

Still a measlely substitute for the real thing but it caught a brief glimpse.

Once the sun was up high enough to tear down the shadows and the heat of the day was on us it was time to head east to Rapid City and Mount Rushmore. The Black Hills of South Dakota are a beautiful place even without the attractions of Wind Cave National Park, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Mount Rushmore, but with all this extra stuff the area attracts a mess of visitors in the summer. We knew it would be crowded and braced ourselves for traffic. Getting to Mount Rushmore wasn't all that rough, but we were a little put off by the $10 parking fee even if you have a National Park Annual Pass. At the beginning of our trip we invested in a pass and it has been well worth it, but if you have never purchased one before you may be disappointed by how few things it actually covers. Rushmore is indeed part of the National Park system but the excuse given for the fee (and it not being covered by the pass) was that parking is handled by a concession. Hmm. But hey, you can come back all year in the same vehicle for free. Wait a minute,... that's a three day drive,... oh well.
Parking took a bit of a wait but the crowd wasn't crazy before 10am. By the time we were on the way out the crowd had thickened, so arrive early if you visit in the summer. I think seeing the nutty sculpture near dawn in rapidly changing light would have been more thrilling. Our visit was fun and I'm glad we stopped but we probably won't be back. One visit feels like enough to ponder the crazy dream of Doane Robinson and the work of Gutzon Borglum (and a whole mess of other folks). The rubble pile below the sculpted chins is daunting and pondering the effort that went into making it did more for me than the sculpture itself. I highly recommend the museum displays about the monument that are housed just behind the amplitheater.
These display some working models and explain the methods used by the sculptors. In addition the models show just how ambitious the original plan was. Washington was intended to have a complete torso, gadzooks.

I had hoped that we could camp in or near the Black Hills and spend another day seeing the other sights (and maybe get in that dawn visit with Washington and his pals), but after leaving Mount Rushmore we found much of the camping was geared for RVs. I'm sure there were more appealing places over the next hill (the map was littered with little green tents) but our stamina was weak. If we come back to the Black Hills it will likely be for Crazy Horse and Wind Cave rather than to find parking again at Rushmore.

Next on the map was Devil's Tower, the big columns of phonolite porphyry (HA!) and the model I made out of cheese at lunch time beckoned.
But seriously folks, after our day's trek through this landscape and finding a place to camp near the base of this tower I understand why these places were held sacred by the people who used to live here.