Wyoming: Beef Country

With The Badlands and more recently The Black Hills behind us, we were in pursuit of our final destination, Jackson! According to our trusty atlas that we purchased somewhere in southern Minnesota once Ryan’s iPhone map app. started being useless, with only several hundred miles to go we estimated we would get to town around 5pm at the latest. However, we really had no idea what to expect on this last leg of our journey.

At this point in the trip we were accustomed to seeing land like this in South Dakota. And seeing odd land art was something we had gotten used to in The Badlands.

What was really impressive was seeing from afar the mountain range that was in our path and would have to be crossed. The Bighorn Mountain Range was an impressive sight to see rising straight up from the high dessert floor and spanning as far as the eye could see left to right. This was definitely something neither Ryan nor I had ever seen firsthand.

The drive up the mountain was impressive mostly because I knew that I was about to be at a higher altitude than I had ever been on land (Volcán Pacaya, Guatemala - 8,373'). The scenery was cool but having seen so many national parks and such a wide array of land in the past 48 hours, I was only moderately impressed. That was until 2 deer sprinted out in front of us going about 65. Luckily, I saw them briefly creeping out of the woods before their skittish sprint and quickly slammed on the brakes. Seeing signs for “Open Range / Loose Stock” several more times throughout the rest of the trip would from now on put me on edge. But seeing this made me forget all that for just a moment. A moment for the record books.

In contrast to the slightly above average scenery we got on the drive up, once past the pass, the drive became memorable due to the deep gorge we would exit the mountains through. We stopped on several occasions to capture the majesty and were treated to several passes through mountain tunnel roads (which I have no pictures of since I was playing the role of chauffeur)

Once out of the Bigohorn Mts., the landscape became all too familiar again: plain, high dessert, but with a twist. Unbeknownst to me, as arid as Wyoming is, Boysen Reservoir is a massive body of water that sits just outside of the Bighorn Mts. I definitely didn’t feel like we were in Wyoming.

We were now only one mountain range away from being in Jackson and as the sun started to set, we knew we were going to miss some impressive sights. That being said, it was remarkable to see the sun set so fast as Ryan had said we would be sunless is 20 minutes only to watch it disappear behind the mountain range in 2! Sadly, after snapping this pic, I knew my Sony point and shoot was done for the night.

The drive through the last range was nerve racking as Ryan was driving, it was pitch black, there were barely any motorists around, there were signs for “Loose Stock” everywhere, and almost an hour of driving was on completely unpaved, rough road where we had to slow down to 20 mph often so as to not harm the Camry at this stage of the game; worst case scenarios were racing through my mind. At least everyone else we saw crushing the rough road in big pick-ups and SUVs were at ease.

Taking my mind off all of the horrible scenarios racing through my head was how bright it could get at night being so far away from any sort of civilization. When there are no clouds at night, the moon does it best job to impersonate the sun. It is so damn bright out at night here. So when we started to approach Jackson, I happened to notice a large shadow to our right that once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized was the Grand Teton staring us in the face! Man how I wish we had driven in with daylight.

Once in Jackson, it took us only a couple of minutes to find our new home. It was now after 9:30… After emptying out the Camry, it was off to the nearest watering hole to finally have that beer we had been envisioning for hours and hours of driving. At last we were home.

The 2nd largest cave in the world, for now

The drive to the Jewel Cave National Monument was gorgeous, something we have become accustomed to at this point. Seeing the effects of the massive Jasper Fire of August 2000 that burned 90% of the land area around there was incredibly impressive.

To our amazement, it was National Monument Day or something, and tickets that are usually reserved weeks in advance were not only on a first come first serve basis, but also free! We were lucky enough to get a tour with only a 40 minute wait in which we walked around the visitor center trying to get our knowledge on. From over 300 feet below on our tour, I only managed to retain a few facts. The most interesting being that according to geologists, the 151 miles of cave that has currently been discovered is only 3% of the actual size of the cave. With the speed of discovering and mapping new cave systems going at a rate of 3-5 miles per year, it’s going to be a long time before it’s all discovered.

Far less interesting but noteworthy nonetheless was the explanation between a National Park and a National Monument, which the cave is. To keep it simple, a National Park is a natural area or wildlife preserve that is established through acts of congress. An unlimited amount of people can enter a National Park on any given day therefore making it mostly about profit. In comparison, a National Monument can be natural features but are more often cultural or historic places that can be established by the President at his discretion. National monuments only allow a limited number of people per day to visit keeping with the idea of preservation. Ever since they drilled to put in a second elevator shaft and caused water to enter a previously dry cave, President Roosevelt established a law forbidding any more drilling. Thanks to Teddy Roosevelt, this was estabished as a national monument in February 7, 1908.


Anyway, here are the few pictures that came out from several hundred feet below in 49 degree Jewel Cave National Monument. I can't exactly explain much, but it was pretty damn cool.

After the Saturday morning tour, it was off to Jackson at what we estimated would be around 3, maybe 4 hours. But as a reoccurring them on this trip, we would find out that we were horribly mistaken.

Ying and Yang

After taking all 28 unpaved, uneven, gravel miles of rt.2 through the fringes of The Badlands and into the first town on the west side, the Camry needed some serious rest and some quick hydration. Once we saw how nourished and hydrated she was, we figured we should hit up the local bar/casino connected to the gas station to do the same. It was a little strange when I realized that all the people around us who I thought were Latinos were actually Native Americans. We were nowhere near Boston. But after remembering that we passed through an Indian Reserve and considering the history of the country, it started to make sense.

Leaving The Badlands the scenery was again bleak, high desert. But from many miles away we could see The Black Hill National Forest and it was awesome to think that we were going to see so much different landscape in just one day. Unfortunately, I drove almost both days we stayed there so there are few pictures. Most of them are from Saloon 10 in Deadwood, SD.  which was recommended by the local who served us at the bar/casino connected to the gas station. Main Street Deadwood seemed like stereotypical town from the old west.

There were several highlights from Saloon 10. Here’s a shot of what the inside of the bar looks like, saw dust and all.

Chief Rain in the Face’s portrait brought up a lot of R. Kelly talk.

And this picture of the bar from the early part of the 20^th century – notice anything out of the ordinary?

After eating some bison burgers, which were basically like a hamburger, we took off to find our campsite in the pitch dark. The route we took to get into The Black Hills to Center Lake was the windiest, most narrow mountain road I have ever driven on. It made me wish I had my GLI to tear it up a little. But with the Camry, it was steady-as-she-goes driving. We went through some narrow one way mountain tunnels that advised us to honk while going through and did several 360 degree turns at 15 mph to continue climbing or descending the mountain.

All in all, another productive day chalked up in the books. Tomorrow’s agenda – Jewel Cave National Monument and the drive to Jackson!

The Badlands are naughty

I woke up the next morning with a blanket I had put over my face in my sleep to keep me warm as I guess I’m a little too tall for my sleeping bag. Since we don’t spoon in the tent, we go head to toe, and fortunately for Ryan, his face was on the side underneath the rain shield, so he didn’t wake up face covered in morning dew. Before I could even get myself out of the tent, Ryan told me to hurry and I caught the tail end of a Wolf jogging away from out campsite. I was disappointed that I didn’t grab my camera in time, but luckily 27 vultures squawked there way into our campsite and this time I was prepared.

Anyway, it was bright and early and we were hoping to catch the sunrise at the exit before we had gotten off to camp for the night that had signage for “Scenic Overlook”. The Buffalo Gap National Grassland to our rear, with what was well over 40 cows mooing, was quite the experience. Note how bright the moon is.

Here’s a shot of what The Badlands looked like before entering.

Avoiding the prairie dog tourist trap, we continued down the road to the entrance of The Badlands.

Even if we hadn’t just driven hundreds of miles across flat, dull, and mind numbing parts of the U.S of A., The Badlands were an amazing sight.

I was also amazed to find that we could hike off the paths here too as The Badlands are made up of soil that, when wet, is extremely difficult to travel across, which is exactly why it was given its name. Here are some shots of our adventure off the beaten path.

And we were treated to some cool animals like a herd of some type of goat,

a heard of elk,

prairie dogs,

and some close encounters with some bison, one of which I was hanging out the window for trying to get my shot as Ryan slowly backed up the Camry. What I can only assume was the alpha male bison of the group was having a frightening staring contest with us; apparently, they can run up 30mph. So we figured we didn’t want to provoke him too much.

On the way through, we stopped several times just for some good photo opps.

And the yellow hills impressive as well.

Next stop, Black Hills National Forest!

Just 2 Guys, Having a Good Time - 14 hours in the Camry

As much as Ryno is my good bro, only so much fun can be had in a full days car ride with him. For inspiration, we checked out  these guys . Those of you lucky enough to know my boy, you have likely recently learned that he is anti antiperspirant deodorant; he’s trying to be more natural. I applaud his wanting to be more natural. That’s something that I strive to do, in moderation. To say that his new deodorant is worthless is giving it too much credit. For all I know, it’s a stick of b.o. And so to hopefully remedy that in our future long car rides, I came up with a helpful driving technique.

One thing that really impressed me about this part of the country is how popular wind turbines have become. Were it not for all the rain, I would have some better pictures. There were several hot spots in Minnesota where we counted upwards of 30, with more being built.

Once all the rain passed, the clouds started to break and gave way to some cool lighting

Unfortunately, other than the Welcome to South Dakota sign, this is where the pictures end for today. (Note: SD Welcome sign is from when we left the state)

We didn’t actually stop driving until almost 11:30pm MT. Miles and miles of driving on US90 at legal speeds nearing 80 mph, we had covered a large portion of the country and were exhausted. Our original plan had been to get to The Badlands that night to camp, but reconsidered as we didn’t want to miss the views we would get on the drive in after having seen so much flat, boring United States of America. So instead, we found a random campsite just off the highway an exit before and pitched a quick tent. Ryan had no problem falling asleep as he was basically asleep the last hour or so of the drive. But once I settled down, I was lights out too.

If you build it...

Feeling the effects of the night before and driving in heavy stop and go traffic out past O’Hare Intl. Airport on US90 starting at 8:30 CT, the drive out of Chicago couldn’t have been any more enjoyable. After about 4 hours, an Iowa state border, and the familiar sight of flat cornfield vistas, we arrived at The Field of Dreams movie site.

I hadn’t seen the movie in years but once we pulled up I instantly recognized it.

According to posted signage, we could have played America’s pastime ourselves right where all the famous greats, in the movie, had played, but we were ill prepared. Surprisingly, they’ve done a great job of keeping the field and grounds in pristine shape; I was really impressed. Before leaving, I thought I saw one of the Mexican greats poke out of the cornfields, but it must’ve just been my imagination.

Next stop, The Badlands, maybe.