Day 5 (South Dakota and Wyoming)
I woke up to a day of horror and distress when in the morning after waking up and getting ready for the day, I found out that there was no Dunkin Donuts. Not just in Rapid City, SD but none in the next few towns we were driving through!! What happened to America Runs on Dunkin? !!! But I digress....
Rapid City, South Dakota is where we were and I just had to deal with no coffee.. *pout*. In any case, we noticed lots of snow piles as we drove through SD. Although it was 47 degrees F, it felt much colder. Today we headed toward Mt. Rushmore and Devil's tower. It was so refreshing to to see tall mountains after driving through flat plains.
Mt Rushmore was nice to go see. I don't think I'll ever go back there unless I'm taking someone who hasn't seen in. It's was great for me to be able to cross this off my bucket list and say that I've been there, but it was just a bunch a rocks with faces.. and lots of tourism!!!
We hung around and took a bunch of pictures and even talked with someone from a Vancouver soccer team that was there visiting. We bought into the souvenir shop and spent a whole bunch of money there. We talked with the cashier who told us that Yellowstone Park was worth visiting and told us the best route to get there. (Which we should have taken!!)
Deadwood was a really cool little town. That was in Keystone SD. There is this huge building on a hill with a website written across the front of the lawn. www.whatisthis4.com Very cool to check out.. The Black Hill Mountains were also very scenic and we took lots of pictures there. We went through a whole lot of little towns after deadwood. We finally made it to Wyoming and passed even more small town, even one that had a population of 10!! Emblem WY. 10 really?
The other place that we had a chance to visit was the Devil's Tower. Not sure why they called it that and wasn't real interested. Cool rock to see and now I can say that I've been there, but not necessarily the highlight of my trip. We figured we were in the area, and it was here, so we went. It was kind of a rainy day today anyway and I wasn't getting out of the car to do any real sightseeing.
So now that we got those two sights marked off the bucket list, onward west we go, but first someone suggested we stop at Custar's State Park. The park was actually really cool! From just about every turn you could see Mt. Rushmore. I capture a really cool picture after we went through a tunnel. The guy at Mt. Rushmore advised us to make sure we, "Always look back the way we came". I though it cryptic at the time, but it paid off.
So we stopped to take a picture of this tunnel because we thought it was cool.
Then we got out to take a picture from the other side and low and behold what do we see? Mt. Rushmore perfectly framed through the tunnel! I thought that was impressive..
Custar's proved to be the highlight of the day. It has some beautiful views and was a relaxing drive. We spent so much time roaming through the park that we lost daylight and had to drive through the beautiful Big Horn Mountains in the dark. (That may have been a good thing!)
The Bighorn Mountains is where the battle of bighorn was fought or as it is commonly referred to Custar's Last Stand. Although this isn't a great shot of these mountains, because we had lost a lot of our light by that point, you can see snow on the peaks and how big there are out in the distance. Little did I realize that we had to drive over these mountains! We picked our route to go through the mountains to get to Yellowstone because it was shorter than the way the guy at Mt. Rushmore had told us.
Let me preface this whole story by saying that, I don't like driving in snow. Whether I'm driving or not, and I hate driving at night! We started driving up this mountain and it was almost a straight shot up. Twisting and curving with no guardrails on the side of this mountain. Side thought.... Why are there no guardrails.. Hey.. Wyoming... Get some freakin guardrails!!! Anyway.... my heart started to quicken in my chest and my face went white, my hands got clammy. I was on the verge of a panic attack going up this mountain. The snow got heavier in spots and it was icy and I was scared!!! I was gripping the side of door in the car so hard that when I finally did release my hand, after over an hour, It was sore! The elevation at one point was up over 9000 and my breathing became labored. I was beginning to sweat and then just cried. It was an hour an a half ordeal that I never want to do again!!!!!! Next time someone gives me advice on which way to go... I'm taking it!!!
We ended up stopping at the Beartooth Inn around 9:15 ish and I was went straight to bed! No dreams, no turning, no sounds, just a dead exhausted sleep.
Rapid City, South Dakota is where we were and I just had to deal with no coffee.. *pout*. In any case, we noticed lots of snow piles as we drove through SD. Although it was 47 degrees F, it felt much colder. Today we headed toward Mt. Rushmore and Devil's tower. It was so refreshing to to see tall mountains after driving through flat plains.
Mt Rushmore was nice to go see. I don't think I'll ever go back there unless I'm taking someone who hasn't seen in. It's was great for me to be able to cross this off my bucket list and say that I've been there, but it was just a bunch a rocks with faces.. and lots of tourism!!!
We hung around and took a bunch of pictures and even talked with someone from a Vancouver soccer team that was there visiting. We bought into the souvenir shop and spent a whole bunch of money there. We talked with the cashier who told us that Yellowstone Park was worth visiting and told us the best route to get there. (Which we should have taken!!)
Deadwood was a really cool little town. That was in Keystone SD. There is this huge building on a hill with a website written across the front of the lawn. www.whatisthis4.com Very cool to check out.. The Black Hill Mountains were also very scenic and we took lots of pictures there. We went through a whole lot of little towns after deadwood. We finally made it to Wyoming and passed even more small town, even one that had a population of 10!! Emblem WY. 10 really?
The other place that we had a chance to visit was the Devil's Tower. Not sure why they called it that and wasn't real interested. Cool rock to see and now I can say that I've been there, but not necessarily the highlight of my trip. We figured we were in the area, and it was here, so we went. It was kind of a rainy day today anyway and I wasn't getting out of the car to do any real sightseeing.
So now that we got those two sights marked off the bucket list, onward west we go, but first someone suggested we stop at Custar's State Park. The park was actually really cool! From just about every turn you could see Mt. Rushmore. I capture a really cool picture after we went through a tunnel. The guy at Mt. Rushmore advised us to make sure we, "Always look back the way we came". I though it cryptic at the time, but it paid off.
So we stopped to take a picture of this tunnel because we thought it was cool.
Then we got out to take a picture from the other side and low and behold what do we see? Mt. Rushmore perfectly framed through the tunnel! I thought that was impressive..
Custar's proved to be the highlight of the day. It has some beautiful views and was a relaxing drive. We spent so much time roaming through the park that we lost daylight and had to drive through the beautiful Big Horn Mountains in the dark. (That may have been a good thing!)
The Bighorn Mountains is where the battle of bighorn was fought or as it is commonly referred to Custar's Last Stand. Although this isn't a great shot of these mountains, because we had lost a lot of our light by that point, you can see snow on the peaks and how big there are out in the distance. Little did I realize that we had to drive over these mountains! We picked our route to go through the mountains to get to Yellowstone because it was shorter than the way the guy at Mt. Rushmore had told us.
Let me preface this whole story by saying that, I don't like driving in snow. Whether I'm driving or not, and I hate driving at night! We started driving up this mountain and it was almost a straight shot up. Twisting and curving with no guardrails on the side of this mountain. Side thought.... Why are there no guardrails.. Hey.. Wyoming... Get some freakin guardrails!!! Anyway.... my heart started to quicken in my chest and my face went white, my hands got clammy. I was on the verge of a panic attack going up this mountain. The snow got heavier in spots and it was icy and I was scared!!! I was gripping the side of door in the car so hard that when I finally did release my hand, after over an hour, It was sore! The elevation at one point was up over 9000 and my breathing became labored. I was beginning to sweat and then just cried. It was an hour an a half ordeal that I never want to do again!!!!!! Next time someone gives me advice on which way to go... I'm taking it!!!
We ended up stopping at the Beartooth Inn around 9:15 ish and I was went straight to bed! No dreams, no turning, no sounds, just a dead exhausted sleep.
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