Hitting the Road

This was yet another one of my solo road trips from Milwaukee to Yellowstone, with a short stop at Badlands NP.  I've got the route and packing/camping down to a science.  What I wasn't prepared for, so much, was my mobile device (and only communication piece with me) crashing in Cody on Sunday night at the rodeo . . . and the huge, no massive crowds inside Yellowstone!  It was frankly, depressing.  So here goes . . .

Saturday 7/15/17 left home in Milwaukee @ 8am CDT & logged 850 miles for the day.

The drive through Minnesota can be quite boring if not broken up with a break.  On this trip, I used TOOTS (my Garmin GPS) to find a local distraction.  The bowling center in Fairmont, MN fit the bill so I made an impromptu visit while in town for gas.

Bowl Mor had 20 lanes.  I was surprised by two things . . . first they were open in the middle of a beautiful Saturday afternoon . . . and second the owner was actually in!  Being in a lake community with lots of vacationers in town, it's unfortunate that nobody was there to bowl.  It did give me an opportunity to chat with Dave who had owned the center for nearly 40 years.

From there, it was on to South Dakota!  I had pre-booked my campsite in Badlands NP at the Cedar Pass CG inside the park.  It was a nice, but very warm day (100f).  I did drive the park road to Pinnacles and back to camp.

Way toooo many motorcycles in the park!  And lots of them on those loud "crotch rocket" type bikes.  Sometimes they would drive through a straightaway fully throttling, just to make noise.  So totally annoying!

While the day was warm, the night was comfortable for sleeping (I car camp in my van).

Sunday 7/16/17 I woke early and headed towards the east entrance to see what that was like around sunrise as usually I go west and then exit the park at Wall.  The views were lovely . . . and worth doing.  After sunrise, I took the Old NorthEast Rd, a rather well maintained gravel road that goes to several hiking areas.

Due to my physical limitations (gimpy knees & asthma) I don't do much "hiking" but do enjoy a short stroll along the boardwalks when they are available.  On this particular morning, I was delighted to be the first person to spot and stop to photograph a beautiful large male (ram) bighorn sheep.

I'd seen lots of the younger males and nurseries with young (and this trip was no exception), but never a ram with the nice big curled horns.  By the time I was ready to move on (after about 20 minutes of photographing him) there were several more cars and people there.  One lady got way too close to him; I thought for sure he would charge towards her . . . but he didn't.

On my way back out on the park loop road, I stopped by the prairie dog town hoping to see the burrowing owls, but didn't see any.  What I did see, was yet again DUMB people . . . out walking in the area where it is clearly marked to not approach the animals as they carry the plague.   One of the ladies in the group got within a couple of feet of one of their holes, trying to capture a photo with her camera phone.

I was on the road out of Badlands through the Wall interchange by 10am . . . with Cody, WY as my destination.  With that game plan in place, I called ahead to book my campsite at the KOA there.  I was surprised at the rate . . . around $35 including tax.  Very nice!

It was another hot day for driving, right about 100f.  I stopped in at the Vole Buffalo Jump National Historic Site (http://www.vorebuffalojump.org/content/) right at the SD/WY border.  While not a US NPS site, it is worth a stop to learn about how the Native Americans hunted bison by running them over a cliff.  Thousands and thousands of bison were hunted this way.  The site had been discovered in the 1970's when the I90 highway was being constructed.

On to Cody . . . arrived at the KOA around 6pm . . . took a quick shower and went to the Cody Rodeo.  Cody Rodeo Nights only runs a few weeks, something like July 4th weekend until the end of the month.  On my prior trips through Cody, I've always been too early or too late.  I was happy to finally get to take it in.

Admittedly, I struggle a bit with whether or not rodeos for entertainment are inhumane to the animals. I guess if it was really harming them, PETA or other animal rights groups would have shut them down by now . . . so I relaxed and enjoyed the 90 minute show.  The cost was $20 with discounts for children.

Total miles for Sunday = 522 (running total 1,372)

Monday 7/17/17 I was up early, before the KOA's free pancake breakfast . . . so I headed out to the BLM's McCullough Peaks area known for their herds of wild horses.  Apparently the number of tours and off-road vehicles has had an adverse impact on the land and animals.  I had hoped to be able to schedule a personal trip into the area with a well known photographer, but she advised that she no longer took guests into the area.  It seems strange to me, that if people are going there anyway, taking someone else along isn't really creating any more environmental impact . . . especially if that "someone" is then going to drive their own vehicle anyway.

What I realized once there, the gravel road that transverses the area is only a fraction of where people actually go once on the BLM land.  There were lots of ATV type paths; way too muddy and bumpy for me to take our van.  So I stayed on the gravel/dirt road and hoped I might see something of note.  While the road is supposed to be 2-way, I will say in many areas it was very narrow and would have been scary to cross with another vehicle of similar size.

I was amazed at the beauty of the landscape, badlands similar to what are seen in the national park in SD.  That was frankly worth the 90 minute drive over the approximate 30 mile road.  As I exited the BLM area on the far end, I did come upon a couple of beautiful stallions.  They looked pretty healthy, I couldn't see their ribs . . . their long manes flowed in the morning breeze.

Back at the KOA by 9am, I enjoyed the pancakes!  Sausage and beverages were  available for purchase.  With breakfast done, it was time for me to find the Verizon store in town to deal with my crashed cell phone . . .

Oh yeah, that's right . . . my damn cell phone!  I didn't say what happened to it.  At the rodeo the night before, while videoing the barrel racing, the darn thing crashed.  A hard crash that I couldn't get it to boot up past the screen of death.  When I got "home" to the KOA they let me call home to let my hubby know I was ok, but may be off the grid for real if they can't find a way to fix my phone.

No such luck . . . I was now unable to call or text home . . . which as a woman traveling alone and being in remote areas, was something that worried me a little about.  I was also frustrated because I had become so dependent on my mobile for storage of documents for the trip and for the ease of use of the camera when I didn't want to use my DSLRs or other camera equipment.  In fact for this trip, I didn't even bring my small Canon SD600 pocket digital or my nice video camera.  Now I was down to "just" my DSLRs which would mean "drive-by" photography would be next to impossible.

Leaving Cody, I did stop at the Buffalo Bill Dam, one of the free US National Park Service sites.  The dam was built in 1904 on the Shoshone River and creates the recreational area around the reservoir which is known as the Buffalo Bill State Park.  It is worth a short 30 minute stop to view the movie telling of the building of the dam (325 feet in height, at the time, the tallest dam in the USA) and all of the challenges and failures along the way.

With this stop complete . . . the next stop . . . Yellowstone National Park!