Our Badlands/Yellowstone/Grand Canyon Trip 2009

The 16 entries that follow are from our trip in June 2009. I have entered them in reverse order, so you, the reader, can follow our trip along as it happened (instead of backwards as most blogs would have you do.)

The states we hit on this trip: Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. Totalling 5,061 miles.

As many have asked, we only had one tank of grease for the car, which we filled before we left home. Running a greasecar requires filtering of gathered grease, plus settling time. Unfortunately we didn't have the capacity to do either on this trip.

As you will read and see, this was a jam-packed trip, with many wonderful and terrible things. We're happy to have gone and happy to be home. (Our home was very tidy, as we cleaned it all up to put on the market before we left. What a treat to come home to an extra clean house!)

Click on the photos to view them closer. When you get to the bottom of the page, you will need to click "older posts" to continue reading about our vacation. The last entry is titled "She lost her Head in the Land of Oz under an Alien Cloud."

First Night Away From Comforts - Except One!

Saturday: First stop in Willmar, Minnesota. We left home around 10 am. Passed a large windfarm this afternoon. Isobelle smells pencil usage in the car. ;)

Camped first night at Lake Vermillion Recreation Area. Nice birding on the lake. And had some fun with the air matress for the first time (my one requirement for the trip.) The rain help off the whole time, but was overcast. For a photo opp, I asked the girls to run down the hill like Little House on the Prairie. Victoria tripped down the mountain...

Badlands & Hot Water!

Sunday: Up nice and early. Stopped at Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Refuel as well. Haven't yet run grease. 444.4 miles so far! There was another 1/4 tank left or so, but we were in a convenient place to fuel.

11:30 AM CST: Potty break that turned into a mini excursion. There was a Louis and Clark Museum/Visitors Center overlooking the Missouri River Vally. First "beware of poisonous snakes" sign on the trip.

Noon: Crossed into next time zone! Saw an antelope, sheep and the beginnings of the Badlands - 15 minutes out.
3PM: Set up at Badlands camp. Going to explore the park. Neighbor campers borrow camp stove. The Badlands camp has hot water!

Carvings, Cosmos, Collisions, Oh My!

Monday: We tooled around Badlands last night in search of the buffalo that allegedly were only viewable from a remote pass - after visiting the Visitors Center. We walked the nearby path early in the day, ate dinner the drove out. One lone buffalo.

Sleeping was cold - windy really. We all climbed into the large mattress together. Slept eventually. Quick breakfast then head out to Rushmore, etc.

6:55 CST: In a little of a shock and serious mood - the auto accident.
We left Badlands and up to Rushmore. That was a wonderful and beautiful area. Victoria was very excited to see Mt. Rushmore in person. We then headed to Crazy Horse, but entrance fee of $27 seemed too steep, even though we would love to support. We saw it from the side though. Then proceeded through Rapid City, where we picked up some expensive dinner and breakfast groceries.

Just past the Wyoming border, we had the accident. A motorcycle stopped short (quickly) in front of us, I braked hard, realized I was going to hit them, swerved into the other lane and proceeded into a fishtale where I lost control. We hit them in back (the saddlebag and rear tire,) but had already slowed greatly. The man and woman spoke only french, so no one yet knew their side of the story. The man was bleeding from his head with a possible broken wrist or arm; the womans knee skinned, from what we could tell. I called 911 right away and they came fairly quickly. The cyclists seemed like they would be okay.

I got a call from Pop as I was dialing 911, just to say "hi" and see how we were, according to his message. (I check it hours late when I remembered he'd called.)

I talked with Billy the trooper, calmed the kids who were very upset and John and I assessed the damage to the car. It seems fine. We found the Keyhole State Park in Wyoming for the night.

We visited the Cosmos Sight today too! We all keep forgetting that with the accident excitement. The girls had a complete blast there. Definitely fun.

I'm running on empty and feel like I want to cry, but not sure why. The girls are bouncing back a little, now that we've set up camp and there's burgers and Doritos in their future. The weather turned up today too.

9:03 CST: We hit Wall Drug first thing this morning. The girls each got a piece of fools gold and a couple of post cards.

This evening the trunk wouldn't shut. Izzy's seatbelt wouldn't work yesterday, but then started working again. I'm hoping the trunk is just in a mood. I know I am. I ate junk to feel better - Doritos and chocolate.

The Mood Hangs By A Trunk

Tuesday: Seeing the Rockys for the first time (10:30 CST.) The trunk broke last night - not good for the moods. (We've collected another warning light on the dashboard.) Seeing more antelope in Wyoming.

We stopped in Sheridan to gas up and get groceries for the couple of days in the park. In the crossing of Bighorn we saw a moose off in a field. We caught a couple lousy pics but he wouldn't present anything other than his backside - even after we turned around and circled to get a better angle. We saw a lone goat right off the right side just outside Yellowstone. The trip today provided numerous antelope, which have been fairly hard to spy thus far.

As we went through the tunnels in the mountain just before Yellowstone, I told the girls that they could now say they had been through a mountain! Isobelle replied, "Yeah. Mountains with concealment!"

Dinnertime: Arrived in Yellowstone after a long, uneventful drive. The mountain Pass was spectacular, but a little unnerving for Victoria and I. So I drove to focus on the road ahead and John could sight see. We took highway 14 through the Bighorn. There were large piles of bison dung everywhere. Started a fire for dinner, with purchased Yellowstone wood that was very wet! It was a trick to start. (Everyone around us was having a hard time with it too!)

Bears And More in Snowy Yellowstone

Wednesday: Wednesday morning we woke to snow on the tent and trees. I was wearing everything I brought, so I was warm enough (it wasn't really that cold.) Victoria slept in our bag with all our heads a little downhill. Isobelle slept the other way in two sleeping bags and was nice and toasty and comfy.

We did the loops of Yellowstone. The lower in the AM. We visited some stinky sulfur pools and hit Old Faithful, where we got rained on significantly for the first time.

Talked with Cousin Tim, who kindly invited us to stay the night. So we did the upper loop on our way to Bozeman, Montana. We were surprized to find the Mammoth Hot Springs dried up and kind of a disappointment from Johns pictures of a previous visit. We saw all the Yellowstone wildlife goodies - bison right on the road and their little calves, a grizzly bear foraging off the side of the road, a velvet-racked elk right on the curb, a bighorn sheep perched atop a cliff munching and magpies all over the place in Northern Yellowstone and Montana. Many antelope, mule deer, osprey, canadian geese and a mystery waterfoul, taht was reminicent of a loon - only duck sized.

In Montana we got to meet Jennifer and Robbie - the first of the White's to meet the little one! The grownups showered and slept in a warm, cozy bed. (The girls on an air matress.) A nice change from the cold, windy nights. We had yummy pizza and salad. In the morning, hot eggs and toast with coffee and o.j. Tim and Jennifer were preparing to leave for Andy's wedding in D.C. Pippin [the dog] wanted to play ball the whole time we were there.