Travelblog episode 13: Walla Walla and home

The final day of our monster road-trip dawned sunny and warm with a good touch of humidity (humidity for Spokane, mind you, not for places with real humidity. We hit the Super 8 continental breakfast (which wasn't nearly as good as the one at the Ramada in Black Hawk...the biscuits were dry, the donut selection was weak, and the cereal options were limited), loaded the cars, and hit the road. Our goal: lunch in Walla Walla.

Why Walla Walla, when it was plainly several hundred miles out of our way? Well, three reasons. First, we wanted to show Megan, Molly and Matthew around Whitman College, 'cause their Mom went there. Second, their Mom wanted us to introduce them to her friend (ex-boyfriend, actually) Douglas. Third, we wanted to see our old friend (my ex-girlfriend, actually) Sarah and her husband. Oh, and fourth we were going to stop at the Ice Berg for a shake, 'cause when my sister went there (and somewhat when we went there) it was the only game in town shake-wise.

We made pretty good time, taking I-90 west to US 395, that down to the Tri-Cities, and US 12 out to Walla². I called Sarah and we agreed to meet at some outdoor tables on campus with our lunches, which in our case meant another stop at Subway. One thing I'd forgotten about summer in Walla² was how dang hot it gets. OK, I hadn't so much forgotten as I had smoothed the memory...it couldn't have been that hot, could it? Yes, yes it could. But hey, at least we were sitting in the shade...

After lunch we met up with Douglas who gave us a brief walking tour of the campus, showing the kids the new media center (which in my day was an underused building with overflow offices for professors) and the fancy-pants new campus center (the former Student Union Building, or SUB, which had been housed in an old carpet store). He let us in the bookstore (which he manages), and the kids got some souveniers (or, in Maya's case, some tiny tape dispensers). And finally it was time to get back on the road.

The trip home was as uneventful as alway. The boy car stopped in the Tri-Cities to pick up some fireworks, the girl car drove pretty much straight through. The only excitement came as we crossed Snoqualmie Pass and drove in to yet another set of thunderstorms. At least these ones had mildly normal Northwest rain...We pulled in to Grandma Chicken's drive way around 7 or so, had some spaghetti, unloaded the various pieces of luggage, and went home to sleep, finally, in our own beds.

Whew!

Travelblog episode 12: Goodby Yellowstone, Hello I-90!

A pair of Pronghorn Antilope

Monday evening we got out the maps, assessed everyone's interest in further sightseeing, and made the executive decision to jam for home. Since we didn't have the wonderous Internets to help us plan, we busted out the ol' AAA maps and tried to guestimate how far we thought we could get the next day. We planned to head out the West entrance of the park, then take US 191 north to Bozeman, Montana where we'd pick up I-90 and race west as far as we could. We figured we could make it to Spokane for the evening, where we would again treat ourselves to a motel room at whatever inn had rooms available (and, naturally, cable TV and free internets).

On the way out of the park we got a final, highly appropriate, Yellowstone send-off: a lone bison walking down the road. Fortunately he wasn't on our side...he was walking serenely down the center of the lane, leading a looooong parade of cars entering the park. And he showed no interest in getting out of the way. Paige slowed down and told various drivers farther back in the line why they were going so slow, and reported that the farther she got from the offending bison the hotter the tempers got. Nor surprising, really.

The offending bison, ambling along

The drive from West Yellowstone up to Bozeman was lovely. We were skirting through the foothills of the rockies, rolling through non-controlled parts of the Park and various National Forest areas, with occasional ranches and farms and a couple small villages (most notably Big Sky, an island of rich ski resort in the sea of rural America). After lunch at Taco Time in Bozeman and a stop at a gas station to fill up it was on to I-90 and back up to our average cruising speed of 80 mph (have to love states with a 75 mph freeway speed limit!). We hit a couple more thunder storms as we rolled through the Rockies, slowing us down significantly thanks to the extra-heavy rain, but they were short lived and didn't affect our overall pace too much.

After a brief coffee and gas stop in Missoula we headed straight for Spokane, and with only one more brief stop to relieve some of the coffee-induced pressure we rolled in to town around 7:00 PM (thanks to gaining an hour as we crossed the Idaho border). The Super 8 was our motel of choice, being conveniently located just off the freeway and offering two rooms on the same floor at a AAA discounted rate. And not a moment too soon, as about a half hour after we were settled in and watching TV another thunderstorm blew through, this one with huge rain, strong wind, and some sweet lightning. It was quite an event for Spokane, with the local stations breaking in to Jeopardy or whatever to tell us to stay the heck indoors so we didn't blow away or drown. The highlight in our room was watching a guy pull in to the parking lot in his dump truck, maneuver it in to a parking space, then open the gate and tip up the bed to empty out a great volume of rain. Although it would have been fun to see how much water would have accumulated if he'd left it closed and down, I'm sure the Super 8 people appreciated not having a dumptruck-load of water dumped on their parking lot all at once...

Travelblog episode 11: Yellowstone day 2

We woke up Monday morning raring to go and ready to see some geysers. The plan for the day was to take the south loop road out to Artist's Point to see the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone (the north loop was closed), then continue down along Lake Yellowstone to the Grant Village visitor's center so we could see the movie about the big fire of 1988. We'd then continue on to Old Faithful, watch it go up, see the other geysers around there, then work our way to the Madison campground for the night.

The morning was bright and sunny, and the trip to the falls was great. When we were in Yellowstone back in 2006 I was fighting a stomach virus and didn't want to walk anywhere, so we skipped the "Uncle Tom's Trail" walk. This time, with five energetic kids in tow, we didn't. The hike down to the Uncle Tom viewpoint near the base of the falls was gorgeous. The hike back up? Strenuous. I didn't count the stairs, but there were many of them. And the fact that the falls are around 8,000 feet of altitude made the climb even harder. But the benefit of having to walk slowly was that it gave you time to take more pictures...

The upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone


A rainbow in the mist of the lower falls


A chipmunk (photo by Logan)


A small rivulette named "Kitty Falls" by Logan,
and Logan drinking from the Lower Falls


The gang with the Lower Falls

As we drove down the lake we started to see dark clouds in the distance. This didn't bode well for the rest of our day, since we were planning on being out of the cars for quite a bit. And sleeping in tents. The clouds continued to gather as we checked out the Grant Village visitor's center and, on this 20th anniversary of the big fires, watched the "Yellowstone: 10 Years After" movie (which we're hoping they update with footage from 2008). And by the time we got to Old Faithful it was clear that a storm was in the offing.

We timed our visit to Old Faithful completely wrong, arriving about 5 minutes after an eruption ended. So we killed some time by getting ice cream cones and heading over to the Old Faithful Inn to check out the insanely cool architecture (which I, for some reason, didn't photograph this trip). The wind was picking up, and there were a few drops falling from the sky, so I agreed to go back to the car to get coats for those who wanted them (Maya and Logan...Paige, Matt and I already had ours on, and Megan and Molly apparently didn't care). The rain continued to increase, but never more than a mild Seattle drizzle.

I headed for the Old Faithful lodge, mainly 'cause it was closer to the car, and there I met the family. They'd wandered over and were, mostly, dry. We still had 20 to 30 minutes to wait before the geyser was supposed to go off (or rather to the beginning of the window of expected eruption...). We hung out under the awning of the lodge, watching the wind blow the flags and the rain sputter, then decided to head down to the benches around the geyser. Which, of course, is when the storm decided to get more interesting. While there wasn't any lightning in the immediate area, we could see bolts on the hills and hear thunder. The wind also picked up, the temperature dropped, and the rain increased. All of which led to some cold folk standing around waiting for a geyser to blow.

And, eventually, blow it did. One thing to know about Old Faithful, should you chose to go, is that it's got a good 15-minute "juke" period where it bubbles up, looks like it's going to erupt, then settles down. I think it did it around 4 or 5 times before it finally blew. Of course, by then I was so cold and wet that I only snapped one shot, and not a good one.

Once the show was over we, and everyone else standing around, retreated to the lodge to dry out and warm up. And while we were there, we went in to sample the wonders of the caffeteria, figuring it was way easier to pay for a hot dinner we could eat at a dry table in a warm building than to go to our campsite and potentially eat cold food in the rain. Because really, what's the point of having a credit card if you don't use it to eat in a warm, dry room?

After dinner we hopped back in the cars and headed for Madison. Our plan was to set up camp, then either drive to the Artist's Paint Pots that night or in the morning on the way out. Well, as we were checking in to the Madison camp ground I saw a sign saying "Artists Paint Pots Closed". "Hey, why are the paint pots closed?" I asked the reservation lady. "I'm not sure, but I heard some thermals shifted and someone got burned." We later confirmed this from a Ranger. Ouch! So instead we set up camp, played some games, and hit the sack.

Travelblog episode 10: Yellowstone at last!

Sunday morning we got up, broke down the tents, packed up and headed in to Cody for breakfast. The plan was to eat a big brunch, then just snack for lunch and have a "real" dinner (Spaghetti, salad and bread) at our camp site in Yellowstone. Based on the ads in the map the KOA people gave us we headed for a place called "Granny's." Our hopes were high as we pulled in, but we'd forgotten one crucial detail: It was Sunday morning. Which means, in addition to travelers we'd be fighting the post-church crowd. And fight them we did. The restaurant was the standard diner setup with booths and tables, but they also had an outdoor seating area. So, we said, "we'd be willing to sit outside..." to which they replied "that's fine, but we don't serve out there so you'll have to order to go." Which we did. And I must say, for not serving the outside tables, they provided pretty darn good service, carrying out our food for us and offering to pick up the garbage. Very nice, but it would have been nicer if we could have had real plates and silverware instead of eating off of styrofoam with plastic forks and knives.

Once breakfast was done it was off to Albertson to pick up food for the next couple days, then west in to Yellowstone. The drive in was beautiful, driving up into the Rockies and across Sylvan Pass where there were small snowfields down at the level of the road (and numerous tourists stopping to walk on the dirty, dirty snow). Our first stop in the park was an overlook of Lake Yellowstone at Steamboat Point. There were a couple thermals there - enough to cause some stink, but nothing exciting to look at. The view of the lake, on the other hand, was worth looking at!

The girls reading abou the
underwater thermals in the lake


Looking across the lake at
snowcapped mountains

After a brief stop at the Fishing Bridge visitor's center it was on along the Yellowstone river toward the Canyon Campground. We stopped along the road to check out the Mud Volcano and it's mud-spweing sulpher smell. Maya and I didn't walk up to the top to see the other thermals (or the bison sitting by the path), but what the heck.

Farther down the road and around a few corners we came across a herd of bison grazing, napping and drinking. So naturally we had to stop and take pictures:

Logan with the camera

A close-up shot of the adult and
baby bison relaxing by the stream

And that wasn't the end of our wildlife shooting for the day, 'cause a mile or two farther up the road we ran across this guy (well, not really across him...he was 40 yards off the road, but still...)

A black bear doing what bears do

We finally got to the Canyon campground, set up the tents, loaded all the bags in to the Sebring, and headed for Mammoth Hot Springs, by way of Tower Falls. Mammoth, if you've never been there, is weird. No geysers, just hot pools bubbling out mineral-laden water and creating these bizarre terraced hills, and the occasional tree that has been overcome by the mineral flow

Tower Falls and a dead tree


More dead trees on the hillside

Close-up of the edge of the Canary Spring

Dead tree being encrusted by the Canary Spring

Travelblog episode 9: West into Wyoming

The new tents worked fine. Kept out the bugs (no rain that night) and didn't collapse under the moderate wind gusts. They didn't keep the sun out either, though, which meant it was another early morning. Which was fine, 'cause we wanted to get on the road early and head west to Cody, Wyoming. Along the way, if there was time, we hoped to detour off I-90 and check out Devil's Tower. The farther west we went, the hazier the sky. I don't know if there were wildfires somewhere nearby, if it was some freak global warming smog thing, or what, but the visibility sucked. And since we had a long way to drive we decided to skip the 90 mile detour to Devil's Tower. Which, I suppose, gives us a reason to go back to eastern Wyoming.

The drive through eastern Wyoming is nothing special. I mean, it's not hideously ugly or anything, and definitely has that "open range" feeling that you get in that part of the country, but that was about it. And I figured "well, the rest of the day will be pretty much like this..." Boy, was I wrong.As we passed Gilette, Wyoming we started seeing signs for "US 16, The most scenic route to Yellowstone". Hmm...when we first started planning the trip we were going to head that way, spending a night in Thermopolis and checking out their hot springs before driving down the Wind River Canyon in to Cody. Today we were planning on the more direct route of I-90 to Sheridan then US 14 west to Cody. So, I guess we were going to miss the scenic scenery. Oh well.

The closer we got to Buffalo, where I-90 starts heading north toward Montana, the more the scenery started to change. There were now mountains in the distance...in the near distance. "Huh," I thought. "I didn't realize the Rockies came this far east..." This is when a Wyoming map might have come in handy...all we had was the AAA "Western States" uber-map, not the specific Wyoming map. So we didn't realize we'd have to drive through the Bighorn Mountains. Not that that would have changed our planned route, but we would have had something to look forward to.

We stopped in Sheridan for a coffee break and to fill up on gas, then headed west on US 14 in to the Bighorns. The path up the east side of the range was a long series of s-curve switchbacks that put a serious strain on the ol' Sebring. Fortunately there was a car in front of us so I wasn't tempted to drive too fast...Paige would never have been able to keep up in the more top-heavy Jeep. The middle portion of the range was like any high mountain area, but the descent on the west was gorgeous, winding down a deep canyon with a sheer drop-off off the right side of the road.

Once we were out of the Bighorns it was back to the standard high desert / plains environment for the next 50 miles or so in to Cody. And, more importantly, it was flatter and straighter so we could make up some time and get to the camp ground in time to have some dinner and play some games!

Travelblog episode 8: A cave of jewels, a Crazy Horse mountain, and the first night in the new tents

Friday morning came earlier than expected to the ol' Kamping Kabin. I had foolishly hoped we'd be able to sleep in, what with a roof overhead, mattresses under us, and the relative dimness of small curtained windows. But it was not to be, not with five kids sleeping in one room. Not sure what time they got up, but it was earlier than I wanted to. Ah well.

Once everyone was up we scrounged up all our left-over laundry quarters and headed down to the big feedin' tent for the KOA $2.50 all you can eat pancake breakfast (meats and drinks extra). I went first with Logan, Maya and Molly and we just beat the rush. Paige, Matt and Megan came a bit later and ended up waiting in line for about as long as we'd been eating. Suckers.

The cakes were quite good, I must say. The guy cooking them had it down to a science, using a huge batter-holding trough thing on wheels that spewed out 4 or 5 streams of batter when he opened the valve, then rolled on to spew out some more. He must have had 40 or 50 cakes going at once. And didn't burn or drop a one. Far better than I'd do, I must say!

After we'd eaten our fill we loaded the cars, drove over to the main building, checked out of the cabin and checked in to our tent sites for the night. Then it was off to set up tents, load all our crap in the Sebring, and head out again in the mighty Commander for lunch and the Jewel Cave. Lunch was OK: Subway and random groceries. The Jewel Cave was better.

While Paige had done a bunch of cave tours in her youth, the closest thing to a cave the kids and I had been in was a lava tube on the Big Island a few years ago. Jewel Cave was nothing like a lava tube, but then it wasn't really like what you imagine when you think "cave" either. No giant halls of stalactites and stalagmites, no bats, and an elevator entrance. Well, to the part we toured...at the "natural entrance" there are bats, and no elevator, but still no big ol' stalagmites. We did see some tiny ones, and lots of the "jewels" (I forget what exactly they were...some kind of feldspar, I think). The highlights were probably the "flowstone" features and Bacon. Because really, who doesn't like bacon? Even 10 foot tall stone bacon? No one, that's who.

Some weird cave formations and the mighty Bacon

After the cave tour was over we piled back in the Jeep and headed back through Custer to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Which, I have to say, is pretty damn impressive. It's about 3 times as expensive as Rushmore to get in ($27 per car rather than $10), but then they aren't taking any Government money for the project. The visitor center is huge and fairly new, the "introductory movie" is shamelessly self-promotional and donation-requesting, but the mountain is crazy impressive.

Crazy Horse mountain

Close-up on Crazy's face

Logan, Maya and Molly pose with
the 1/34th scale model of the mountain

During the movie we learned that the "night blast" that we'd heard the night before, which we thought might be a standard thing to go with the evening laser show, was in fact a twice-a-year event. So we should have come up the night before. Ah well...

Eventually we'd had our fill of giant stone carvings and Native crafts and arts and headed back down to Custer for some pizza for dinner, then back to the KOA so Matt could do laundry, the kids could swim, and Paige and I could relax a bit. Which we did, until Maya got lost coming back from the bathroom and had to be delivered, in tears, by KOA Security...