Friday, October 2 - Thoughts on the National Parks and Other Places

I've been in a very intropective mood the past week.  I think that is partly due to watching the National Parks show on PBS, partly due to being sick (H1N1) and having sick kids and just "laying low" this past week.

This show has made me think how different my life would be if there were no national parks, national monuments, wilderness.  They have shaped me and continue to do so even at the ripe old age of 42.  Every visit to one of these places is a gift and changes me in some way...sometimes these are profound changes, sometimes they are minute.  I feel so sad for all the people who by choice or circumstance have not been able to experience these places for themselves.  And even more tragic in some ways...for those who have the opportunity and don't take advantage of it. And for those who do visit but don't have their souls and minds open to the experience and spend their time simply doing what they are "supposed" to do...cram in as much as possible.  You need to stop and listen and take your time, in these places.  So many people don't really "see" Yellowstone...they see the geysers and a few bison but hate the bison jams and don't bother to visit the out of the way corners of the park.  I believe that to truly "see" Yellowstone, you need to take a few days to just spend time sitting and looking and listening.  This goes for all these places.  Get off the beaten path. Take a day to simply feel the park.  Walk the trails...sit and look at the rivers.  If you take a few hours and sit and watch the Lamar River in Yellowstone, I guarantee you will see things.  But you need to take the time and be open to it.
© 2009 Tara Morrison

Sunday, August 23 - The Windstorm

We were awakened by thunder and lightning at our campground outside of Sturgis, so we rushed to take down camp, hoping to not get struck by lightning while putting things in the top carrier.  That "freaked me", as Jack says...because we were watching lightning strikes across the valley.  We had breakfast at the Cedar Tree in Spearfish after searching for restaurants…it was ok, not great but not terrible. We drove the route north from Spearfish to Belle Fourche and then angled west towards Devil’s Tower. We stopped at an old coal mine on the way, the Aladdin Tipple. 

I don't like mines, especially coal mines, but this had a rustic charm to it due to the history. It was interesting, I've never been anywhere like that.

 There was also a very old general store just a short distance away.

The Aladdin Mercantile is one of only 5 19th century mercantiles left in the state, and is a rare example of late 19th century vernacular mercantile architecture. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds interesting.  The store was built in 1896.

The Kids on the "Liar's Bench"

We drove close to Devil’s Tower but didn’t take the time to go all the way into the visitor center - we've been there before and we had many more miles to travel today. 

We made our way through Gillette

Painted steer at a Gillette gas station

and Buffalo and Sheridan and then stopped at the Connor battlefield where the Powder River Expedition attacked Arapaho Chief Black Bear's encampment. 

This is a very serene, beautiful spot and like many battlefields it is hard to envision it as the site of great losses of life.  Connor's mission, which left from Fort Laramie (which we will visit later in the trip) was to wage war with the Indians and force them into peaceful submission.  

We left this site and began our ascent into the Bighorns.

 I was a little worried about the drive up, and VERY worried about the descent on the other side.  We took the northernmost route through the Bighorns, Alt Hwy. 14, which has a much steeper grade than the other route that most people take on their way to Yellowstone.  On the way up, there are periodic signs pointing out the age of the rocks and the very interesting rock formations. 

At more than one point along this road, younger rock is located underneath older rock.  There was construction in the Bighorns where they took us totally off the road onto gravel tracks…not too bad but I still wasn’t thrilled. We stopped at the visitor center near Burgess Junction and took a short walk.

There was a marmot colony that was fun to watch even though we had forgotten our binoculars in the car.  A nice couple let the kids borrow theirs.  We saw a lone cow moose in the forest  as we were heading west.

 It was raining and looking stormy so we didn’t dare attempt walking to the Medicine Wheel…I was very disappointed, I had really wanted the kids to see it. The Medicine Wheel is located high in the wide, open spaces of the Bighorns at an elevation of 9,642 feet.  It is a wheel-like pattern of  rocks that had a diameter of 80 feet.  There is a center cairn with 28 spokes and if you stand/sit at the spokes they point you to different spaces on the horizon and seem to be related to solar/star alignments.  The wheel is 300-800 years old but there are archaeological sites in the area that have been dated back as old as 12,000 years.  Marc and I visited it in 1993 and I wanted to go back and spend more time but it is simply not a place you want to be if there is the threat of storms, as there was today.  So, I braced myself for the descent and it was not as bad as I thought even though is is a 10 % grade for 14 miles!

We drove through Lovell and found the free town camping spot at a city park but it was not nice at all...all gray gravel, not a bit of grass, and completely deserted.  The bathroom facilities were pretty dirty too.  I'd rather have an outhouse and no shower.  So, we stopped at the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area Visitor Center to ask about campgrounds. I thought there was one in the rec. area but it wasn't listed in my camping book.  There were two we could choose from.  We talked to him about the wild horse situation and the upcoming roundup and he pointed out the high number of horses, how many the range can support, etc.  We also discussed bad roads in other parks where he has worked.  He was a very nice guy.  Jack spent this whole time sitting on a couch looking at a book.  When we realized we had 15 min. to get to the grocery store and shop before they closed we got ready to leave and I told Jack to leave his book there.  The ranger said, "Did you look at it?  It's pretty cool book". It is called Fossil Freeway and it was cool.
http://www.amazon.com/Cruisin-Fossil-Freeway-Scientist-Ultimate/dp/1555914519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263498168&sr=8-1


I promised Jack we'd come back the next day and buy it and we went to get groceries.  Then we drove out into the canyon area and found the campground.  We found one of the "free" sites.  Jack made us all laugh when he asked, "Is there dirt here?  "'Cause I NEED dirt!". 

http://www.nps.gov/bica/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm
We stayed at the Horseshoe Bend Campground shown on this website.

There were quite a few signs about rattlesnakes and the campground host came over after seeing the kids, to warn me.  He claimed they don't come in the campsites but have been found nearby...they had already relocated 7 that summer including one that was found in a garbage can!  Rosie and Logan set up the tent while Jack made a town out of rocks (inspected for snakes) and logs and I attempted to cook dinner.  Halfway through cooking the sausage for pasta (Jack had been promised pasta with sausage sauce for several days and had said that afternoon "I Want Sausage!"), our cooking gas ran out!  Very bad timing...it was already 8pm.  We hurriedly picked everything up and threw it in the car and went back to town (a 20 min. drive).  There was nowhere to buy cooking gas, and the only restaurant  that was open was in a motel.  It is called the Cauc-Asian Diner.  I am not making that up.  Here is proof:
http://www.cauc-asiandiner.com/index.php?p=1_7_Photo-Gallery

I inexplicably forgot to take a picture.  The kids liked their fries, and they got to watch Scooby Doo while eating.  The people were very nice.  We talked to a family from Redwood Falls who were eating at the next table.  What a small world, my grandparents were from a tiny town near there that no one has ever heard of (but of course they had) so it was strange to be discussing it in Wyoming.

It was dark by the time we got back to our campground, and very windy.  We reached our campsite and discovered that the windstorm (it was windy in town, in the canyon it could only be called a windstorm.  It must have been funneling just right through the canyon and hitting the campground with full force.  It had decimated our tent.  Some of the poles were even broken.  I give the kids a lot of credit for pitching in to help clean up the mess, in the dark, as quickly as possible.  There was no way we could stay there and no way to sleep in the car, we had too much stuff.  We packed up and headed back to town.  We hadn't really liked the look of the motel where the diner was, so we pulled into the Horseshoe Bend Motel at the other end of Lovell (which means about 5 blocks away).  It was 10 pm.  Rosie and I left the boys in the car and went into the office...I don't remember why she came with me. 

We opened the door and walked through and were met with wild horse "stuff' everywhere...statues, figurines, posters, books, calendars, etc.  And the owner was in the sitting area showing a "Cloud" movie to another motel guest.  We had obviously come to the right place!  She finished talking to him and we asked for a room and then started talking about the horses, Cloud, etc.  She knows Ginger Kathrens, the woman who made the Cloud movies.  She told us a lot of "that" side of things and what was going on and being done to fight the roundup.  It was a very interesting conversation.  We realized we had left the boys sitting in the car for a half hour by the time we were done talking!  We went out with our room key and they were asleep.  Ooops!  The rooms at the Horseshoe Bend Motel are very basic...nothing fancy and the furnishings and linens are older, but they are clean and reasonable.  I would stay there again. There is also a pool, and a courtyard with picnic tables where you are invited to cook your own meals.

We went to sleep quickly, looking forward to our wild horse adventure in the morning.