June 4, 2014
A bit daunted by our first big road trip with little Hyla, we checked many times over to make sure we had everything she could possibly need while we were out on the road. We got out of the house a little before 8 am and had a mostly uneventful drive north on I-25. We stopped at a rest area just south of Raton to change Hyla’s diaper. While there, I decided it would be a good idea to use the facilities as well. The bathroom was filthy, and there were no paper towels to use to open the door to get out. There were other people in the room, and I tried to wait for someone to finish so she could open the door (it was that bad!), but they were taking forever. There was no available toilet paper, either, since all stalls were occupied. I hemmed and hawed and stalled and finally I just decided to go ahead and open the darned door and deal with it when, as I was reaching for the handle, someone came in. Victory!! And ick to nasty rest stops.
Our next stop was in Trinidad, CO, one of my favorite small towns. While arriving however, we were nearly hit by some distracted woman merging onto the expressway. I was in the left lane as she came in, figuring she’d maybe look there before going all the way over. Nope! I blared my horn and was nearly pushed onto the left shoulder (what else could I do?). She looked horrified and seemed quite apologetic, so I’ll overlook it this time. We did notice, though, that the drivers in Trinidad were particularly bad on this day.
Once off the crazy roads, we stopped briefly at the historical museum where we honed in on a geocache. There was a lady sitting at ground zero, eating her lunch. I decided I better tell her what we were doing so we didn’t seem too suspicious. Turned out she was a former employee of the museum! She was quite aware of the cache, so we chit chatted a bit before dropping off two travel bugs, picking up one new one, and heading on our way.
We were pretty hungry at this point and knew there wouldn’t be much between here and Pueblo, so we decided to make a quick stop at the local Taco Bell/KFC. It turned out to be the slowest one ever!! We sat there for at least a half hour before our order was ready. We did chat a bit with a local, which passed the time. When our order arrived, we scarfed it as quickly as possible (we have places to be!) and hit the road. We got Hyla an order of mashed potatoes and the super soft beans from the KFC side, and those were a huge hit on the drive up, though I would wind up covered in bean juice. Bleh. Still, I was so glad to discover something easy that she enjoyed.
Continuing up, we stopped again in Pueblo to change Hyla and grab another geocache. This one involved climbing a tree! I spotted it, and Nathan retrieved it like a pro. From there we got gas, then continued north of Colorado Springs to Castle Rock. We did the hike to the top (and Nathan made it to the very top, which involved quite a scramble. I stayed below with the kiddo). We snagged 3 geocaches, but I got really nervous as Nate was grabbing that last one at the top because lightning started getting close, and the winds picked up tremendously. I called to him and he couldn’t hear me. I panicked – do I leave him and make it down to the car with Hyla, or what?! Luckily, just as I was about to make a run for it, he appeared. He was so busy caching, he didn’t even notice the approaching storm. Yikes! We ran most of the way back to the car and got out of there before the storm really hit.
From there, we hit drizzle and rush hour traffic in Denver. It seemed more like rush hourS. We inched along forever, wondering if we’d ever make it to our destination. It did give us time to chat and joke and hang out, which was nice, though. We noticed how darned many Taco John’s there are out here, and of course I had to rant about how I’d never eat there because, based on their name, all I can ever envision is that they mix the taco meat in the toilet (john). Blah!! Hehe. (I’m sure Taco John’s is lovely – but I just can’t get past that!) Eventually, the traffic subsided and we shot off, north of town, leaving the rain behind us, too. It was around this time that we started hearing tornado warnings with imminent touchdowns in effect for towns east of Denver and north of Limon. Scary!!! So glad we made it past that, but there were still ominous clouds on the northern horizon. We decided not to risk going too much further this day. The traffic issues kept us a bit behind schedule, so we opted to stay in Cheyenne for the evening.
I’d been through Cheyenne once or twice before, and it seemed somehow nicer this time. I think I’d like to check it out as a destination one day. The downtown seemed inviting, and I bet there’s a lot of geocaching and history to be had. We did try finding a brew pub in a rather sketchy, rail yardy part of town, to no avail. We were getting tired anyway, so perhaps it was for the best. We checked into a Super 8, and while I was tending to Hyla, Nate ran out to get us supper at Little Philly, a sandwich shop down the road. He had a Philly, and I had an Italian meatball, and it was superb!! He was really happy with his, too. It was a great end to a fun first day on the road.
June 5, 2014
Woke up at 7 thinking Hyla was still asleep, but as soon as I sat up, so did she. We scrambled to get ready, grabbed some breakfast downstairs, and ran out the door. Another big day awaited us! We stopped to grab some supplies at the cleanest Walmart I’d ever seen, and then we headed north. There was not much to see along the way besides pronghorn, but since I was driving, I didn’t really see any. The treeless prairies stretched on as far as the eye could see. Our first stop was for gas in the town of Douglas. This town also claims to be the birthplace of the first jackalope, so we just had to go see everything this jackalope-y place had to offer. We visited two of the largest jackalopes in the world, admired the jackalope-themed benches, and then saw the rail museum which allowed us to explore a number of old rail cars. While there, we also snagged two geocaches, of course. Once we’d had our fill of all things jackalope, we continued north, yet again.
The road between Douglas and Gillette, Wyoming is pretty desolate, but surprisingly busy with trucks thanks to the prevalent mining operations in the region. We sped through nearly 100 miles of this desolation before making it, unscathed, to Gillette. We swung into Wendy’s for a quick lunch and then hit the road toward Devils Tower. I’d been through the area with my mom a few years back, and it was just as pretty as I remembered. Gentle hills and bluffs accented the land, and forests started to push back against the persisting prairie. Lakes and ponds shimmered like jewels on this beautiful landscape. After many twists and turns eventually we could see Devils Tower out in the distance. It stood out majestically, reaching longingly for the sky. Once at the gate, we bought an annual parks pass, since we knew we’d be seeing a number of other national parks and monuments on our journey. Then we drove up to the base of the monolith.
Once we had explored the visitor center and gotten our bearings, as well as purchased a Parks Passport for Hyla and got her very first stamp, we strapped her into the Baby Bjorn and started the first of our hikes. We decided to start out with the shorter hike that skirted the base of Devils Tower. This is the most popular hike in the park, but despite this, we really didn’t encounter too many people on our way. One couple we did see were staring intently into the rocks at the base. Of course, I had to see what they were looking at, and they pointed out a beautiful and huge gopher snake! Nice spot! We also saw a number of chipmunks and robins. We took in the unique and stunning scenery and grabbed a virtual geocache while we were at it. Next, we decided to tackle the longer trail, also circling the Tower. This 2.8 mile hike took us quite a bit further afield, through prairie and forest, enjoying some incredible scenery from both high above, and down below. Often we would even lose sight of the great monolith. We came across no one on this path, save for some white tailed deer. It was gorgeous, but also hot and tiring. It was so worth it, though. Exhausted, we piled into the van and made our way east to South Dakota.
Ahhh, South Dakota! Hyla’s 14th state and Nathan’s 42nd! I was so glad to be back again and to have the opportunity to explore it with these two. The Black Hills region is just so beautiful and unique, and I was so excited to see some more of it. We drove through Spearfish (the speared fish design on the side of the elementary school was a bit disturbing, but I suppose it goes with the name), and on to Deadwood. Hyla was not happy about something and was crying profusely all the way. Once we got to our hotel, we discovered she had a very dirty diaper which miraculously didn’t smell at all, explaining why we didn’t even suspect it. But man, was it awful. Poor child. We checked into our room at the First Gold Hotel at the northern edge of Deadwood, and when we returned to the car, I discovered a tick on my seat! I’d darned near forgotten about ticks after living in NM for so long. From then on out, I was hyper sensitive to them, checking every inch for another lurker (which we never did find, thankfully). Ick, however.
After tending to the tick, we headed up to our room, which proved quite a trick. The entire hotel is strangely staggered, so we had to zigzag floors a bit to get there. Once we finally got settled, it was nearly 8, and we were pretty hungry and ready to find some dinner. We walked about 5 blocks down to the old west-themed downtown. It really was a neat place – not only was it themed, it felt like this was authentically old west, too. Many of the buildings were historic, so it really was like stepping into the past. We decided to eat at the indoor-outdoor Steakhouse Saloon. Nate had the buffalo burger, and I had the prime rib with some French onion soup that was really sour and weird, almost like vinegar. Yuck. We also tried a new (to us) beer from Crow Peak out of Spearfish: Pile O’ Dirt Porter. It was served in the can and was pretty good. We attempted to give Hyla some mashed potato, as she was still trying to transition into solids, but she was pretty upset about it.
After dinner, we walked around the town a little, marveling at all the tiny casinos with something like 15 machines apiece, residing in the relatively small historic buildings. After pacing the stretch of the main drag, we headed back to the hotel and started bringing all our things up to the room. When I went for that last trip, I returned wondering if our hotel might be haunted. While I was perusing the brochures downstairs, the tv turned on suddenly, even though no one was present. Then, the very elevator I had ridden so easily before started making horrific noises, shaking from side to side, and settling with a tremendous “BOOM” when I reached my floor. I leapt out and decided to look for the stairs next time. We got Hyla into bed with some crying, but as soon as I gave her a blankey, she was out. It was a long, busy day for a baby, but overall she did amazingly well. We were all glad to finally be settled for the night.
June 6, 2014
What a busy day!! We woke up to a cool, misty Deadwood morning and decided to start the day by visiting Kevin Costner’s Tatanka site. Originally planned to be the centerpiece of a large hotel complex, Tatanka is a commissioned bronze sculpture depicting three Lakota driving 14 bison off a cliff, a method of hunting used for generations. The hotel never came to be, but the sculpture is now a destination in and of itself. We browsed the interpretive center and then went out to see the beautiful and emotional artwork. It felt even more spiritual in the gentle chill from the fog.
From there, we headed back to the town of Deadwood where we explored a riverside trail and found two geocaches. Then we grabbed breakfast at an ice cream parlor that boasted 59 flavors. Those flavors did include mixes of soft serve, however. We decided to try these odd soft serve mixes, so Nathan had the amaretto, and I tried the lime, both of which were quite tasty. Then we went into their basement and admired their large model train setup. Hyla seemed to get a kick out of it.
Once we had enough of Deadwood, we dropped off our hotel key and headed south to Boondocks, home of South Dakota’s only roller coaster. I had called a week prior to double check the rides’ operating hours. They told me 10:30 to 6, so we timed it so we arrived around 11:30. Upon arrival, I didn’t have high hopes at all. Boondocks looked like a rundown old tourist trap, and we found ourselves questioning if it even was operating at all. It was a collection of about four storefronts: a diner, a gift shop, and what appeared to be memorabilia museums. The rides were in a heavily fenced section toward the north end of the property, and it was hard to really get a good look at anything. I was concerned that the drizzle was going to put the nix on any ride operation at all – it really didn’t look like the rides had been operational for years as it was. It looked like they were fenced away never to be used again.
I went into the gift shop to find out how to get back there. It took me forever to find an employee, and he really wasn’t all that helpful. He basically told me that the guy who runs the rides should have been there by now and probably wasn’t coming in because of the rain. He suggested waiting until noon, but it didn’t sound good. So we went over to the diner to kill some time. We each had a burger, and while there we chatted with the cook/server for a bit. Turns out he was the son of the owner, and a really nice guy, so that was good. We told him how we’d come all this way JUST to ride the coaster. He was sympathetic, but couldn’t do much. They are quite obviously understaffed, although looking at the place, it’s not likely they get much business as it is. Anyway, the burgers were pretty good, and talking with him left me with a less grumpy attitude, so there ya go. We ran back to the gift shop and talked to the other employee again. He said the ride op still hadn’t shown up and he couldn’t leave his post to run the ride (although it took me so long to find him the first time I went in there, I’m not sure leaving his post really mattered that much). Aurgh. With the flaky and lax business practices this place has, it’s a wonder they’re still open.
We hit the road again, heading south toward the national parks. Along the way, we stopped at two wineries. The first one, Prairie Berry Winery, was packed to the gills. They had a large tasting counter and quite a few staff. As soon as we walked in, a greeter noticed Hyla and gave her some oyster crackers, which was so thoughtful! Then she ushered us to a spot at the counter to do a tasting. The wines were so unique and very good! Most of their wines were not made from grapes, and despite this, they weren’t cloyingly sweet, either. They had wines made from rhubarb, chokecherry, blueberry, crab apple, buffalo berry, black currant, raspberry, and elderberry, among others. We were so intrigued! We wound up buying two bottles. Then we stopped next door at their new brewery where Nate tried their beers. After that, we drove maybe a block down the road to the Naked Winerie where we sampled their less unusual creations. They also brewed beer, so I did a wine tasting, and Nate did the beer tasting. I wasn’t that impressed with their selection, so Nathan bought a large beer from them. It was a fun time, regardless!
From there, we continued south, driving past the Crazy Horse Memorial, which Nate got to glimpse. Then we drove through Custer, but didn’t really stop. We finally made it to Wind Cave National Park around 3pm. The only remaining available cave tour was at 5, so we bought our tickets and decided to explore the park in the meantime. First we made sure to get Hyla her passport stamp. Then we drove a ways to tackle a loop trail to a lookout tower. On the way we saw quite a few bison, which was exciting! There were even some about 2000 feet from where we parked our car. I was nervous that we might encounter some on our hike, but we never did. We enjoyed some beautiful views from that trail. Sadly, the lookout tower was closed off, but we were still able to see for miles from where we were. It was lovely!
Once we’d completed the loop, we rushed to get back to the visitor center for the cave tour. It was pretty interesting! The guide told us that they named this place Wind Cave because it tends to “breathe.” When the air pressure inside the cave is higher than outside, air will escape, and when the opposite is true, air will be drawn in. The Lakota find this place quite sacred and consider it the place where they emerged from the earth, as did the bison. Wind Cave is also home to a feature known as boxwork, a rare formation of thin calcite fins that crisscross one another. Hyla took this opportunity to be very vocal, enjoying the acoustics of the cave, so we took up the rear of the group, allowing the rest of the tourists to hear better. This was Hyla’s first cave, and I think she really liked the experience. We descended 20 stories during the one and a half hour tour, and it was quite enjoyable.
Once we emerged from the cave, we hurried on our way, always with something new to do. On our way, we drove through Custer State Park and saw enormous herds of bison! They were everywhere, crossing the roads in numbers you wouldn’t believe! We also saw a lot of deer. Driving those twisty, forested roads, you really have to be careful. You never know what’s lurking around that next bend! That contributed to the fact that you really don’t make great time in the Black Hills, despite things not being all that far apart. We really wanted to make it to Mount Rushmore this evening, but it was getting dark, the fog was getting even thicker, and we were all pretty tired. We slowly twisted and turned our way to Keystone where we checked into the Super 8 and then ran over for dinner at the two story BarLee’s. We mistakenly entered on the first floor and were met with a bar. They knew we looked out of place and directed us up the stairs on the outside of the building. We were glad to finally stop and relax a bit, enjoying watching the rain through the window. The food was less than stellar. My club sandwich featured a meat that resembled bologna, the worst meat known to man. Yuck! Hyla was getting cranky, too, so we rushed through our meal. There were so many neat things we’d have loved to do in Keystone, but now was not the time. We’ll definitely have to come back when Hyla is older so we can tackle the alpine slide and mirror maze and sky ride!
We quickly made it back to our room, set off with two other rooms in a corridor, separate from the rest of the hotel. We could hear cricket frogs chorusing loudly across the street, which was really wild because it was only in the 40s outside. It was so cold that MY body was shutting down. Those frogs are troopers! I would have loved to have spotted one. We spent the rest of the evening trying to tire Hyla out and get her to sleep. She was overtired and nothing could stop her. Eventually, though, we all were able to drift off.
June 7, 2014
Another busy day! We actually slept in until 8, and that made a world of difference for all of us. Our hotel was the closest one to Mount Rushmore, so we didn’t have far to go. Once we got there, we explored the area. Unfortunately the fog was so thick that we could only sort of make out Lincoln and Washington and no one else. We toured the visitor center and made sure to get Hyla her stamp. Then we did the hike to the closer viewing area, but that really was no better. Everything was just so foggy. If nothing else, we were amused (or, rather, horrified) by some of the ignorant people out and about this day. For instance, there was this self-proclaimed 27 year-old (that I was sure was in her 50s, but I digress) who was sure that Lincoln was the 2nd president, and no one in her group thought that sounded wrong. Wow! Later she saw a sign stating otherwise, and she seemed quite surprised.
After we did the closer loop, we headed down to the artist studio where we saw smaller versions of Mount Rushmore, including the original design which featured the presidents down to their waists! We ended our tour with a hike back to the car on the peaceful nature trail where we encountered absolutely no one! Lovely!
Our next destination was Custer State Park. We parked at Sylvan Lake, a location Nathan had discovered and wanted to see because of its stunning beauty. We were met with whiteness. Nothing but whiteness. There was so much fog, you couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the water began. It was eerie and really neat, so it really wasn’t all for naught, despite what the ranger at the gate would have you think. We did sort of see some people setting up for a wedding, but you couldn’t even see the altar from the back row of chairs, the fog was that thick. (And there really weren’t THAT many rows of chairs.)
We made our way through the fog to the trailhead leading to Harney Peak, South Dakota’s highest point. It was rather difficult to be sure we had the right trail, but eventually we saw signs indicating we were on the right track. It was a lovely 3.5 mile hike up to the top. The cool weather was just perfect, balancing out the heat created from exertion very nicely. We really couldn’t see very far, but the nearby trees and fog were beautiful. Most of the hike was a gentle slope with a few more strenuous sections, but nothing too ridiculous. Hyla seemed content to ride along in her Bjorn. Eventually we made it to the Harney Peak watchtower and climbed to the top. Fog coated the entire area, so I’m not sure how spectacular it usually is, but today we had a different kind of beauty. There were just a few other people at the top, but it felt almost like we were all alone in the world up there. We explored the watchtower, tried to answer some geocache questions, and started our way back down. Unfortunately, as we started our descent, Hyla started to get extremely upset, and she cried nearly the entire way down. We hurried as best we could, after determining that food nor diaper were the issue. While the cool misty weather was great for us, it was likely that it was just too cool to make it comfortable for her tired self to sleep. We ended up leapfrogging a duo and their two dogs, and I think they were annoyed with the crying, but we did all we could. By the time we made it to the bottom she had fallen asleep, much to our relief.
Since Hyla seemed content now, we decided to do the hike around Sylvan Lake. It was just fascinating in the fog, from what we could see, and probably spectacular when you can really see it. Incredible rock formations jutted out from its depths, and you could just make out a canoer or two out on the water. We circled the whole lake, exploring shoreside rock formations on the way. We made it back to the car before too long and collapsed, exhausted but happy.
We decided to head up toward Rapid City, calling Boondocks on the way to see if maybe, just maybe that roller coaster was running. Of course it wasn’t, so we chalked that one up as a miss. Seriously, though, it was the hardest darned coaster to get a credit on. It was almost like they didn’t want business or something. Oh well. Maybe next time we’re in the area. Instead we stopped at the third and final winery, Stone Faces in Hill City, to do a tasting. We met the owners and liked their wines second best out of the three. We got a bottle of their Sturgis biker wine before heading back to the Prairie Berry Winery to do a second tasting and get a gift bottle to go.
We finally made it up to Rapid City before TOO long and stopped at their Dinosaur Park to explore and get two geocaches. Hyla enjoyed seeing the life sized dino statues that spotted the hillside park. She even got to ride on a hatchling protoceratops near the gift shop. There were only 5 dinosaurs at the park itself, and the quality of the statues left some to be desired, but it was still a fun place to check out. Being so high up you also get some neat views of the city, and you get to see some interesting houses on the drive, too, so it was definitely worth it.
For dinner, we stopped at the Firehouse Brewery in downtown Rapid City. I remember having seen it with my mom a few years back, figuring we’d probably give it a try when Nate was with. I had the pork schnitzel, and Nate had the gumbo. The beers were ok, but probably some of the lesser ones of the trip. The first one I tried, a cider, really grossed me out, probably mostly because I wasn’t expecting it to be a cider. While we were eating, some ladies were going around handing out corks as tokens for a wine tasting next door. We went ahead and did that after dinner, and again the wines weren’t that great. Still, it was fun.
At this point, we were all pretty tired, so we retreated to the Super 8 in town. Unfortunately they didn’t have extra pillows, it was decorated with clashing greens, and the internet was flaky, which was mostly annoying because we picked this place specifically for the internet. Oh well. Ignoring the shocking colors, maybe it was just the universe’s way of saying “GET SOME SLEEP!”
