Medicine Bow Adventure

My cousin's girlfriend recently visited Wyoming, so I spent quite a bit of time with her while he was working. We had some awesome, random adventures. Medicine Bow National Forest was on my list of places I wanted to visit, so we planned to visit and make a day of it. This was in June (I'm behind on my posts, sorry), and it was plenty warm. I checked out the Medicine Bow website, and looked up some trails. I decided we were going to try to get to Medicine Bow Peak. According to a handy website I found called Just Trails (http://www.justtrails.com/trails/medicine-bow-peak-trail/), it said it was open year-round, but for the easiest hiking it advised to wait for July or August. Well, it was June. Close enough, right?

Wrong.

We were both dressed for warm weather, so when we started up the pass and started seeing snow, I was surprised. I suppose I shouldn't have been. After all, the peak itself goes up to just over 12,000 feet, the highest in that particular mountain range, and the road takes you only a thousand feet or so from the top. But, as people from Indiana, this did not occur to either of us. I made the plans, though, so I'll take full credit. However, it was still awesome. There was thick fog or most of the trip, but we got to see an elk and some alpine lakes. And let's not forget the trees. Everything combined for some awesome pictures. When we finally reached where the turnoff for parking to hike the trail was supposed to be, I only knew it was there because of the GPS. It was covered in at least 10 feet of snow. Next time I'll listen when the website says to wait til mid summer.

When we were stopped taking pictures of a beautiful lake and trying not to freeze our asses off, a couple stopped for pictures and told us about a town called Saratoga that was several miles through the pass. They mentioned hot springs and shops, so we charted a course for Saratoga. On the way, we stopped for a great photo opportunity of the mountain stream on the left. It surprised me how rugged some of these plants were to survive when it's cold for most of the year. But here you go: wildflowers thriving alongside a nearly-frozen stream of snow melt.

Saratoga, Wyoming, is a tiny little tourist town with some unique little shops and the hot springs, which were free to get into. As far as I could see, it consisted of two small "swimming pools" where the hot springs bubble up. There are locker rooms and benches, like a regular pool. Unlike a regular pool, it smelled like rotten eggs. That would be the sulfur. But the water is supposed to be good for you, full of minerals. Neither of us knew we were going to end up at hot springs, so we didn't bring a swimsuit. We just sat with our legs in the scalding water. The locals that kept coming in wouldn't get in. They said it was unusually hot. My red legs agreed with them.

Saratoga, WY, hot springs

We drove back the way we came, and the fog had cleared quite a bit, which made for some more good photo opportunities.

Devil's Tower

Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I finally got internet and have been basically binge-watching Supernatural for days now. But I need to be a responsible blogger and let you know where I've been!

My next trip after South Dakota was to visit Devil's Tower. I was planning on doing it all on the same weekend, but I wore myself out. It's about a 3 hour drive or so from Torrington, and it's not an exciting drive, either. It's mostly through desert-like flatlands, which I'm starting to get used to.

When I finally saw Devil's Tower, it was even more impressive than I imagined, which is saying something. I've seen it in so many movies (mostly to do with aliens), and it's such an odd geological formation that it definitely was on my bucket list of places to visit! I was super excited to see it, and I was not disappointed at all. So glad I made the trip up there!

Admission was around $10 or so to the national monument, but if you're planning on visiting many national parks, I would just go ahead and get the national parks year pass for $80. If I'd have gotten it sooner, it would have paid for itself already. Some parks can get pretty expensive, so it's well worth it.

Devil's Tower has lots of campgrounds, a museum and visitor's center, interpretive talks, and a path around the tower that's about 2 miles. There were also people climbing the tower when I was there. I'm not sure if that's something you have to go through the park to do or if it is a private operation, or both. Either way, I know you can do it because there were people halfway up when I got there. I've done some rock climbing in the gym, but you can count me out on something as challenging as Devil's Tower.

One thing to keep in mind is that there isn't much to do in the immediate vicinity of the tower. You could always drive over into South Dakota and check out Deadwood, or up into Montana. If you're a fisherman, Keyhole Reservoir is nearby, but it isn't much to look at so I wouldn't recommend it for scenery. Awesome boating and
fishing I hear, though. Basically, I would plan on either spending the entire time at the tower or making a lengthy drive to see the surrounding area. Deadwood and the Black Hills are definitely worth the drive, but it depends on how much time you are willing to spend in the car.

The hike around the tower was amazing. Every view was impressive. The tower itself was once the core of a volcano that cooled and hardened. The surrounding sediments eroded, leaving the more durable core intact. As always, this is just a short version of the huge amount of information about the tower. Check out their website for more detailed info, and correct me if I'm wrong! I could go on about how awesome it was, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

A Day on the South Dakota Plains

…continued from “A Night in the Black Hills.”

When I woke up, I was a little wet from rain/condensation in the tent, but it could have been much worse, all things considered. I took some sunrise pictures over Horsethief Lake, packed up camp, and headed toward Rapid City.

I ate a cheap breakfast then stopped at the Main Street Square / Downtown area of Rapid City. It as a little early for some businesses, but I’d heard of a shop called Prairie’s Edge Trading Co. This was a “look, don’t touch” place for me. There were no signs saying not to pick anything up, but I didn’t want to chance it. Everything was expensive but, as far as I could tell, authentic. They work with local Native American artists to sell artwork: everything from beaded pieces to pottery to carved wooden flutes. There were three floors that included just about everything you could want: fine art, supplies (beads, leathers, etc.), a Victorian bead collection with every shape and color of the rainbow, and much more. I recommend stopping here whether you plan on buying or not. It is worth a look. I wondered into a few other random stores, then looked for a place called Art Alley that I’d heard of on Trip Advisor. When I found it, I immediately felt at home. I love and appreciate art of all kinds, but this was graffiti. Definitely my kind of scene.

 

Every square inch of this alley is covered in graffiti that ranges from basic words to detailed portraits. It made for some great pictures, edited and unedited. The next shop I wondered into, the Jaded Gypsy, had art as well. The owner rents out display space to local artists of all kinds, resulting in an eclectic mix of just about everything from jewelry to graphic design. She saw my camera around my neck and mentioned renting out space. I may have to look into it. I have a lot of Indiana pictures, something she didn’t have any of.

I was anxious to move on to my next destination: Badlands National Park. It is yet another place I’ve always heard of and wanted to go. It was a dream come true to see it first-hand. It was a bit of a drive from Rapid City (1 hour or so out into the plains). I went in the entrance near Wall, SD. If I were to do it again, I would go through the opposite way, coming out near Wall just because I feel like I started with the “Grand Finale.” The whole place was amazing, but I just feel like I went backwards. Seeing as how I finished near the gift shop, I think my guess is on the money with that. Going in, I was met with signs warning me not to mess with the prairie dogs because they have plague (Black Plague). So that was encouraging. I was also $10 or $15 to get in. Next national park I go to, I’m buying a season pass for $80. I don’t think I should have to since I pay taxes, but that’s a whole other matter. I’m buying the dang season pass. So I shelled out the entry money and left with my map. Like I said, I started with the “Grand Finale,” so to speak. It was a view of the entire Badlands for as far as I could see. I took several National Geographic-worth (if I do say so myself) panoramas from the top. I also watched some college-aged guy almost fall to his death trying to climb out on one of the formations. I think he shows up in the corner of one of my pictures, just after he fell and almost slid off.

The drive took an hour or two and had multiple viewing platforms to enjoy the scenery. It was the perfect day for it. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves on how beautiful it was. I’ll just let you know that this, like the Grand Canyon, is a massive structure formed over thousands of years by erosion.  You can see all the different geologic layers in the pictures (red and tan layers that show in the rock). The prairie dogs had plague, so I didn’t go cuddle up to them or roll around in their “towns” (prairie dog cities), but last time I heard, plague couldn’t be transmitted by taking pictures, so I did plenty of that. The prairie dogs made it easy on me by building their towns right up to the road. Some were only five feet off the pavement. So I never even had to go off the comfort of the pavement to get some good pictures. I’ve also been informed since then that rattlesnakes like to hide next to the prairie dog towns. Easy meals. So I’m glad I stayed on the pavement.

I stopped almost every chance I got and took several great panoramas and pictures. It was desolate, barren, and intimidating. I definitely wouldn’t want to have to try to survive there. It is well-deserving of its name.

On the way to the Badlands, I’d seen more signs than I could count advertising Wall Drug. I saw just as many on my way back, so I decided to stop there. I bought some fudge, a crappy root beer float, and a nifty little fake but colorful rock. This was one stop that I made out of sheer curiosity. I guess you can say that advertising definitely worked in this case, but it’s not something I would recommend. It is overly touristy. The fudge was okay, but nothing to go out of the way for. It was neat inside because of the set up. You walk into a covered alley that has various stores specializing in different things branching off the alley. Overall, I’d say my money and time would have been better spent elsewhere.

In the beginning, the plan was to see Rapid City, Badlands National Park, and Deadwood (yes, actual Deadwood from TV and history). I was going to camp out near Deadwood, then go to Devil’s Tower the next day before heading back to Torrington. Well, I made it to Deadwood, but only stopped long enough to get cash back at a store in preparation for camping. It was already getting late, and it was cold and rainy. I 100% DID NOT feel like setting up camp and sleeping out in the cold and rain. So I plotted a route through the Black Hills back to Torrington. I’ll save Deadwood and Devil’s Tower for another day. I was happy with my return route, though. It took me through Lead and Four Corners and the Black Hills. I saw a herd of elk and stopped for a quick picture. The wonderful thing about it being so unpopulated out here is that you can pretty much just stop wherever you want on the road for a photo op. Of course, I always make sure it’s a safe spot. I’m not going to stop on a curve on a mountain, but I’ll stop on a straight stretch for sure.

So I made it home late and stayed in my nice, warm bed. Then spent Friday doing things that needed done and trying to plan for visitors!

A Night in the Black Hills

I have a list of states that I’ve visited (“Drive Through” and “Destination” states). That list has grown by five states in less than a month. My latest addition on my “weekend” off of work was South Dakota. Seeing Mount Rushmore is just one of those American things I felt I had to do in my lifetime, and since I now have a season parking pass, I will only get more American as the summer goes on (I plan to reuse the parking pass as many times as they'll let me). I stopped at a rest area that had this sign in the bathroom stall. Don't kid yourself, Wyoming. It's an indoor outhouse...

 

 

The first stop on my agenda was Crazy Horse in the Black Hills, which was about 3 to 3.5 hours driving time from Torrington, WY. Crazy Horse is ran by a private foundation including the family of the original sculpture Ziolkowski. Check it out online for the full history. Basically, it was commissioned by the Native Americans of the Black Hills because the Americans had Mount Rushmore, so they wanted a monument to one of their great chiefs: Crazy Horse. The monument started with one man, a generator, and some tools. It is still a work in progress and is already much bigger than Mount Rushmore. It was started in 1940, and there is still a lot of work to be done on it. It will be awesome to revisit it in the future, take pictures, and compare the progress they've made. But Crazy Horse. Though a little expensive, it was a great trip and I recommend it. I would definitely suggest setting aside a large portion of your day to see everything. That was my mistake. This was my first encounter with horsehair pottery, which I’ve fallen in love with and will buy at some point during my adventures (I didn't budget for it).

I’m here to tell you about how awesome it was. If I go back, I plan on taking a trip up to stand face to face with Crazy Horse. This time, I just hadn’t budgeted the time or money for it. They have an extensive museum with various collections of Native American artifacts, a 30 minute-ish film on the history, food, gift shop, and a viewing platform with a scaled model of the finished Crazy Horse monument. It was $11 to get in, which I thought was kind of expensive and does not include the trip up to see

Hill City, SD

ext stop was Hill City, SD, which is a cute little touristy town near Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. A family friend told me I had to stop and eat at the Alpine Inn, a German restaurant that advertised “fine European dining” on the door. Had I known this, I would have opted for a slightly less sweaty t-shirt (I don’t dress up for anything except job interviews, weddings, and funerals; fine European dining does not qualify for “dressy”). Turns out, the food was very affordable. I got the Cattleman special: beef tips, grilled onions, and cheese in the form of a sandwich with a French dip to go with it and a side of German potato salad. I don’t even like potato salad, but theirs was delicious. While I was eating, every customer I heard talking was going on about how their bread pudding was the best they’d ever had. One bragged that he’d had bread pudding in New York City, and this was much better. Another asked if they could ship it to North Dakota. I was trying to eat on a budget, but I had to try this bread pudding. I was not disappointed. I can’t say I’m a bread pudding expert, but this was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. For the whole meal and tip, I paid $22, the most I spent on food the entire trip.

I spotted a rock shop across the road, so of course I had to go in there. I wondered into a few shops and learned that there is going to be a bike rally near there. One million bikers are expected to attend. I think I’ll avoid the area around that time.

Next was Mount Rushmore. This may sound unpatriotic of me, but I was actually kind of disappointed after seeing Crazy Horse. Maybe it was because Mount Rushmore is one of the most famous national landmarks and has been in so many movies. I had this image in my head of a gigantic thing where each face was the height of a mountain, kind of like Crazy Horse. So when I drove up and caught a glimpse of these four small (compared to my imagination) faces carved into a mountain, I was kind of let down, to be honest. I was further discouraged when I had to pay $11 for a season parking pass when I was only going to be there for the afternoon. I debated about not paying it, but was ultimately glad that I did. It was much more impressive up close, and I was able to hike halfway up the mountain and stand right underneath it. Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln are absolutely huge. I don’t want to take away from how awesome of an accomplishment and what an amazing engineering feat it is. The only way I can justify or explain my feelings is like this: imagine you are a HUGE Kim Kardashian fan (I’m not, but I need an example).

So you’re the biggest Kim Kardashian fan alive. You think she’s beautiful and smart and sexy and super tan and in shape. Larger than life. And then you see her in person. And she’s a jerk. She’s kind of pale, and doesn’t look at all like her Photoshopped pictures. I’ve never had that happen, but that’s how imagine it would feel. I had this image in my head of this gigantic structure that fills your whole frame of view, and I show up only to find that everyone Photoshopped out the bottom half of the mountain and made them look a lot bigger. But, like I said, I was more impressed the longer I stood admiring it. And I only had to yell at one little brat of a child. There is a viewing platform that hangs over an amphitheater. I’m not good at judging distances, but I would say it’s a 40 or 50 foot drop. When I walked up there was a kid that had climbed up onto the concrete portion and had one leg over the metal railing, but he stopped when I walked up. But he came back, and this time he managed to get both legs over the railing and was shouting, “I’m not gonna die! Na-na-na-na!” I realized that his parent(s) was nowhere to be found, so I yelled, “Get your ass down from there!” He rolled his eyes at me but muttered, “Fine.” My work done, I headed off to the path up the mountain. I’m glad I took the time to hike up the mountain and relax for a bit underneath the giant faces. It really helped me appreciate just how huge they are. And huge or not, they are American, and I felt a little more patriotic after being there. Now that I have a season parking pass (there was no day pass, weird), I’ll probably try to catch an event there or something. I would like to see the fireworks there around the Fourth of July. Because there’s only one thing more American than Mount Rushmore, and that’s Mount Rushmore with colorful explosives going off in the background.

My next dilemma was finding somewhere to stay for the night. Since I plan on travelling quite a bit, I won’t be expecting to stay in hotels every time I go on an adventure, so I had to find a campground. I wanted cheap, but there’s a problem with that: cheaper = more remote. Paranoid, overly cautious person that I am, I wanted somewhere popular with lots of families and civilization near me. I know I could have found a campground for $10-15, maybe even cheaper, but I opted for Horsethief Lake Campground a couple of miles from Mount Rushmore for $24. I got there just before it started filling up for the night. It is definitely popular, and the view couldn’t be beat. My tent-building skills, however, leave a lot to be desired. I definitely need some practice. I camped next to a friendly German family and an outhouse so I didn't have to stumble too far to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Couldn’t be better. I’d rather pay a little more and get a better night’s rest than go cheap and not be able to sleep because I’m creeped out. I also discovered that my tent set-up skills need some work. For the life of me, I could not make the center stay flat. It kept drooping. Oh well, it kept the rain off me, and I'll get plenty of practice since I can't spend money on hotels. My conscience won't allow it.

 

After I set up camp, I left my tent and went on a scenic drive through Black Hills National Forest and possibly Custer State Park (I’m still not clear on if I ever went into the state park; I kept passing signs for it). It was absolutely beautiful. The road goes up in corkscrews and through one-way tunnels at points, so while the mileage isn’t anything crazy, it still takes a while. The views were awesome, and there was plenty of wildlife. I got some great pictures of some deer I walked up to. I got about 40 feet away when they got nervous and left. I saw a bison and stopped the car, but I left it in drive and didn’t get out because they aren’t quite as cute and cuddly as deer. And this was a bull: even more dangerous.

I went back and stayed at the camp for the rest of the night. I’ve found that overnight trips are where I really get some of my best pictures. I don’t feel pressured to rush through, and I can catch the sun going down and coming up. I was also away from any serious light pollution, and I had the whole night to play with my camera. I’m on a mission to get great pictures of the moon. As I get more familiar with the proper settings and spend more time trying, I improve. And, for the first time ever, I managed to get some pictures that showed the stars. I’ve been trying to figure that one out for a while. My camera tripod and the darkness that can only be found in the middle of nowhere made it all possible. I also took a few long-exposure shots of cars crossing the bridge across the water. For those of you who don’t know, long exposure shots mean that your camera lens stays open longer. This means that it lets in more light and captures a greater time period than a quick snapshot. You use a longer exposure when you are either shooting in a low-light setting or want to show movement (or both in the case of the cars on the bridge). I’m not a camera expert by any means. Everything I know is self-taught from playing around with the settings and reading the occasional manual or photography article. If I ever get spare money and time, I’ll take a photography class. I should have long before now, but I haven’t. So it’s on my to do list.

The bad news it, my tent has a condensation problem, and it rained overnight. Combine that with my poor tent set-up skills, and I woke up slightly wet. It could have been much worse, though. I’ll set up better and remember my pillow next time. That will fix most of it. What I can’t fix, is the chipmunk overpopulation that is going on around Horsethief Lake. I was kept up a lot that night by chipmunk territory dispute. I know that’s what they were because I would wake up to two distinct chipmunk’s chattering at each other, then scuffling, then one making a pitiful, wounded noise.

Well, this concludes part one of my South Dakota adventure. I feel like this is enough reading material for one blog, so I’ll continue my next entry with my adventure out from the Black Hills into the plains, including Rapid City and Badlands National Park.