roadtrip across the usa Archives - Page 3 of 6

Day 249 – Charlie Russell Country

Day 249 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Livingston, Montana

We returned to Livingston this morning to visit an old train depot, to see world famous Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop, and to find a geocache in Montana. The old depot displayed a variety of old train paraphernalia and some fantastic western paintings and black and white frontier photographs. I just window shopped at Dan Bailey’s. It
was full of flies and rods and a variety of other fly fishing gear. The visitor’s center was a nice place for a geocache. I have now found a cache in 46 of the lower 48 states. Two more to go…then I’ll have to make a trip to Hawaii and Alaska.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 245 – Beartooth Country

Day 245 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Beartooth Highway

We spent most of today traveling across Beartooth Highway, a 68-mile stretch of road that opened in 1936 which zig-zags through Rock Creek Canyon and climbs over almost an 11,000 foot pass, making it one of the world’s highest. As one would expect, the views were spectacular, as evidenced by our first stop at Rock Creek Vista Point, 9,190 feet in elevation.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 244 – Cody Country (Part 2)

Day 244 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Crook County Museum and Art Gallery

So I camped with the truckers last night at the Conoco…another first! By the time I got up and going, most of them had left and only the two other camper folks
remained. Before I left the tiny town for Cody Country, I stopped off at the Crook County Museum and Art Gallery to see the exhibit on the Sundance Kid.

First, this town was so small, I would have never thought it would have a museum, let alone worthy of a visit (my Reader’s Digest Scenic Drives of America helped with that). Second, I found it humorous that it took me three tries to find the place! I saw a giant sign on an old high school building mentioning the museum, but then I realized it said, “Future Home of the museum which is currently housed in the Court House”. So I proceed to drive around the three blocks looking for the Court House thinking it would be an old, ornate building from 1915 like the bank.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 243 – Crazy Horse and the Black Hills (Part 3)

Day 243 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

I started the morning at Crazy Horse Memorial. The parking fee gets visitors into the grounds and the museum, but getting closer to the incomplete monument requires a bus ride for an additional free. I’m not much of a tour bus rider, so I skipped that part. If the monument were all I wished to see, I probably could have just snapped a photo from the highway and carried on. But I also checked out the museum and learned all sorts of interesting the facts.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 242 – Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills

Day 242 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Another great day in South Dakota! I have been pleasantly surprised. I expected mostly flatland and prairie like Nebraska and North Dakota, but the Black Hills resemble the foot hills in Colorado. We climbed through the pines to a towering granite outcropping carved with four presidential faces…Mount Rushmore!

Mount Rushmore

The national memorial pays tribute to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. Each face is sixty feet tall from brow to chin and the each eye is eleven feet wide. It took 400 workers 14 years to carve the monument with dynamite and jackhammers, and it cost just under one million dollars to complete.

The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, envisioned carving the presidents to their waist. But with his death in 1941 and our nations involvement in World War II, his son who had accompanied him on the project declared it finished.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 241 – Badlands National Park and Black Hills

Day 241 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

The Badlands National Park

I don’t think I can describe the badlands any differently than I did yesterday. Rock formations of clay and ash protrude from the prairie land and encompass rich fossil beds from the time that has become to be known as the golden age of mammals. I spent the morning walking a handful of trails under intense sun. The boardwalk
on The Door Trail and The Window Trail led directly into the rising sun. I suspect the light would have been better had I walked them at sunset last night…oh well, the bands of colors were still noticeable.

In addition to taking the boardwalk trails, I also took The Notch Trail which passed over the rough terrain. The loose rock crunched under my feet as I followed the path to a log ladder that rose to a ledge which weaved its way around the spires. The hike provided close up views of fossilized remains and ended overlooking the White River Valley.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 239 – Platte River Road

Day 239 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Today’s scenic drive on the Platte River Road led me to a variety of rock formations. Given rocks fascinate me, I was pleasantly surprised with the western portion of Nebraska. I probably drove close to 150 miles before I made my first stop. Sometimes I like that, as I can zone out and listen to music or to books on CD…Stephen King’s The Dome is the current choice. Not surprisingly, it is weird.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 238 – Nebraska Heartland

Day 238 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Broken Bow

This morning we left Grand Island and headed northwest up Highway 2 in gusting winds through corn fields and farmland to Broken Bow, so named for a broken Indian bow found nearby. The winds are so strong in this area that trees are planted along the highways as windbreaks. The Broken Bow area came to be known as the Sod House Frontier, as when settlers first moved to the nearly treeless area, they built their homes, corals, pig pens, churches and school out of sod. Today the town is
small and modernized, relatively speaking. We stopped near the courthouse to snatch a cache…Nebraska checked off the list!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 237 – Travel Day

Day 237 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Well, I intended on doing some sight seeing today before heading west to Valentine, Nebraska, but I ended up slightly challenged in Sioux City. First, I expected a city of 80,000 to have a Firestone, and I needed an oil change in the next 500 miles to keep my warranty. No Firestones here, so I had to adjust my route.

I still planned on making it to Nebraska, but my final destination for the evening changed to Grand Island with a pit stop in Omaha. Of course, this required me to travel south along the flooded Missouri River which resulted in the main Interstate (I-29) being closed in several areas and sandbagged in others…DETOUR. I wasn’t really aware of the devastation. The flooding here is very bad. While I was able to stop at one overlook in Stone State Park, the other places I tried to visit in Sioux City were under water.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 236 – Loess Hills Scenic Byway

Day 236 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Well, I considered driving an extra 155 miles to Hamburg, IA last night so I could start off my day exploring Waubonsie State Park while it was slightly cool. I’m so glad I didn’t do that for two reasons.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!