I Took My Kids to Sturgis

Sort of....but more on that later. Actually, our next stop was Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. Carved between 1927 and 1941, Mount Rushmore was never actually completed. The artists original plans called for President Washington's coat to be carved almost to his waist, Roosevelt's chest to be carved also, and only a few of President Lincoln's fingers were completed. Carving ended with the death of the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, and the beginning of WWII. Borglum's plans also included plans for a Hall of Records, a giant granite room behind Lincoln's head that would have inscriptions carved into the walls and house historic and relevant documents relating to the history of the US. This also was never completed and the general public does not have access to this space.

Originally proposed as a way of bringing tourists to South Dakota's Black Hills, Mount Rushmore now includes an avenue of flags, visitors center and artist studio where Borglum did most of his sculpting and design work. The studio also has a scale model of what Borglum envisioned the completed carving to be and offers the best view of the sculpture on the mountain. We enjoyed a ranger led walk along the Presidents Trail which takes you as close to the mountain as you are now allowed to go and also down to Borglum's last studio. It is a beautiful hike and also fascinating to see how the expressions on the faces of the Presidents change as the sun moves across and the mountain is viewed from different angles.

Here's a fun fact about Mount Rushmore, Thomas Jefferson was originally to the left of George Washington as you face the mountain. As carving progressed it was discovered that there was insufficient rock in that part of the mountain to complete the face and also a crack in the mountain running across Jefferson's nose. So, he was blasted off and moved to the other side.

Compared to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse is huge. Unlike Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument continues to be a work in progress and when completed will be the world's largest mountain carving. Begun in 1948 when Chief Standing Bear of the Lakota Tribe invited Korczak Ziolkowski, a well known sculptor who had worked on Mount Rushmore, to return to the Black Hills and carve a monument that would honor the North American Indian People. To date, Crazy Horse continues to be a private monument and has never accepted any government support. It is funded on entry fees, gift shop revenues and private donations. Ziolkowski passed away in 1982, but 7 of his 10 children continue to work on various aspects of the project and his wife Ruth runs the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation.

When completed Crazy Horse will stand 563 feet tall and 641 feet wide. The monument will be visible from all sides of the mountain and the entire project includes extensive plans for museums, cultural centers and educational institutions with a scholarship program for Native Americans. Most of the carving is done by blasting away huge chunks of the mountain. Crazy Horses face is finished, and they are currently working on his hand and beginning work on the horses head. Carving on the hand and fingers is projected to be completed in the next 5 years. The horses head could take the next 15 - 20 years.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Museum which houses many works of Native American art and artifacts as well as a childrens area and a beautifully painted tipi. The buildings that house the visitors center and museum are built from the stone that has been blasted off the mountain and there is a section dedicated to the Ziolkowski Family and how they lived when they first came to the Black Hills to carve the monument. At one point, visitors could walk up the mountain and out onto Crazy Horses arm, but as blasting has progressed that area has been closed to visitors. There is a bus tour available that takes tourists fairly close to the base of the mountain.

A quick note about planning a trip like this. If your going to be spending a couple of days in one area, take a quick peek at the local chamber of commerce website to see if there may be any festivals or other big summer events occurring during your stay. We didn't do that, and as we had made campground reservations well in advance with no problem, were surprised when we arrived in the Black Hills on the first day of the 2012 SturgisMotorcycle Rally. In Custer City, we were greeted by General Custer on the sidewalk waving to incoming tourists and a main road with a row of motorcycles parked down the center. Our campground was in Hill City South Dakota and by or first full day there the main street was closed to all traffic except motorcycles. I have never seen so many motorcycles before in my life! They were parked solidly along both sides of the road with a double row parked down the middle. In all honesty though, it ended up being a very neat experience. The bikes are beautiful, and no two are exactly alike. We walked the main street in Hill City one evening, and stopped in the Harley Davidson shop where the boys each picked out a t-shirt. We met a lot of really nice people at the campground and in town and other than a few traffic challenges had a really great time!

   

Thoughts

As our trip winds down and I begin to reflect on the whole process I have some thoughts about this whole adventure...in no particular order:

1. Oklahoma is really windy. But as windy as it is, Oklahoma has nothing on Wyoming and South Dakota. I thought we were going to be blown right into Canada while driving through both Wyoming and South Dakota.
2. I could write an entire book just on the goofy signs and billboards we've seen along the way. From ½ price divorce lawyers in Vegas, signs cautioning against allowing your children to eat wild animal feces while in the park (yes, we have seen more than one) to bathroom signs reminding you not to dye your hair (Vegas), wash your dog (California), wash your bike (Wyoming), or clean any rocks ( South Dakota), they have all been entertaining! We even saw a sign in South Dakota, in desperate need of some punctuation, advertising an “All you can eat biker breakfast.” I hope not too many bikers were devoured in the name of a healthy start to the day!
3. People in the western part of the US take their jerky products very seriously. We went through grocery stores with entire isles devoted to the process of purchasing, enjoying and even making your own jerky. In fact at the grocery store in Tusayan, Arizona I could only buy milk in 1 pint bottles. I could, however, purchase beef jerky in obscene quantities. We also found packages of not just beef jerky, but also deer, bison, elk and antelope jerky.
4. There are absolutely no straight or level roads in Oregon or Wyoming. We actually drove up the side of a mountain in Wyoming on a road that wasn't finished yet. That was a long day...
5. 200 square feet is not a lot of room for 5 people and all their souvenirs.
6. There are wineries in almost every state in the US.
7. You can find helpful, friendly, interesting people everywhere!
8. My kids go through a gallon of milk and a half gallon of orange juice a day. RV refrigerators will only hold 1 gallon of milk and ½ gallon of juice. Not every small town has its own grocery store.
9. The National Park Service is an amazing organization.
10. The earth is fragile. We have seen evidence of forest fires in almost every National Park we have visited. We watched grass fires start in New Mexico and witnessed the local fire department scramble to put them out. We've had our plans altered by active forest fires in Utah and danced on the sidewalk with park employees in the Grand Canyon when it rained for the first time in over 10 months. It has been an extremely dry summer everywhere and we have been reminded at every campground that no campfires or charcoal grills are allowed. There are signs along the side of the road from Oregon to Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota reminding drivers not to throw cigarette buts out their car windows as the grass is so dry it will go up in flames immediately. The National Park Service message is one of conservation and kindness to the earth and I hope that this trip has taught my children to honor the lessons the park rangers share with visitors every day.

Yellowstone National Park

I took over 200 pictures in YellowstoneNational Park. The husband and the boys took almost as many. We spent several days here and in Grand Teton National Park as there is so much to see and do. The wildlife in both parks is spectacular, as are the lakes, mountains and rivers. With seemingly endless hiking trails, bike trails, rivers and lakes for fishing, ranger programs and scenic drives we left feeling like we could have spent a few more days, and are already planning our next trip back.

We headed into Yellowstone from the west toward Old Faithful. The road in leads you through several active geyser basins and we stopped to take a walk through and enjoy them on our way. Most of Yellowstone, like Crater Lake, sits in the caldera of a collapsed volcano. With large magma fields still under ground heating water just under the surface, Yellowstone is home to more than half of the worlds geysers and hot springs.

We reached the Old Faithful Visitors Center just before lunch and had time to visit the museum and grab the cooler full of sandwiches before heading outside. Named for its predictability, Old Faithful goes off regularly every 60 to 90 minutes. Times of all of the more predictable geysers are posted in the visitors center and we found them to be very accurate, never waiting much more than 15 minutes at any of these geysers. Old Faithful is spectacular, and I took a series of pictures as we enjoyed the view.

We spent the afternoon exploring and hiking in the black sand basin, where the sand is...white. Through the ranger program we attended we learned that the basin got its name from the black sand geyser about a mile to the east where the sand is, in fact, black. The colors in the geyser pools are amazing, ranging from brilliant blue water, the result of silica deposits eroded into the water, to vibrant orange and yellow from the tiny bacteria that live and thrive in the warm pools of the hot springs.

I know I've said it before, but really, the ranger programs in the National Parks are excellent. Filled with geology, history and current events, we have most enjoyed the ranger led hikes through various parts of the parks. For example, one of the geysers in black sand basin is named Handkerchief Geyser because in the early days of the park visitors would drop their handkerchief into the geyser where it would be sucked under, battered around, and spit back out, sometimes clean, sometimes shredded, through another nearby geyser. Ranger Landis soon became the little dudes new best friend and spent a ton of time answering questions and letting the boys measure the temperature of the water.

Yellowstone is also known for its wildlife viewing opportunities, and sure enough, we saw a bison just hanging out on the side of the road on our way into the park. Home to mule deer, coyotes, wolves elk, bears, moose, bighorn sheep, pelicans, ospreys and pronghorn, the best place for wildlife viewing happens to be in Hayden Valley, just to the north of our camp ground. There were also several hikes to geyser basins and mud pots that we wanted to do, so off we went. Herds of bison can be found around every turn, but we also saw elk, mule deer, osprey, pronghorn and a wolf. The middle child is our resident wildlife photographer, so many of the pictures are his. He did a great job!

The Park Rangers are all very knowledgeable about wildlife and the park newspaper comes with an insert, on bright yellow paper, with a wildlife warning stating among other things that “Many park visitors have been gored by buffalo and elk.” All the park rangers carry big cans of bear spray and when we asked about the best locations for wildlife viewing the rangers told us “all the bears are in Pelican Valley,” I could have enjoyed my vacation just fine without seeing a grizzly up close but guess what else was right in the middle of Pelican Valley? Fishing Bridge RV Park, which only allows hard sided camping vehicles (a.k.a. “bear resistant containers”) and where we had a campground reservation. So, bear bells in hand, we parked our bear resistant container at our camp sight, heeded the warnings from the ranger that checked us in and the signs that greeted us, and rang our bells furiously every time we dashed to the lavatory.

Seriously though, Fishing Bridge was a really nice camp ground. We could walk (with our bells!) to a general store that also had a little cafe where we had breakfast one morning. There was also a really nice visitors center with an amphitheater with nightly ranger programs and a beautiful black sand beach on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. The boys were able to swim and fish each evening after a long day of hiking. Cut Throat Trout are native to Yellowstone Lake and must be released if caught. However, Lake Trout are a tasty but invasive species and if caught, may not be returned to the water, but may be taken to the Old Faithful Inn where they will cook it for you to enjoy. Sadly, the men in my life did not come through on this one and we ended up poaching some salmon that I bought at the store instead.

Adjacent to Yellowstone to the south lies Grand Teton National Park. We decided to leave the bear resistant container, hop in the rental car and spend a day checking it out. Yellowstone, with its geysers and hot springs, is all about the geology of the region. Grand Teton is where people go to play! With extensive bike trails and hiking paths, marinas and boating and gorgeous glacier topped mountains to view there are endless amounts of things to do.

We spent the day hiking to Jenny Lake and checking out the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve. Featuring a Leed platinum certified visitors center and miles of hiking trails through grasslands, forest, around lakes and streams, it was a beautiful hike.

I could go back tomorrow and easily spend another week in each park. We had a great time and really didn't want to leave. The Continental Divide runs right through Yellowstone, and we crossed it several dozen times during our stay. Very cool!

  

The Kindness of Strangers

We met some really nice people today.  Quite by accident, but luckily for us, when things went wrong we were in the right place.  We blew a tire on I 90 this afternoon on the Minnesota Wisconsin border, and left some debris behind.  No body was hurt and we were back on our way within just a few hours thanks to the kindness of some wonderful strangers.

The defecation hit the ocillation around 1 p.m. about 5 miles from La Crosse Wisconsin.  Now, I've had flat tires in cars plenty of times before, even blown out tires on the freeway, but was not quite prepared for the sound an exploding rv tire makes when it goes.  It's loud, and unfortunately did some damage to the rv when it went.  The passenger side inside rear tire blew, then proceeded to knock a pretty good size hole in the underside of the rv right above the tire.  The rv cabin where we were sitting filled with dust and bits of insulation as it blew through the vents of the furnace and generator.

One call to AAA and they were able to figure out exactly where we were and send out a tow truck, which we thankfully ended up not needing.  Joe, from Ed's Towing and Repair, showed up and was able to get the blown tire off and the spare on so we could drive into La Crosse.  He then called ahead and found us a garage with the right size tires and had us follow him right in.  Dale Molnar, the manager of GCR Tire Center in La Crosse had us in and out with 4 new rear tires in just over an hour.  A mechanic in his garage gave us a great tip on an ice cream shop we could walk to and Dale made popcorn for the boys when we got back and still had a bit of a wait for them to finish up.

Since I'm a "glass half full" kind of person, I think we've been pretty lucky.  We've driven through parts of the country where we didn't pass a gas station or even another car for 100 miles or more.  Had this happened there, we might have had a very different day.  The tire most likely took out the furnace when it blew, but that didn't work anyway.  Had it been the tire on the other side of the rv it likely would have taken out a holding tank and the house electrical system.  It did slice the electical wire connecting the sensor in the gas tank to the guage on the dashboard, so now we have to be careful and fill up every 150 miles or so until we can get that fixed, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

We crossed back over the Mississippi River today, so I guess we are officially "back east," and we'll be home in 11 days.  We're spending a couple days in Wisconsin Dells before heading to Oshkosh.  After that it's back to Ohio and on to Pennsylvania to visit some family, a jaunt to Gettysburg to meet up with the boy scouts then home.  It's been a great ride!

Finally, one more great sign, from downtown La Crosse as we walked to the ice cream parlor.  This one made my day, Mmmmmm...beer!

     

Crater Lake Oregon

Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon is part of the Cascade Range of mountains formed through years of volcanic activity. It is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen, with crystal clear blue water reaching depths of nearly 2000 feet.

Formed when Mount Mazama, an active volcano, collapsed during a huge eruption 700,000 years ago, the lake is in the caldera and filled with rain and snow melt. The area receives between 500 and 600 inches of snow a year and we were able to still see many snowy patches of the sides of trails and on the sides of the caldera as we hiked. The boys even had a brief snowball fight while we hiked!

Before heading out for a couple of hikes, we attended a couple of Ranger Programs, learning that the whole area is still an active volcano. Wizard Island, a mountain rising out of the lake, is part of a chain of smaller, still active volcanoes. We were reminded that while they have not erupted recently, they are constantly monitored and could potentially erupt at any time, although there has been no activity for many years. The boys were a little disappointed that no volcanoes erupted during our visit.

The rim trail was a beautiful hike with gorgeous views from most every spot. The sides of the caldera are smooth in some places, and rocky in others and the views of Wizard Island and the Ghost Ship were amazing!

 

Our campground in Oregon provided some other interesting moments as well. Along the way we really hadn't had much of a problem with insects. Apparently, they were all in Oregon and we were all covered in mosquito bites within minutes. The combination of itchy bites and a shallow rocky creek helped us burn through an entire box of band aids during our stay. No serious injuries, just lots of scrapes and scratches. Our campground in Klamath Falls was very nice, with a stream and canoes and rowboats along the shore for anyone to use, but it was a bit more rural and rustic than our other campgrounds had been. When the teen headed for the shower at night he found it was already occupied, by several little green froggy friends. He high tailed it out of there and consented to a shower in the King's tiny bathroom.

 

This stop marked our final trek to the north and west, and was also just past the halfway point of our journey. Turning east, we're heading for Yellowstone and back toward home. We've had a great time so far, and still have much to see and look forward to, but have started to realize that our travel days are numbered. While we have seen and done so many, many things, there's an equally long list of things we've missed. I hope we are lucky enough to make another trip someday to re-visit some new favorite places and visit those special spots we've missed.

Some Campground reviews

We've stayed at some very nice campgrounds so far, but two really stand out from the rest. Both are Good Sam Parks, so we get a discount as Good Sam members. The first is the Rancheros de Santa Fe Campground in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This campground was beautiful, with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains. It was also very family friendly, with a pool and a playground and a movie every night of the week showing in the little campground theater. I popped up some popcorn and sent the boys down to watch War Horse while we were there. The campground also has a beautiful, secluded hiking trail and is just far enough away from the lights of downtown Santa Fe to provide terrific star gazing opportunities at night. The facilities and the laundry room were clean, the wifi worked well and the staff was very knowledgeable about what sights to see, even pointing us to downtown RV parking for the King while we took in the sights. Upon check in they handed us a campground brochure covering the campground rules and including a map of downtown Santa Fe, things to do and see in Santa Fe and a listing of special events going on in Santa Fe. The setting for many scenes in the 1978 Clint Eastwood film “Every Which Way But Loose,” the Teen met a film crew camping there to scout locations for a new Johnny Depp movie. Alas, we camped here a week early, as Johnny himself was scheduled to begin filming scenes in the area the next week.

The other campground was Alpen RosePark in Durango, Colorado. Set in the mountains not far fro Mesa Verde National Park, this campground was also surrounded by beautiful scenery and some of the nicest, friendliest people we have ever met. A pool and playground are available for the kids, the facilities and laundry room were immaculate and a delicious, reasonably priced pancake breakfast is served each morning. The boys took a short walk down the road to a grass airstrip and watched gliders coasting and landing in the late afternoon sun while I caught up on some laundry and reading.

If you ever happen to be camping out west, I hope you'll pay them a visit. I also hope we get the chance to visit again someday!

San Francisco

Heading up the California coast, our next stop was San Francisco. We camped north of the city, in Napa California and drove about 20 minutes into Vallejo each morning to catch a ferry boat that dropped us directly at Pier 41 near Fisherman's Wharf. The boys loved the ferry ride and it gave us about an hour to sit back, relax, and plan our day.

Since we had a few days to spend here we purchased City Passes at the visitors center. These passes included our admission to 5 area attractions plus unlimited use of the buses, street cars and cable cars. We started with a walk through the Aquarium of the Bay, much smaller than Monterey, but it was nice and had some cool tunnels that you walked through as the fish swam all around.

Next, we tackled the public transportation system and made our way across town to Golden GatePark, a beautiful old fashioned space with tall trees, a playground and beautiful old stone structures. Inside Golden Gate Park we visited the California Academy of Sciences. This building has an aquarium, rain forest, planetarium and natural history museum inside and a living roof, 2.5 acres in size, that you can climb to and visit. We grabbed up some tickets to a planetarium show later in the day, stopped to say hi to Claude, the albino alligator, and headed for the aquarium.

Divided into regions, this aquarium has a Philippine coral reef, Northern California coastal exhibit, Amazon Flooded Rainforest, swamp and a tide pool where kids can touch sea stars and bat rays. It was very well done and informative. The boys loved it!

Next we headed up to the living roof, 2.5 acres of native plants growing over the gently curving structure covering the science center. Composed of square trays filled with soil and plants, the roof is completely sustainable and has 40-50 different types of plants. A habitat for birds and insects, it also serves as an insulator and collects storm water runoff.

We took a walk through the rainforest, a huge dome filled with trees, plants, birds and butterflies. When we finished it was time for the planetarium show, a movie about plate tectonics and earthquakes shown on a huge domed screen. It was very interesting, and the boys said it was great!! Truth be told, the husband and I may have nodded of for part of it...

The day ended with a walk outside to see the baby ostriches and a turn in the earthquake simulator. Simulating both the 1906 and 1989 San Francisco earthquakes, which was pretty interesting.

Before heading back to Napa on the Ferry we grabbed some dinner and took a narrated boat tour of the Bay area. Usually socked in by heavy fog this time of year, we were incredibly lucky to have cool but beautiful clear views of Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge. The Bay was quite windy and rough, and I got tossed around a bit out on the front deck with the middle boy. We got some great pictures though!

The Golden Gate Bridge is beautiful from the water, but we really wanted to drive across it to. Built to withstand winds up to 80 miles per hour, it can sway as much as 21 feet from side to side. Luckily, we drove across on a very calm day!! After crossing the bridge we drove up the side of a mountain and into Muir Woods National Park to see the giant coastal redwood trees. Muir Woods is a very small but beautiful National Park and the trees really are like skyscrapers. We hiked along the trail learning about the history of the park and the trees while the little dude filled out the pages of his junior ranger book. A little fun fact about the California Redwoods, their bark is naturally fire resistant. It will scorch and turn black in places, but the trees will survive a forest fire.

San Francisco's Pier 39 is the touristy, restauranty, shoppy part of the city, and not surprisingly, where all the ferry boats drop off their passengers for the day and pick them back up again at night. We didn't spend a whole ton of time there, but the boys, especially the middle boy, loved walking out on the pier to see the sea lions hauling out on the docks in the bay. They were really fun to watch, sometimes lifting their noses up to sniff the air and barking at one another when they got crowded out by another sea lion trying to steal some space on the dock. It reminded me a bit of how crowded we are from time to time in the motor home and so we briefly instituted a rule where if you had a complaint about a brother, you had to bark it out like a sea lion. That lasted a few days and produced more than a few giggles!

So, San Francisco was a nice change of pace from the rural and rustic beauty of the canyons in the Southwest. The middle dude's favorite part was the sea lions, the teen loved the boat tour and the little dude could have spent hours (and many dollars) in a little kite shop we found in the city. The husband liked Muir Woods and I really enjoyed Golden Gate Park. There was something for everyone, and I even got to spend a little time strolling through downtown Napa, enjoying a few tasting rooms and picking up some samples as I went.  We did and saw a lot, but could still make another trip just to see and do all that we missed!