Traveling to Cody, WY, the Black Hills and back to Minneapolis.

This morning, Thursday 8-28, we drove across Yellowstone Park to the Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park, which is about 18 miles west of Cody, WY. During the drive we had the usual Yellowstone road block, buffalo on the road. When we got to the campground a wildfire was burning over the mountain to the north. We had actually crossed it's path about 26 miles further west as we came out of the park.The fire had been started by lightening and was allowed to burn to try to burn up the trees killed by a bark beetle infestation. As the fire began to move closer to Cody, officials decided it was time to start getting it under control. The campground owner said it’s about 3 miles from us, but not to worry as it's heading NE.



OH NO, the repossessers found us.



Well, not really, it’s the same old problem of the transfer case not wanting to shift out of neutral. The truck was towed into Cody and was dropped off at Webster Chevrolet. While they were pushing it in to the bay by hand the driver started it so he could use the power steering and tried to shift the transfer case and voila, it went right into gear. They ended up reprogramming the module. The good thing I found out wasI could do a manual reprogram myself so when it happens again I will give that a try.

The town of Cody had a collection of Grizzly Bear statues around the town. We only got a couple pictures as we did not spend any time in the downtown area.





The main purpose of stopping in Cody was to take in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. The museum is made up of five mini museums. They are the Plains Indian Museum, the Buffalo Bill Museum, the Whitney Gallery Of Western Art, the Draper Museum Of Natural History and the Cody Firearms Museum. After spending a day there, we concluded it probably would be better to take a couple of days to take it all in.









On Saturday the 30th Sandy and I went on a day trip up the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway and the Beartooth Highway.



The Beartooth is one road I probably would not drive with the motorhome. This picture of the GPS shows just a small example of the many steep switchbacks on the road.





The following pictures were taken of the magnificent vistas along the Beartooth Highway.



This is Beartooth Mountain.



Pictures of the Beartooth plateau and the west summit at 10,947 elevation.









Our turn around point was at Red Lodge, MT where we had lunch at Red Lodge Pizza. For the trip back to Cody we choose to take the flat route back. By doing so we came across this deserted coal mine that had the misfortune of having had an accident in 1943 that killed 74 miners. Mining is a dangerous job today and I can only imagine the conditions back then.





Just down the road from the mine was the small town of Bearcreek, MT. In town we came across this Main Street sign.





In all fairness to the town, even though the town seems to be dying, it did have a nice little wayside rest in town complete with picnic tables, grill and water,

On Sunday morning, the 31st, our friends Ron and Jane met up with us and we headed over to the Black Hills in South Dakota. We followed Highway 16 from Cody to Buffalo. This took us through the south end of the Big Horn Mountains and a 9,666 foot pass.









From there we drove on Interstate 90 to Spearfish, SD. Both Jane and I prefer to drive the secondary roads as opposed to the freeways, but we wanted to get to the Black Hills in one day without driving 12 hours.

We ended up spending two nights at the Elkhorn RV Park and Resort between Spearfish and Deadwood, SD. Jane and Ron prefer national forest campgrounds to private rv parks, but after they discovered it had a fenced-in area for Denver and Charley to run off leash, they decided that it wasn’t too bad after all.

It was cloudy with light rain the next morning so Sandy, Jane and I went on a scouting trip to Custer State Park to find a camp ground to spend the next few days. We ended up deciding on the Game Lodge Campground. While in the campground we tried to call the reservation center, but even with climbing to new heights, I was not able to get through with my cell phone.



On Tuesday the 2nd of September, we drove down to the Game Lodge Campground. Next to the campground is the Game Lodge which was the summer White House for President Coolidge in 1927.

Sandy, Jane and I went made a circle loop to Mount Rushmore and back. The first leg was the Iron Mountain Road (Hwy 16A) which included Pigtail Bridges and 3 one-lane tunnels that frame Mount Rushmore as you pass through them. The highway was designed by Peter Norbeck and built in the 1930s and stretches for 17 miles. We first came across a small herd of Burros which are descendants of animals that were left to fend on there own after they were no longer used to haul tourists around the Black Hills.







The next pictures are showing the Pigtail Bridges. Remember you can click on the pictures to read it better.







Ron and Jane traveled to the Black Hills with us on their first visit to this area and to see Mount Rushmore. If you have not been here since they built the new Flag walkway and visitors center it would be worth the trip. The day began cloudy, but eventually cleared up to be a beautiful sunny day.







Jane, Dave and Sandy



Inside the museum.



When we left Mount Rushmore we went back to the campgrounds by way of the Needles Highway.We thought the tunnels were tight even in the pickup but this tour bus managed to squeeeeeze through without a problem.



On Thursday the 4th we said goodbye to our friends,Ron, Jane, Denver and Charley, for our trip back to Minneapolis.



On the way we stopped at Sandy’s folks for a couple of days and went to a play called “Church Basement Ladies” which is a comedy about the hierarchy of the ladies who do all the food preparation for weddings, funerals and other events that take place in a fictitious Lutheran church. We had originally seen the play in Minneapolis and it was fun to see again.
From there we went up to Staples to visit my Dad, stepmother and brothers for a couple days and then on to Minneapolis. After getting in to Mystic Lake around 11:00 AM I got ready for a trip to Syracuse, IN to pick up the new boat that will be hauled in the back of the pickup when we travel. I was on the road by 1:00 PM and got into Syracuse about 11:30 PM their time. The following morning, 9/11, a day we should never forget, I was at the factory at 7:00 AM to load the boat and start the trip back "home".




Upon getting back to Minnesota I stopped and dropped off the boat and trailer in Rochester, MN to have the motor installed. By late afternoon I was back at Mystic Lake.

Be sure to check out Ron and Janes Blog as she has more on our time together.

http://janeron.blogspot.com/

Bye for now.
Dave and Sandy

On to West Yellowstone, MT and Yellowstone National Park

This morning, August 26, Sandy and I went for a drive to the area northwest of West Yellowstone, MT. Along the way we went through an area called the Madison River Canyon Earthquake Area.



This earthquake, a 7.5 on the Richter scale and the fourth largest at that time in the US, happened on August 17, 1959 at a little after 11:00 PM. The first area we came to was Hebgen Lake. the Land surface along the north shore of the lake dropped 19 feet causing the lake bed to tip which sent the water sloshing back and forth. Cabins and resorts on the north shore were inundated with water while the south shore was left high and dry. The first building was shaken apart from the earthquake while the second was immersed in water because of the land tilting.





The most significant event from the earthquake was a major landslide that occurred where over 80 million tons of rock blocked a canyon. This eventually formed Earthquake Lake which now has a depth of over 100 feet where, previously, you could wade across the Madison River at this point.





There was a Federal campground at this point with approximately 250 campers. 28 did not survive. One of the amazing facts of this lake is how fast it filled. In less than a month the Corps of Engineers had to cut a 150 foot wide by 15 foot deep channel on the top of the slide to let water out. Then less than a month later they had to deepen it by another 50 feet. Later that evening Sandy and I were walking around town and came across these painted buffalo.





We heard that there are over 20 around town. It seems everyone is getting into the act of doing similar projects. Saint Paul, MN has the Snoopy’s, Amarillo, TX has the painted horses and who knows what else is out there. On the 27th Sandy and I spent the day in Yellowstone National Park.





We drove the north loop in Yellowstone for the first time. Although we have been to Yellowstone a couple of times before, we had never made it up here. One of the more interesting stops was at the Mammoth Hot Springs. This is an area that keeps building up from the mineral deposits. Here are several pictures of the area.











Later on down the road we were traveling along the Yellowstone River and stopped at several of the pull outs. At one of the spots we had 3 Osprey’s soaring around, I would have said above, but a lot of the time they were below us in the canyon. Here is a picture of the Yellowstone as it flows north out of the park.



Now if you are extremely sensitive about bad taste, you should read no further. And then of course there has to be the obligatory photos of the wild life.



Now I can’t tell, but for a buffalo, was that a good or a bad smell.



Bye for now,
Dave and Sandy

The road to the Grand Teton's

This morning, August 16, we left Aberdeen at 8:30 and headed for the Grand Teton’s to meet up with our friends Ron and Jane. It sure is nice driving this time of the year with the wheat fields being harvested, the hay being cut and the tall corn still green with the white tassels. We also drove past a lot of sunflower fields in full bloom with their yellow heads turned towards the sun.



We drove most of the way on US 212, crossing the Missouri River at Gettysburg, SD.



Summertime always seems to be road construction time. We managed to hit about 15 miles of fresh tar and gravel near Eagle Butte, SD. You guessed it, the front of the truck and the back of the motorhome were full of tar. When we arrived in Spearfish, SD we stopped at the Elkhorn Ridge RV Park Resort for the night.

The next morning as we were starting to disconnect the water system, I noticed that there was some red fluid on the ground under the motorhome. A closer look confirmed my first thought that it was engine coolant. After getting under the coach and analyzing the situation I figured it was a loose hose clamp. But as my luck has been lately, it was buried behind a metal shield that was there to protect the bottom of the radiator. An hour later we were ready to hit the road. As long as I had the shield off, I tightened up 6 more clamps that I could see. Our first part of today’s travel was on I-90 west from Spearfish. I took this picture as we were approaching the Bighorn Mountains.



In Buffalo, WY we caught US 16 which took us over Powder River Pass at 9,666 feet. The next picture is taken after the pass in Tensleep Canyon.



When we got to Worland we headed south on US 20. After Thermopolis we passed through the Wind River Canyon.



This looks like an area we might come back to visit sometime. From there we headed to Riverton, WY for the night. We don’t think we need to spend any more time than just an overnight stop in this town again.
The morning of the 18th we left Riverton heading to Gros Ventre Campground 6 miles north of Jackson, WY in the Grand Teton National Park. We followed US 26 the whole way. We did go through Togowotee Pass, which is also the Continental Divide, at 9,658feet.



After the pass we ran into several miles of more road construction. At least this time tar was not involved.





Sandy decided to take a picture of me relaxing behind the wheel.



I spent the next couple of days cleaning tar off the truck and motorhome.

This morning, Sunday the 24th, Sandy, Jane and I went on a walk to Taggart Lake so we could get some pictures of the Grand Teton’s with their reflections in the lake.
On the way over there we had to stop for a herd of buffalo that was heading to their watering hole.



Later a group of elk passed in front of us.



The trail to the lake was a moderate 3.2 mile round trip, Jane had her hand on the bear spray all the way up and back. Well, maybe she wasn’t holding the bear spray, but she sure did not leave home without it. The views were beautiful on the way up the trail.



Here are three pictures taken at Taggart Lake.







This is one of the walks that should be taken before 8:00 AM or earlier so you can get the morning sun and beat the crowds.

We left Gros Ventre on Monday the 25th and headed up to West Yellowstone, MT. While still in The Grand Teton’s we stopped at an old Mormon homestead that was established in the 1910’s. Now here's a home with a view?.






Dave and Sandy