Devils Tower and the Black Hills.

Tags

Black Hills, Devils Tower, Road Trip, Travel, USA, Wyoming

Two and a half hours later waking than I really wanted but I guess I needed the sleep more than I hoped. It’s been a real smooth ride to Devils Tower and a wonderful day so far; it’s making up for last nights altercation with the local police already. I can now say that I’ve visited the same spot the aliens landed 😉 although I didn’t go right up to Devils Tower, as I couldn’t justify getting a closer image for something like $10.

The temp here varies quite a bit; 59F to 75F within the hour and it fluctuates down by 10F when changing altitude (not by much though).

I caught my first decent glimpse of the Black Hills, with the rays of the Sun bleeding across them. Yet another amazing change in scenery within a small space. This area is amazing if you like witnessing various terrain and landscapes.

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Yellowstone to Glacier.

Tags

Blackfeet, Butte, Coeur D'Alene, Glacier National Park, Great Falls, Helena, Idaho, Montana, Moose, Mountain Lion, Road Trip, St Mary's Lake, Travel, USA, Wildlife, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Such a beautiful morning, heading out early from Yellowstone before anyone else was stirring. The roads out of Yellowstone and through Montana are so smooth and straight, one couldn’t help but go way too fast. We headed straight through Butte (well, after a breakfast stop) and a quick gas/photo stop in the state capital of Helena. Helena is such a small plain town and almost missable if you sneeze going through it. Still, the gas was cheap and the cool drink very welcome but without wanting to waste too much time, we jumped back on the road toward Great Falls and finally to our destination for the day of Glacier National Park.

The park itself is surrounded by the Blackfeet tribe and a pleasing change to see they have a thriving casino-less community, without the usual tourist magnets. I’d like to go back again to check out some of the actual stores but doubt I’ll get the chance before next year. Just before leaving the gas station for the park, we saw a recently killed mountain lion in the back of some guy’s truck (allegedly it got too close to him). Not a happy sight but still amazing to see an animal I’d never seen before, up close.

First stop in Glacier was St Mary’s lake, although this was purely by accident. After taking the wrong turn we ended up at this little visited vista, of peace and beauty. This is another place I’d like to hit up again and maybe next time, take a boat ride on the lake.

Back to the main entrance and man, what a view. This place doesn’t seem to suffer from the ‘living zoo’ tourist trap that Yellowstone did and you had more of a sense of being in the wilds as a result. Although I never got to see any more bears, I did get a better close-up with a moose on our way out for the evening. There’s so much to say about this place but it has to be experienced rather than written about. So beautiful, so old and so very, very inspiring.

Possibly one of the reasons not many people come to Glacier, is the access roads from the west. As the crow flies, it’s a 30min drive to the freeway but here we were, 2 hours later, only just getting to the main drag. We could have made it back to Seattle if the winding detour had not taken so long, so we ended up grabbing a motel in Coeur D’Alene instead, to finish up the last night on the road.

Yellowstone, Day two.

Tags

Bears, Bison, Black Bear, Elk, Geysers, Magpie, Mammoth, Mammoth Falls, Old Faithful, Road Trip, Travel, USA, Wildlife, Wyoming, Yellowstone

Up at 8am and the first stop was Old Faithful on way to the camping stop in Mammoth. The famous geyser was just about on time and brought the expected oooooo from the crowds. The event itself is not as inspiring for me as the events that trigger it, under the earth. There are also larger geysers to be seen but they’re not as predictable.

Arriving at the Mammoth campground, I found out that the tent had a break in one of the rods, which was worsened by the wind, suddenly picking up and blowing the tent like a tumbleweed across the campsite. After recovering the tent, I wedged it between our only shade of a tree and the wooden bench.

After opting to take a trip to see Mammoth Falls, we saw a small group of people along the way, who were taking shots of a bison. Making the most of this opportunity, we decided to stop for a picture shoot and had the fortune of the bison ambling a little closer to pose. This road was full of more surprises in the form of a black bear, that many people had pulled off the road to photograph. I walked past these and followed the ranger up the road to a better view and considering I have no decent zoom lens on the digital camera, had a much clearer and closer shot than most of the crowds back down the road.

After hitting the intended detour (that turned out to be inaccessible to the bottom), we headed back to Mammoth and payed $3 to take a much needed shower in the local hotel. The sunburn hurt like crazy with the water hitting it but felt so much better afterward. While waiting in the car after the shower, a magpie came and hopped around in front of me. I haven’t seen a magpie since I was last in England, so it was a real pleasant surprise. After my friend came out from her shower, we walked across the road to the nearest eatery and while tucking in to some fast food, saw an elk on the hill outside. Of course, by time I had shot back to the car to get the camera, the elk had wandered off up the hillside and out of view.

Settling down for the evening, with the tent now now longer being blown by the wind, I opted for a short hike up one of the nearby viewpoints. I had an incredible view of the surrounding landscape and it made for a grounding experience at the end of a hot, sticky and sore day.

Tomorrow is Glacier Park and the last stop of the tour before home.