A weekend getaway to Yellowstone. (Lots of pictures and videos in this one.)

How cool is it that I am living where I can just take a quick weekend jaunt over to Yellowstone National Park! I love that I am so close to some of the most beautiful hiking trails and sights in the country. I think the only reason the Mormons called Utah their "Eden" was cause they hadn't made it to Montana. :)
On the way toward Yellowstone I went from Billings to Cooke City and into the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone. Along the way, I passed by a town called Red Lodge which was very cute and I would recommend it as a vacation location (just an FYI). After passing through Red Lodge, highway 212 earns itself a new name... The Beartooth Pass. The road cuts and curves its way over the Beartooth Mountain range. This was such an extraordinary drive on the most majestic day imaginable. After climbing higher and higher the views continued to amaze. I didn't even get anxious about the snow piles that were taller than my car on the side of the road because it was impossible to have any emotions other than awe.

Craziest GPS screen I have seen.

 

 

                                                                                                                       There was a serious change in temperature between the top and the bottom of the mountain.
As I rounded one corner I noticed a ski lift and people skiing off in the distance. It was so weird to me that people were still skiing in June! What a totally different mindset. There were kids playing in the snow and making snowmen at some of the pullouts and beautiful lakes still iced over. It was a whole different world up there.

 

Coming down off the mountains I came back to reality and a normal landscape. I entered Yellowstone and headed south along the eastern side of the north loop toward Canyon campground where I would be staying the night. Along the way I could always tell where animals had been spotted because there were a ton of cars stopped. I was in Bison jams and Elk jams regularly. Unfortunately, no bear jams though.

 

 At one stop I watched as the adult bison and their calves attempted to cross a river. The current was flowing very fast and the adult bison were easily swept pretty far down stream before making it to the other shore. The baby bison even more so, and a couple of times I thought they weren't going to make it. For as long as I watched, however, everyone of them eventually made it across and met back up with their group.

At about noon I made it to the campground and set up my tent. Just south of the campground were Upper and Lower Falls. I went to the look out points for both of these and did some short hikes. Then, I went to a thermal area called Mud Volcano. There were some neat looking features here, but the thing that had everyone talking were the bison that were warming themselves by these features and how close they were to the trail.

 

That evening I spent a very cold night in my tent. Thankfully, I have a cold weather sleeping bag so I was able to stay warm, but I would say it easily dipped into the 30's while I was bundled up in my tent. If you can imagine... I have a "mummy" sleeping bag and there is a drawstring that you can tighten around where your face is. I had the thing pulled as tight as it would go and only my nose was poking out so I breathe. I am surprised my nose didn't get frostbite. I really did not want to get out of there in the morning, but I did. My fingers went numb as I was packing up my tent, and I had to keep reminding myself that it was not actually winter because it sure did feel like it.

That morning I went to Norris Geyser Basin. I was one of the first ones there since the sun woke me up so early. It was really pretty there, but a little cloudy. I wish the sun were shining more because that makes the colors in the thermal features so much more vivid. I walked the entirety of the trail system, and was hoping the whole time that one of the many geysers would decide to go off while I was there, but no such luck. Oh well.

Steamed!

   My final major stop was at Mammoth Hot Springs. This is an area where the hot water that flows from the Norris Geyser Basin through a fault line has deposited a large amount of calcium carbonate, and has formed huge hills of this white mineral. In some areas where algae has grown there are orange and rust colored portions.

 Every sight was different and unique on this trip and I certainly packed a lot into this short trip... as always. :)

For those of you who don't know I get a pin at every major sight I see and put it on my backpack. I am quickly running out of space!

 

I will leave you with some cool pics of the varying landscapes of Yellowstone.

 

 

The End of this Amazing Adventure.

So our trip has come to an end. It is so sad. I would drive and sight see forever if I could!
Saturday, we had one more touristy stop to make. We went to Devils Tower in Wyoming. It is a really cool rock formation that has captivated the imaginations of people for generations. The Indians in this area had a legend that the columns on the side of the rock were created by a bear clawing his way up to the top. Supposedly, he was chasing some Indian maidens. It must have been a huge bear considering that the rock is 867 ft tall.

Before we hiked around the base of the tower we listened to a ranger give a presentation on rock climbing. He described all the equipment used and the differing levels of difficulty on this one rock surface. He said the fastest anyone has climbed to the top was a speedy 18 minutes. That is insane. The climber did not bother with all the safety equipment he just climbed. He was, of course, a professional. The guide said that typically someone could make it to the summit in 2-4 hours depending on skill level. As we were walking the trail we kept our eye out for climbers and we spotted a couple.

Climber in yellow. Click to enlarge.

Closer picture of climber.

Black arrow pointing to climber

Our time in WY was brief and we were quickly on our way to MONTANA. Our final destination. We took a smaller highway into the state (not I-90) because it was a more direct route to see my friend from PT school who lives just outside of Billings. This road was so remote that we didn't have cell signal for hours. Amazingly, we made it to my friends house without getting lost. Good thing too because we would have had no way of getting a hold of them to get directions. It was really nice to visit with Lu, his wife, Molly, and their kids. I have not seen them since we graduated from UF and we had a lot to catch up on. Thankfully, they don't live very far away so we will be getting together more I am sure! They already told me about a few things that I am really interested in doing while I am here, but you will just have to wait for the blog post to find out about them. :)
Finally, Dawn and I made it to Billings. We got most of my stuff moved into my apartment and drove around town a bit to get dinner and groceries. I am so lucky that Dawn was able to come out here with me. It is so much nicer to have someone with you when you are facing the unknown. Not to mention all the laughs! We laughed so hard on this trip that my abs would be sore the next day.

Today, Sunday, I had to drop Dawn off at the airport. It was so sad to see her go. Now, I am really on my own again. I think I was in denial up until now.
By the time you are reading this I will have started work at the Billings Clinic. Hopefully, all goes well. Wish me luck!

Wow, South Dakota! Who knew!?

Wednesday we went to the mall of America for the whole day. We literally shut the place down. I did some serious damage! Each floor of the mall is about a ½ mile around and there are 4 floors, plus the middle section which is the Nickelodeon Universe theme park.   We walked basically the whole thing, and even though we spent the entire day there we did not get to see everything we wanted. However, we did get to ride on the roller coasters, eat at a fancy restaurant and stopped in every store we had even the slightest desire to go in. (Which is probably why we didn’t get to everything). The roller coasters we went on were Sponge Bobs Rock Bottom Plunge, The Orange Streak, and the Ferris Wheel. They were all really fun, but on Sponge Bob they took you up to the ceiling of the mall and dropped you straight back down to the floor. We were literally in the rafters and there was a window above us so we could see the sky outside. It was really cool! You wouldn't think they could get "real roller coasters" in a mall, but they did it!

On Thursday and Friday we explored South Dakota. I did not realize how much there was to see in this state. I had not heard about anything other then Mount Rushmore until I started looking into coming here. 

Our first stop was at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. This building is artistically covered in corn and stands as a tribute to the areas fertile ground. A thanks goes to Aunt Monica and Uncle George for this find. I even got my picture with “Cornelius the Corn.” 

Our next stop was at an 1880’s town. They have moved all sorts of authentic old buildings from the area into this one attraction. They made this look like a real old west town with everything from the Saloon, and jail to the one room school house and post office. We took our time walking around and looking at all the memorabilia. I don’t know how they could possibly collect all the stuff they had. It must have taken a while. They had old newspapers from as early as 1890 and in one section they had props from the Dancing with Wolves movie set.

Most of Thursday was spent driving. We were wishing we could have driven through the Badlands at sunset and the timing would have worked out perfectly if there wasn’t a huge rain/hail storm that had just moved in as we were leaving 1880’s town. We ended up driving past the badlands to find a hotel (but don’t worry we backtracked and saw it the next day.) That evening we found an awesome place to stay called Frontier Cabins. It was a hidden gem in this area of the country. They were little cabins that were so nice inside, yet very reasonably priced!

The next day, like I mentioned, we back tracked a little and went to the Badlands. They were so cool! I loved the stark contrast from the grasslands to the badlands. There was a definite border between the two. There were also these rocks that had pretty red and yellow colors all over. 

We then made our way over to the main attraction, Mount Rushmore. I was so happy to be looking up at this monument. This was one of the main things that I wanted to see on my trip out to Montana, and when I was having trouble finding a job, it was the thing I was saddest about missing. It not only reminded me of this countries great history, but also the blessings in my own life. One interesting thing I learned there was that the sculpture was supposed to be more in-depth with the torsos of the presidents carved out too. They did not complete the entire vision of the original artist due to it being over budget and the beginning of WWII.

 When we had our fill of Mount Rushmore we continued south to three other attractions in the area…Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, and Mammoth Site. We saw lots of wildlife at first two places. We saw tons of buffalo and prairie dogs by the hundreds!

The mammoth site was very educational. Apparently, there used to be a sink hole in this area of the state and when mammoths would come in to drink from it some of them would fall in. If you think of elephant feet you can imagine that these mammoths would not be very good climbers. So once they would fall in they were not able to get out and would eventually die in there. They have found 118 tusks in the sink hole which means there are at least 59 mammoths in there. That sink hole was hazardous if you ask me! The excavation of the site continues to this day. They could potentially find more bones, but they think the majority have been found at this point, and if they dig too much more they will have to start moving the bones that they have uncovered which would mean the destruction of the bone.

Our whirlwind tour of South Dakota ended with that site.  I will write again tomorrow about Devils Tower and our arrival in Montana. So long for now!

Presidents, Philosophy, Cheese and Clowns. What a strange combo.

Dawn asked me to write and addendum to the last blog entry:  We did see a ton of small, black bats in the caves. We were very excited to see them since it is a fairly rare sighting.

On Tuesday morning we crossed the boarder into Illinois. We drove to Springfield where President Lincoln lived before he became president. The museum in his honor was very interesting and had a lot of cool memorabilia. They did a good job of keeping it engaging with a lot of videos and interactive displays.

Afterward, we went over to the street where he lived. They have refurbished all the old homes along the entire street. It was like you were walking back in time. Some of the houses were open with displays inside, but most were not open to walk through. Lincoln's was the only one that you could take a full tour of and many of the original furnishings were still in the home. They did let you take pictures which is very unusual.

We then continued onto DeKalb where my Uncle Neal and Aunt Michelle live. Dawn constantly has to be subjected to my family, and I get such a kick out of it!
I am just kidding. My family is so wonderful. I am always so proud to introduce my friends (and they usually stay my friend afterward). :) We had a great time visiting over a steak dinner that was to die for! Then the following morning got together with a couple of Neal's friends for breakfast. One of his friends had written a book about history and the Bible which sounds super interesting, and Neal gave both me and Dawn a copy which we had signed by the author at breakfast. We then got to have a discussion about everything from religion to economics with these people who are much more intelligent then I. It was a unique experience that I can honestly say I have not had on any of my other travels. I loved it! I could sit around and talk all day if I were able. But alas, it had to come to an end.

When Dawn and I left we continued north into Wisconsin and drove around the University of Wisconsin's campus. Then, headed to a trail we thought would be cool, but it was closed, and finally we went to a couple of cheese "factories". The reason I put factories in quotes is because they claim to be "factories where you can watch cheese being made!" and "have free samples!" and "self guided tours!" but when you arrive you realize they are a regular store with a little window overlooking a cheese vat, two samples, and the self guided tour is a display on the wall telling about their founding. There is some false advertising here as far as I am concerned. We did, however, get some "squeaky" cheese as instructed. It is cheese curds that are super fresh. They have to be made the same day you eat them in order to squeak. It really does squeak in between your teeth. So strange.

At the second place we went the women was very helpful and described how all the cheeses differed from each other, and how they were made. We tried a sample of their award winning cheese which tasted like dirt, and she told us that was because they store it in "caves" so it gets an "earthy" flavor. Which is just Dirt flavor if you ask me. Weird! They had some cheeses that you could buy in very small portions, and so Dawn and I picked four not knowing what we would get. We also got some wine so we could have wine and cheese at the hotel that evening.
The four types of cheese in order of our favorite to least favorite were: Bread cheese Garlic, Virgin Pine Native Blue, Raclette, and Aged Cardona. The first two were really good, the third... edible, and the last... completely inedible. It smelled like the worst toe jam you could ever imagine and tasted terrible too.
We had a good laugh about that one.

 One random stop we made as we were driving through Wisconsin was at a Circus Museum that we saw a sign for on the highway. We got there too late to do the whole tour, but the lady was nice enough to let us walk through the museum part. I think it would have been cool to see the outdoor area where they had tents and elephants, but we could see across the river from the outside and did spot some elephants! So random. :)

Today we are onto the Mall of America!!

The Next Adventure!!

The months I spent in South Florida were some of the best ever! I know I only posted one time, but that is because I was so incredibly busy all the time. I don't know where the time went, but I do know that the time couldn't have been any sweeter!
Now, I am headed out on my next adventure to MONTANA! Yeah! I can't wait to see Big Sky Country. It took me a while to find a job out there, but I was really blessed just a  few weeks ago to not only find a job, but to find a job in the city that was my #1 choice... Billings.
Oddly enough, I began my last set of travel adventures with the wedding of Katherine and Ken. Well, now almost exactly two years later I began this adventure with Jessica and Chad's wedding. Jessica N. was my good friend from PT school and at Katherine's wedding I introduced her and Chad... and the rest is history. It was so awesome to be able to see them tie the knot. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding.
The other exciting thing was ALL my old roommates came to town for the wedding so it was reunion for us too! I loved seeing them and some other classmates from school. It has definitely been way too long.

On Sunday, I left Atlanta early to begin my trek out to Montana. Dawn is driving with me on this trip and had flown into Atalanta to meet me. I went and got her and we started making our way to our first destination, Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky. This is the longest known cave system in the world with 365 mapped miles of cave all interwoven and stacked. They say there are 27 layers of cave extending down 300-400 feet under ground. More and more of the cave is being discovered everyday and about every two years they update the number of miles so if anyone goes to these caves in a couple years let me know what the new number is, okay?
Dawn and I went on two tours. The Mammoth Passage Tour was a lit tour with a lot of history about the caves. It only took us into the cave about 3/4 of a mile. The second tour was a lantern tour, meaning the only light in the cave was the ten lanterns that we carried in. SO COOL!
On the first tour we learned how some of the dirt in the cave was processed and used to make gun powder which helped us be successful in the war of 1812 since the British had stopped our ability to import supplies. When the war ended, however, this very lucrative business ended and the cave owners began to give tours. They have been giving tours for almost 200 years now. The part of the cave we saw on this tour, unlike the one I saw in Arkansas, was dry and had no stalagmites or stalactites. It was just huge, dark, open rooms.

The Star Chamber Tour was the last tour of the day and we, along with our group, were the only people in the cave. Apparently, during the day there are multiple tours going in and out and passing each other. This one, however, was more secluded, and we got to see a section of the cave that is not on any other tour... Gothic Avenue or the Haunted Chamber. Like I mentioned before, this tour was only lit by lantern and was reminiscent of how the early explorers would have seen the caves before electricity. If you wanted to see all the detail of the cave structures I would not recommend this tour, but if you want to have the coolest, creepiest, and most interesting tour at the caves I would recommend waiting till the end of the day for this one. We walked through with two guides. One guide did all the talking and the other one had the job of trying his best to scare all of us. When we would make stops along the trail to get a little lesson about the spot, the quiet guide would wander off into the pitch darkness, and he would be standing in some crack or crevasse down the trail waiting for us to pass by. Freaky! If you let your imagination go you could see some interesting things in the dark places of the cave while the shadows from the swinging lanterns danced on the walls.

Gothic Avenue was the last stop on the tour and the guide asked us to leave our lanterns and he turned on the low lights so we could see this area of the cave where there were some interesting structures and history. This area was still growing and had some columns, and stalactites that were trying to rebuild. All the soot and smoke from years of people visiting with torches harmed the cave and stunted the growth of many structures. They did not have the same ideals of preservation that we do today. In fact, many guides would write the name of the visitors on the ceiling of  the cave with candles for a small fee. There are names written in from 1830. It was pretty cool to see.

At the furthest end of Gothic Avenue, before we turned around to head out, the guide turned off all the lights. Earlier, I had told Dawn about my first cave experience as a little kid and how when the guide turned off the light I was so shocked by the complete and utter darkness that I had to touch my eyes to make sure they were open. This was no different. The blackness is like nothing I have experienced above ground. You can hold your hand right in front of your face and not see a thing, and immediately your ears kick into high gear. You can literally hear everything! Every shuffle of the people.. every drip of water... 
I could not imagine being in there alone. The guide told one story of a man that got lost from his tour years and years ago, and ended up spending 39 hours in the cave. His lantern had long since burnt out, and the man was tapping rocks together when they found him in order to have some sound because the sound of his own heartbeat and blood pulsing through his ears was beginning to drive him crazy.
It is a whole other world under there, and I think its so cool we can experience it for a time. I am thankful for those first explorers. They are definitely braver then me.