Day 108 Custer State Park, SD

We have travelled about 1500 miles since leaving my brother’s house in Sedro-Woolley, WA.  I have not had a good enough wi-fi connection to even open the blog so I am currently writing in Word to transfer to the blog. Hopefully, I can post it tomorrow night in Sioux City, IA.  We are presently camped in Custer State Park south of Rapid City, SD. 

From Sedro-Woolley, WA, we went to Tacoma, WA, only 112 miles, to visit Jeannette’s sister, Judy.  We were able to celebrate Judy’s daughter, Eliza’s, birthday and had a couple of quiet days before heading on to meet up with one of Jeannette’s nursing school classmates who lives in Toledo, WA.  We spent the night just east of there, 71 miles for the day.  Monday morning, a week ago, we went to the Mount St. Helens Visitors Center.  Though it was a partly cloudy day, we had some breaks that showed us the mountain in all its grandeur.  It is amazing that the effects of the eruption 37 years ago are still so visible and to learn how the different dynamics of the eruption proceeded and the types of damage from each aspect. 

Mt. St. Helens

We worked our way east, 372 miles, and spent the night in a Walmart lot in Hermiston, OR.  It was just an overnight and we were able to get to Chubbock, ID, 481 miles, for the next night and Wally World was our resting spot again.  This made for a fairly short day into Jackson, WY, 181 miles, last Thursday and we visited Jenny Lake in The Grand Teton NP then hiked three miles up Signal Mountain to enjoy the views from 7700 feet looking out over the Jackson Hole valley and the Teton Mountains. 

Grand Teton 

We have always enjoyed the view from up there.  Though the hike up and back took three hours, the views from on top were worth every step.  With recent snow in the upper elevations, the Teton Range was decked out in white like we have never seen it.  We keep coming back to remind us how beautiful these mountains, lakes and valleys are.

We stayed at Colter Bay in the park that night before heading to Yellowstone.  The road to Old Faithful crossed the continental divide three times with the highest elevation at 8262 ft., high enough to have the ground completely covered with snow, yet the road was clear and dry.  With a bright sunny day, Old Faithful was a spectacular scene against the blue sky. 

Old Faithful putting on a show

We spent about three hours hiking the Upper Geyser Basin and saw areas we have not visited before while in Yellowstone.  We then headed on east toward Cody, WY for the night and were blessed with some spectacular scenery with the snow covered mountains around Yellowstone Lake, crossing the pass at the east entrance, and down through the Shoshone Canyon to Cody, 176 miles for the day.

Snow at the upper elevations

 

View across Yellowstone Lake

We stayed in Cody for three nights.  We had been through Cody in 2006 but did not spend any time there.  This time, we wanted to see the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum complex.  We spent the first day in just two of the five museums, the Firearms Museum and the Western Art Museum.  We did take time out to go to a ranger’s talk about raptors.  The two shown were the Peregrine Falcon and the Golden Eagle.  The second day, we first visited the Natural History Museum wing then drove about 15 miles northeast to a National Historic Site.  The Heart Mountain Japanese Relocation Center housed about 14,000 Japanese Americans during WWII.  We had known this occurred but had never delved into the actual impact on the Japanese American people who had to endure this confinement.  Remarkably, most of them made the best of the situation.  Not a proud part of this nation’s history.  After visiting there, we returned to the museum complex and spent the afternoon in the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum section.  

Museum Entrance to all five museums, Cody, WY

We left Cody, WY Sunday morning and headed east to Greybull, WY on Rt’s 14/16 intending on staying on Rt. 16 from Greybull to I-90 just east of Sheridan, WY.  Instead, we made the mistake of following the instructions of our GPS and traveled Rt. 14 to I-90, a good mistake.  We wound our way up from Shell, WY through the Shell Canyon to Granite Pass in the Big Horn National Forest.  In that drive we gained nearly 4500 feet in elevation to the pass at 9033 feet.  The scenery was fantastic.  The last couple of miles we drove in a snow shower with the temperature steadily falling from 48 to 30 degrees. 

The cows didn't seem to mind the snow

Not enough snow to make the road slippery.  There was some road construction up on top in the high meadow and construction trucks had tracked a lot of dirt on the road so once again, truck and camper were covered in mud.  We will have to wash both again when we get home.  We drove 369 miles for the day.

We will stay here in Custer SP for two nights.  This morning, we started early and drove up the Needles Highway to the Eye of the Needle before heading back down and stopping at the park’s main visitor center.  On the Needles Highway, we were blessed to see lots of fall color and White Tail Deer.  We then drove the Wildlife Loop Road through the park catching sight of Pronghorn Antelope, Burros and Big Horn Sheep; sadly no elk.  As Custer SP had a buffalo roundup last Friday and Saturday, we knew we would not see any buffalo out on the hills as we had in 2006.  But, when we got to the corrals, we could see that they had released a majority of the buffalo so we did see some in the rolling hills around the corral area.  The remainder will be auctioned to keep the herd size compatible to the amount of grasses available so the herd can be supported over winter, leaving between 800 and 900 animals and expecting about 400 new calves in the spring. 

Keep your distance

With Fall colors abundant and few people compared to summer crowds, our drive was leisurely, quiet, and in places, breathtaking. 

Fall is a beautiful time of year

With rain expected, we returned to the camper and in the last five miles or so, we were greeted with rain and rain-snow mix.  The temperature was 36 degrees.  It is time to head on east away from mountains! 

We will be hitching up in the morning and should arrive home on Thursday afternoon.  I will do a final blog post after getting home to wrap up our trip and Jeannette wants to do one focusing on some of the people we met and her take on some of the places we visited.