July 28 - Mount Rushmore and the Badlands

On our way to Mount Rushmore Jason and I tried to name all four Presidents carved into the mountain. I don't remember who I suggested but Jason guessed JFK during a brief moment of insanity.

We got into the park for free through sneaky business. They only take cash at the entrance (even though there are no signs making this clear) and having none, the guard said we could pay on our way out. Fat Chance! Enjoying things for free makes them so much more... enjoyable.

Just trying to keep things classy. Sorry Abe, my b.

When I am the object of attention in a photograph I panic and either make some hideous face or thumbs it up. I really need to work on new poses. Jason seems to have no problem with finding his characters.

Besides tee pees and other displays they have old skeletons and animals furs and stuff. Kind of weird.

You can never see Teddy. Hes so bashful. I also have no idea who that girl is or why I took her picture.

This took forever to set up! Jason was standing tip-e-toe on a bench while I was laying on the ground mid sit-up. People had to step over me. Not an easy task but the results were worth it.

After bustin out of Rushmore we went to the Badlands National Park. On the way we found what resembled an enormous ant hill. For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to stop the car and get out to play on it.

He was preparing himself to run down the hill. He came really close to face planting and then I came really close to peeing my pants.

It wasn't easy to get at the right angle where we were both in the frame. I really like this picture minus the lock of frizz blowing in the wind.

The sky was so beautiful that day. It looked like that cloud printed wall paper you put in baby nurseries.

We made it to the park and I didn't know what to expect. I had heard from several people that we HAD to go to the Badlands. When I asked why they all just said it was really cool and I'd find out why.

This is one reason the Badlands are so cool. On a clear day you can see 30 miles. Standing on the rock ridges looking around, in one direction will be miles of more ridges intertwining and in the other direction will be grasslands. Its really beautiful.

We spent awhile walking along the ridges. The only way to describe walking/crawling along these ridges is to imagine walking on the walls of a maze instead of within the maze. If I had any kind of climbing experience or equipment I could have stayed out there for hours just seeing how far I could go without reaching a dead end. We climbed around for a good 25 minutes and never found an ending.

I really like this picture of Jason.

And from there we drove home. I know, you're thinking "Wait, I thought you were in South Dakota?" Well, yes, we were. But we both decided that it was time to go home. We had been on the road for just over four weeks. It was just time. We stocked up on some 5 hour energy shots and drove for over 24 hours straight.

We did stop at Wall Drug on the way, which might be the coolest place ever.

I really enjoyed this road trip. It came at a great time in my life and I'm so glad I had Jason to travel with. I can't imagine being able to sit in such close proximity's with another person for a month and be ok with that (most of the time). There were bad times and there were times I was a crazy crank but there were amazing times when we both realized we were doing and seeing things that we probably will never get to see again. The trip was inspiring and motivating. I encourage everyone to do the same whether its America or Europe or the entire planet! Adventure is intoxicating.

Thanks for reading about my travels. I hope you all enjoyed my little stories.

July 27 - Grand Tetons

After Yellowstone we ventured South to the Grand Tetons. A warning to future road trippers: When visiting both parks, I suggest hitting GT first, otherwise it'll seem sadly bogus compared to Yellowstone. The Grand Teton National Park is beautiful and it is obvious why the tetons are called "grand", but it was destined to be a little dull after such an amazing day in Yellowstone.

Side note: Yellowstone always makes me think of "Jellystone". So which came first? Yogi Berra the baseball player or Yogi Bear the cartoon?

We hit the park after eating an enormous buffet breakfast.

There are 3 tetons but I'm not really sure which is what or really what a teton is.

At one point we did see a large herd of Pronghorn but they were too far away to get a decent picture.

My feet have permanent Teva tan lines.

We spent the morning in the park and then headed to South Dakota. We ended up passing through a horrible storm on our way. I was sure we were going to run off the road. It was impossible to see anything and it took hours to get through it all! There was so much lightening that I attempted to get a picture of it. It was bolting to frequently that I thought I could do it but after a few minutes my camera battery died. Mother Nature: 1, Sony CyberShot: 0.

July 26 - Yellowstone

By this time in our trip Jason and I have been to almost ten national parks. We were headed into Yellowstone and I really didn't expect anything spectacular because we had already been to so many parks and each one was so extraordinary, what could possibly be left? I was horribly mistaken. Yellowstone was far more interesting than I thought! It took all day to go through the park and it was totally worth it. With the amount of activities and trails within the park, one could easily kill an entire week.

We started at the sulphur springs hill. They have boardwalks winding up the hill because visitors are forbidden to walk on the dried sulphur.

It smelled like eggs gone wrong but I found it fascinating that the hills looked like a waterfall in pause.

Boiling sulphur water. No Touch!


Jason almost kissed this deer.

Tower Falls. This was after I had fallen twice down the pathway. One time in very old horse poo poo. Awesome.

Macro'd moss

Lower Falls. Jason and I had jumped the fence and climbed a very steep slope for this amazing view. We laid on our bellies and looked over the edge, too afraid to stand and look over in case we might get dizzy. There was definitely a reason why the point was not part of a trail. Climbing down the slope consisted of sliding on my butt over sharp rocks and gravel while grasping onto twig branches. Jason tip toed down with mountain goat agility while I floundered like a fish on dry rocks.

I had already been so impressed by Yellowstone and then this happened...

Out of no where a bison crossed in front of our car.

We turned a corner and found we were again not alone.

I most certainly had not expected to be surrounded by hundreds of Bison in such close proximity to our car! At certain points I could have hung my hand out the window and gotten a hand full of Bison booger.

This guy was not going to move. He stood half in front of the car, half in the grass for about 10 minutes. We were afraid to go around in case he spooked, so we waited. I think my only words the entire time were "Oh my god. This is so cool."

Bubbling sulphur ponds. Stinky Doo Doo. The Bison would gather around the ponds for some reason. Maybe the bugs leave them alone there? Maybe they enjoy the smell? Maybe they are being punished?

Dragon's Mouth Cave. The woman standing behind exclaimed with a deep southern accent, "I feel like I'm at the entrance to Hell!"

A mud cauldron.

Old Faithful. Jason got there just in time to grab some food and a seat on the porch. It was pretty neat. Fun Fact: Old Faithful is no longer the most active geyser within the park. I don't know what the other one is.

After the show we found a campsite within the park. It started to rain and storm pretty bad so we went to bed pretty early. Some hours later Jason and I were both awoken to the sound of a howling coyote outside our tent! I don't know how far or how close he was but lets just say he was close enough to be too close. The howling went on for several minutes until he abruptly stopped. We heard nothing from him the rest of the night.

Some minutes later I had fallen back asleep and apparently made some weird heavy breathing/growling noise in my sleep. Jason woke me up with a panicked "Is that you!?" I responded with a groggy "No! I don't know. I was sleeping." "Ok, because if its not you, than something is right by your head" he said laughing.