Looking back on this blog, I realize that I haven't covered all the spots my youngest and I visited on our cross country road trip to Wisconsin the summer of 2017. With extra time on my hands at this point in time, I might as well get back to that trip and let you know about spots we visited on the way to Wisconsin as well as spots visited on the return trip. When I last wrote about this trip, it was July last year and I wrote about Mt. Rushmore. Right after that I ended up taking an extended camping trip to Utah, Idaho and Nevada, so I got caught up in that trip. Since I've covered that trip pretty extensively on this blog, it's time to revisit the 2017 trip.
Following our quick two hour visit to Mt. Rushmore, we headed south into Custer State Park and then into Wind Cave National Park. The two parks boast broad sweeping vistas, bison herds, but Wind Cave also has an underground cavern that's open for tours. We ended up driving through the state park in order to get to the national park. If you look at the first photo, you'll see there's a fence at the border between the two parks. Most animals can either burrow under the fence or hop over the fence so animal movement is not really impaired with the exception of the bison herds. There's a reason for this fence and that's to keep the two herds in the parks separate.
The bison herd in Wind Cave is a genetically pure strain of bison. Most bison in the United States, are genetically mixed with cattle. The herd in Yellowstone National Park and the one in Wind Cave are genetically pure, so it's advantageous to keep the strain a pure strain for the future of the overall species. This is why there's a fence around the entire Wind Cave park. The bison herds in Custer State Park, are not genetically pure and the National Park Service wants to keep the two herds separate for reasons explained above. The entire herd in Wind Cave are direct descendants from Yellowstone bison that had been captured in 1800s and then bred in the Brooklyn Zoo in New York. The herds in this area had been pretty much wiped out during the late 1800s, and when the park was created, offspring from the Brooklyn Zoo bison were reintroduced into Wind Cave National Park. Every year after calving, the herd is rounded up and culled, with some of the offspring sent to other areas in order to keep a genetically diverse line of bison. The photo of the bison was actually taken in Custer State Park as we didn't see any of the Wind Cave herd while we were there, so I'm actually glad that we ended up taking the scenic route through Custer.
Once inside the national park, we headed to the visitors center and purchased tickets to take one of the tours that were offered that afternoon. The cave is composed of over 100 miles of passageways, 3000 different chambers, the largest of which is larger than the largest room in Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Cave popcorn, frostwork and box-work are the main types of formations in this cave, giving it a much different feel than many of the more traditional caverns like Mammoth Cave and Carlsbad Caverns. There aren't nearly as many imposing structures like you would see in other caves, but each cave is unique in its own right and it's one of the reasons I enjoy exploring caves - the differences that make each one unique.
I had been here once when I was a teenager and the main thing I remember of this cave was the Post Office, a formation of calcite that created something that looked literally like a set of post office boxes. You can see something similar to that in the last photo.
Following our tour of the cave, we came back out and encountered a gathering thunderstorm, which meant that our planned hike above ground would have to be curtailed and we decided to get back in the Jeep and head back to Rapid City where we would be spending the night. Nothing like driving through a torrential rain storm with thunder and lightning all around and hail falling down. Fortunately, it wasn't a really violent storm, so the hail stones were small and didn't dent the car.
In the coming weeks, I intend to continue with this series, taking you to Badlands National Park, the Gateway arch in St. Louis, the Buddy Holly memorial in Iowa, and three different presidential libraries. Thanks for stopping by.
It's time, once again, for P.J.'s monthly photo blogging challenge. This month, the theme was "New" and I struggled mightily with it, so some of these might seem farfetched, but here I go. As most of you know, I retired in the middle of the year last year and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. It has given me time to explore, see new things, and do new things. That's what this is all about. Much of what I write about in this post will be geocaching related in someway, so if you're not interested, I understand perfectly.
1. New Virtual Caches
A long time ago, geocaching used to have a cache type called the virtual. In other words, you had to visit a spot, either answer some questions or post a photo to prove that you were there. Many of the virtuals took me to places that were absolutely wonderful, but couldn't have a physical container for a variety of reasons. Then, geocaching decided that virtuals, because they didn't have a container, didn't fit the geocaching mode, and so they were stopped. Any virtual caches in existence were grandfathered in, but no new ones could be created. The big bummer was they also wouldn't allow the old ones to be adopted by another geocacher in case the original owner got tired of it, or didn't have the wherewithal to continue to maintain it. So as the number of virtuals got archived, obviously the numbers dwindled. There's still a lot of virtuals out there, but not as many, except geocaching decided last year or possibly two years ago to bring back the virtual cache on a limited basis. People were awarded virtual cache placements based upon certain criteria and then new ones started popping up. The first photo is me at one of these new virtual caches down in Huntington Beach, California. The statue is Duke Kahanamoku and virtual cache celebrates the surfing culture of the area.
2. New Experiences
I read somewhere that everyone, regardless of age or status, should experience one new place each year. I'm way overdue, although I could probably say that I've experienced over 60 new places in my lifetime. In reality, I think one new place per year is on the small side. Just since I retired at the end of May, I've experienced 6 new places that I'd never seen before:
1. Muir Woods National Monument
2. Golden Spike National Historic Park
3. Craters of the Moon National Monument
4. Petroglyph National Monument
5. Guadalupe Mountains National Park
6. El Malpais National Monument
Some of these I've already written about here, others I will write about in future posts.
The latest new place I recently visited is the Living Memorial Sculpture Garden located off Hwy 97 north of Weed, California. I plan on writing about this visit in detail in a coming post, but needless to say, this was a very moving experience to see these sculptures in amongst the forest. It is also my first new place I've explored this year. I actually wonder how many more new places I'll explore before the end of this calendar year?
And this is one of the reasons why I have enjoyed geocaching so much. It has taken me to places that I might not have visited were it not for geocaching. Last week, I went on a road trip to Oregon for a funeral of the mother of a very good friend of mine. There was this geocache off to the side of the road here, but I didn't stop for it on the way up. I did, however, stop on the way back down because I had extra time. If the geocache hadn't been there, I might not have stopped at all. Because of geocaching, I've discovered new trails to hike, new parks to explore, new roads to travel and have challenged myself to try new things. All because someone was talking about this silly game in a chat room that I was in 19 years ago. Some of my best friends I've met through geocaching. I think it would take something very serious for me to give up this hobby.
3. New Ways of Looking at Things
This month, geocaching took me near where my in-laws are buried. The last time I was here, was when my wife and I were checking into the arrangements for my father-in-law's internment at the cemetery and the headstone had been removed because the cemetery had to engrave his name on the headstone. So this was the first time seeing this for me since that time. It's hard to believe he's been gone almost 3 years now.
I think most of us look at our parents as the big buffer zone between us and the great unknown. But when our buffer zone physically disappears, then we become the new buffer zone for our children and we no longer have that buffer zone for ourselves anymore. Fortunately for me, I still have that buffer zone, as both of my parents are still alive. I try to visit them at least once a month to have lunch with them and to catch them up on happenings in our household. My daughter is coming down for my birthday next month, so we'll visit my parents at that time.
On a side not, my father-in-law's father also passed away on February 6th, and my mother-in-law's brother passed away on the same day as she did. It's been said by more than one person in my wife's family, that if you survive the first week in February, you're good to go for another year.
4. New Surprises
Every now and then, when I go out geocaching, I stumble upon something that's just totally different and unexpected that I just have to document. That happened at a cache called Bison Overlook. When geocachers hear certain words, they interpret them slightly differently than the average person. A bison, to a geocachers, is a small pill container that has been converted into a geocache. They are relatively watertight, so they do a good job of keeping the logsheet dry and they are relatively inexpensive as well. You can even get them in camouflaged colors so they blend in when hung in a tree. So when we came across this cache on a walk in a park, we were expecting a bison tube with a nice overlook. Yes, we did find a bison tube at the overlook, but we also got a surprise in that there were also real bison here. Interestingly, these particular bison (or their ancestors) were once owned by Walt Disney, another surprise.
5. New Driving Experiences
I'm a Southern California guy. I was born in Indiana, but have lived here since I was 3. I don't do snow. Period. Now, all of you who live in the snow, if you could just stay there, I would greatly appreciate it since California is crowded enough without all the other people moving to it every year.
That being said, one of the things I've been able to do now that I'm retired is travel during non-peak times of the year. I went to Denver in October and got snowed on. I went to Oregon this month. While I didn't get snowed on, it was extremely cold and the snow that had fallen just before I got there was still quite thick on the ground. It was extremely cold while I was up in Oregon and although it didn't freeze overnight, the thought was in the back of my mind. It's a different kind of driving experience that I'm not used to, based upon my upbringing.
I've actually driven in these types of conditions more in the last 6 months than in probably the last 30 years. I'm good with that. It's a new experience and one that I am getting used to. Mt. Shasta is gorgeous most times of the year, but this is the first time I've been able to experience Shasta up close in the winter months. I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Well, there you have it. My "News" for the month of January. Please stop by P.J.'s site and read some of the other interpretations for the theme New. Please leave a comment here. As always, I won't bite.
This is the 3rd of a series of semi-regular articles chronicling the 2017 road trip my youngest and I took to Wisconsin and back again. This is something that, after you read this, think to yourself, "don't do Yellowstone in just one day."
The first time I visited Yellowstone National Park, I think I was 12 or 13 and we spent at least a week there. The second time, I was newly married and my wife and I spent 3 days. This time around, my youngest and I spent just a day in the park, driving in from Idaho, then driving back out later that evening at dusk. There is no way, that's nearly enough time for anything, but we packed as much as we could into the day, hiking, sightseeing and geocaching.
We came in through the West Yellowstone entrance and then headed toward the geyser basins. The first major stop was at the Grand Prismatic Spring seen in the first shot. This alone is worth a partial day visit. I wish there was a way I could convey the colors, the smells and everything about this, but I just can't. This photo is close, but I don't think it does it justice. And we didn't even get around to the other side. There's a trail on the hillside that gets you at elevation above the spring so you can see how truly grand it is and how large it is. That, in and of itself, gives me another reason to go back and spend more time there. It's the largest hot spring in the United States and third largest in the world. It measures 370 feet in diameter and is 160 feet deep.
After the spring, it was on to the Old Faithful area. All I can say is check the geyser schedule somewhere ahead of time. We got there at noon, about 10 minutes before eruption and it took us 15 minutes to find a parking spot. Because we were day tripping in the park, we didn't really have a choice as to when we were going to be there. Needless to say, we didn't see it erupt that time, but watched it erupt twice more that afternoon, once by the seating areas and once from a trail. The second time, it was erupting while Beehive geyser was also erupting. That's pretty spectacular to see two different geysers fairly close to each other erupting at the same time.
The rest of the afternoon, we spent hiking here and there among the geysers, taking in the sights, doing virtual and earth caches. Earth caches and virtual caches are geocaches that don't have a physical container. Virtual caches usually take you to a specific place of scenic or cultural beauty and you have to answer a specific question about the spot, or post a photo of you at the spot to prove that you were there. Earth caches are similar, only the spot is geological in nature and you have to answer geology questions based upon what you see at the spot. The National Park Service, with a couple of exceptions, doesn't allow physical geocaches in the parks because they view them as litter. They do allow virtual and earth caches though, so we spent the day doing those. With all of the stuff we were learning, our brains literally hurt by the end of the day.
While we were there, we watched Old Faithful erupt at around 2:30 or so. Packed house. We hiked around some more in the area, then went to nearby restaurant to eat dinner. Came back out and watched Old Faithful erupt again and could have had our pick of seats in the seating area at that time. Lesson learned. If you have time, wait until after dinner to watch Old Faithful erupt. Most of the crowds have dispersed back to their hotels or campsites and the parking lot has many spaces available. I don't think it's ever not crowded there, but there were definitely less people later in the evening. In the summertime, it doesn't really get dark until after nine o'clock, so you have lots of daylight hours in which to work.
After dinner, we drove over the continental divide and drove down to view Yellowstone Lake. There was another geyser basin right along the lakeshore, so we walked the boardwalks there and enjoyed the peacefulness of the lake. There were not as many people here, mainly because it was getting later on in the day and as noted above, most people had "gone home" for the day. After sightseeing lakeside, we hopped back in the Jeep and made our way back through West Yellowstone and into Idaho where we were staying the night. A bison jam slowed us down, but that was pretty cool watching a herd of bison walk across the road in front of us. At least we weren't going the other way on the road where a bison decided to lay down in the middle of the lane and take a siesta.
Moral of the story is, don't even think about just spending a day there. I think you need a week, maybe longer to fully enjoy the park. I know I'm going to be spending some more time there in the future.
