The Northern Adventures - Montana, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and the Dakotas

When Susie first asked me about going with her to Montana to pick Emme up from college, I was quite excited. First it would be great to see Emme and where she is going to school. Second, it was an opportunity to experience places in the U.S. I hadn't spent time before.

Spending most of my life in larger cities, most people do not think about the Dakotas and Montana as places for vacation. It wasn't until I went to some conferences in Park City, Utah that I started to understand the wonder of the mountainous outdoors.  Over the few years of the conference, I went hiking in around the conference venue, took a trek to Wyoming to see my nephew and his family (an wild horses too), travelled in the darkest dark to visit Jackson, WY and went to rodeo, explored a small portion of the Grant Teton, and spent some time relaxing in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho.  It has intrigued me to explore more in depth places I never would have considered before. Getting to do this trip was a great opportunity to see more of the country and do it with my sister and her daughter (my god-daughter).

Emme is an amazing young woman. She is driven by passion to pursue her dreams in a place that is quite remote but fits her well.  When I looked up Dillon, Montana, and her university, it seemed way of the beaten path and not ready for people from out of the area. Now having been there, I was so impressed by how nice the people are, and a genuine nice. While some of the conveniences I might expect in a city are 50 miles away, the basic necessities (including a place to buy plastic storage tubs) are right there.  There are fun and funky places to eat, the Taco Bus, and a place I call Huckleberries because of its huge sign advertising huckleberry shakes. The most well know store is a Patagonia outlet that is for the most part seems way too expensive for college students. The small library is a beautiful building established as a Carnegie Library. The court house is a classic picturesque structure of yellow brick and a central turret with a black-shingled cupola. There are some gorgeous victorian homes brightly-colored and turreted. It seems to be a proud community. Every where we went people were excited to talk about their community and give recommendations.  There were a couple women in the university bookstore who were super helpful. Yesterday in Yellowstone we ran into a guy, Cody, who graduated from Montana, Western. He was clearly proud to have graduated from there and working in Sequoia National Park. He was talking to Emme about professors and courses. He was excited for her to be going to his alma mater.  It has been great getting to experience some of this.

<Random observation time> So, on our first day of travel from the Twin Cities, we made a beeline for Miles City, MT with one brief stop in Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  What struck me about Miles city or rather the exit where our hotel resided, was the number of casinos.  I am not talking Vegas-sized casinos, or Native American style casinos for hundreds or thousands of people.  No. These are tiny casinos of no more than 20 slot machines. They are attached to restaurants, a common sight in gas stations, even taking over iconic fast food restaurant buildings (we saw a casino that was in an old Pizza Hut building). In this small town at this one exit there were probably a dozen of these casinos. It was kinda of a lack luster version of the Vegas strip.  The casinos are everywhere in Montana.  The gas station ones are the oddest for me. Even in Dillon there were a few downtown and in the major gas stations around town. A surprising experience. If you like the slots, you will never be too far from an opportunity in Montana. </Random observation time>

Ghost towns: One of the most interesting experiences I have had on this trip was a visit to Bannack State Park near Dillon.  It is an old town from the 1800's that is now a ghost town.  People had resided there until the 1970's but its hey day was really the mid-1800's with a gold rush. It is known for a strong vigilante movement that was trying to make the community safe including from its local law enforcement. They say Sheriff Plumber was in cahoots with stage coach robbers and buried his gold in the hills around Bannack. When arrested, he could see his hiding place from his jail.  As yet, no one has found the gold. Could still be out there...
Or they killed him because a law allowed vigilatnes to take the property of the ones they killed if they could prove their guilt.  You decide.
Montana seems to have a lot of ghost towns.  One we drove through is Nevada City which is really an outdoor museum designed to preserve history and the buildings of the boom towns.  We pass through quickly but I think it would be fun to explore a bit more.  Virginia Ctiy isn't really a ghost town but has that same ambience.  Definitely a tourist destination that could be like an "Old West" version of Williamsburg, VA.

National Parks, Monuments, Memorials, Historic Sites, Forests, Grasslands, Seashores, etc.: Over the course of my life, I have been to a few of the National offerings for outdoor experiences. Living in DC, there were a number right in the city. My experience in the Grand Tetons really opened my eyes to what these places offer. On this trip I believe we visited five and drove through another two. It was such a quick trip, I would go back to each of these places to spend more time.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park: In North Dakota, this was the area to which Teddy Roosevelt retreated to grieve after the death of his first wife. What a beautiful area it is! Plateaus, valleys, gorges and gullies fill this park. Being there early in the season gave us the opportunity to explore it with out the summer crowds. I do believe, this is a hidden gem in NPS set of options. The landscape was picturesque with windswept valleys and deep water eroded gullies. I saw my first prairie dogs here along with a coyote, bison, and magpies.

Yellowstone National Park: This one needs no introduction. There is so much to see in the park. We hit it in the early part of the season when not all the attractions, or the roads for that matter, were open. We were blessed with unbelievable weather. Because of the time of year, we were also blessed by little traffic and as such we were able to see much of the park. This trip was a tasting of the park, I need to go back and savor the wonders here by hiking, and exploring trails, and sites off the beaten path. Old Faithful was fantastic; the fountain geysers were cool as well especially getting sprayed in their mist; mud pots are found in many locations but the mud volcano is great especially the Dragon's mouth cave at that site; Mammoth hot springs was almost mind blowing with the build up of minerals over the decades/centuries; Grand Prismatic with its gorgeous water and bacteria pads were really intriguing as I tried to wrap my head around these bacterial formations; the canyon falls were breathtaking; and Yellowstone lake was a sight to see. There is still so much to see but I would love to take more time to hike and dive into the park in ways staying on the roads and boardwalks do not allow.

Devil's Tower: Having seen the sign on the way out of Wyoming, we made a quick detour to see this classic monument. I felt like I was channeling the "Close Encounters" experience. What an impressive site! Seen from a distance it is fantastic but up close it is mind boggling, a lone tower of stone that stands amid a low hilly landscape. The rock formations look like striations formed by a Play-Doh press to look like the top of a churro coming out of the ground. We walked the path around the base of the tower and Emme climbed the boulders to the base before you need a permit to climb. The area also recently experienced fires.  Seeing the charred trees and stumps with the new life already reclaiming the land was inspiring. I am so glad we stopped.

Mount Rushmore: This was one of the places I wanted to stop when we first talked about the trip. Ok, some the movie National Treasure 2 was partly in my mind while visiting. In many ways, less impressive than the natural wonders we had already seen, it was still fun to go through. One thought that kept going through my mind was the idea that hundreds and thousands of years from now, how will future civilizations view this stone sculpture. Will they think them gods to us? Will later cultures destroy or deface them as some around the world  have done to the massive carvings of the Buddah or Hindu gods? What will be its legacy?


The Badlands: We zipped through this rather quickly as it was our last day and still have 7 or 8 hours of driving ahead of us. In many ways this come up unexpectedly.  You seem to be on this grassy plain with some hills but as you approach you see what could be another world spreading out below you. Canyons and gullies of wind swept stone formations. The fact that it was once a sea made me wonder what we might see below our own seas if massive geological changes happened. I would love to go back and take one of their trails to see it more up close.
We live in an amazing world with so many things to do and see. How much do we overlook in our own backyard?

Wildlife: The whole trip was amazing.  I really enjoyed seeing mountains, geysers, canyons, geological formations, sculptures, and more. One aspect that was really cool was the wildlife. At our first stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we drove through a prairie dog town. Dozens of prairie dogs dotted the landscape. So adorable! While watching these guys, a coyote trotted along behind them not close enough to attack but close enough to make them nervous. A little further down the road we saw a bison grazing near an overlook. We were close enough to draw his attention and jump back into the car.  :-)

<interlude bison stories> Later as we were headed out of the park, I need to use a restroom. We stopped at a picnic area but discovered a herd of bison lounging at the site between the road and the facilities. The sidewalk was open but I had no intention of walking that gauntlet. Got back in the car, and drove to the next toilet. These were next to the herd but I could get there without being in the middle of them. when I came out, however, the ones closest seemed disturbed by my presence and I snuck around the back of the outhouse (cleanest pit toilets ever!) to avoid them thinking I was going their way.
At Yellowstone we had bison everywhere even meandering down the road to some grazing land blocking traffic going the opposite direction of us. We were so lucky to be able to drive past them that close.</interlude>


We saw many white-butted camel-necked deer, or elk if you prefer. Initially we couldn't figure out what these animals were. Without their antlers, they just didn't look like what we would have expected. At one point we went to the North Gate to see the Roosevelt Arch. We stopped in the National Park Forever center. When we came out Elk were surrounding the gate. We got pictures but need to walk through the gate to get to the car. We skirted along the side to an open walkway but as we passed one elk was eying us menacingly like he was not happy with how close we were. Clearly we got passed without incident but it was fun to see them so close.

Birds, we saw magpies which I had never seen before, hawks, a bald eagle, and my favorite a mountain bluebird.

It was a wonderful trip.  I look forward to going again and spending a bit more time. Best of all was spending time with Susie and Emme.

Old Faithful

Mammoth Hot Springs