Michigan to the Grand Tetons

We have finally made it out to the Grand Tetons, but since internet access is somewhat limited than this will be posted later.  Today is Thursday July 21^st so it took us about 5 days to get out here, though we took our time along the way.  We have the time to take since we are projecting to cross the US in at least 3 months…4 if we are careful with our spending.  We started out late Friday July  15^th after Antoine left work and we loaded up the car.  We were trying to get at least out of Michigan but we didn’t get going until 4:30 and had to stop along the way to get some last minute things, including a small tent for our one night stays so we don’t have to set up the huge tent every time.   We made it to the border of Michigan and Indiana but had a hard time finding an open campsite since it was already after dark and we were driving along Lake Michigan.  Thankfully we have internet access in the car and can call around places along the way which really helps so we don’t lose anytime.  Finally we found a place at Judy’s campsite, it looked like something out of a Rob Zombie movie.  Crazy place with crazy people.  But we had a site to sleep, set up our tent and called it a day.  The next day we left as early as possible to avoid running into the hung over teenagers that kept us up all night partying.  The next day’s direction was towards Des Moines, Iowa.  We found an awesome campsite not too far from DesMoines in the Cherry Lane State Park.  It was VERY hot when we got there so we quickly set up the tent and walked down to the lake near the campsite.  There wasn’t really a beach, it was more for boats, but there was a paved access into the water where people were swimming, so we happily jumped in.  The water wasn’t the clearest I had ever swam in but it cooled us off really well.  When we got back to the campsite Elisabeth and I went to take a shower in the AWESOME shower facilities they had there and then we went out to dinner to Panera Bread (Thanks Lynn for the gift certificate!!).   We had rushed to get there thinking they were going to close at 9pm, which was the case, and we arrived 5 minutes before they closed.  Antoine asked at the counter if they were still serving and she said a hesitant yes… I wondered why she gave us a funny look.  We stayed until 10pm because there were still people still eating inside and we wondered why they were still letting people in…. then we realized that we had crossed into another time zone and it was actually an hour earlier than what we had thought.   We had a good chuckle over this….  So the next morning we headed out not too late stopping at Walmart to stock up on groceries. 

Our next stop was Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Antoine was hoping to make it the Badlands on this day but I convinced him that we should also be seeing the sites along the way to our destinations, and Sioux Falls is supposed to be beautiful.  Well the city was nothing special but they do have amazing falls in the middle of the city.  We stayed at our first KOA which was very close to the falls.  It didn’t look like much when we pulled up since it was between the highway and a warehouse facility, but it had a nice pool and it turned out to be a great experience.  The staff was really nice and the facilities were awesome!  When you have been camping as long as we have it is nice just to have a clean bathroom with a shower.  So we spent some time in the pool with Elisabeth practicing her jump in the pool and putting her head under water. 

Then we had dinner and headed to the falls.  They were spectacular and there was an observation tower that we could go to the top to have an awesome view.  The city was small and dead since it was Sunday night.  We wanted to have a drink in town but of course we couldn’t since we had Elisabeth so we picked up a pack of beer and an ice cream for Elisabeth and spent the night at the campsite chasing fireflies.  The next day we spent some time in the pool before packing up camp and heading out to our next destination which was our first national park – The Badlands.  On the way I convinced Antoine to indulge me in seeing a cheesy tourist trap, the Corn Palace.  Well the online reviews raved about this so I thought it was a palace made entirely out of corn but in fact it is an amphitheater decorated with corn on the outside and inside.  Well it was pretty cool to see and didn’t cost anything so we enjoyed it.  It was the pride and joy of the little town. 

 It was very hot outside so we found a nice little gazebo nearby to have lunch before heading back out.  Another fun stop along the way was when Elisabeth had to go to the bathroom so we stopped somewhere where there was only one store that had a “cowboy town” with buffalo attached as an attraction.  The store was a crazy eclectic of old antiques, cheesy souvenirs, and weird moving displays.  Of course we had to try them so we put in our 25 cents and watched the gorilla play the piano and Red Cassidy shoot out the lights.  

So finally we arrived at the Badlands National Park which was spectacular when you come into the park.  We first went to the visitor’s center to pick up Elisabeth’s passport which can be stamped at each of the parks as a souvenir (Thanks again Lynn!).  It was fun to visit the center because they had a nice display of the animals in the park and other fun facts.  We found out that there are over 1000 bison in the park, and of course that is one of the main reasons for stopping here.  We did one of the hikes near the entrance since we were going to the ‘wilderness area’ after which was about a 45 minute drive from the entrance.  The hike we did was beautiful and gave awesome views of the park. 

Then on our drive out to the wilderness area we stopped to see the sunset at an overlook.  The best part was not the sunset itself but the animals that were there.  We saw turkey vultures walking in front of us and then flying off the cliff.  We also saw goats walking around which was fun for Elisabeth.  So this left us driving out to the middle of nowhere in the dark to set up camp.  Well we thought with the temperatures reaching 108 degrees during the day then there would be no one in a campsite that had no shade.  But the campsite was practically full.  We found a table and set up our camp.  Well the camping here is free but the only thing you have is a vault toilet, there is no water and no other amenities.  So we came prepared with water and everything, we were just staying one night so it was okay.  We found out that our neighbors were staying 5 days which made us wonder how they did with the desert temperatures during the day.  So that night we just had dinner and planned on getting up early before it got too hot to hike out and see the bison.  We woke up around 7 am, had a quick breakfast and headed out through the prairies.  Well from afar the prairies don’t look like much of a challenge but once you get into it there are snakes, plants that prick, and grass as high as your armpits in the valleys.  It was a tough hike out over the hills to see the bison and we thought we weren’t going to see them when we came upon a muddy area where a stream crosses normally if there was water.  Well we found the strategy of flatting the grass with our feet to cross over.  Antoine was carrying Elisabeth on his back since she would just get lost in the grass otherwise.  Finally, we saw a bison right in front of us. 

I was rather intimidated but Antoine was ready to run up and snap a picture if I hadn’t stopped him.  So we continued on seeing other ones along the way.  We saw the herd but they were a little too far for us to hike out to see them.  We were warned that there could be rattle snakes in the park so I was kind of freaking out about this.  As we were climbing a hill I was walking behind Antoine and Elisabeth, I heard a noise in the bush and looked down and saw a snake slither off into the bush, then I put it together that the noise was that of a rattlesnake and that is what I saw slither off….. I freaked out.  Antoine wanted to go after it to take a picture but it was gone.  It was an awesome hike, we were gone about 2 hours, coming back around 10 am when the temperatures started getting crazy hot.  We wished good luck to our neighbors, who were the only ones left in the campsite, and asked if they needed more water and we were on our way.  There was another exit at the other end of the park which is the direction we were headed and was beautiful.  We watched as the landscape changed from desert to rolling hills and finally mountains.  It is amazing how quickly this can change.  The most dramatic example of this was before we arrived in the Badlands when we crossed the Missouri River, the landscape changed immediately from flat plains to rolling green hills.  (And Kerri I saw the exit for the homestead of Laura Ingles Wilder… I thought of you).  So we planned on stopping for lunch shortly after at Mount Rushmore, which is of course a must see along our route but definitely not one of our favorite stops.  I had imagined this being in the middle of an immense green park but in fact they had built it up to be a concrete paradise made to be a money making machine.  But it was a nice historical landmark to see and we did the presidential trail that goes along the base of the mountain giving spectacular views on the four presidential heads.  There was a presentation given by one of the rangers that explained the history on the sculpting which was very interesting.  The scale was incredible; George Washington’s nose was like 20 feet long! 

We didn’t stick around too long because it was very hot and we were hungry.  So we continued on through the incredible mountains of the Black Hills.  We were tempted to stop and camp here but we had to get some miles in if we wanted to make it to Yellowstone for Antoine’s birthday.  Our campsite in the Big Horn Forest was just as awesome – Middle Fork Campground.  We had an awesome spot in the middle of the pine trees next to a rushing river.  We made a fire to cook a steak and sat out looking at the stars.  We slept so well with the cool air of the mountains.  The next morning we got up and went for a walk after breakfast jumping in the glacier cold water of the little creek that runs next to the river.  We went for a long walk that runs along all of the cute little private cabins and through the pine trees.  Elisabeth was in heaven looking at all of the flowers and chasing the butterflies.  I think I could have stayed there another week but we were eager to get to the national parks.   

We finally made it to the Grand Tetons National park, just south of Yellowstone, but it was already dark and we had a hard time finding the Gros Ventre campsite.  Finally we found it and was happy to see that there were lots of spots left to camp.  However since we arrived after the office had closed we were just looking for an open site and overlooked the tag hanging on the site number post showing that this site was already reserved.  So we set up camp and while we were eating dinner we had two people pull up and tell us that they had reserved the site already.  So we were ready to pack everything up when they told us that we could stay since they had friends nearby and could just crash on their site.  So we gave them the cash for the site and were very happy that they were so cool.  The next day we headed out for a heavy day of hiking and visiting the park.  Our first hike brought us up to beautiful Taggert lake between the mountains.  This was glacier water and was freezing!!  But we couldn’t resist putting our feet in and Antoine even plunged all the way in….  A good way to get the blood circulating!  We had lunch and headed back down the trail.  We then took a boat ride across Jenny lake to get to two hikes that were spectacular.  One of them took us up to an awesome waterfall and the other was a little more strenuous that brought us up to “Inspiration Point”.  On the way up the mountain Elisabeth was chasing after a chipmunk that she was able to touch before he went scampering off, she was very proud of this!  We all were able to make it all the way up to inspiration point to have the view on Jenny Lake. 

Instead of taking the boat back across the lake we decided to take the trail back around since it was getting close to dark and this is often when it is possible to see animals…well we only saw chipmunks but it was a great hike.  Our campsite was in a great area to see wildlife, there were bison crossing the roads, we saw a bear fishing across the river, and even a moose! 

Antoine went running one morning and had saw a male and female moose and he had to turn around on the road because there was a herd of bison crossing.  The stars here were unbelievably bright and we even saw an enormous shooting star low on the horizon.  Our next destination was Yellowstone.