August 16th Travel to Timpanogos Cave National Monument in Utah

We didn't rush out of Craters of the Moon National Monument in the morning as we knew we had a full day's run down to the Timpanogos Cave National Monument area which is south of Salt Lake City in Utah. We traveled down some pretty lonely roads while we were in Idaho all the while keeping an eye out for deer and pronghorns in the ranch lands around us. The scenery started to change as we passed into Utah and not for the better. Utah (at least in the Salt Lake City area) is rapidly growing and there are lots of developments lining the highway where all of the expensive houses sit on postage stamp sized lots and they all look exactly the same. I wonder how folks find their own house in this type of ghetto (oops! I mean development). As we approached Salt Lake City the highway changed from two, to three, to four, to five and then to six lanes on each side and the traffic was horrific! I swear the Mormons believe that god is watching out for them so they don't bother to look or yield when they enter the highway which made for a pretty scary drive for us. We both breathed easier once we got through the city and found the turn off to American Fork Canyon where Timpanogos Cave National Monument is located. We passed through a couple of towns that looked like they had just been built in the last year. All new strip malls, housing developments (each which centered around a newly built church) and chain restaurants. These towns are just yuck in my opinion as there isn't any diversity in the building styles and the houses are piled on top of each other. Anyway once we entered the national forest the scenery was spectacular with gigantic cliffs surrounding us and a swift moving river beside us that the road followed. Even though it was late in the afternoon we stopped at the visitor center for Timpanogos Cave to make reservations for a tour the following day. We were able to score the 9:50am tour and were told to be hiking up the 1.5 mile trail to the cave's entrance by 8:20am - I'll provide the details on the hike in the August 17th post so stay tuned! After we left the visitor center we secured a campsite in the Little Mill National Forest campground which is just a couple of miles down the road from the cave. Little Mill is one of the nicest campgrounds I've ever stayed in with paved sites, concrete pads for the picnic table and raised cement fire pit. And the view of the cliffs and river is icing on the cake! All this for $17.00 a night, a huge value. After we setup camp we took the truck back into one of the towns right outside of the national forest and found a self service car wash where we spent some time scrubbing dead bugs and dirt off it's finish. Boy was it good to have a semi clean vehicle for a change. As it was late we decided to spurge on a dinner out and it took us three attempts to find a restaurant that had a bar. The second restaurant we stopped at was a Chili's, and it didn't have a bar! Seems pretty darn un-American to me. Finally we found an Applebees which had a bar where we ate a nothing special meal with a couple of expensive and not so great drinks. We found out from the bartender there that Utah has some interesting rules about bars, you cannot just purchase a drink, you must purchase a substantial portion of food along with it which is why so many restaurants don't bother having a bar (Note to self, do not move to Utah). After dinner we headed back to camp to retire because we'd have an early start in the morning.

August 15th Craters of the Moon National Monument: A weird and wonderful place

We froze our bums off during the night, I could not believe how cold it got! We hadn't turned the furnace on in fact I had a window open and the outside temperature had dropped to a low of 38 degrees (and the inside of our camper wasn't much warmer). Lucky for me Leon got up first, closed the window and fired off the furnace. He then served me my coffee in bed while I laid there with every spare blanket we brought on the trip piled on top of me. Leon finally got me moving (out of bed) as we planned to attend a 9:00am ranger hike through one of the lava tubes in the park. We arrived at the meeting spot with two minutes to spare and were surprised to see we were the only ones there besides the ranger. The ranger decided to hold off starting the walk for a few more minutes and finally some additional folks showed up. I guess they were as cold as I was when I first woke up and they found getting out of bed hard to do! Anyway, the ranger who is a very nice college student who is studying geology provided us with the history of the Great Rift, the different periods in time lava has escaped through the rift and a overview of the sights we were seeing (cinder cones, splatter cones, lava flows, the areas where the Great Rift is pulling the land part, etc). As our group walked towards the lava tubes the ranger told us we would be exploring the "Indian Tunnel" lava tube with him and he recommended we take some time after our tour to explore one or two of the other lava tubes on our own. I thought this was a good idea so Leon and I decided to check out "Boy Scout Cave" lava tube because the ranger told us it's floor was still covered in ice and we thought that would be pretty neat to see. We reached "Indian Tunnel" and began our group exploration of the tube. "Indian Tunnel" is the largest of the lava tubes at Craters of the Moon and only one you do not need to use a flashlight. The lava tubes have not been improved, meaning no stairs, railings or lights. If you want to explore them you must crawl over fairly sharp lava rocks and make your way through rubble (boulders) that have fallen from the roof of the tubes. It was a good workout for us and also very interesting because our ranger knew his stuff! Once our tour was complete Leon and I headed to "Boy Scout Cave" which is much smaller and required us to crawl down into the dark, nearly on our hands and knees. There were two ways we could go once we got inside and we selected to turn right because there was a second, natural exit to this lava tube. It was hard work and the tube was totally without light. I was glad we had brought our flashlights so we could find our way through. When we finally got out of the cave I looked at my Earth Shoes and discovered that the sharp lava rock had chewed right through the soles - my shoes were ruined and I was bummed because they were my favorite pair. Oh well, I'll just need to purchase new ones when we get home. After we finished with the lava tubes we headed back to our campsite for some lunch. We hung out there for a while, reading and resting before we headed back on the loop road to travel to the "Tree Molds Trail" for a 2 mile round trip hike to view lava flows that have the impression of trees that fell into them when the lava was still hot. We had a pleasant walk with just a few steep areas and at the end of the trail we viewed the tree molds. I must say I was unimpressed with the molds but the view of the lava flows themselves was worth the walk. When we were done with the Tree Molds Trail we headed over to the "Devils Orchard Nature Trail" and did it's short walk where we learned about the different types of plants and animals that call Craters of the Moon National Monument home. Towards the end of the day we went to the visitors center to take in a photography seminar and then we returned to camp to enjoy some dinner. At 9:00pm we attended our last ranger program of the day at the visitor center and right after that we retired for the evening because we were pulling out first thing in the morning to head to Timpanogos Cave National Monument which is just south of Salt Lake City, UT.

August 14th Last day in Grand Teton and travel to Craters of the Moon National Monument

We were hooked up and pulling out of our campground by 7:30am. Our plan was to travel through the "Antelope Flats" section of Grand Teton NP in the hope of spotting the park's bison herd before heading over the mountains towards Idaho. We traveled quite a few miles on the "Antelope Flats" road without seeing any buffalo so we were beginning to think we'd been skunked when we turned a corner and met up with the herd! Like in Custer and Yellowstone the bison are free roaming so they were on the road, on the side of the road and crossing the road. It was a striking sight to see them with the beautiful Grand Teton range as a backdrop and I was sad to be leaving them as I knew that this was the last time we'd see bison on this trip.
By mid morning we were heading over the mountains towards Idaho. We took Route 22 which was pretty darn scary! Major switchbacks, 10% grades and steep drop offs (there were guardrails though). I was very relieved when we finally made it to the valley in Idaho. Our commute from then on was easy. We passed through INL territory (Idaho National Laboratory) which is 85% the size of Rhode Island and appears to be very well guarded. Not a place I'd want to break down in! As we neared Craters of the Moon National Monument we began to see basalt / lava rocks in the ranch lands and once we got to the monument we felt that we'd been transported to another world. We secured a campsite and parked our Airstream on it's black cinders and after we completed setting up we decided to explore the loop road as was only 16 miles round trip. One of the first stops on the loop road was the Inferno Cone which we climbed. It was a short, steep walk up the side of the cone and once we got there the wind was so strong we could lean into it without falling over! From the top of the cone we could see other cinder cones lined up along the Great Rift. It was an awesome sight. After we climbed back down we continued our drive of the loop road stopping to view two splatter cones along the way. One of the splatter cones had snow and ice at the very bottom, boy were we ever surprised to see this because the lava rock that is exposed to the sun can heat up to 150 degrees during the day. After we completed our drive we enjoyed dinner outside on our picnic table and then attended a 7:00pm ranger walk and the 9:00pm ranger talk before retiring for the evening.

August 13th Day two in Grand Teton National Park

I didn't have a good night and was feeling pretty ill in the morning so Leon let me sleep in. It took me quite a while to feel good enough to want to go out exploring so we didn't get going until well after 1:00pm. We decided to take it easy and just do the loop road and it's scenic pull outs and boy was the scenery ever breathtaking! The mountains rise up from nearly flat land so there isn't anything to obstruct the view of the range except the trees along the way. As we traveled the road we stopped at the Jenny Lake, Moose and Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve visitor centers so I could get my NP Passport stamps (this is an addicting hobby for sure). In the Laurance S. Rockefeller area we took a walk and experienced a bit of rain and wicked high winds so we decided to make a run for it in the hope of getting back to our truck before the skies opened up. As we began to drive out of LSR the skies cleared and the wind died down. We were laughing about this sudden change in the weather when I spied a small critter running down the road. It was a pine martin! He stayed on the road for about 200 yards, at times turning to see if we were still following him. Finally he had enough of us and he jumped into the woods. I was very excited to have seen him! We traveled the loop road back to Colter Bay Village where our campground was located and as it wasn't too late in the afternoon we stopped at the tavern there for a drink and appetizer before heading back to camp for a light dinner. We hit the sack around 9:00pm because we wanted to get an early start the next morning as we were on a quest to locate the bison herd that is maintained within Grand Teton NP.

August 12th Day one in Grand Teton National Park

We pulled out of Earthquake Lake campground about 8:00am and headed back into Yellowstone for our commute down to Grand Teton National Park. As we drove through we once again admired its thermal features, mountains and many bison. Boy, I love everything about Yellowstone except the large crowds of tourists. I'm thinking it may be time for the park to limit the number of visitors that are allowed in each day or to come up with some other plan that would reduce the number of vehicles that travel the main roads within the park. While we were there we sat in a buffalo jam, it wasn't the bison that were blocking traffic but the tourists who stopped in the middle of the road to take photos of the beasts. After a few hours we made it through the south entrance (exit) for Yellowstone and entered the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway which connects Yellowstone to Grand Teton. We stopped at the little visitor center for the parkway so that I could collect my NP Passport stamp and then we got right back on the road only to end up being stuck in our second traffic jam of the day. This time it wasn't caused by tourists or bison but by major road construction that was taking place on the parkway. It was a dusty, noisy and hot 30 plus minute wait before we were given the signal to pass through the construction area where our truck and trailer were covered with the dust and grime from the temporary dirt and rock road. Man, was I ever glad to finally get out of that mess and enter into Grand Teton National Park. While we were at the park's entrance booth we inquired about the availability of campsites and the ranger directed us to Colter Bay which still had plenty of space available so we traveled down the loop road about 16 miles (catching glimpses of the beautiful and rugged mountain tops through the trees) to the campground where we paid our fee and set up camp. After we enjoyed some lunch we headed out to the visitor center so I could collect my first Grand Teton NP Passport stamp and to see what ranger programs were being held that night. After the visitor center we went down the road a bit to the Jackson Lake Lodge which is considered a historical site. We got there to find it is a hotel that was built in the 1960s which is not one of my favorite eras for architecture and besides that it could use a good scraping and paint job. Oh well, we decided to have a drink at it's bar so that we could enjoy the spectacular view of the Grand Teton range. After we were done at the lodge Leon wanted to travel down the loop road to do some exploring but I was not feeling 100% so we returned to camp. We both read for a good portion of the afternoon and for dinner I just threw some leftovers into the oven. Leon spent his time in the early evening outside watching a doe and her little fawn grazing just a few feet from our trailer. I stayed inside, feeling pretty crappy.

August 11th A long day of towing back to the Yellowstone area

We got a fairly early start out of Glacier National Park as we had a long day of towing in front of us as we wanted to reach the Yellowstone area by late afternoon. We once again headed down Montana Rural Route 89 through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation (watching for loose cattle and horses) and then into the rolling ranch lands. I enjoyed the stark but pretty scenery while listening to bugs splat against our windshield (there sure are a lot of bugs in Montana). As we traveled I was able to pick out three missile silos and one launch site. Our missile defense system is truly hidden in plain site! Once we crossed back into Wyoming we stopped at a visitor center to dump our holding tanks and fill our fresh water at the free RV waste station then we prepared lunch and ate in the visitor center parking lot before heading back on the road. Around 4:00pm we started to look for a National Forest campground and we came upon was at Earthquake Lake which is about 30 miles outside of Yellowstone. Here's the story about this interesting place: On August 17th, 1959 an earthquake near the Madison River triggered a massive landslide. The slide moved at 100 m.p.h. and in less than 1 minute, over 80 million tons of rock crashed into the narrow canyon, blocking the Madison River and forming Earthquake Lake. After we setup camp we took a walk around the campground and then we hiked down a hill where we could see the lake with its dead trees and a portion of road underwater. On the water we saw many white pelicans, American coot and Canada geese floating around the dead trees and as we were heading back to our site we saw a doe with her fawn grazing on the hillside near us. Once we got back to camp we made dinner and then retired for the evening as it had been a long travel day.

August 10th Day two in Glacier National Park

Well, we had the best intentions to get an early start on the "Going-to-the Sun" road in Glacier but ended up not leaving camp until 9:00am. The "Going-to-the Sun" road spans about 50 miles and is the highlight drive within the park. We started at the east end, passing by beautiful (and choppy) Lake St. Mary and began the climb into the mountains. The scenery was truly spectacular, every turn brought a different, more breathtaking view of the mountain range and it's many wildflowers. As we were traveling east to west on the road we were hugging the side of the mountain (rock side, not drop side) so I wasn't concerned about how high we were getting and after about 18 miles of travel we made it to Logan Pass which has a visitor center, museum and a boardwalk trail which leads to unbelievable views . Located at 6,646 feet above sea level Logan Pass is along the Continental Divide, and is at the summit of Going-to-the Sun road. This is the highest point at which visitors can drive their vehicles and boy was it's parking lot full! We explored the visitor center / museum (I also got the Logan Pass / Glacier NP Passport stamp) and we then walked the boardwalk trail. Man was it ever cold on the boardwalk trail! And the wind was whipping to boot (burrr). As we walked the trail we saw a young deer grazing on wildflowers and a hoary marmot hanging out on a rock. I couldn't believe how many wildflowers there were, they were just everywhere! After our walk we continued on the "Going-to-the Sun" road stopping at the many turnouts to look for mountain goats, view the wildflowers and admire the snow fields that dotted the mountainsides. It was quite the pleasant drive and I said to Leon that the loop road here in Glacier was not nearly as scary as the loop road in Rocky Mountain National Park. We finished the east to west drive on the loop road right around lunch time so we had our picnic near the famous and historic Lake McDonald Lodge. After lunch we did a self tour of the lodge, what a beautiful place! I thought it to be even nicer than the lodge at Many Glacier. Though the Many Glacier Lodge has the best scenery. We completed our tour of the western section of Glacier National Park by visiting it's bookstore which is located outside of the park (which I thought was wicked weird) where I got my Lake McDonald and West Glacier Passport stamps. We then headed back to the "Going-to-the Sun" loop road, now traveling west to east. The drive was wicked scary as we were on the outside lane with sheer drop offs without guardrails! My knees were knocking together! I couldn't really enjoy the scenery as I was too terrified due to my big fear of heights. At long last we exited the loop road and we beat feet to get back to the Many Glacier section of the park so that I could get it's Passport stamp. We made it to the ranger station in the nick of time, they were about to lock the door when I ran in. I quickly stamped my book and exited the building and the rangers promptly locked the door behind me. To celebrate my getting the Many Glaciers Passport stamp Leon and I stopped at the lodge and had a couple of drinks before heading back to camp for dinner. After dinner we strolled through the campground loops and then retired early as we had a long tow ahead of us the next day.

August 9th Day one in Glacier National Park

inWe hooked up and left Choteau City Park right around 8:00am for our 2 and 1/2 hour tow to the east side of Glacier National Park. We traveled via rural route 89, which is a lonely drive through hilly ranch land where we saw many pronghorns and few cattle. Towards the end of our run we entered the Blackfeet Indian Reservation which borders the park and discovered that many of the stock animals and some beautiful horses were not fenced in, in fact they were grazing by the side of the road (or trotting down it) so extra caution was required on our part to insure we didn't hit any of them. We finally entered the park via the St. Marys entrance and inquired about the availability of a campsite and were please to hear there were plenty of openings. The Ranger at the entrance recommended we select a site at St. Mary's campground which is about 1/2 mile from the entrance / visitor center due to the length of our rig so we took her advice and found a lovely pull through with a beautiful view of the mountains. After we set up camp and enjoyed lunch we decided the first thing we'd do was to visit the Many Glacier area to attend a Ranger led historical tour of the famous Many Glacier Lodge and to get my National Park Passport stamp at the Ranger Station for the Many Glacier area. At first I thought it was a bit weird that we needed to exit the park and drive about a half hour through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to get to the Many Glacier area but after I thought about it I realized that the mountains were in the way so exiting the park made total sense. We arrived at the lodge just in time to take the tour. Our Ranger was a friendly young gal who has spent the last two summers working for the park service during her college break. She walked us through the beautiful lobby, event room and dining room providing us with nuggets of the lodge's history and at the end of the tour we stood at the edge of the lake where the lodge is located and admired the breathtaking view of the glaciers on the mountains in the distance (not much left of them by the way). After the tour we rushed out of the lodge to try to make it to the Ranger Station before 5:00pm in order to get my National Park Passport stamped but bummer for us we arrived at the station at 5:03pm and it was locked up tight. We returned to camp, had some dinner and then attended a Ranger talk at the campground up the road which was about the park's trees and animals. After the talk we returned to camp and retired as we wanted to get an early start the next morning.

August 8th A long day of towing to Choteau, MT

We packed up and hooked up first thing in the morning then pulled out of our cramped space in the crowded Fishing Bridge RV Park. At the end of the drive, before we pulled out onto the main road Leon said to me “left or right?” I said “huh? The way to Grand Teton National Park is left.” Leon said he understood that, he just wanted to know if I'd like to detour to Glacier National Park in Montana first. I asked how long it would take us to get there and Leon said it would be about a 2 day run. I said we don't have the time, he said we did. So we turned right instead of left and headed north to Montana and Glacier National Park! We had a long day of towing and we stopped about 80 miles south of the park entrance for the night. I found a city park with a nice campground on www.freecampgrounds.com in Choteau, MT for $8.00 per night where we spent a restful evening after doing our laundry in town.

Note: Choteau City Park has about 10 large and level sites (that I saw), no hookups but it has potable water and a dump station. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. You will need to use a water thief to fill your fresh water holding tank. Payment is by honor system.

August 7th Day four in Yellowstone National Park

Our last full day in Yellowstone - here's our lesson learned; You cannot see all of Yellowstone in 5 days / 4 nights. The fact is we barely scratched the surface! We thought about extending our time here but the campgrounds were completely sold out. Oh well, this just means we'll need to come back someday! Anyway, our tour agenda for the day included Norris Geyser Basin, Artist Paint Pots, Fountain Paint Pots and Old Faithful Inn / Old Faithful Geyser. We headed out about 9:30am and were traveling through the Mud Volcano area where we ended up in a huge bison traffic jam. There were bison on the road, bison running down the sides of the road, bison hanging out within Mud Volcano, they were just everywhere! A park ranger in a SUV tried to herd the bison off the road but the bison would not hear of it. It was a good 45 minutes before we could begin to crawl forward passed the giant beasts (and the loads of tourists taking pictures of the bison). We finally arrived at Norris Geyser Basin around 11:00am and we purchased the little guide that describes each of the main thermal features on the trail. It's was a awesome walk on the boardwalk trail. The colors and smells are things we will not soon forget! We saw three of the geysers erupting and the rest we saw and heard bubbling, shooting steam, hissing, burping and roaring. We spent a good deal of time here admiring the thermal features before heading off to our next stop; Artist Paint Pots. The Artist Paint Pots are actually mud pots (boiling mud in a hole in the ground, very cool looking). We saw gray and pink colored mud pots at this stop and I even got sprayed with a bit of boiling mud which hurt! Next we saw Fountain Paint Pots which are the same thing as what we saw at Artist Paint Pots but the colors were red, pink, brown and gray. We stopped at a few more places (a waterfall, more geysers, a roaring mountain side) and then finally arrived at the Old Faithful Inn where we had dinner reservations at 8:15pm. We enjoyed a cocktail on the second floor of the historic inn overlooking the four sided fireplace in the main lobby and when it was time for Old Faithful Geyser to erupt Leon went outside to the boardwalk to watch it while I went to the second floor balcony (it was starting to rain and I didn't feel like getting wet). At 8:15pm we were seated for dinner. Not in the “old house” dining room which I had requested but in the dining room addition that was built back in the 1920s. We both were disappointed with the food, service and the dining room we were seated in. Our “special” dinner ended up being nothing special which is a real shame because the prices for meals in the Old Faithful Inn dining room are very expensive and this was our big spurge for the trip.

August 6th Day three in Yellowstone National Park

On Thursday we decided we'd explore two of the five “countries” of Yellowstone: Tower – Roosevelt and Mammoth Hot Springs to view wildlife in the Lamar Vally and to see historic Fort Yellowstone and the fantastic terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs. As we drove towards Tower Falls in the morning we passed through Yellowstone's northern mountain range where we saw clouds hanging low over the mountains, sometimes completely covering the tips and at other times filling in the valleys between peaks. It was very beautiful! This area shows signs of severe fire damage but even this was breathtaking to see with the mist and clouds all around the dead, burned trees. Once we arrived at Tower Falls we parked our truck and took the short pathway up the hill and around a corner to view the falls. They were lovely, but not nearly as impressive as the upper and lower falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone so after a few minutes we continued on our way to the Lamar Valley where we saw bison, big horn sheep and pronghorns galore before we backtracked and headed to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. First on our agenda was to stop at the visitor center at Mammoth which is located in the former single officers quarters for Fort Yellowstone. When Yellowstone was first declared a national park funding was not made available by congress to actually run the park so the Army was given the assignment. After five years of living in tents the army guys realized they were going to be in Yellowstone for the long haul so they got congress to approve funds to build Fort Yellowstone. Today most of the buildings constructed during the Army era are still standing and are being used by the National Park Service as park headquarters. We purchased the little fort history guide and took a walking tour of the exterior of the buildings and the well kept grounds. We were excited to see a large group of elk cows and lambs sleeping and hanging out right next to the buildings with hundreds of tourists all around them. The elk could not have cared less about the humans! There was one elk cow that was out cold, completely sprawled out on the lawn. I'm pretty sure I could hear her snoring! After we finished our exterior tour of the fort buildings we headed over to the hot springs (just about 500 yards away). Words cannot really describe what we saw here. The hot springs create terraces of travertine which are like living sculptures that change constantly. Amazing and beautiful! This is something everyone should put on their life list to see in person! We spent some quality time viewing the hot springs and then we headed back towards camp. We did get a bit side tracked and ended up in the bar in the lodge at Canyon Village but we only had a drink each before we departed for camp where we enjoyed dinner and then retired early.

August 5th Day two in Yellowstone National Park

Hmmm, it finally dawns on me. We are camped in the middle of the caldera of a super volcano. Wow, it she erupts while we're here there will be white boxes blown all over the western US along with one very well cared for 93 Airstream Excella with her owners inside.

It's amazing here, you just need to pull off the road anywhere you see steam and shut off your engine. You'll hear the earth speaking; Hissing, burping, roaring, bubbling. I've seen shows on Discovery, History and The Travel Channel about Yellowstone but nothing compares to actually being here. The sights and smells are not like anything I've experienced before.

Today we did West Thumb and Old Faithful. West Thumb is a small geyser basin right on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. Even though it is small it has examples of every kind of thermal feature in the park. It has hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles. Some of the features are actually submerged in the lake. In the morning we took part in a ranger walk through the basin. It focused on Yellowstone's human history and how it became our first National Park. The ranger did a great job. He had us all pretend we were on the expedition that helped Yellowstone become real to the folks in congress. We rode our horses (not really) throughout the region, made camp and discovered the beauty of Yellowstone. It was well worth the 1 1/2 hours of our time. After our ranger walk Leon and I went back through the basin using the feature guide that is available at the start of the trial. We spent another hour or so there just watching and admiring the thermal features. As it was noontime by the time we were finished at West Thumb we took advantage of the basins lovely picnic area for lunch. After lunch we headed down the road to Old Faithful Geyser and the Old Faithful Inn. We arrived about 1:30pm to find it was a madhouse / zoo. It was so crowded with people that it was not pleasant. After circling the parking lots for about 25 minutes we finally found a space near the Old Faithful Inn and we headed in to see if we could catch a historic tour. Bad news was we had missed the last one of the day. Good news was the inn has a decent bar. We enjoyed a couple of cocktails and then headed out to a second floor walkway the bartender told us about to watch Old Faithful erupt. It was fantastic! I cannot describe it's beauty so I will not even try. After Old Faithful had done her stuff we headed back to camp to enjoy dinner. We then retired early as it had once again been a very full day.

August 4th Day one of Yellowstone National Park

We left our camp at Wapiti Campground right around 8:00am for the 1 1/2 hour commute to Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone National Park which was to be our home for the next 4 days. We were sad to leave Wapiti as it was the nicest campground we had stayed at since the beginning of our trip. For just $15.00 a night you get a large, shaded gravel pull through site with a bear box, a fire ring and a newer picnic table. All sites overlook the cliffs and most are just feet from the river, a truly beautiful spot! (Note: No dump, no water, no showers. Vault toilets at every loop and 1 loop with 30 amp electric at $20.00 per night). On our way to Yellowstone NP we enjoyed a beautiful and thrilling drive with crumbling cliffs on both sides, narrow bridges over fast moving rivers and an occasional elk or two hanging out near the side of the road. As we entered Yellowstone we were glad we had taken the advice of a few other travelers we'd met on our journey to make campground reservations because at 10:00am every campground in the park was listed as full! We headed to Fishing Bridge RV Park which was about a 1/2 hour commute from the park entrance and were we surprised at the number of other guests in the park. The roads were packed with cars and campers! We felt like we were in line to park at Disney World! Anyway, we got to Fishing Bridge and checked in. Once we got our site assignment we headed into the campground to find some of the tightest RV spaces we've ever seen. The sites are so tight that if you roll over in bed at night you'll knock the person in the next camper right out of bed! (Well not really, but the sites are wicked tight). The campground is popular with folks who feel they need full hookups. It also is the only campground in Yellowstone that can handle really big rigs. Now we do not have a big rig, we have a 25' travel trailer without slides so we could have gone to just about any other campground in the park if there was a site available and boy do I wish there had been sites available as this is not my idea of a nice campground. Oh well, at least we had a place to stay. We had lunch at our site and then headed out to see some of the park highlights. We first stopped at "Mud Volcano". Mud Volcano is possibly the smelliest place in Yellowstone. It has a wicked rotten egg smell with is caused by hydrogen sulfide gas. Now, this is what created the neat and strange looking mud pots but the smell is pretty overwhelming. After taking the self guided tour of the mud pots we headed over to the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" to view the upper and lower falls. I believe this is the most beautiful sight I have seen on this earth. Even with the hundreds of tourists lining the trails to "Artist Point" once I saw the canyon with its waterfall in the distance it was like I was the only person there, as if I was the first person to see the colored rocks and dramatic waterfall. It took my breath away! We lingered at the canyon / falls for a while and then headed to the Canyon Village area where we found a bar at the lodge that was built back in 1957 (and it looked it). After a couple of drinks we headed back to camp where I made dinner and then we retired for the evening as it had been a full day.

Blog updates may be delayed as we are heading into Yellowstone tomorrow

Hello Folks,

Our blog updates maybe delayed as we are heading into Yellowstone National Park tomorrow for 4 to 6 days with unknown cell / internet service. I will update as I can!

August 3rd A work day with sides of Irma Hotel and the Cody Nightly Rodeo

Leon cooked up a great breakfast of eggs, bacon and english muffins in the morning as we were not in too much of a hurry because today was a "work day" for us. Meaning we ran errands in town for the better part of the day. The most important being we finally got around to replacing the trailer batteries. Since I have not whined about it on the blog here is our sad story: As many folks know (if you've read our earlier blog posts) we installed solar panels before we started our trip because we planned to mostly dry camp in order to reduce campground costs and we didn't want to lug our Honda 2000ie generator along with us. Here's the good news, the solar system works fantastic! Here's the bad news, I told Leon before our trip that I had purchased glass mat batteries for our camper a few years ago from the company that did her restoration and come to find out they are gel batteries, not glass mat. We checked them early on during the trip because the batteries were not holding a charge overnight which means we could not run too many lights or the TV, water pump and Leon's C-Pap without the inverter screaming that it was low on power. To my dismay my memory was incorrect, once we discovered we had gel batteries it all came back to me. No glass mat, just gel. And 4+ year old gel batteries to boot which means they were at the end of their life cycle. We ended up just purchasing 12 volt deep cell marine / rv batteries as an interim solution as we want to do the research before we spend the big bucks on glass mat. Lets hope our new batteries make all the difference. In between errands we enjoyed lunch at the historic Irma Hotel in Cody, built by Buffalo Bill Cody (well, I'm sure he had people) and we're currently parked in a bar at a Mexican restaurant where the margaritas are on special for 2 bucks and draft beer is a buck - did I mention that I LOVE Wyoming?! We are heading to the Cody Nightly Rodeo as soon as I finish my third drink. I'll post pictures later.....

Here's our Cody Nightly Rodeo update: We arrived at the Rodeo just a few minutes before it's scheduled start and the first thing we noticed was the smell, it was over powering! Once inside we found plenty of available bleacher seating so we sat near the middle of the arena to insure we wouldn't miss a thing. First on the schedule was a parade of little and teenage girls dressed in red, white and blue on horseback carrying the American flag. They rode around the arena as patriotic music blared in the background. The little ones were very cute and seemed to be proud of their job. After the opening there was a lot of riding, roping, bucking bronco and steer riding going on. All of this stuff is hard to do and for the most part the cowboys and cowgirls made it look pretty easy. Something that surprised me, the folks performing in the rodeo are not paid, they actually pay the rodeo to compete! So I'm thinking the rodeo makes some major $$$ between the riders and the visitors. All in all a fun evening and now I can check "going to a rodeo" off of my life list. :-)

August 2nd A long day of towing to Wapiti, WY

We pulled out of Lewis City Park in Wheatland, WY at 7:00am as we had a 7+ hour tow ahead of us to Wapiti, WY (Wapiti is American Indian for Elk) which is a non town about 30 miles west of Cody. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for getting everything ready for such an early morning departure until we realized we forgot to dump our holding tanks before we left and we didn't want to be towing with the extra weight because we'd be traveling through a couple of mountain ranges. Lucky for us we remembered that there is a State of Wyoming Information Center at the exit we took the day before to visit Fort Laramie so once we reach this exit we pulled off the highway and took advantage of it's free RV waste station. Did I ever mention that I love Wyoming? It is so RV friendly! We were back on the road within minutes heading to our first destination of the day: Douglas, WY to visit the worlds largest Jackalope statue in the city center. Douglas is a small town that is pretty much in the middle of nowhere so at some point in the past the townsfolk decided to install the Jackalope statue in order to drawn in tourists and of course their tourist dollars. Well, it sorta worked out. The tourists came but for the most part it ended up being a quick detour to snap photos of the bunny and then they headed right back on the highway. That is what we did too (sorry Douglas, WY). After leaving Douglas we traveled for a few hours through rolling ranch land where we saw many pronghorns, cattle and horses. The land slowly changed and became mountainous when we reach the Wind River Scenic Drive where we followed the river through switchbacks as we climbed and then decended. This was a beautiful drive, the rocks were deep red, rose and green colored. We were disappointed to find the pull offs were not big enough for us to park our rig in so we could not stop to explore the area with the exception of our lunch stop which was at a state rest area right outside of scenic drive. By mid afternoon we had made it passed Cody and were headed into Wapiti when the scenery changed again as we were entering into the Absoraka mountain range. What strange and

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beautiful needles and buttes we saw! And the colors! Deep reds, dark greens, greys and rusts. Really stunning! We also passed through three very neat tunnels drilled right through a couple of mountains which border Buffalo Bill Dam. Though it was a long day of towing the beauty of the scenery made time seem to fly by and we reached our campsite at Wapiti Campground in Wapiti National Forest around 3:00pm. After we set up camp we enjoyed a walk around the campground and river before making dinner and retiring for the evening.

August 1st Wheatland, WY & Fort Laramie National Historical Site

We had the best intentions to be on the road early in the morning but I did not wake up until 8:00am. Once I realized I had overslept I moved into high gear preparing the inside of the trailer for travel while Leon dumped our holding tanks, filled the fresh water tank, unhooked from city water and electric, hooked the TV to the trailer, cranked up the stabilizers and removed the BAL wheel chocks. By 9:00am we were on our way, I was so glad to be leaving the dump of a campground I had been based at for the last 4 days! It was an easy, pleasant run up Route 25 from Brighton, CO to Wheatland, WY and we arrived in town a little passed noontime. Now, Wheatland is not a hot spot (though it is a very nice little town, population of 3500). I selected it because it has a small campground within it's city park which received great reviews on www.freecampgrounds.com. There isn't a set rate for sites, only a donation box at the entrance and length of stay is limited to three days. As we pulled in we were pleased to see how well kept the campground and park was. We saw families enjoying picnic lunches on the lawns and folks playing horse shoes at the parks many horse shoe pits. We selected a site and backed it. It was a bit tight due to the number of large trees on both sides but after a couple of attempts we were able to back the trailer right up next to the cement pad that holds the site's picnic table and grill. After getting settled in we enjoyed lunch at the picnic table and then heading out to Fort Laramie National Historical Site. The Fort is under an hours drive from Wheatland and along the way there are marked historical sites where we viewed the ruts left in the soft sandstone by the metal banded wheels of covered wagons which passed through these parts on the Oregon / California / Mormon Trails. These truly fascinated me! We were able to stand in and touch the same worn, stone paths the settlers took 160 years ago, amazing! We also stopped and viewed sites where the settlers camped after they left Fort Laramie (they only moved 10 to 12 miles a day so the encampments were not far from the Fort at all). After taking in the ruts and encampments we arrived at Fort Laramie where our National Park Interagency Pass was accepted as payment (yippee!). The NHS is very well done with some of the buildings being restored and others being only ruins. Fort Laramie was established as a private fur trading post in 1834 and was sold to the military in 1849. The first wagon train came to the Fort in 1841 and from then until the end of the migration west via covered wagon it played a crucial role by providing supplies and safety to the emigrants that passed through. We spent a few hours walking through the restored buildings and talking to park interpreters. All in all a great way to learn about the great western migration and the hardships of the settlers along with a day in the life of the solders based in this wilderness outpost. It was nearly 6:00pm when we arrived back in Wheatland and Leon suggested we see if we could find a local watering hole for an adult beverage. As we were traveling through the business center of town we both spotted a small Establishment named the Landmark Bar so we stopped in. What a hoot! It's a local place, a real coyboy bar. The bartender was colorful and wore a 10 gallon hat and huge belt buckle. He talked about all the guns he owns and the number of game he has shot. The number of times he was married and how he got rid of his wives without losing a dime. Like a said, this was one colorful guy. We each had two drinks, beer for Leon and wine for me and our total bill before tip was $7.50 - wow! We don't see prices this low in New Hampshire! Once we had finished our beverages we went back to our trailer, made dinner and watched a movie before retiring for the evening.

Note to our Airstream friends: The campground in Wheatland is named Lewis City Park and has 9 RV sites. There are some sites where the trees are far enough apart that backing into the the site would be easy, others not so much. The park offers 30 amp electric and a dump station, no water or sewer though you'd be able to fill your fresh water tank from one of the spickets located around the park as long as you have a "water thief".

July 31st Leon returns to our Airstream adventure

I picked Leon up from Denver International Airport early in the afternoon. His flights were fine, though a bit bumpy. After we left the airport we took the time to run some errands before heading back to camp to prepare for the restart of our adventure the next day. We planned on an early start so that we'd have time to explore Fort Laramie National Historical Site after we arrived in Wheatland, WY.

July 30th Another dull day in Brighton, CO

As Leon was still in New Hampshire I spent time cleaning dirt and grime out of the interior of the camper in the morning and in the afternoon I spent an exciting 4+ hours doing laundry. To top off this fantastic day I heated up a frozen pizza for dinner, watched a bit of TV and then retired for the evening.

July 29th A pretty dull day in Brighton, CO

I had big plans to complete a boatload of laundry in the morning at the campground laundromat but discovered at 8:45am that the park had turned off the water to do some repairs to its water distribution system. After waiting all day the water was finally turned back on this evening at 7:50pm. Hmmmm, I'm not loving this place as its more than rundown, I'm thinking it could be considered a dump with it's nearly empty green colored water swimming pool and rundown, messy trailers (in my row at least) . This is a disappointment to me because it's a Good Sam and AAA recommended park and we're are paying $33.00 a night to stay here. Oh well, it looks like tomorrow will be laundry day. As I had time available (due to not being able to do 4 million pounds of laundry) I planned out the next phase of our trip. Here's the deal: We'll leave Saturday morning and head up to Fort Laramie NM in Wyoming. On Sunday we'll head to the Cody, WY area to stay in a national forest campground for two days before heading into Yellowstone for four nights as I was able to secure a campsite at Fishing Bridge RV Park which is the only full hookup camping area within this national park. Now, we don't need full hookups, in fact I'd prefer not to have them as it's half the cost per night but it was the only campground in the park that accepts reservations that had space available. While I was planning this portion of our trip wicked thunderstorms moved into the area and it started to pour buckets of water. I heard a dog barking and crying at the Airstream next to me and realized that the dog's owners were not at their site and the dog was tied up outside without any shelter. I went right over and unlinked him from his lead and brought him into my trailer where I toweled him off, gave him some fresh water to drink and had him lay down on a blanket that I placed for him on the floor. He is a nice dog and seemed happy to be out of the rain. After a few hours the sky cleared so I took him back to his site and relinked him to his lead. I wonder if his owners noticed he was dry when they got home..... :-)

July 28th Camped in Brighton, CO for a few days

I dropped Leon off at the Denver Airport early this morning so he could catch his flights back to New Hampshire. I'm now holed up at my camp for the next few days which is in a private campground that is crowded, noisy, expensive and rundown to boot. It's only saving grace is I'm parked next to a hot looking late model International 75th Anniversary Editon Airstream travel trailer. I hope they'll be staying for a while. On the other side of me is a wicked run down, messy (junk all around it) older trailer that is being used as a main residence by a gentleman with two barking dogs. Lovely, I'm keeping my door locked.

Don't expect any exciting posts for a bit, I'm going to spending my time catching up on laundry, doing some grocery shopping and cleaning the trailer (it's amazing how much dirt and grime has gotten into everything over the past 3600 miles). I'll also take the time to do some trip planning and maybe try to get campground reservations in Yellowstone, wish me luck!

July 27th Rocky Mountain National Park

Ok folks, you cannot "do" Rocky Mountain National Park in one day. There is just too much to see, hikes to take and ranger programs to attend. But we did not have the luxury of time so we decided to take the loop road through the park before heading to the Denver Airport area in the evening. If you read my last journal entry you know that we suffered trailer brake failure on the way into Estes Park and no one in their right mind would tow a trailer on the Rocky Mountain NP loop road without trailer brakes so Leon spent time in the morning looking for the point of failure. He found a couple of things that were suspect; old taped up wires and a crushed wire but no smoking gun. We connected the truck and trailer and by some miracle our trailer brakes were now working so we decided to continue into the park with trailer in tow as planned. We gladly left the crowded, noisy, expensive RV "resort" and entered the park at the Fall River Visitor Center entrance and began the climb up the mountains passing through the treeline and into the alpine area. The drive was beautiful, breathtaking actually but we were saddened to see the extensive damage done to the park's trees by the Pine Beetle. 60% to 75% of the trees are dead or dying because of the beetle epidemic which ranges from Canada to Mexico. As we drove through the switchbacks with sheer drop offs with only stone railings I changed my mind and decided that no one in their right mind would tow a trailer of any size on the loop road. It was wicked scary at times! Not that Leon had any issues, our GMC HD2500 had no problem handling the thin air or pulling the trailer up the inclines and the trailer brakes worked flawlessly. I had the problem! I have a fear of heights and had forgotten how scary this road was when we drove it in a car back in the 80s, never mind driving it with a huge truck and 25' trailer! My knees were knocking together! Anyway as we got into the alpine area we were thrilled to see herds of elk resting on the mountain sides near the road. We could not pull over to view them due the size of our TV & trailer combo (45 ft in length) so I took pictures as we slowly drove past them. They were stunning to see! After a few hours of enjoyment and terror (on my part) we left the loop road and Rocky Mountain NP and headed east towards Denver as I had found a campground that was within a half hour drive from the airport for me to camp out at while Leon was back home. When we were about 30 miles away from our destination the sky darkened and the wind picked up big time. Our truck and trailer were being pushed hard by the wind so I turned on our CB to the emergency channel where we heard that a severe thunderstorm was approaching us with winds up to 58 miles an hour and golf ball sized hail. YIKES! Airstreamers hate hail! So we made the decision to pull off the highway and wait for the storm to pass through the area and after 45 minutes we were able to get back underway and we arrived at our new base camp before 5:00pm. I was tired from having been terrorized for a good portion of the day and didn't feel like cooking so we went out to a local chicken wing chain where the food was nothing special though I did down 3 Margaritas which helped to reduce my stress level.

July 26th Scotts Bluff NE & travel to Rocky Mountain National Park CO

After a good nights sleep we hooked up the trailer to our TV and towed the short distance to Scotts Bluff National Monument. Scotts Bluff has scientific interest from a geological standpoint as the north face shows more geological history than any other place in Nebraska. It's also the second highest point in Nebraska (which tells me Nebraska is a wicked flat state) but our reason for visiting this NM is it's connection to the settlers movement west via the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Pony Express Trails. The settlers could see Scotts Bluff from miles away as they were traveling through the high prairie and after days and days of the same scenery it must have been a pleasant sight for them. As they traveled through the bluff it became a bottleneck and they needed to have the wagons go through in single file which caused deep ruts in the landscape which can still be seen today, 160 or so years after the wagon trains went through. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built nearly every structure at the Scotts Bluff National Monument in the 1930's - the summit road, Saddle Rock Trail, the visitor center, the maintenance barn, and a residence now used for administration. The summit road is the most spectacular of their work with three tunnels carved through the rock and the way it was designed insures it cannot be seen as you view the mountain from the ground so the mountain appears untouched. Leon and I viewed the short slide show in the visitors center about the trials of the settlers on the Oregon/California/Mormon Trails and then walked through the exhibits to build upon what we learned from the slide presentation. I got the mother lode of national park stamps here as all of the settler wagon train trails run through this park, I got 6 stamps for one visit! Outside of the visitor center we took the 1/2 mile trail to view the ruts left by the settlers wagons, it was amazing to me that they are still there! On the way back we took a peek at the display of the types of covered wagons that settlers used and we were both surprised at how small they were. We ask a ranger about the ones we'd seen in western movies from our childhood and he told us those were later period wagons used by freight companies to move goods west. Man! If we can't trust Hollywood who can we trust? :-) Before leaving the park we took the shuttle up to the top of the bluff where we had an excellent view of Chimney Rock in the distance. The ranger who drove the shuttle provided us with additional details about the settlers and the America Indians who called this area home, it was very enlightening. We hit the road about 11:00am as we had a 4 to 5 hour tow to Estes Park in Colorado. As we were arriving in Estes Park, right at the point where the road grades became steep we lost our trailer brakes! We pulled over and tried to troubleshoot without success so we carefully towed into Estes Park to secure a campsite. We checked with a ranger at Rocky Mountain NP who informed us all NP campgrounds were full (not a surprise) so we were forced to select a private RV "resort" just down the road from the park. It was everything I dislike about private parks: Big, crowded, noisy & expensive. It was rally style parking! People who had slides only had a foot or two between them and the next persons slide. Awful! And Estes Park has grown too, and not in a good way. It's a giant tourist trap now which is not how it was when we visited in the late 1980s. Oh well, sometimes you cannot go back again. As I was too tired to cook dinner we went out to a local Mexican joint which was a disappointment. Not a good end to our day.

July 25th Devils Tower WY & Agate Fossil Beds, NE

After breakfast we headed over to the Devils Tower visitor center to attend a 1 1/2 hour, 1.3 mile ranger walk around the base of the Tower. There was a large group of folks gathered for the walk, more than the ranger normally guided but he was not fazed. He set some ground rules about keeping to the trails and not touching the American Indian prayer cloths that could be seen hanging from some of the trees and we were off. We made six stops around the tower and at each stop the ranger gave us insight into how the tower was formed 1 1/2 miles underground and exposed as the landscape above it eroded away, what the tower means to the Native Americans, climbers and local ranchers and the wildlife of the area. It was an interesting talk and we got a lot out of it, much more than if we just walked the base of the tower ourselves reading the information signs along the way. The tower looks so surreal, I understand why it was selected as the spaceship landing site in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I didn't see any UFOs though (bummer). Anyway, here's the geological story as told by the ranger: About 50 million years ago molten magma was forced into sedimentary rocks above it and cooled underground. As it cooled it contracted and fractured into columns. Over millions of years, erosion of the sedimentary rock exposed Devils Tower. The Tower rises 867 feet from its base and stands 1,267 feet above the river. It's teardrop shaped top is 1.5 acres and it's base is 1,000 feet. After our walk we dropped into the visitors center so I could get my Devils Tower stamp stamped into my National Park Passport and to view the exhibits. Before 11:00am we were back in the campground hooking up our trailer to our TV so that we could get on the road to our next stop for the day: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument which was about a 4 hour run from Devils Tower. We traveled on Route 85 in WY to Route 20 into NE to Route 29 down to Agate Fossil Beds. These roads traveled some of the most wide open spaces I ever saw, there was nothing to be seen except prairie for miles at a time. Strangely beautiful though, with the exception of the many junk cars lined up outside of run down mobile homes which were sprinkled along our route. We finally arrived at Agate Fossil Beds NM, man it is out there! No homes, or towns for miles. I wonder how long the commute is for the few rangers that man this lonely park. Anyway, we watched the introductory movie and viewed the exhibits. It was fascinating to learn that the fossil beds were created about 19 - 20 million years ago when a drought struck the plains of what is now western Nebraska. Deprived of food, hundreds of animals died around a few shallow waterholes and over time their skeletons were buried under silt, sand and volcanic ash which preserved them. The most common fossils found are Moropus, Palaocastor, Menoceras, Daphoenodon and Daeodon - Do not ask me to pronounce these! After getting my National Park Passport stamped we continued on our way as it was getting late in the day and we still needed to secure a campsite for the night. Our goal was Riverside RV Park in Scotts Bluff, NE. I had done a bit of research on www.freecampgrounds.com and found this park listed for $10.00 with water and electric. After about an hours worth of travel we pulled into Riverside (which is connected to the county zoo) and found they had spaces available for us. What a deal! It's a very clean park with full hookups for $15.00 and W/E sites for $10.00. We selected a W/E site because we didn't need to dump, paid our 10 bucks and set up camp. We had a little bbq and then retired for the evening as the next day we would be visiting Scotts Bluff NM and then travel to Rocky Mountain National Park.

July 24th Travel day to Devils Tower and some very sad news

We were packing up the trailer and TV when Leon's cell phone rang around 8:00am MT. It was Lucia, Tyler's wife (Leon's boss) calling to tell him Tyler had passed away the night before. We were both shocked. His health had been declining but his death came much sooner than expected. Lucia told Leon he went quickly and peacefully, and that he had been happy the day that he died. Tyler was a great man and Leon loved working for him at C & M Engineering. He will be greatly missed.

It was a quiet commute through the Black Hills of South Dakota into Wyoming. We stopped at the Wyoming visitors center (Route 90, exit 189) to dump our tanks and fill our fresh water at it's modern, clean and free trailer waste station. After dumping and picking up some brochures about Devils Tower and Yellowstone we stayed in the parking lot and made up some lunch (yes, we washed our hands first). Another Airstream had pulled in while we were dumping and the gentleman who owned it came over to chat for a bit. He and his wife had been full timing in their trailer for about 4 months seeing the country and were loving it. This is something Leon and I hope to do someday too. After lunch we hit the road towards Devils Tower, arriving there mid afternoon. We found an available spot in it's campground and set up camp. I found we had a slight cell signal, just enough for me to connect my netbook to my mobile phone for internet access so I searched for flights out of the area so Leon could get home to attend Tyler's services. I did not have too much luck, pricing was quite high so we made the decision to change course and head to Denver, CO so Leon could take a Southwest flight out on Tuesday using some of my banked tickets. After booking Leon's flights we walked around the campground a bit before making dinner and retiring for the night.

July 23rd Jewel Cave National Monument

We slept in, packed up a picnic lunch and then did some work on the inside and outside of the trailer because our Jewel Cave tour reservations were for 1:45pm. Jewel Cave is a national monument instead of a national park so it does not receive the funding that Wind Cave does which means there are fewer rangers available to lead tours and there are fewer areas in the cave that are "tour ready" (meaning no lights or paths). It's also "free" just like Wind Cave with the exception of the cave tours. Tour prices ranged from $5.00 to $8.00 with Senior / Access National Pass holders receiving a 50% discount. After a 45 minute commute which took us outside of Custer SP and past the small town of Custer we arrived at the national monument where we took advantage of it's nicely maintained picnic area. After lunch, when we were in line at Jewel Cave to pick up our reserved tickets we saw many folks being turned away because all of the tours for the day were already sold out. In fact we heard a ranger telling one family group that the next tour opening was 2 days away so we felt pretty darn lucky that I was able to reserve the "Lantern Tour" the day before. The "Lantern Tour" is a 1 3/4 hour tour that follows the paths of early cave explorers using only oil lanterns for light (well, if you are a little kid you get an electric "oil" lamp so you won't burn yourself. I selected an electric "oil" lamp myself). The tour started at a historic ranger cabin that was built by the CCC. The ranger / guide pretended that we are in the year 1936 and provided the history and geology of the cave as it was known during that time period. After the cabin tour we all picked up our oil lamps and descended many steps down to the "natural" cave entrance. Back in the day the first explorers used dynamite to enlarge the opening so I'm thinking it's not so natural anymore. Anyway, we entered the cave and within moments were descending old, steep steps down deep into the cave. It seemed like we were descending 1000s of feet but the ranger said we only went down about 150 feet. It was a tight fit and we were going through small holes in the cave instead of paths. Lots of bending and stooping and it was wicked dark too! Even with my lantern I could not see my feet or where the next step should be. Up and down (mostly down) stairs we went until we got to a small room where we viewed the calcite crystals that lined the walls of most of the known cave. Jewel Cave is named for rooms and passages that are lined with the jewel like calcite crystals which sparkle like gems with illuminated. It was magic! As the tour progressed our guide left 1936 and came back to the present to provide us with the current understanding of the geology of this cave with the most fascinating being it's projected size. Per our guide and the exhibits in the visitor center it is believed that only 5% of the cave has been discovered / explored. If this is true than Jewel Cave has the potential to be the largest cave in the world. Right now 146.1 miles of passages and rooms have been documented (this is updated everyday) compared to the current largest cave in the world (Mammoth Cave in KY) which is listed at 387 miles. Remember at 146.1 miles it is thought that only 5% of the cave has been discovered! I'll keep an eye on this over the next few years to see if it actually does end up being the largest cave, wouldn't that be cool! Half way through our tour it was time to head back and of course we had to climb up all of the 750 steps we can down on. There was lots of panting going on, even the little kids were struggling with the climb. Oh, I should mention that cameras were not suggested due to the tight spaces so I did not bring mine in. Others did, in fact one family took about 30 pictures of themselves during the round trip which blinded the group each time their flash went off. I was thinking to myself how many pictures does one need of of themselves next to brown rock? Oh well, I hope they enjoy their memories. As this was our last night in the area we decided to spurge by going out to dinner at Sylvan Lake Lodge within Custer State Park. We arrived a bit early for dinner so we got a couple of drinks from the bar and found a good spot to use the lodge's free Internet access to do a couple of blog updates. We went to dinner around 7:00pm and we both ordered game. Leon got bison and I got elk which we shared. The food was wonderful and worth the $$$ though the service not so much. The wait staff were friendly but not well trained which distracted from the fine dining room and food. After dinner we headed back to camp to begin to pack up as we were leaving South Dakota and heading to Devils Tower in Wyoming in the morning.