Road Trips and Hike Reports

Since we'd both been to South Dakota before, we didn't feel any need to go to Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse.  For most people, having been to Devil's Tower would fall into that same camp but I absolutely adore Devil's Tower and have been 4 times now.  So we headed out on that long drive first thing Tuesday.  Weather was gorgeous, much cooler than the day before in North Dakota.  We walked the Red Beds Trail which is about 2.8 miles and goes along a much wider and wilder loop than the very short paved trail that winds directly around the base of the rock.  Since the park ranger said parking was limited (it was busier than you might expect for a mid-September Tuesday), we opted to park at the picnic area at the very bottom of the entire area near the Prairie Dog village.  This added a stiff hike up the flanks of the butte before we could join the 2.8 mile loop and since we enjoyed it so much we went a little more than a complete circle on the loop to take the...

I think and hope that today is the most difficult day of the entire drive home trip.  I ended up just having a bath butt a really good one in my room.  The mineral pools will have to wait until next time.  Thermopolis was thermally minimal this morning (about 6 degrees) when I headed back down Wind River Canyon at about 6 am.  The canyon was icy yesterday and I imagine it was still icy this morning so I drove cautiously.  After the canyon there was a bit of mostly dry and clear pavement (easy fast driving) but after turning East in Shoshoni where US-20 and US-26 become one road, conditions got worse as I headed East.  By the time I was half way to Casper it was basically an icy mess.  It wasn't just icy spots but a constant silvery reflective glazing of ice that got worse the closer I got to Casper.  Thankfully there were almost no cars until I got to Casper and since there was almost never another car around me and little opportunity for surprise...

Today was an exciting and scenery filled day.  I woke up to thankfully only a few more inches of snow more than were there when I got to the hotel in Idaho Falls.  The roads in town were awful just like they were when I arrived the night before so I was concerned that the entire day could be difficult.  Amazingly, the highways improved dramatically, seemingly at the city limits.  I had hoped to go through Cody Wyoming today to visit the museum my friend from Oregon recommended but ID-31 had a chain control in effect so I stayed on US-26 which took me further south and added miles both.  I did get to go over top of 9500 foot tall Togwotee pass and I had a good walk along the river in Dubois WY.  The photos do a pretty good job of showing the types of scenery I experienced today.  Other than than snowmobile recreation users at very high altitudes there were virtually no other cars.  I mean many minutes between even seeing one oncoming vehicle and vi...