Wild West roadtrip recap!

Out on the wide open road!

(fig. 1)

This is my friend Courtnay and I about halfway through Montana... and about halfway through our "Wild West" road trip.

Court, a traveling nurse who decided to leave the East Cost via car to head back to the Pacific Northwest for a month (before taking up her next assignment in, oh, i don't know, wherever the hell she wants...) was looking for a little company on her excursion, so naturally, I hopped on the first plane to Sioux Falls South Dakota to meet her half way.

Before you say "Sioux Falls?!? Why would you ever fly there?!!??" (Just like a handful of people during my layover in Minneapolis horrifyingly asked) it was simply a natural stopping point for me to meet up with Courtnay, and we were there only long enough to get gas and a crappy tasting 20 oz black coffee.

After that, we starting flying through the vast countryside of South Dakota, stopping for scenic photo ops at such geographical wonders as a) the Badlands and b) Mount Rushmore.

A) the Badlands

Jagged striped rockage as far as the eye can see! (Which is far in South Dakota.)

Token "cute flower" shot. Made all the rattlers seem much less scary.

Love the sharp cuts through the crisp blue sky (quick disclaimer- all these shots are naked.)

 

Rainbow rocks!

 

Court and I loved these rocks so much we had to stick our heads out the sunroof and take a picture to capture our true excitement! (Really not being sarcastic here...)

Seriously, we were stoked about our drive through these immensely beautiful rock formations.
Not into beautiful rock formations? Then don't go to South Dakota.

B) Mount Rushmore

Another beautiful, though not entirely natural, rock formation.

Those are four of our "founding" fathers: Washington, Jefferson (?), Roosevelt (Google which one if you need to) and Lincoln.

In all honestly, it was a little underwhelming. We stayed there all of 15 minutes before making a pit stop at Crazy Horse monument (I'll return in 50 years when there's more than a forehead and nose sticking out of the side of  huge-assed rock) and hurrying to what we had hoped would be the "cracking" city of Sturgis.

For those of you who don't know, Sturgis is a destination biker-city that hosts thousands of leather-clad Harley enthusiasts every year for one of the biggest HOG events in North America.

Sounds pretty cool right?

That's what we thought, and why we chose to stay there instead of our other option of Rapid City.

We got into town about 9:30 p.m. and had to race to even get a bite to eat before everything shut down.

Moral of the story?

Sturgis is a snoozer any time the rally isn't going on.

NEXT.

Deadwood.

We didn't realize that this historic gem of a gambling oasis was just a stone's throw away from our Super 8 lodge in Sturgis when we arrived (otherwise, we definitely would have stayed here.) But we made a pit stop in the morning to tour the few blocks of the city which feels like it hasn't changed a bit since the good old cowboy heyday of the Western expansion - other than the hum of hundreds of electrically powered slot machines.

We had drinks, played a few rounds on the Buffalo machine, got some coffee, and hit the road once again. 

 (fig. 2)

After leaving South Dakota, we began to weave in and out of Montana and Wyoming before taking a jaunt into Yellowstone.

Both countrysides were scenic and serene. There's not much there in the way of civilization, but the untouched landscapes of these states are (for lack of a better word) awe-inspiring.

At one point during the drive, we decided to take advantage of the nothingness of our surroundings and set up some self-timer pix along the expanse of long open road (see fig. 1 and 2 above, as well as the one of us rioght hurr in front of the green fence.)

After hours of driving, we finally made it into the gates of Yellowstone, via the freaking terrifying mountain pass called "Beartooth Loop."

Don't get me wrong, the drive was absolutely gorgeous, but there's just something damn unsettling about getting higher and higher onto a mountain along a very narrow and very windy ridge with little more than a foot-tall "guardrail,"  with a driver who is sweating profusely through her extremely vocal anxiety attack.

Me (who kept offering to drive but was secretly SO GLAD she never took me up on my offer) tried to remain calm, and take her mind off her fear by asking her things like "So... what's your favorite food?"

Her response "Um.. well... I don't know. I like a lot of things.'
Me: "Well what's you're favorite? Just pick one... humor me."

Her (suddenly sounding much more tense): "OK.. like pick one? Like my favorite food I would eat for my last meal? LIKE IF I WERE GOING TO DIE?!"

....

 

Needless to say, that portion of the drive wasn't exactly relaxing. And our suffering  probably lasted much longer than the average visitors' because we stayed a steady 25 mph on the 70 mph winding road.

But, like I said before, it was a beautiful site to see and it led us directly into what I had been hoping to see the entire trip:

An ass load of wild bison!

As you can see, this portion of our trip took the stress level down immensely.

(NOT!)

Before we got to Yellowstone, I was starting to get nervous that we wouldn't be driving through the "right part" of the park to "really get to see" the wildlife, particularly the bison.

Apparently, I was wrong! 

These big hairy beings literally take over portions of roads in the park-  blocking traffic, rolling in brush, kicking up dirt, grunting, staring menacingly into your car...

you know, all the normal stuff you would expect from thousand pound wild  animals with a tendency to gore unsupervised travelers.



So... I'm going to pull the "gorgeous" card again.
And the "we made it out alive" card, is always a plus, too.

We wearily made it into Bozeman that night, about four hours past schedule due to all the unforeseen, slowing-down circumstances, and slept hard.
We woke the next morning and made our way to Coeur D'Alane, Idaho early enough to finally enjoy some fun in the sun!

YE-HAW!

 Us on the beach with our matching hats (in case you didn't notice them earlier.)

 View of the lake from our lovely room, thanks to the sweetest lady ever - Doris "Grams" Weaver, who certainly helped show us girls a good time.
Thanks, Doris!


And that pretty much wraps up our Wild West roadtrip - 
now mosey on, lil' doggies!