DE VII - Big Skies Trip Report

[Dougnuts]

This is an amazing trip report for me to read, as it brings back some great memories. My family is from Deadwood/Lead area (my grandpa worked in the mine) and I grew up in Alabama, so a lot of your trip was my yearly family vacation. I look forward to a trip like this with my boys in the near future, hopefully continuing on into Canada before returning back to KY. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Scott B.]

Bannack







Several people drank their last drink here, and took their last breath here. Quite the bar...





The premier of the newly sewn teardrop awning.

 

[gwittman]

Here is a little scale reference on Skalkalo water fall. Interesting how it goes under the road and continues on down as a more shallow water fall.

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There are many burned trees in that area too. Must have been a huge fire there not too long ago.

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Here is a monument to the site at the Big Hole National Battlefield where many Nev Perce women and children where killed during a raid by the 7th Calvary.

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This is kind of how we felt when leaving the Big Hole National Battlefield with dark clouds over us. Although, it didn't take long to get back into a good mood once we hit the road.

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This is an old wood burning oven in the Hotel Meade kitchen. Do you think this is where they cook the sourdough pancakes for the annual Bannack Days celebration?

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Here is a building in Bannack that served as a school on the first floor and a Masonic Lodge on the second. The Masonic Lodge is still set up like they could still have meetings there. You can walk up the stairs in the back to get good view inside.

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We were allowed to go upstairs in the operating Courthouse in Virginia City because there was no activity in the courts when we where there. This is a nice display at the top of the stairs that caught my attention. Virginia City was kind of touristy for my taste but they do have a great Sweet Shop where we found all kinds of wonderful chocolates. Laura asked us to pick out what ever we wanted and it would her treat to us. Well of course, she expected everybody to share and we were happy to do just that. I don't find people very often that like dark chocolate more than I do but Laura makes me look like an amateur.

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This is my last campsite after I left the group and was on my way home. It was just outside the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. I had planned to explore an area that I had not been to before but that area had a huge forest fire there recently and was closed. The Strawberry Creek Campground, where I was planning to camp, was also closed and there didn't seem to be much left of it. I just packed up the next day and continued home.

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This was another great DE trip. Mining towns and BBQ seemed to be the theme for this one. I could throw in dark chocolate in the theme also but that is always a part of DE. Good night.

 

[Hun]

Hey Gary --

I'm still a practicing chocolate connoisseur, trying to attain perfection! If you want to go back to the Sweet Shoppe, you'll have to get to Philipsburg (near Granite) to find it!

I loved that you all shared your treats.

Great pics.

 

[Hun]

Day 13 - Volcanoes and Earthquakes

6/30 Friday
Cold. It was our coldest night yet. We warmed up with piping hot cranberry oatmeal, said our goodbyes to Gary heading to LA and Keith heading to Maryland, and we were off to Yellowstone National Park. We retraced our path out of the canyon, back to the Ruby Reservoir, north to Adler, and east through Virginia City on MT 287. From there we turned south onto US 287 for a very scenic drive. We encountered a minor traffic jam as ranch hands drove cattle a mile or so on the highway.





Continuing south, we stopped at Earthquake Lake, a lake formed by the quake of 1959 that permanently altered the landscape.



The earthquake, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale and felt in 8 states and Canada, caused a huge landslide which blocked the canyon creating the 5-mile long Earthquake Lake. From there, we arrived in West Yellowstone, a town bustling with activity, to find the west park entrance. At the entrance we were greeted by several lines of vehicles awaiting entry and were glad the wait was only a few minutes. Inside the park, cars dispersed but we saw more people than we had the whole previous week. The park was crawling with visitors. We made our way east across the park, visited a museum/information center, and stopped alongside the Yellowstone River for a picnic lunch.



Yellowstone is a volcano, an active volcano and the 200+ geysers throughout the park are hot gases escaping from the earth's crust. The cauldron is massive, 30 miles by 45 miles wide covering a quarter of the park's 2.2 million acres. It is one of only 2 hot spot volcanos in the US. The scenic drive out east through the park had us slowing for bison lumbering on the road.





At Yellowstone Lake, we stopped to take in the view of snow-capped mountains beyond the wide stretch of water.



We exited the east park gate passing through a scenic canyon cut though the mountains, snow-capped mountains. At 8500' elevation, we encountered our first snow of the expedition. So of course we stopped for a quick snowball toss. Continuing east on US20, we arrived in Cody, a festive old Western-looking town. We washed the Montana dust and dirt off our rig, and popped into the local DQ for a cool treat. We then turned south on WY 120 taking us to Thermopolis, then back onto US 20 southbound through an incredibly scenic canyon route, Wind River Canyon.







Arriving in Casper, we stopped for the day at the Bar Nunn KOA, made a quick dinner of nachos, showered the dust away, and fell fast asleep in the cool, clear night. (52880, 325 miles)

 

[gwittman]

Hey Gary --

I'm still a practicing chocolate connoisseur, trying to attain perfection! If you want to go back to the Sweet Shoppe, you'll have to get to Philipsburg (near Granite) to find it!

I loved that you all shared your treats.

Great pics.

Thanks Laura for the correction. You have a better memory and take better notes than I do. It was great to relive the adventure through this thread. I am glad you got through Yellowstone without an earthquake or volcano eruption.

 

[Scott B.]

Earthquake Lake



Yellowstone NP

 

[Hun]

Day 14 - Time to get home

7/1 Saturday

Morning greeted us early. We packed up camp and hit the road leaving Casper WY behind. We traveled southeast on I-25, seeing herds of grazing cattle, long trains moving through the barren land, and oil drills spotting the landscape. We happened upon Twisters Restaurant in Guernsey for breakfast and were surprised at the delicious homemade breads and sausage gravy and especially the smoked bacon cut in thick slabs. In Guernsey, we got on eastbound US 26 taking us into Nebraska and an abrupt change of scenery, acres and acres of corn and wheat fields and longhorn cattle. The northwest quarter of Nebraska is an area defined as Sand Hills, a National Natural Landmark displaying grassy plains on sand dunes perfectly suited for longhorn cattle grazing. We travelled through Scottbluff to Ogallala picking up I-80 eastbound for North Platte. In North Platte, we taste-tested the BBQ at Whiskey Creek BBQ and then had an after-lunch stroll through the 20th Century Veterans Memorial. The park memorialized all our warriors who gave their lives fighting for our freedom, every war, every military branch - Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, and Air Force.





We made it across Nebraska and pulled off the road just across the state line in Rockport Missouri for a good night's rest. The folks at River's Edge campground, a privately run camp, were conversational and welcoming. We enjoyed a picnic dinner, watched the sun set in a vivid red sky, and drifted off to sleep. (623 miles)

On Sunday, we awoke to a warm, bright morning signaling we were no longer in the Rockies! Starting the day in northwest Missouri, we had in mind to make it to Nashville by day's end. Traveling south on I-29, our first stop was in St Joseph for breakfast at the familiar Cracker Barrel. From St. Joseph, we continued south picking up eastbound I-70 in Kansas City. We crossed Missouri, the countryside and the river, arriving in St. Louis in time for lunch at Bandana's BBQ and a stroll through the local Cabela's. Crossing the Mississippi River on the new I-70 bridge, we continued east on I-64 opting to pass the crash on I-57 that had shut down the highway for the better portion of the day. In Evansville Indiana (the 13th state of our cross country tour) we headed south on US 41 passing through corn fields and grain mills into horse country, Kentucky. Route 41 turned into an interstate highway, number 69 south of Henderson. South of Hopkinsville, we got onto I-24 and dropped down into Tennessee. Running out of daylight, and with 670 miles behind us, we called it a day and headed to campground in Murfreesboro. The warm, humid air reminded us we were indeed back in the Deep South. We listened to local fireworks, munched on a picnic dinner, and climbed into the teardrop for some welcome rest. Scott mentioned that I made a long, arduous day of driving sound fun. We were indeed grateful for incident-free travel, good weather, and no delays to speak of as we made our journey east completing a 5000 mile tour of this great nation we call home. (670 miles)

Monday -- The final leg.... Home at last!

Thanks for following this journey with us.
4842 miles... 13 states... 17 nights in teardrop... 1320 photos... delightful sojourners... adventures galore!

"Life is a great adventure…accept it in such a spirit." Theodore Roosevelt

 

[VicMackey]

Great pics and road report. Thanks for sharing!

 

[NorthwestNorthernOntario]

Nice Road Trip

I enjoyed reading your road trip, and thought it was neat to get it from different perspectives. Friends of ours used to live in Dillon and Great Falls, so we have been in a lot of those spots. Next time in the area, hit the Elkhorn Hot Springs, north of Polaris. We went up there one snowy night over a Thanksgiving weekend, and it was great-nobody up there.

That little guy trailer looks like a great way to go to get back to those "How did you find this place?" spots:elkgrin:.

 

[Ace Brown]

Hi Scott and Laura, I just stumbled on your report for DE 7 (?). It took me about an hour to read it all. So many places you visited are stops I have made over the many years of my travels. Nice to see them again. I quite sure the bar you featured is in a western move I have in my collection.

Noted several ** scattered throughout the report. What do they mean? Also wondered about the single letter names. Why not George or Bill (or Gary)?

Great report and photos as usual for y'all. Hope to make another DE someday.

Ace