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Paul and Casey's Great Adventure - Part 2 |
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So we left South Dakota, and began our journey to Yellowstone. We passed by a huge, monolith looking mountain called the Devil's Tower. It's basically a rectangular mountain. I didn't take a pic for some odd reason so you'll just have to take my word for it. We also stopped at the Little Bighorn, where about 130 years ago General Custer and about 100 men were surrounded by several thousand Sioux warriors and got completly wiped out.
There was a little museum which described the life of the typical soldier and gravestones were set for the men where they fell. Looking at the gravestones, you could kind of get an idea of the way things progressed. Some died in Custers retreat, others got cut off and died trying to run away, and most of them died on a small hill where they had been surrounded.
Little Bighorn was in Montana, so naturally Casey was a little worried about neo-nazis, I was a little worried about Inbreds (That worry would strike me in several states during our trip), and we were both a little worried about cults. But fortunately we made it through Montana without any of the aforementioned groups noticing us, and in fact we stayed at probably the nicest Motel 6 in the country, which had a huge room and even had an indoor pool and jacuzzi.. |
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The bodies of the enlisted men of the 7th cavalry are here. The sign says'Mass Grave. Please keep off.' |
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On this hill, desperate soldiers recognized their situation and knew they were not long for this earth. |
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And here, a Sioux warrior looked up at Custers Last Stand and knew that the battle would soon be won. |
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From Montana we came to absolutely the most amazing site of our trip, Yellowstone National Park. There are areas in Yellowstone which don't even look like you are on earth. Lots of steam vents and minerals that rise up and paint the ground odd colors. White, misshapen trees all over the place. Geysers. Not to mention wild animals like elk, bears, and buffalo which come out of the woods and hang out. I've never been to a place like it. You had to stay on the paths assigned in many places because otherwise you might plunge into an underwater hot spring and die. The air smelled strongly of sulfur, too.... the steam vents provided some welcome heat, but it wasn't air you wanted to be breathing too much of. The weather up there was odd. It was baking hot almost everywhere during our trip, but in Yellowstone we got caught in a freak snowstorm, so heavy we could barely see. The storm was at the point where I thought we'd get stuck, but 10 minutes later it was gone completly. Of course we also saw Old Faithful, which usually goes 40 minutes or so between shots now. Definitely worth a trip.
We left Yellowstone pretty late, and I still had to drive 8 hours to get to our hotel in Salt Lake City. On the last 30 miles or so of that drive only Casey, wanting not to die, kept me awake with chit-chat. We passed through Idaho, and my fear of Inbreds struck Big Time. The only place I stopped there, people looked at us out of towners strangely and when I went to use the bathroom, I saw a glory hole cut in the stall wall. I got back in the car and moved on pretty quick. Casey didn't leave the car once in the entire state. That was all I really remember about Idaho.. even the name of that state is odd. I've no plans to go back there anytime soon. |
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Casey at 'Sunset Lake'- A large pool of boiling hot water laced with mineral deposits. |
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A 'paintpot'. For some reason I was really enamoured with these things. |
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Old Faithful. |
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A wild bear, just walking around loose near our car and capable of killing us. We didn't get out. |
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A cool landscape pic at Yellowstone. Yellowstone mostly consists of either hot springs or landscape like this. |
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Main |
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Back |
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Continue to Part 3 |
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