We continued our drive along the southern edge of the Badlands Wall into an area known as the Pinnacles where we passed a lone coyote, the official state animal of South Dakota (since 1949): Just beyond the Pinnacles, the road heads due north across the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands where we immediately came upon a … Continue reading
The scenic drive through Badlands National Park is called the “Badlands Loop Road,” although it doesn’t make a loop, unless you consider it to start and end in the little town of Wall and to include the 21 mile drive from there on I-90 to get to the Park’s Northeast Entrance. Arriving at the Northeast … Continue reading
The northern edge of the Black Hills of South Dakota lies almost exactly 200 miles due south of the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP, an easy drive on US85 from Medora. It’s relatively mundane scenery, looking across rolling prairie, until you are within sight of the Black Hills, about the same time as US85 … Continue reading
The Little Missouri River is the thread that stitches together the three separate units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The river rises in northeastern Wyoming near the Devil’s Tower and from there snakes generally northward into the Dakotas, passing through Medora into the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP. It continues north from there another … Continue reading
I remember as a kid picking through change, looking for Indian Head pennies and nickels. They were both pretty much out of circulation by the 1960s, but every now and then I’d find one. The Indian Head penny, minted from 1859 to 1909 – when it was replaced by the Lincoln cent – wasn’t much … Continue reading
The Little Bighorn River flows north from Garryowen to the town of Hardin, Montana, where it joins the Bighorn River. Leaving the campground Tuesday, we likewise headed north, backtracking on I-90 to Hardin and continuing from there on MT47 to I-94, about 50 miles northeast of Billings, where the Bighorn merges into the Yellowstone River. … Continue reading
The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument is located inside the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana. You probably know the Little Bighorn as the site of “Custer’s Last Stand,” referring to Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876) and his final battle against the Plains Indians. We visited the Monument Monday afternoon after my trip to … Continue reading
After visiting the Buffalo Bill Center, we headed north on WY120 into Montana near Billings where we hopped onto I-90 eastbound, then southbound, to the Little Bighorn Battlefield NM, arriving just before dinnertime on Sunday, August 30. In preparation for this trip, I read several books about the Sioux and the Indian Wars of the … Continue reading
Leaving Yellowstone NP, our goal for the day was to drive to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana. But, having all day to travel the 250 miles, we stopped for a couple hours in Cody, Wyoming, to visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. One of the statutes in front of the Center, … Continue reading
We were informed upon entering the park when we first arrived that the road from Canyon Village to Tower-Roosevelt was closed for the year for maintenance and that there had also been an unexpected closure of the road between Canyon Village and Fishing Bridge due to an overturned fuel truck and the environmental clean-up that … Continue reading
On the drive from West Thumb to Old Faithful, the road crosses the Continental Divide twice, the second crossing being Craig Pass at elevation 8,262 feet. Straddling Craig Pass is Isa Lake (more like a large pond in my opinion), one of the only natural water bodies in the world that drains into two oceans; … Continue reading
Yellowstone National Park was established on March 1, 1872, as the world’s first national park. For over 100 years it was the largest national park in the United States, being surpassed in 1980 by several created that year in Alaska. A rectangle carved out of the state of Wyoming, measuring 54 miles east-west and 63 … Continue reading
This was going to be our big travel year: Central Asia; the Caucasus; South Africa. But, then … well, you know. Lockdown. But life is not risk-free and by August, having had enough of homebound imprisonment, we decided to take our chances and make a break for the Free States of the High Plains: Montana; … Continue reading
Canyoniers use a rating system to describe the difficulty, nature and duration of their routes. Our route has been variously rated 3B, 3BII 3BIII and 3AIII, all reviewers agreeing that the general difficulty merits a Class 3 designation: Class 3 – Intermediate Canyoneering – Rappels or technical climbing and/or downclimbing. A rope is required for … Continue reading
We realize now that our hikes in Arches NP and Canyonlands NP were consecutively more challenging: slick-rock and cliff edges on our way to Delicate Arch; scampering across fins at Upheaval Dome; climbing and stemming in narrow slot openings in Fiery Furnace; and, ascending and descending high-elevation fins in Devil’s Garden. Now, time to put … Continue reading
Keeping with our Old Testament theme, we next hiked the Devil’s Garden, its trailhead being at the end of the Arches NP scenic Park Road, 18 miles from the Park entrance. When Arches was designated as a National Monument in 1929 by Executive Order of President Herbert Hoover, only Devil’s Garden and The Windows were … Continue reading
Unlike the descriptive names of the various hikes and features in Canyonlands NP, the location of our hike today in Arches NP bears the mysterious title: “Fiery Furnace.” What few references I have been able to locate claim that This surreal geologic labyrinth earns its name from the deep red and orange glow of the … Continue reading
Arches NP lies due north of Moab. To the southeast is another National Park: Canyonlands, NP, the largest in Utah. Between the two is Dead Horse Point State Park, the bluffs of which you can see in the photograph, below, in front of the distant La Sal Mountains. The road into the northern district of … Continue reading
It’s a little over 150 miles to Moab from Torrey where we had camped while exploring Capitol Reef NP and environs: east on UT-24 to Hanksville; continue on UT-24 northeast to I-70; east on I-70 to US-191; then south on US-191 to Moab. With the exception of I-70, the entire drive is 2-lane roads, many … Continue reading
The trailhead to the Hickman Bridge is just 1.5 miles east of the Capitol Reef NP Visitor Center. It’s a leisurely 2-mile walk with a 350 foot ascent. And, because it’s near the Visitor Center and easily accessible from the road, it’s a fairly crowded hike. Nevertheless, with patience, I was able to get a … Continue reading
Capitol Reef, established as a National Park on December 18, 1971, is the most recently designated and second largest National Park in the State of Utah (Arches NP became a National Park just 36 days earlier; Canyonlands NP is 40% bigger). But Capitol Reef NP is not the capital of anything, nor was it ever … Continue reading
Even after being reduced in size by President Trump from 1.7 to 1.0 million acres, Grand Staircase-Escalante NM is still, by far, the largest of all the National Monuments and National Parks in Utah. Consequently, in order to really appreciate it, you need to drive it. We have already driven into the Monument from the … Continue reading
After Zion, we spent several days in Escalante, Utah, exploring the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The Monument was established by President Bill Clinton in 1996 pursuant to the Antiquities Act of 1906, by which Congress granted the president the power, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and … Continue reading
We remained near Zion for a couple more days after our trek in The Narrows, but decided to take a break from hiking. As a diversion one day, we decided to go rock-hunting outside of the Park by driving north from Virgin to the Kolob Reservoir. The road to the reservoir, paved the entire way, … Continue reading
The two most popular hikes in Zion for the adventurous are Angels Landing and The Narrows. The former, Angels Landing, is a 5-mile roundtrip up a 1,500 foot tower via two sets of switchbacks, followed by a 0.4 mile finish across the “Spine,” a narrow sandstone ridgeline with 1,000 foot drop-offs on both sides. This … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 