Hot Springs, Hiking, Geysers and Even More Hot Springs

This weekend was awesome because we finally had time to get in and explore the park!

Friday after work we went down to Mammoth (which is about 5 miles south of us and the park entrance) and roamed around the hot springs there and just mellowed out after a long day. I love the hot springs. My favorite parts are the blood red-orange streams and the way grass and trees just sprout up right along the edges of these extremely hot volcanic things. 

Part of Mammoth Hot Spring

 Thermophiles are the organisms that line the hot spring and make it such a beautiful color

Saturday started with a drive to Canyon that was disappointingly cut short due to road closings and our forgetfulness of the huge amount of snow around that area. But we turned the day around with a nice long hike on the Lava Creek trail out of Mammoth. About 5 miles in, the hike took us near the top of Undine Falls, so we naturally  hiked off trail for awhile to sit at the very top. It was awesome. The hike itself was a mostly uphill challenge, but I love the chance to go up against a good challenge, especially when it involves beautiful waterfalls. 

Sunday was a pretty mellow day too, we did a lot of driving. The drive took us about an hour and a half south into the park to Old Faithful and the geyser basin there. Of course we HAD to watch Old Faithful go off a couple of times (which we didn't think to get pictures of....) but that was not my favorite geyser anyways. My favorite is called the Pipe Geyser. It goes off almost constantly, pulsing out splatters of steamy water. I love it. And I also really liked the Solitary Geyser, which is (as the name states) secluded about a half mile up a hill from the others. It erupts every 5 to 7 minutes in a slow, lazy, burpy kind of way... if that makes sense. 

Pipe Geyser

Solitary Geyser used to be a Hot Spring, now it erupts 

And that was our weekend! Yesterday we took a dip in the Boiling River to unwind after work, which was a pretty neat experience. It's like mother nature's jacuzzi. And tonight we just did normal stuff.. grocery shopping... hanging around the apartment... nothing too productive. 

This guy is the best.

I hope all is well with you, have a good week!

Peace and Love.

First few days in our home til October

WE LOVE GARDINER!!!!!!!! Around every corner of this town (and park, though we have had little time to explore it yet) is something that makes you want to stand in one place for awhile and just take it all in. I like my job in the retail distribution center, my coworkers are really nice. Everything is going great. I may cry when October comes.  And that's about it, I just want to show you some pictures of our new home =)

The Employee Bunkhouse, our apartment is in here.

The Kitchen

Bedroom/Living room

The Bunkhouse in relation to the Yellowstone River (to the right there, you may need to magnify)

The view just beyond the front steps

Downtown Gardiner, MT

Oh, and the hikes are ok too ;)

Peace and love.

Devil's Tower, lots of driving and Gardiner

We spent Easter morning in Spearfish, SD and spent the rest of the day at Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It was pretty awesome, not at all what either of us expected though.

Apparently we had only seen photos or heard stories about the tower being in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by desert, but this was definitely not the case. The hike took us through lush forest, golden prairies and lots of red clay hills. It was so beautiful and the tower itself was actually jutting out of a huge hill.  Did you know that the tower was formed by magma underground and then slowly the soil around it eroded and exposed it? There were also a couple of people climbing it while we were there, which was cool to watch. 

can you spot the climbers?

Oh, and the prairie dogs were extremely friendly! they walked right up to me, so close that I probably could have pet them, but didn't want to get fleas... or bitten.... or scolded by a park ranger. That night we slept in Gillette, WY in a combined Kmart and Walmart parking lot.

Yesterday we spent the majority of the morning doing our laundry in Gillette and then set off on the road for the remainder of the day, stopping only for our second shower this week at another Flying J(I have never appreciated a shower so much as the past two truck stop showers I've taken!) We made it to Billings, MT in time to cook some soup and go see Titanic in 3D. That night was spent in yet another Walmart parking lot.

Today was a pretty relaxing day too. We made it to Gardiner, MT (our home until October) and set up camp at a local RV Park, our housing contract doesn't actually start until Thursday. After a small hike down the Yellowstone River and a bike ride to explore the town, we cooked some spaghetti and are just hanging out at the campground. 

Thank G-d for Flying J's and Walmart parking lots.

Peace and Love.

South Dakota Landmarks Day

Today we were able to get a lot of sight seeing in and covered very little ground. 

First we went to the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD. It was pretty wacky, but I loved it. There were lots of souvenir shops and, as promised, free ice water and 5 cent coffee. We posed with the local wildlife, the jackalope, and even got to see a couple of stuffed raccoon sing bluegrass tunes. All in all it was a successful visit.

The Badlands were our next stop of the day and they also did not disappoint. It's so fascinating to drive in and have a flourishing grassland to your right and an desolate region of worn away rock to your left. both sides were covered in wild things though. We saw so many cute prairie dogs and even got relatively close to one of them (a safe distance of course). There were so many bison! The road was even blocked at one point, which was awesome! We wanted to go on a hike through, but there was surprisingly little to offer and it was soooo cold this morning, so we settled for the car tour and lots of stops to walk around.

Our next stop was Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty interesting. I went a few years ago on my way out to Yellowstone, but we only stopped for a few minutes and got back on the road, I didn't even know there was a museum under the viewing deck! We walked the Presidential trail and took lots of photos and then went to the museum. Did you know that Mt. Rushmore was actually named after a NY lawyer 2 years before they even started plans for the sculpture?

After Mt.Rushmore we passed through Deadwood and wound our way up to Spearfish, SD where we are sleeping tonight. Tomorrow we have plans for the Devil's Tower and then booking it up to Bozeman, MT for the night. We'll see how it all turns out. 

Peace and Love.

Corn Palace and Wall Drug

Today was mostly driving.... BEAUTIFUL driving, but driving nonetheless. We made a stop in Mitchell, SD to see the "Amazing" "World's Only" Corn Palace, but when we got there, it was far less than advertised and we left a little disappointed with our detour.The outside was semi-decorated with a couple of corn husk murals, but the inside was a newly renovated gymnasium... we just weren't impressed, and we're easily impressed. Anyways, we stopped for lunch at subway and went on our way through South Dakota.

On our way through we passed lots of beautiful country and wound up just outside of the Badlands in a town called Wall, SD, Home of Wall Drug!! We got here just as the sun was setting and the store had just closed. Tomorrow we have a full day ahead, starting with a trip to the famous drug store and some hiking through the Badlands. Sorry, no pictures today.

Hope all is well where ever you may be.

Peace and love.

Spam Museum and the Jolly Green Giant

After a nice van-cooked breakfast of eggs and bananas, we were off to experience Austin and all it had to offer. The Spam museum was the big stop of the day and it was actually worth visiting! It was as wacky as you would imagine with some interesting history thrown in. The town also houses the Hormel Foods production facilities and that leaves the town smelling a little less than pleasant, but all the smelliness is worth it =)

We were back on the road before we knew it, but before we knew it we pulled off again. In Blue Earth, Mn there is a large statue of the Jolly Green Giant and we simply couldn't miss a photo-op with this guy. I also love the name of the town, it has a nice ring to it.

Our next destination after Blue Earth was Sioux Falls, SD. We actually made it there by sunset! Sean took a few videos and pictures while the sun was still up and then we climbed around on the rocks and on top of the falls well after the sun went down.

The day ended with our first shower in days at a Flying J truck stop. It was SOOO much nicer than either of us expected it to be. We got our own private full bathroom. The water was just the right temperature long enough for both of us to take a longer than usual shower (and it was really clean too!) When we were sufficiently clean, we made camp in the far corner of the truck stops parking lot and cooked beans and rice with corn pancakes for dinner.

Peace and love.

(April 5th)

Lots and lots of driving... with some cheese thrown in

We slept in a little after our long night of driving and then woke up ready to drive again. There weren't too many landmark moments on this day, but we did stop for some authentic Wisconsin cheese and few snapshots with the cheese shop's giant cow. 

We drove up through Wiconsin and finally made it to Austin, Mn to experience the SPAM museum, but it just  closed when we got there. So we had a date night in the van involving rom-coms and snuggling until we dozed off.

Peace and love.

(April 4th)

Chicago and Antioch

After visiting Cassie, we parked the van and took a train in to Chicago for the day. We did the usual touristy stuff there (Millenium Park, Navy Pier, Lincoln Park Zoo) and basically just walked the city. Near the end of the day we made a short trip out to Berwyn to have dinner with my Aunt Cathy and cousins Carrie and Tommy. That was fun, though short. We were able to catch up and eat delicious pizza from a place called Micheal Anthony's. Mmmm.

When we finished dinner we took a train back in to the city and then hopped another out and back in to Northern Indiana. We decided that instead of sleeping in the train station parking lot, we would just drive as far past the city as we could until we just couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. We ended up in a Walmart parking lot in Antioch, Il. The next day we woke up ready for a new adventure.

Peace and Love.

(April 3rd)

the first two days: northern indiana

Yesterday we left Terre Haute, but not Indiana, not yet. We are visiting our good friend Cassie and her adorable little son Leo in Chesterton, Indiana until tomorrow morning. The trip up was only about three and a half hours and went pretty smoothly. We stopped a couple of times to do some filming but other than that we just drove right through. We also discovered that our giant van really isn't THAT bad on gas, so we may be able to get out to Yellowstone afterall ;)

We got to Chesterton around six last night and were greeted by a very happy Cassie and quite puzzled toddler (don't worry, we grew on him) and had delicious veggie lasagna. Leo taught us that a cow says "mooooo" and happy (the dog) says "ruff ruff!", tickled, giggled and then went to bed. Cassie and I stayed up almost all night talking while poor Sean slept downstairs on the couch.

This morning we woke up early to take advantage of everything we could in town. We went to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and bummed around the beach.  While we were there we climbed The Devil's Slide, which is basically a steep incline walking on loose sand, that was a little tough, but worth it for the view and the rapid trip back down =)

After the Dunes we went for a bike ride around town and stopped for lunch at a local place called The Red Cup, the food was good, but the people must have been having a bad day. After lunch we took a short nap in the van until Cassie and Leo came home from school/daycare. When they got home we went out to Michigan City to play on the beach again and follow Leo around like paparazzi taking pictures. We had chinese for dinner and ended the day sunburnt and satisfied.

Lake Michigan is so beautiful. Tomorrow we are headed for Chicago.

Hope all was well in your world today =)
Peace and Love.