Start: Badlands National Park, Interior, SD
Destination: Thermopolis, WY - <a href="http://www.eaglervpark.com/">Eagle RV Park and Campground</a>
Odometer: ???
Date:  Sunday, September 4th,  2011

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.  For the first time this trip, we had a night completely without rain and without wind.  However, it was our first night of cold weather:  around 40 degrees.  Neither of us slept particularly well, but my Dad’s sleeping bag wasn’t closed around him, and the cot surface was cold as well, so needless to say, he had a cold, uncomfortable night.  I didn’t realize how bad he had it until the morning, but once I knew, was able to educate him about the need for insulation under him and a sealed sleeping bag.  We found the extra blanket when we had packed and set it aside for use the next night.

We were both anxious to get out of the cold and on the road, so we were out by 6:15 and planned to have breakfast at our first stop of the day: Mt. Rushmore.  We arrived a little after 8 and finished off our bagel and lox supply, under the watchful eyes of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (Teddy and Tom apparently had something better to look at).

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Mt. Rushmore is an impressive engineering and artistic accomplishment.  In my head though, it was always very large.  Now that I was seeing it in person, it seemed kinda small (each head is “only” about 60’ tall) and Jefferson’s skin/stone wasn’t lookin’ too good.  In addition to getting our standard tourist photographs, we learned that those presidents were chosen to represent a characteristic of America in its first 150 years:  Washington-Birth, Jefferson-Expansion, Lincoln-Preservation, and Roosevelt-Development.  We opted not to walk the Presidential Trail leading to the base of the mountain (to look up Washington’s nose), but I would have done a longer walk if it took us to the top of the mountain.  After getting a picture near the NH state pillar and filling our water bottles with water that was recently found to be above the EPA’s new arsenic level, we headed back to the car around 10am to depart on the roughly 6-hour drive to Thermopolis, WY.

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The drive through Wyoming was/is amazing.  The sky really seems bigger there and every stretch of road had a new mountain, rock formation, or cliff to gaze at in wonder.  The traffic was light, but we were delayed by frequent stops to take photographs of the landscape.  We’re looking forward to our future drives through the state.

INCLUDE PICTURE SLIDESHOW

We arrived around 4 at <a href="http://www.eaglervpark.com/">Eagle RV Park</a>.  This campground seemed tailored to motor homes, but had a few tent sites.  The presence of WiFi and a laundry room were very welcome amenities.

After the past several days, my Dad and I are pros at setting up this tent.

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We quickly did so and I made veggie burgers again to use them up and use up our remaining bread.  We decided that today was the time to clean out our coolers, restock, and figure out meals for the next leg of the trip.  Also on schedule was:  doing laundry and taking a scenic drive through Wind River Canyon.  Our initial attempt to start laundry was foiled by other campers who had just filled the three washers, so we opted to do the drive first, stop at the local supermarket, and then run our loads.

I had never heard of Wind River Canyon, and so when my Dad mentioned as an aside that there was a short drive he wanted to do near the campground, I had minimal expectations.  Well, it turns out any expectations I had would not have been high enough.  It was a beautiful drive on winding roads along a wide, flowing river, at the base of 4,000’ mountains shooting straight up, that took us through mountain tunnels, giant boulders, over 60 million year old granite, and immense caverns and canyons.  We were continuing to be awed by the landscapes of WY.

ADD SLIDE SHOW

It was an interesting contrast going from that scenic drive to downtown Thermopolis (population around 600) to visit the supermarket.

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Dad wisely suggested we stay away from anything perishable, so we stocked up on tuna and beans, but also got a fresh bag of ice, some frozen peroggies, veggie burgers, an avacado (obviously for me, not for Dad), and some apples.

When we returned, we went back to the laundry room, and were able to run our two loads of laundry.  Mom had picked up all-in-one laundry dryer sheets before the trip, so we gave them a whirl.  We almost ran out of quarters, I had to run my load through the dryer twice (Dad wanted me to just take them, but they were fairly damp, so I insisted), but the machines and all-in-one sheets worked fine, and it was nice being in the warm, lit laundry room, with WiFi, away from the bugs, during the night.

That night, we talked a bit with our neighbors from Colorado who were on a several day fishing trip in the area.  Dad asked them about the Skyline drive in Canon City, CO we were thinking of doing.  It’s a one lane road with no shoulder and thousand foot drops on each side.  Their description of its narrowness did not lesson our concern about the drive.  We’ll have to decide whether to do it when we get there.  No view is worth our lives.

We went to bed shortly thereafter in anticipation of tomorrow:  a relaxing time at the Thermopolis Hot Springs and a long scenic drive to Alpine, WY.

September 5th

Cold night, but were better prepared
packed up and headed to the Thermopolis Hot Springs, the largest in the world
no one else there, drove and walked around, bridge, white sulfur, bathed, looked for buffalo
Highly recommend,, felt great afterwards,
drove for awhile through beautfiful Wyoming
had PB lunch at reservoir
drove through Grand Teton national park to Alpine, WY, finally saw buffalo near Grand Teton’s in Moose, WY
discussion of role of government, civil society, and charity