Cruising Past Seventy: The Inner Journeys: June 2011

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Loving Nature's Work at the Nation's Center OLA

Devil's Tower, a unique igneous intrusion
prairie grasslands near the badlands
I thought those striking man-made wonders would dwarf whatever work of nature there is in the area! After all, they call it Badlands, conjuring images of vast wastelands! I was dead wrong! Instead, the area engenders praise because of the abundance of painted cliffs, canyons, and mounds, unending prairie grasslands, sink holes from which great archaeological finds were unearthed, the world’s most complex and longest cave systems, and unique igneous intrusion formations!

a section of the Badlands' Wall in South Dakota
Over 65 million years ago, western America was buckling to create the Rockies, spilling large amounts of sediment eastward. Its volcanoes were also erupting, spitting out huge amounts of ash. Over time, they turned into layers of sand, silt, and mud stone. Then about 2 million years ago, huge continental ice sheets advanced southward, blocking the flow of north-flowing rivers, creating new courses eastward and southward. Flowing faster, the rivers sliced through the soft rocks. The Black Hills (black because 90% of the hills are covered with ponderosas) were created from a secondary upsurge after the Rockies, after which the water that covered most of the area drained and the Dakota Badlands were revealed.
 
Yellow Mounds in the Badlands
South Dakota’s Badlands National Park covers over 240,000 acres and preserves the sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass (over 20 varieties) prairie in the United States. Continuing erosion happens at about an inch a year by wind, rain, and snow. The Park is surrounded by a 50-mile long Wall of cliff shelves, dotted by interesting very old mounds, and embedded by a large number of fossils that are still continuing to be found even today.

Painted Canyon at Theodore Roosevelt National Park 
red hot scoria
North Dakota has its own version of Badlands. They call it the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The renowned conservationist president credits his success experiences here at the Maltese Cross Cabin which still stands at the Visitors’ Center. It is the least visited, though, and the formations are less spectacular. However, the reddish colors give the place vibrancy. Lightning strikes and prairie fires ignite coal beds beneath which bake the overlying sediments into a hard ‘scoria’ that is resistant to erosion.

almost complete bones of a mammoth 'in situ'
petrified bald cypress
Fossils offer the best clues to scientists and the Badlands are a rich source! The Petrified Gardens and Petrified Forest display many examples of tree petrifaction. The Museum of Geology in Rapid City houses the most complete bone framework of a tetracerops, a rhino-like beast the size of an elephant! At Hot Springs, south of Rapid City is Mammoth Site, a sink hole from which bones of 59 mammoths have been unearthed! Near the NE Wyoming Visitors’ Center (a model of net-zero energy use) is the Vore Buffalo Jump, another sinkhole where the bones of approximately 20,000 buffalos are preserved.

Wind Cave's boxwork formation
looking like Teddy at Jewel Cave
Aside from these badlands, grasslands, and treasure troves of fossils, complex cave systems are another world underneath. Jewel Cave is the second longest cave system in the world at 154 miles and still counting. It is named for calcite crystals that produce glowing cave walls. Wind Cave, on the other hand, is the fourth longest at 132 miles (also still counting). It is famous for the delicate boxwork formations inside and the howling wind that either blows in or out depending on barometric pressure differences.

Needles' Eye at Custer State Park
Then there are those igneous intrusions such as the monolithic, ridged Devil’s Tower, rising 5,112 ft. above sea level in the northeastern tip of Wyoming (remember Close Encounters). 5,000 rock climbers are challenged by it every year! Some believe that it is a volcanic neck but legend has it that the tower surged higher and higher to protect 8 kids from a giant bear’s claws. Bear Butte, another intrusion about 60 miles away, is where the giant bear died hungry. On the highest points of the Black Hills, Custer State Park has Cathedral Spires, Needles’ Eye, and other unique granite formations which were the first to be considered for the Presidents’ Sculpture but eventually lost to Mt. Rushmore, the artist’s choice.

Cathedral Spires at Custer State Park
The Center of the Nation
Before the addition of Alaska and Hawaii, the centermost point in America was in Lebanon, Kansas. Now, The Center of the Nation is actually 20 miles north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota. The compass rose marker surrounded by fifty state flags proudly marks it! It is about 150 miles south of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, 100 miles west of the Badlands and 60 miles north of the Black Hills, and 60 miles east of Devil’s Tower. What a fascinating place this Center makes one is bound to fall in love with these outstanding works of nature! Actually, I believe they helped inspire those striking works of man! 

the legend at the Devil's Tower Visitor Center
Next Stop: Rounding Out Our Great Plains Adventure!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Saluting Man-Made Wonders of South Dakota OLA

an ordinary American couple among America's greatest men
in one of America's finest memorials to democracy 
South Dakota is a true revelation. We thought that the only thing to see there is Mt. Rushmore and the unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial! Little did I know that tourism, aside from cattle, is its life blood. So, instead of a single post, it will probably take me 2 to tell all our stories and show our best photos! In this first part I will include the wonders made by man while the second will deal with those made by nature.  

the profile of America's father
Seeing Mt. Rushmore for the first time gave me goose bumps. 60-ft faces of 465-ft tall Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln were carved by Gutzon Borglum, under commission from the federal government, and 360 men on the solid granite walls of the mountain. Dedicated in 1927 and completed 2 years after the death of Borglum in 1941, it stands as a solid memorial of American democracy. Film greats such as National Treasure: Book of Secrets and North by Northwest were filmed there.

the Crazy Horse Memorial after 60 years
of dedicated work by the Korczak family...
to be completed in perhaps in another 60 years?
The other solid memorial will be the world’s largest sculpture, 641 feet long and 563 feet wide. Crazy Horse was the leader of the Indians who won at the Little Bighorn Battlefield and massacred the 263 men (please see my post last week), including Custer.  A private project started by the Lakota (Dakota came from this name) elders who in 1948 contacted Korczak, a Polish immigrant and former assistant to Borglum, it is now being continued as the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation of Korczak’s family.

the missile in its underground silo
ready for its asignment...no more!
Aside from these inspiring works, there is also a menacing testament to war and destruction. At the East Entrance to the Badlands is the Minuteman II Missile Historic Site, the first memorial to the Cold War after which thousands of such sites were deactivated. It consists of 2 sites: Delta 01, the Launch Control Facility and Delta-09, the Underground Silo. I shivered at the thought that 500 of these missiles that can be deployed remotely by the flick of a finger and render human tragedy are still active in the country.

the Traveler's Chapel at the Wall Drug Store
well, what can I do? Bill found another!
 At the West Entrance is the inspiring story of a hardworking prairie family. Ted Hustead graduated from pharmacy school in 1929. After 2 years of working with other pharmacists, he, wife Dorothy and son Bill set out to look for a small town with a Catholic church and found Wall. Five years later they stumbled upon the secret that made their store famous: free ice water for thirsty travelers! They continue to serve 5,000 glasses of ice water a day and Wall Drug Store has become a tourist destination with many ice water wells, a Traveler’s Chapel, 26 western retail outlets, 300 Western paintings, a 560-seat restaurant of western cooking, singing raccoons, a Jackalope, a roaring T-Rex, and other fun stuff!

the view of Rapid City from the Dinosaur Park
Washington and 43 other presidents
grace downtown Rapid City 
Rapid City has complemented all these attractions by building a Dinosaur Park with towering life-size prehistoric dinosaur replicas on its highest point. 43 presidents also grace downtown Rapid City! Kids will also have loads of fun at Teddy Bear Town (with the largest collection of teddy bears in the world), and Storybook Island, a 4-acre park of the best-loved fairy tale characters!

the absolutely lovely Chapel on the Hills
Another unique structure is Chapel on the Hills, an exact replica of the famous intricately carved wooden Stavkirk Chapel in Borgund, Norway (which we plan to see when we go to Europe). And Sturgis, the city that draws hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists for a mammoth rally every August, is just nearby!

the unique town of Sturgis
Colossal, menacing, inspiring, child-like, and quaint works of legends like Boglum, Korczak, the Husteads, etc. are all around the Black Hills of South Dakota. I am glad we allotted 3 weeks to stay here. We have not even told you about the works of nature. The Badlands, Custer State Park, Devil’s Tower, Mammoth Site, the cave systems, etc.  Stop by again next week!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Converging@Yellowstone, on to Mt.Rushmore OLA

Old Faithful 5:00 PM, June 6, 2011
The North Entrance to Yellowstone is in Gardiner, Montana, 6 hours away from Glacier National Park. It is a 7 hour drive from Jim’s (Bill’s son) home in Boise, Idaho and a loooong 10 ½ hour drive from Suzanne’s (Bill’s daughter) home in Westminster, Colorado.  But they came to meet us there. We were at Yellowstone (and Grand Tetons) last year but this time around was different because Jim, his wife Anna and children Madeline aanother bear jam ond Ben and Suzanne and husband Dean and children Devin and Cassie joined us there.  Unfortunately, we still missed Bill’s daughter Cristine and Mitch from Anchorage.
another bear jam on a Yellowstone road
Besides, it was late summer when we came last year and this time it is still late spring. Snow still covered the eastern part of the park and some mountain tops. The colors seemed less vibrant and the gushing less spectacular this time. Wildlife was not yet all out grazing to begin another round of stocking up for the next winter. But Old Faithful remained faithful to the expectant crowds (every 93 minutes it gushes for 5 minutes). At Fountain Paint Pot, we were lucky to see the outburst of the Spasm Geyser which erupts for 30 minutes every 12 hours!

the Entrance Arch at Gardiner, Montana
The children had loads of fun, frolicking on the grassy area in the middle of the cluster of cabins, 5 miles from downtown and the Arch.  They had rented one with 2 bedrooms and a great patio at the back. With the campfire and smores and the ‘pasalubongs’ we had for each one, it was a real party on the first nightThe children entertained us with original song and dance routines (not yet ready for prime time!) The next day was a busy tour around the Park, spotting wildlife and watching geysers, the girls in one car and the boys in another! It would have been perfect had Jim been spared from intestinal flu!

Ben, Devin, Madeline, and Cassie entertaining us!
It will probably be another year before the Colborns (especially with Cristine, Bill’s youngest daughter) so far away in Anchorage, Alaska) can get together again. Perhaps late September 2012 when we will most probably be back in Colorado! That will be an 8-hour drive for Jim and family but since the kids will be in school we may have to drive out to Boise in our little Saturn! Till then, skype will have to do!

Bill on Last Stand Hill @
Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument
But, Mt. Rushmore beckoned and we have 3 lovely weeks to spend around Rapid City, South Dakota. We are here now and can’t wait to tell you about the treasures we are finding every single day in this state! But, before that, let me tell you a little about Billings, Montana. We stayed there for the night and bought some RV stuff and groceries that we needed. We also had a quick stop here in 2009 when we were making our way from Suzanne’s home in Denver to Claudine’s home in Calgary.

the Indian memorial at the Battlefield
That was when, surfing through the Net, we discovered there were two interesting attractions in Billings: the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument and Pompey’s Pillar. The former is a memorial to the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry and one of the Indians’ last armed efforts to preserve their way of life. Here on June 25 and 26 of 1876, 263 soldiers, including Lt. Col. George A. Custer and attached personnel of the U.S. Army, died fighting several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

Pompeii's Pillar
Pompeii’s Pillar is one of the most famous sandstone buttes in America because it bears the only remaining physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, appearing on its trail today as it did 200 years ago. On the face of the 150-foot butte, Captain William Clark carved his name on July 25, 1806, on his return to the United States through the beautiful Yellowstone Valley. Captain Clark named the Pillar in honor of Sacagawea's son Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, whom he had nicknamed "Pomp."

Clark's signature on the rock
Next Stop: Spending Sunny Days in South Dakota, Parts 1 & 2

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Going, Going, Gone at Glacier National Park! OLA

Wild Goose Island on St. Mary Lake along the Going-to-the-Sun Road 
When we were at Lake Louise at Banff National Park in 2007, I was shocked at its diminished ice caps from a 2005 trip. At Glacier National Park I felt a deep sadness. In 1850 there were 150 glaciers and in 1910 it was established as a national park. Now there are only 26 and by 2030 they will all be gone!  Glacier National Park will cease to exist, only 120 years after it was born. We may have done our best to rescue wildlife from endangered status but conserving glaciers is beyond human capability or will.

the view from our RV
Erroneously, I thought that Glacier National Park would be ok in June! This year, unfortunately, it has not been true. Our transition from the tropics to temperate weather, from hot and humid to cold and (lows of 39 degrees Fahrenheit made colder by 20-30mph gusts of wind) has been anything but smooth. Everyone laughed when I donned my Burberry trench coat, alpaca wool hat, and felt gloves! Uncharacteristically, I literally forgot about form and went all the way for function.

a great view
Glacier National Park is a wondrous wide wall of glacier-topped mountains, six of them above 10,000 ft., many above 9 and more above 8, spanning 16,000 square miles, straddling both the northern border of Montana and the southern border of Alberta and British Columbia. As we drove around the Going-to the-Sun Road, in itself an engineering wonder at 50 miles of the most scenic mountain highway in the world, I told Bill that I thought that this is like the Tetons…although much grander in scale!

Mama Bear and Baby
along the road to Many Glacier
We saw picas prancing around small meadows, mountain goat herds dotting mountain ridges along the road to Many Glacier, deer cavorting on our campsite, moose and baby drinking from emerald blue lakes, and mama and baby bears feeding on berries along the Going-to-the-Sun Road! One of the most dramatic features of this geological overthrust is visible in the form of Chief Mountain, an isolated peak on the border, 9,008 ft. of solid rectangular rock standing singularly powerful amid the plains of aspens and evergreens. No wonder he is called chief!

Formidable Chief Mountain
As it turned out the 6 days we had planned to get ready for our northwest to southeast trek was not enough! From getting dental and medical checks to RV maintenance routines, on the last day we found out that we had water and heating problems! Unluckily, no slots were available at Camping World. Fortunately, Blue Creek RV near Spokane fixed our water issue. So we headed on out to the Park thinking we could dry camp. Boy, were we wrong.  Unsuccessful in trying to keep warm during with double blankets each, we transferred the following day to the KOA campground just a mile off the park.

the Vidallos and Colborns
My daughter Claudine, husband Arnold, and kids Ashton, Andre, and Enzo (my very first grandson!), drove from Calgary, Alberta for 3-4 hours to meet us there. For us it was a 6-7 hour drive from Spokane. Amazingly, we arrived at campsite 316 only 5 minutes apart!  Then the fun with the family began. From driving slowly to scope animals, to fixing smokes over a campfire, to getting mercilessly beaten by my daughter Claudine at Scrabble and Upwords (did I teach them well!), and the kids getting their Junior Ranger badges at the St. Mary Visitor’s Center at the East Entrance, the experience was way too cool!

Ashton, Andre, and Enzo
being sworn in as Junior Park Rangers
red shuttle bus
Our memories are even made better with the expertise in photography that Arnold brought with him. Although we are using photos from our camera on this post, Bill and I learned a lot of new tricks from him.  (Please visit his website @ http://3klixphotography.smugmug.com). Actually, we are now considering a wide-angle lens with longer zoom! 


mountain goats dot the mountain ridges
If only we came during the heart of the peak season (July-August), then probably our visit to Glacier National Park would have been perfect. However, knowing that 19 years from today all the glaciers would be gone, we are glad that we found time for it this year! After all, it is the first International Peace Preserve Park, shared between Canada and the US (the Vidallos are Canadians, we are Americans!) Enzo said it best, ‘I don’t wanna go home‘.  But, just like the Park, they were going, going, gone. Sigh!

Next Stop:  Converging at Yellowstone!