My trip began in Chicago early this day. Needless to say it is a pretty uneventful and boring drive for many many hours. It was also much longer than necessary since for all practical purposes the entire state of Wisconsin (on I90) was a construction zone. I reached Badlands National Park in South Dakota near sundown and camped there. I love the badlands although the plains do get a bit windy. I think I used about 10 matches just keeping my stove lit long enough to cook dinner and the continuously flapping tent made sleeping impossible.
I got up early and began heading west. Note that I took R44 across the southern portion of the badlands rather than immediately going back to I90. Besides being very pretty and not really costing you any time, the road allows you to avoid the town of Wall and infamous Wall Drug (which literally is first advertised 500 miles east on I90). Once I got back onto I90, I headed towards the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. These mountains are a beautiful open range which reach as high as 13175 feet on Cloud Peak. I started across the southern portion on R16 the "Cloud Peak Scenic Byway". I camped in the Bighorn National Forest there and relaxed for the latter half of the day.
I began a hike to Willow Lake (about 10 miles round trip) early in the day. It is a pretty easy and relaxing hike which passes some *pretty lakes*.
I planned to hike to Twin Lakes (about 12 miles round trip) that day. While driving to the trailhead at West Tensleep Lake I saw my first moose (and its calf) of the trip along the road a bit before sunrise.
*Twin Lakes* is a beautiful alpine area reminiscent of Yosemite but without the annoying tourists and lodges. It lies 4 miles (by trail) inside the boundary of the Cloud Peak Wilderness so fortunately the people traffic is relatively low. I did encounter a group of 16 14-15 year olds on a National Outdoor Leadership School trip. They were spending 30 days in the Bighorns. I chatted with them for quite a while. Some were complaining about not having meat for 30 days (that would drive me insane I think) although a few of them were carrying fishing rods.
I drove to Yellowstone National Park the following morning. I knew it was a bad idea to go there but it was more or less on the way. The distance from the east entrance to the visitor center is 27 miles and 17 of them were under construction. Despite the 45 mph speed limits on the other park roads, you are lucky to average 25 with all the annoying RV's and such.
I saw one guy stuck in the ditch since he must have forgot to pay attention to the road when he saw the TINY black bear alongside the road.
I even saw a bus pulling a camper. You can imagine how slow that thing went up hills.
There are also the natural (far less annoying) delays such as having to follow a bison down the main road for 75 yards or so before he/she decided to veer away.
The scenery there is pretty impressive in places particularly the canyon near the *lower falls of the Yellowstone River*. The intense thermal activity is also quite interesting.
Unless you make reservations well in advance it is difficult to camp at the park. Since there are no phones, you have to drive to the campgrounds (a time consuming venture) to see if they have any sites left. You can camp in the backcountry but unless you are there when the office opens you will likely have to hike 5+ miles in to the designated campsite (there are specific sites primarily to reduce encounters with bears).
I decided as soon as I arrived that I would have to camp outside the park. I was leaving the south entrance of the park at sundown. Between Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks is the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway which is part of the national park system. There are actually some free campsites there along a forest service road (all were full by the time I got there). A woman working at the ranger station there said she knew where I could camp about a mile and a half away but.... I said but what? She asked me what I was driving so I pointed to my grandam. She said 'well you would have to drive through water a foot and a half deep'. I replied 'aaahhh no.' Well that left Targhee National Forest whose boundary was nine miles down that same forest service road. By the time I found a site it was naturally quite dark out but as it turns out as I was camped near this beautiful lake. It was by far the prettiest campsite I had on the entire trip.
I spent the day at Grand Teton National Park. Fortunately although there are many tourists they don't slow you down they way they do in Yellowstone. I hiked the trail around Lake Jenny and also took a dip in a nice cold mountain stream. The *Tetons* are definitely impressive mountains.
I also encountered a topless sunbather there. I was relaxing while my tent dried in a picnic area attached to a church. Some other people showed up a bit later and after maybe a half hour the one girl took her top off. I didn't exactly mind of course but I must say I thought this was a bit unusual.
I stopped early in the morning at EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor) the worlds first nuclear power plant. It is no longer in use but it is now a registered National Historic Landmark and can be toured. It is part of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
Near midday I met my friend Dave Rader at Craters of the Moon National Monument. The entire area is filled with *lavaflows* and *cindercones* from recent volcanic eruptions and has some fascinating geology. We spent the day exploring some of the sites along the park's loop road. We headed out into the backcountry late in the day. One thing is certain. Hiking off trail in the lava is extremely slow going. I could probably make faster progress climbing a steep mountain. We then camped in the backcountry that night.
We finished our exploration of the park and spent a number of hours crawling around in lava tubes (caves). Despite the seering surface lava temperatures, one of the lava tubes contained many icicles and pools of icy water. We parted late in the day and I drove to Boise to stay with "internet friends" Garen and Shirley Erdoisa.
While Garen and Shirley graciously permitted me to leave my expensive camping gear at their house, I flew to Harvard for an interview for a postdoc. It turned out that I wasn't all that interested in the position but no harm done. I did get to share a few beers with longtime friend Larry Marcin who is a postdoc in the chemistry department there. I should also say that the terrain surrounding Boise is very beautiful from the air. The combination of the desert-sagebrush communities at low elevations and national forest at high elevations is quite striking.
Garen took me and his nephew Tony on a tour of the Boise area. It was a pleasant (well except for the triple digit temperatures) drive into the surrounding mountains and along the Boise river. We also drove through Idaho City which is an old gold mining town which almost looks too much like a gold mining town to be real.
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December 18, 1997 - ( jmilsom@wvu.edu)
