Day 8: Badlands National Park, South Dakota – Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming
May 8, 2008
I am finally up to speed with my journaling. Days 4, 5, 6, and 7 were written from short-term memory and mine is not the best as a few of my close friends can attest.
The last few days have been a great whirlwind full of driving, seeing the photographers and sights, and taking the occasional personal photograph or two (nudes, obviously).
I find the longer I wait to write about our travels, the more necessary specifics I seem to not remember. And a large portion of travel writing is all about the latter; the descriptions, the odd sights, the random words exchange in the car.
We have covered a vast distance in the past 3 days: Ann Arbor, Michigan to the Badlands, South Dakota. This morning we packed up our campsite and made our way back into the town of Wall to visit Wall Drug. The experience cannot be described with words.
T-rex at Wall Drug.
The Badlands.
Right now we’re driving along I-90 through the western portion of South Dakota, specifically the town of Spearfish. I raise my head from the 15″ screen of my PowerBook G4 and run my eyes all around the landscape that surrounds.
There is still snow here and strangely enough, I welcome it. Ethan and I currently live in Tenants Harbor, Maine, and all of our snow melted during the previous month before our departure.
We are now in Wyoming. The day started off quite overcast and windy while in the Badlands and has since changed over to quite overcast, windy, and foggy; an added driving bonus.
A foggy Wyoming #1.
A foggy Wyoming #2.
The overcast, foggy day has now cleared and we’re surrounded by cumulous clouds and blue skies. The clouds seem so large and low-hanging that I feel as if I can reach up and move hands around inside of them. They are, of course, a few thousand feet above my head and because of this will not be a reality. Ethan is 6 feet 7 inches and has long arms by default but even he cannot reach the clouds. True story.. just do not tell him I told you.
A beautiful Wyoming.
We are cruising through Wyoming and it is simply stunning. Cliche for a reason, the landscape stretches for miles and we are in awe. Low on gas and nearing empty, we pass Crazy Woman Creek. “Her water runs low but her banks rise high. She must rage at times,” I tell Ethan. “Like all crazy women,” he replies. I laugh and realize the only care we have while on the road is making sure there is gas in the tank to propel us forward.
We barely make it to the gas station. Ethan fills his car with 13.455 gallons of gasoline; his tank only holds 13.5 gallons. We rejoice and laugh more. A celebration is in order. We both eat a chocolate chip cookie and rejoice.
Moments ago we finished our first major mountain pass drive at 8:04PM MST from Ranchester to Burgess Junction, both in Wyoming. It was everything you are imagining right now.
It is now after 1AM MST and I am writing this from our room at the Passage Bar and Motel maybe 5 or 10 miles West of Burgess Junction. Originally, we had planned on camping but there is still quite a lot of snow at this elevation (approx. 8,000 feet) and we decided it would be best to forgo that option and instead sleep in a room due to the cold temperatures.
The room was offered to us for $95 and I asked, “How cold is the temperature going to get tonight?” implying that we would sleep in our tent if not too cold, and the guy behind the desk was kind enough to offer it to us at $75; still more than we would have liked to pay but well-worth it for safety reasons. Plus, there’s satellite internet and we’re literally in the middle of nowhere.
