Onward to Yellowstone

Check out the view from our campsite this morning:


There was a lake on the otherside!

We drove much further yesterday day than we had intended. Starting out in the Black Hills National Forest in northwestern South Dakota, we headed west thinking we might end up in Buffalo, Wyoming. It seemed like a decent distance - not too far or too short. Well we made it to Buffalo and realized that Sheridan was just 30 miles further. And Sheridan was just east of Bighorn National Forest, so we thought we'd trudge on into the mountains to spend the night.

That didn't work out as planned. The mountains were stunning, but they were steep and had dark, ominous clouds looming overhead. We stopped at the visitors center around 9000 ft elevation to find campsite ideas when we were met by rain and awe-inspiring lightning bolts. The presence of the storm was powerful. Despite the danger, I relished being so close to the storm and feeling like I could reach up and touch the thunderheads. The lightning bolts touched down with little effort. Here's a quick peak at the churning clouds:



We moved on from Bighorn realizing that it wasn't going to work for the night.

However, you can't say we didn't try - on the west side of the mountains the sky was clear so we turned down a few roads here and there in search of a decent camping spot. One such road was on a fairly steep incline and Dan will agree that I suggested that we should skip it. But yeah, he wasn't convinced. So i jumped out of the car and opened the cattle gate, Dan drove through, and up we went. Until.. Our car literally would not go any more. About 200 ft up the 30-degree incline our trusty '99 Nissan Altima gave up. I got out to make sure we weren't just stuck on a rock, and no, we weren't. After hitting the gas again you could literally taste the burning rubber while our car refused to move forward. And it was one of those situations where if you took your foot off the break you immediately start rolling backwards. Yeah, I know. Kinda scary.

We slowly backed down, or rather, Dan backed down while Auggie and I watched from outside the car. (Btw, if I wasn't on my iPhone 'outside' would have been italicized.) And that was our last attempt at camping in Bighorn.

I wish I had pictures of the west side of Bighorn. It looks like what I'd imagine Ireland looks like - steep rolling green hills with bleating sheep and black cattle roaming about.

Off we drove, through the land of Absolutely Nothing between Bighorn and Cody, Wyoming until we came through another set of mountains and landed just before Buffalo Bill State Park for the night.

Maybe it's because we're from Illinois, but literally everything is stunning out here. We're just arriving at the entrance gate of Yellowstone right now, but the entire ride here has been beyond gorgeous. Yes, I now understand America The Beautiful.




[Hwy 16, east entrance to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming]

Ps. I'm now sporting the official hairdo of the roadtrip: French braids. ;)

- From My iPhone