Mall of America in Minnesota

Thursday, July 5th: Today we drove on across from Jamestown, ND into Minnesota and dropped southward toward the Minneapolis area. The campground that we stopped at was rated pretty good in TL, but they were so crowded that they were even using the dog walk area for tents and even a Class C or two.
Friday, July 6th: Drove over to the Mall of America and walked around. It was impressive with four floors and a carnival in the center, complete with water slides, ferris wheel, a carousel, and a small childs area in the middle. We did get a digital picture frame that will rotate through 500 pictures, at in the Rainforest Cafe, and bought a pack of Cinnebons.
Saturday July 7th: They were supposed to have a hugh mass wedding for 7/07/07 in the mall today at (of course) 11:00 a.m. so we decided to drive on down the road instead of leaving on Sunday as we had initially planned.
Monday July 9th: Happy Birthday Carolyn
We are in Richmond, Indiana tonight at a nice little campground called "Grandpa's Farm". In celebration of her 39th Birthday we celebrated at the Red Lobster and had Margaritas.
Tomorrow it will be eastern Ohio then probably on to Williamsport on Wednesday and home on Thursday. It has been a memorable trip and we have enjoyed every moment. I hope to invite you all along the next time, this time in person and we can all enjoy it.

I will close this out for this year. Hugs to each of you and I look forward to boring you with our pictures.

Clark and Carolyn

North Dakota

Monday July 2nd: We pulled out of the Rafter J Bar Ranch, and drove on up to North Dakota via I-90 W to US-85 north up to I-94. US-85 is a good road through the Dakota, straight up through the rolling hills. Our altitude dropped from the 6000 feet (plus and minus) of the Hill City/ Custer/ Keystone area until we topped out at the highest point in North Dakota at 3506 feet and down to the 2000 foot range. We stayed Monday night at "On the Heart" Campground in Dickenson, ND. The campground was on the Heart River which meanders through the area.
Tuesday July 3rd: On across North Dakota and crossed the Missouri river which came in from Montana and had merged with the Yellowstone River there. We also passed about 100 miles south of the Geographic Center of North America in Rugby ND and pulled in for the night at Jamestown. We will stay here for the 4th of July and get back on the road Thursday morning toward Minneapolis, MN. Happy Fourth of July to everyone.

Bear Country Drive Through Zoo South Dakota

Sunday July 1st: Today we drove up toward Rapid City, SD to go to a drive through Zoo called Bear Country off of Hwy 16. The animals were in the open and the people restricted to their vehicles. On the way through we saw Elk, one had 26 points - a hugh set, Mountain Goats, Big Horned Sheep, Cougers, Woves, Black Bears, Fox, Bison, and many more just walking around. The only ones actually in cages were the Grizzly Bears and the Cougers.

South Dakota Mount Rushmore

Wednesday June 27th: Today we drove the few miles from the Rafter J Bar Ranch campground to Mount Rushmore. This is very impressive and well worth the stop. The scene here was taken looking down the Gallery of Flags with the faces in the background. They have a flag for each state plus each U.S. Territory, fifty six in all. The ampitheater is just beyond the flags and the start of a walking path up under the heads and back to the ampitheater again. Three men were working on top of Roosevelt the day that we were there. You would not have caught me hanging off of his hairline.

Thursday we drove down to the Custer State park and around it. Many more Bison here than we saw at Yellowstone and an altogether nice park. They had a forest fire in the park early in the week and we drove through the burned areas on part of the circuit. There was still a lot of smoldering and smoke and we passed quite a few firemen and equipment keeping an eye on things. We stopped for a picnic lunch and relaxed for while on the way out of the park.

Friday we drove over to Keystone, SD and walked through the old town section, the Holy Terror mine, and the old stores.

Saturday was a trip up to Deadwood, SD, where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane died. They had written about their reconstructed old town but it was just a major street with old buildings housing casinos. I guess that they were trying to hold on to their gambling reputation, but that didn't interest us much. The drive through the Black Hills was very pretty however.

Yellowstone NP Day Three

Danny and Cymy swimming in the Yellowstone River

Sunday June 24th: Today we decided to talk a drive around the South Loop road. As we entered the park we enjoyed the Bison herds and passed the Madison River Elk herd again in their usual haunts. Driving on south past Old Faithful we wound through the forest and up over the National Divide, 8800 feet at this point, and down the eastern side toward West Thumb. We turned left there and drove back northward along the Yellowstone Lake, which was beautiful to view the Rocky Mountains over its blue waters. We continued along the lake shore drive to the end and turned to travel westward again along the Yellowstone River. Saw a Coyote trotting along the road toward us so we slowed to a stop to let it go on by. Another Elk herd was grazing in a meadow, the buck here had large antlers, the largest that we had yet seen. We finally stopped for a picnic lunch along the river. While Carolyn set up the sandwiches I took Danny and Cymy for a swim. The water was so cold that they were shivering after twenty minutes so we toweled them dry and had a picnic. A hawk circled the river and screeched at the world and a group of Trumpeter Swans were a short distance down river on a small island. We looked them up in the Park guide to make sure what they were. After lunch we drove on around the north side of the South loop and back to the campground. A really enjoyable day.

Yellowstone NP Second Day

Bison herd crossing the main road with Paintpot steaming in the background

Saturday June 23rd: Today the plan was to drive back to the Old Faithful basin and walk the paths throughout the area. The NPS has laid out many miles of hard asphalt or boards to connect the geysers throughout this basin and we walked our share of them. On the way in we had the treat of being in the midst of a bison migration across the road. The herd was quite large, but luckily only about 50 of them broke away and moved to new grazing land on the other side of the roadway. Of course traffic slowed to a crawl. Some people in a hurry would wind their way among individual animals in a quite dangerous fashion. Carolyn got several nice pictures as we waited.
Once we got to Old Faithful we parked and got onto the trails leading to the outer geysers. We were able to see a number of them erupting - Daisy, Castle, Riverside, and even Old Faithful again from the vantage point of the Daisy Geyser. After the walk we had a late lunch picnic in the woods and stared down several big Ravens that looked like they wanted to share our sandwiches.

Yellowstone NP Day One

Friday June 22nd: We arrived at West Yellowstone yesterday at the Lionshead Campground outside of town. Drove on into the Yellowstone NP this morning for our first day. A few miles inside we stopped, along with everyone else, at the area set aside for a pair of Bald Eagles and their nest. Old Baldie was sitting on a fallen tree on the other side of the Madison river. Carolyn hopped out with the camera and was able to get a shot of him, although the distance was a little far for our small camera. Moving on into the park we soon came across the Madison river Elk Herd grazing along the river. Of course we all stopped again and walked out to get a clear shot of them. There appeared to be about six in the small herd and they pretty much ignored the dumb humans looking at them and chattering. We drove on and stopped at the Fountain Paint Pot Geyser area and walked the boardwalk around, enjoying the various pools, steamers, and bubbling mud "geysers". On to Old Faithful, where they have the Old Faithful Inn, stores, Visitors Center, and eveything else imaginable. We were able to see Old Faithful blow twice while there and got pictures and movies from two different areas and ate a late lunch while there. Especially after having been to the "Craters of the Moon", a predecessor of Yellowstone, we were more appreciative of being inside a volcanic caldera and the heat and force surging just beneath our feet.