Normal Is Boring: October 2008

Thursday, October 2, 2008

4000 Mile Drive - The End!

The End!

I still felt like I was calling my friends and trying to convince them to go on a cross-country ride but the fact was that I already did it and was on the last leg of that four thousand mile, eight day blast. Seven days went by with every single moment being relished in one way or the other. Now, here we were in Idaho, cruising at 90 mph with vast expanses of open land on both sides and the golden tinted sky above us. "Let me get the last sunset of our journey". I said to my friend who was driving. He pulled over and I captured the moment forever. This, I can share with everyone but not the millions of other moments I froze in the hard drive of my brain. 12 more hours of driving and it would be the end! Life would return from the state of natural bliss to the state of materialistic dependency. Cell phones, e-mails, TVs and what not. Worry about deadlines, competing with colleagues and impressing the boss. Life would run by the clock and dictated by the gadgets.

Though Portland is almost due West (a little North) of Yellowstone, there is no direct route in that direction. One has to either drive up into Montana, go through Washington and then come down, or go down in Idaho and again back up into Oregon. This would increase the drive time considerably but there is no other option. We entered Oregon sometime after midnight. Not sure how the night passed but the last Sunrise of the trip was caught right on time. The drive was awesome on the banks of the Columbia River and then the Hood River. Mt. Hood in Washington was playing hide-and-seek and we could see the landscape slowly change from uninhabited thousands of acres of land to sparsely populated pieces to townships to a fairly congested city. It was an uneventful journey except for the time when I was half asleep while driving as we lost the Red Bulls we were carrying. We reached the car rental by 9:00, Returned the SUV and my friend rented a regular sedan for the rest of the week till his car would arrive. We picked up the keys to their new apartment and checked in. It was a very pretty, quite big two bedroom, two bath apartment for a lot less cost than a very basic one bedroom apartment over here. We were tired but completely satisfied. It was a successful trip and a happy ending. Ooops... not yet an end for me. I had to catch the flight back to JFK the same night. We had our lunch and started to transfer pictures from their camera onto my USB flash drive and from my camera into their laptop. It took more than an hour to transfer the 5 Gb worth, 2000 odd pictures, from my camera to their laptop. Now I had the duty to filter them and post them on my website once I returned to NY. I knew I would be busy for at least half a dozen weekends after going back home. My friend and his wife gave me a ride to the airport that night and I was in New York once again the next morning. Luckily it was a non-stop flight and I slept almost every minute I was in the air. We took a full week to to go there and I was back in five hours.

Labels: 4000 mile drive, adventure, badlands, chicago, colorado, cross country, grand teton, mt rushmore, New York, ny to portland, oregon, road trip, south dakota, windcaves, wyoming, yellowstone

posted by bachi 16:31 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< HOME

4000 Mile Drive (Part VI) - Yellowstone

Day 7: Yellowstone

Wildlife (except Bison and Elk) is not very easy to spot during the day and where people loiter. The best time is dawn as the animals have their breakfast and go to the brook/creek/lake to get a drink. Also there will be very few people to invade their space. With this piece of precious information we woke up before Sunrise, got ready , handed over the keys to the cabin and set out on our exploration in our explorer. We drove very slow not to scare any wildlife away and also not to miss an interesting sighting. The weather was not very pleasing. Cloudy and drizzling all along, it was not an attractive time for the animals to take morning walks. Two hours of driving and nothing interesting except for some Bison and Elk grazing the grasslands.

Finally we ended up at Canyon Village. We were there last night for dinner and now it was breakfast time. We grabbed something quick to eat, raided the visitor store, bought some "chachkas" and planned our itinerary for the rest of the day. We decided to head back to Mammoth Hot Springs all the way North and start our tour from there. First checkout the Geysers at Mammoth, then drive down along road2 (remember it from last night?) to Norris, Madison and finally Old Faithful with, maybe, one or two diversions to cover anything interesting.

"Pull over here. We will check this out before we go back since we are not going to come back on this road again." I said to my friend as we were passing the signs to Upper and Lower Falls. We pulled over into the parking area and got out. It was still raining (now it was a little more than a drizzle). I took a trash bag out of the cargo in the car and made a hole to it. Unscrewed the polarizer on my lens, carefully wrapped the trash bag around the camera with the hole providing a view through the lens and put back the polarizer. This was perfect. I could now slip my head into the bag and take all the pictures I wanted without messing up my camera except for the polarizer that would get wet. Not a big deal. Only danger with this was that I had no idea where I was, what was around me once I was in the bag. All I could see was what was visible through the viewfinder. Of course I trusted the people around me not to push me into the 1000 ft canyon below. The canyon through which the Yellowstone River gushes was beautiful. The Falls were enthralling. It was not an easy task to get good shots of the gorges, the river and the falls with low visibility and continuous rain. But I did everything I could to get a couple of good ones. How much ever time one spends there would not be sufficient to absorb the heavenly beauty completely. But unfortunately we are mortals. Once again we took off and were on our way to Mammoth Hot Springs. By the time we reached there it was still 9:30 AM. This is always the best part about waking up early, plenty of time in the day.

By now the sky cleared up a little and the rain stopped. We took a walk along the Lower Terraces Area and the Upper Terraces Area viewing, enjoying and analyzing all the different types of Geysers that came in multiple colors and oozing various levels of steam. The scene was fascinating. Especially imagining standing on top of a unimaginably huge volcano that is expected to unleash itself at any point of time now. "What lies beneath?" is a million dollar question. After the stroll through one of nature's outdoor chemical laboratory, we took to the wheel and started driving towards Norris. The weather god was still considerate to the outdoor enthusiasts and it was a nice time to take another stroll along the Norris Geyser Basin. This was more like a graveyard with a mile long trail through the basin. Steam jetting out of the earth in pretty much any direction one looked. Halfway through the trail, my friend and his wife decided to step on it and go to the car while I fell behind trying to capture anything and everything I could. 'mon... 5 GB of memory, why would I not do that. Three quarters of a mile and I could see the commotion going on in the troposphere above us once again. Thick dark rain clouds appeared in no time. It was just a matter of minutes and everyone knew there was going to be a downpour, an extremely heavy downpour. Now I had to reach the parking lot before things kicked in because even if the rain started when I was 10 ft away from the car, I knew i would get soaked horribly before I actually got into it. Now I started to run like crazy. Luckily I had company. "That was close!" I exclaimed as soon as I got into the car. The second I closed the door, the rain was so heavy that the windshield wipers were useless. People were driving with instinct. Luckily this chaos did not last long. Once again the sky was clear and we were on the wheels. We passed the Gibbon River and decided to take a small detour to the Firehole Canyon Drive. "Glad we took that detour" all of us thought once we got back onto the main road. The drive was beautiful. It was a winding one-way drive. Halfway through the drive we reached the Firehole River and were driving on it's bank. The panorama was splendid.

It was almost 2:30 and 16 miles to the destination. As soon as we reached Old Faithful, we headed to the visitor center to see when the faithful one was going to keep it's word. There was more than an hour to go for that and hence a good time to grab a bite. After lunch we strolled around a little and proceeded to the benches around the geyser so as to get a good view. I did not want to miss this opportunity for photographing, most probably, the most popular geyser in Yellowstone. Since we were almost half hour before time, we ended getting

pretty much whatever seat we wanted. Obviously it was the front row. It was an uneventful wait for more than 20 minutes when all of a sudden everyone started to get up and turn around to see something. "looks like an alien just landed in his UFO. What else can grab these guys attention so much?" I thought. Why not share the excitement; I also made a 180 degree turn to see a huge Bison running around crazy. Obviously the poor thing was minding it's own business when he realized he wandered into this place with weird creatures walking on two legs, with some weird stuff instead of hair on their bodies. After he gave a thousand curious humans (including me) a photo-op, he left the place. I'm sure he would have gone back to his herd and told the story and they might have had a kick-ass laughing session. Once again everything went back to normal and the wait began. After a never ending wait, enough pressure started to build under the surface and the old man started to throw up. It started with two to three feet jets of water and slowly rose to more than 20 ft. The entire session lasted about fifteen minutes. Not bad. It was worth the wait.

By the time the spectacle ended, it was 5 in the evening and we wanted to get out of the park by 6. We had just the right amount of time to exit Yellowstone via the West Entrance (funny - you exit from an entrance :-)). We started to head out of our final stopover in the road trip. Till now, everything worked out really great. There was no time when we were bored, disappointed or fed up. Everything fell into place everywhere and every time except for some very minor hiccups. In a way, it was not a very happy moment leaving all this pleasure behind and go back to the materialistic world but I think that's where the beauty lies. If I were to do this for a year, I don't think I would appreciate it as much as I did now. A break from the routine is what defines this enjoyment. If this itself were routine, there is no escape. Anyway, everything was already decided and obviously nothing would change. As planned, we were out of the 2 million acre park right on time.

Labels: 4000 mile drive, adventure, badlands, chicago, colorado, cross country, grand teton, mt rushmore, New York, ny to portland, oregon, road trip, south dakota, windcaves, wyoming, yellowstone

posted by bachi 16:26 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< HOME

4000 Mile Drive (Part V) - WY

Day 6: Grand Teton and YellowstoneWe woke up to the alarm but were out of the bed only half hour later. The fatigue due to continuous minimal sleep nights started to catch upon us I guess. Also, this was a motel room and nothing around was enticing enough to re-invigorate us. We got ready, grabbed some bagels and muffins from the complimentary breakfast and once again were on the road by 7:15. Theoritically it was supposed to be an hour and a half drive. But due to construction almost all along the way, we were considerably delayed and reached the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center only at 10. This was a pretty interesting visitor center with quite a few attractive multimedia displays. We researched various attractions and activities in the park and decided to head for Jenny Lake.

Right next to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center was a trailhead and a boat dock. One can either ride the ferry that shuttles between the visitor center and the other end of the lake or rent a canoe and do the job themselves. For someone who would rather stick to land, there was a trail that went around the lake to the dock on the other side. We decided to hike this way and rent a canoe on our way back. Only to realize later on that the current is pretty strong in one direction and hence the canoes are rented only one way :-(. But it was too late and we were already more than half way to the other dock. From this dock there was another trail that went into the mountains. My friend and I decided to explore this trail as well while my friend's wife did not. So she headed to the dock and the two of us took to the trail. It was a decently steep hike but a beautiful day. The Sun was shining bright and the trail was nice and cool with the shade of the trees. We passed Hidden Falls and went a little further and ended up at an open area with an overlook to the falls and some valleys. From here, the trail got steeper and we had no idea how long it was and where it was going to take us, so stopped there. "My husband went into the mountains along with the rock climbers to do some photography." I overheard a woman. Then I saw a group of people facing the mountains and pointing to something over there. I looked into the direction of curiosity and found the "rock climbers". It was interesting sight to see how a bunch of beginners were being trained by pros. My friend and I spent a good half hour there and headed

back. On our way back we saw signs to "Inspiration Point". This was a diversion from our way back to the dock but I did not want to let go after coming all the way. I asked my friend to go and accompany his wife while I decided to make a quick trip to the Inspiration Point. After a short while into the climb I realized that my friend could not let go the opportunity either. He was right behind me. This was a very steep climb (I don't exactly remember the altitude we gained or other specifics) and also very narrow. At some points, people going in one direction had to let go the ones going the other way first. It was tiring and definitely had an impact on the knees but not a big trade-off once we reached the top. The view of the lake was absolutely astounding. It did not have enough room to hold a lot of people at the same time. But everyone seemed to have managed their way. Things did not turn out to be all that good as the weather seemed to change. The sky got darker with thick rain clods and one could feel the inevitable thunder storms approaching. The rain itself was not to worry about but after the rain, the climb down would have been dangerous. The rocks slippery and the valley dropping down a thousand feet or more would have been a free ride to the dock at the bottom. Somehow we managed our way down to the more flat trail. By now, the nature had no mercy and it started to pour. We finally reached the dock and was greeted eagerly by our third teammate. While waiting for the ferry to take us back to the visitor center, we ran into a couple from Vancouver. They were extremely friendly and nice people. We had a very long conversation with them ranging from present life in New York (the husband was from NY) to various languages and different places to visit. They were excited to know that my friend was moving to Portland and invited him and his wife over to their place whenever they visited Vancouver. At last our ferry arrived, the rain stopped.

After getting out of the ferry on the other side, we went to the visitor center to get some information as to where we would find a restaurant or a cafeteria to grab some lunch. The answer was Dornan's, just South of the first visitor center we stopped at. The route was Teton Park Rd. South all the way to US 26/89/191 and then a small distance from there. "Jeez... traffic congestion even here?" my friend exclaimed looking at the long line of cars in front of us on the bridge across the Snake river. "Hey! wait a minute while I get down of the car." I said opening the door and jumping out of it. For a second the other two inside did not understand what I was doing then they realized that all the others cars were slowing down for wildlife viewing. There were two moose hanging out in the sun helping themselves to some green grass and fresh water. After crawling, running into bushes, slipping and falling and spending about 45 minutes, I managed to take around a hundred pictures expecting at least a tenth of them to come out good. Once again our biological clock started to set off it's alarm indicating it was time for lunch. We went to Dornan's, grabbed something to eat and got some ice cream. It was 6:00 PM and we thought it was a good idea to head for Yellowstone. Driving through the entire length of the park, it would take us around an hour to reach Yellowstone's South entrance and four more hours from there, we were expecting to be there at the cabin by 1 AM latest (we were not planning to drive non-stop right?). Not bad, we spotted some Elks in Rockies and Moose here but we wanted to see a Bear. This trip would be incomplete without one. Lucky enough we did run into one pretty soon. As we were driving, the bus in front of us stopped right in the middle of the road. We didn't know why, till we saw a Black Bear crossing the road. It was too late before I could get a shot of it and freeze the moment in my camera's memory. But still, it made our day and we were on our way to the country's first national park.

We reached the South end of Yellowstone at 7. We got the park map from the park ranger at the entrance and wanted to figure out the route we were going to take. There was only one road initially that one could take. This was 22 miles long and ended in Grant Village. From there it forked into two roads, one heading North-East (let us call this road1) and the other North-West (road2). One could take either of them to go to Mammoth Hot Springs (where we booked our cabin). Road1 went along the Yellowstone lake to the Lake Village. From there it headed almost North along the banks of the Yellowstone River to Canyon Village. Then it proceeded to Tower-Roosevelt and finally Mammoth before exiting from the North entrance of the park. Road2 on the other hand covered Old Faithful, Madison and Norris before joining road1 at Mammoth. My friend has already been to Yellowstone once before and suggested we take road1 so that we could cover Old Faithful the next day. Without any debate we headed North-East. Initially it was all pines on either side of the road, half of them

burnt down from earlier forest fire(s). "This Yellowstone lake seems to be pretty big" I exclaimed looking at the size of it on the map. Once we crossed Grant Village and turned onto road1, the lake started to appear on our right. As we went further, we could see how enormous it was. From some places we couldn't see the other end of it. The sky started to fill up with thick clouds once again. The Sun was setting, the clouds were dark, the lake was blue, there was a colossal cloud of something rising into the sky (most probably a newly erupted geyser or a forest fire?) and lightnings were piercing through the clouds. The entire scene was absolutely marvelous. We made quite a few stops along the lake before we reached Lake Village. By now it was 9:15 and once again our hunger sensors started to signal. We decided to continue till Canyon Village and get something there to eat. By now it was dark and we couldn't see much. I think this sometimes helps as nothing grabbed our attention and hence drove non-stop to hit the food courts just before they shut the doors. First we wanted to dine at a nice restaurant but unfortunately they were closing pretty soon and there were no tables left. This is normal in Yellowstone during the summer months. Then we rushed to the cafeteria next door. I got a paella and some flavored yogurt with cereal on it. It costed about 12 bucks with taxes. The serving was generous and the food tasted pretty good for the price. After satisfying our hunger, we headed straight to the cabin. I decided to drive really slow for a couple of reasons. The roads were winding and there were no lights save the car's headlights. We were in the domain of the beast's natural habitat and hence had no idea when what is going to show up in the middle of the road. Finally we actually "wanted" something to show up because it was quiet and this might attract some nocturnal creatures to explore the surroundings. Our primary goal was to spot as much wildlife as possible. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" My heart skipped a beat. As I was turning along with the road at a sharp curve, all of a sudden there appeared a huge dark object right in the middle of the road. I stopped and slowly proceeded towards it. Soon enough the object revealed itself into a Bison. I slowly crossed onto the other side of the road and passed him without arousing his curiosity. My slow driving paid off. We reached the cabin at half past twelve and called it a day.

Labels: 4000 mile drive, adventure, badlands, chicago, colorado, cross country, grand teton, mt rushmore, New York, ny to portland, oregon, road trip, south dakota, windcaves, wyoming, yellowstone

posted by bachi 16:23 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< HOME

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

4000 Mile Drive (Part IV) - CO

Days 4 & 5: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Sound of chopping wood, kids shouting and running around, parents trying to keep their children from getting too close to the barbecue grill, all this chaos woke us up. It was just 7 in the morning. Once again just four hours of sleep. But the fresh air and the all the activity around invigorated us beyond words. It was absolutely fantastic. As we arrived really late the night before, we did not get a chance to pick up our campsite papers and the parking slip. We walked down to the guard at the entrance to the campsite and picked up the stuff. We also got information regarding hiking, places to go and also some pointers to the trails. He was very friendly and patient in explaining the details and doing the best he could to provide us with accurate information. Actually this was true with all the park rangers and other park staff we encountered till now. This being a campsite there were few common restrooms for all the campgrounds and no showers. This was the least of my concerns but my friend's wife wanted to be clean and tidy. So I asked them to go ahead with their chores while I planned to give myself some exercise and get close to mother nature. We booked our camp site at Glacier Basing that is a stone's throw from the Shuttle service parking. I walked down to catch a

shuttle for Bear Lake Trailhead while my friend and his wife left to Estes Park, the town just outside of the park entrance where there are there are facilities like showers and laundry. We left the tent around 9 and the plan was to meet there again at noon. I asked my friend to get some food for lunch as well to save time. Now I was on my own and had to utilize my three precious hours in the most optimal way. I diligently studied the park map looking for different trails, calculating the round trip times and the effort needed to hike each of them. Bear Lake Trailhead is the main point in the park from which around half a dozen trails branch out leading to various valleys and beautiful lakes in the Alpines.

15 minutes and I was at the trailhead. The weather started to change. Dark clouds started to blanket the sky hiding the Sun. Rain was predicted for the afternoon. Did I say "rain"? No it was "thunder storms". This term is very important here because lightnings are a major threat for hikers. They spear out of the sky and strike mercilessly. Luckily it didn't start to rain yet. I decided to take the most popular trail that would take me to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake. This is an easy trail and suited my schedule perfectly. It was absolutely beautiful and a great opportunity for photography. After my fully satisfying hike, I returned to the base and took the shuttle back to Glacier Basin. I reached the tent before my friends did and was wondering how long I had to wait when the car pulls in. It was the most accurate timing. Totally unbelievable. One might think it is easy to synchronize with cellphones but luckily they don't work here. That's one thing I loved. No e-mail, no cellphone, no worries.

We quickly finished our lunch and set out for the next adventure. I educated them on the shuttle, the trailhead, roundtrip times and difficulty of different trails. We decided to hike to Andrews Glacier. This is supposed to be a "not so easy" trail that takes about two hours each way. This was perfect for us since we still had the entire second half of the day at our disposal and all the energy needed. We took the shuttle to Bear Lake trailhead and set out on the trail. The weather started to worsen. Now it started to drizzle but we did not pay much attention. We reached Alberta Falls, not very far from the trailhead. The rain started to get harder. Hey... did someone laugh when I indicated "trash bags" in my list under the backpack? They are the best. I could completely seal my camera and all the camera gear in my trash bag and carry on with my hike with peace of mind. Also, this is where the raincoat comes

handy. Anyway, we ignored the rain and started to go further. Slowly we started to see a lot of hikers going in the opposite direction. Almost everyone was concerned about us continuing with our hike. A couple of them suggested we were going the "wrong way". Finally one pair pointed out that there were lightnings striking around there and it is not a good idea to proceed any further. They say a lightning does not strike the same place twice. Right. But one strike is enough to fry the omelet out of you (I made this up. I know it sucks). So we took the good guys advice and took a U turn. Sort of disappointed, we went back to the car. By now it was raining so bad that we could not do a damn thing outdoors. So we decided to visit some buddies of ours who live in Denver. We quickly drove to Estes Park and made a couple of phone calls. Within an hour I was under the hot shower. We had our dinner there and spent quite a bit of time chatting. Finally we were out of the house and back in our tent around 10 PM. "Now we can catch up with our sleep" we all thought.

No alarm to wake up and there was not even any chaos around because it was still raining. I missed both my Sunrises (this day and the day before) since we were surrounded by huge mountains and the damn sky was thick with clouds. After rolling in the sleeping bag for an hour, I decided I could not do that anymore. It was 9 AM and we decided to pack up and leave. The campsite had to be vacated by noon. Since it was still raining we decided to drive head for the Trail Ridge Road. This road is US-34 and is the highest highway in North America. I heard a lot about it from a colleague of mine. This, we thought would be the best thing to do under the prevailing weather conditions. I took the wheel and we started our drive. We decided to go till the Alpine Ridge Visitor Center and then drive back. I was expecting the road to be really treacherous and exciting. But it was just like any other road except for the narrowness and the sharp curves. We pulled into a couple of overlooks and got wonderful views of the Alpine range.

As I drove further, I realized the true character of this road. It started to climb higher, got steeper and the side guard rails/walls disappeared. On side it was high mountains and the other , deep valleys. The views were breathtaking and the drive, exciting. Boy, now I understood what my colleague was talking about. By now the rain stopped and the sky was clearing up. It was turning out to be a lot better than what it was at the start.

At one point we saw a long line of cars parked along the roadside (yes! Narrowing the already narrow road). This undoubtedly indicated existence of some sort of wildlife around there. We also joined the bandwagon. I quickly grabbed my camera, the tripod (because it was still cloudy and not enough light) and ran towards the slopes. Here we found a big herd of Elks. Cool! I got all the shots I wanted and we once again set out on our journey. Finally we reached the Alpine Ridge Visitor Center. Located at an altitude of 12,000 ft (2.3 miles) above the sea level, a small hike to the top of a hill provided breathtaking views of the Rockies. It was chilly at this altitude and I had to wear a sweatshirt to keep myself warm. After sumptuously devouring the beauty of this natural wonder, we headed back. We were back in Estes Park by 2 PM. We got some lunch there and headed for Yellowstone.

After punching the destination address into the GPS, the time it showed to the South entrance of Yellowstone was 10 hours. The cabin we booked was in Mammoth Hot Springs, all the way near the North Entrance. We called the park service and asked for directions and a time estimate. They said it would take 4 hours to get from the South entrance to Mammoth Hot Springs. This blew our fuse. It was 4 PM then and there was no way we were going to make it to the cabin before Sunrise. We gave up on the idea. Instead decided to lodge somewhere near Grand Teton since it is South of Yellowstone and would make more sense. First, we called Yellowstone to cancel our cabin for the first night. It was a piece of cake.

They right away canceled the reservation and refunded all the money. Then we called the Grand Teton park services for lodging in the park. The answer was a straight "booked". Unfortunately they were all booked. Then we started calling motels in a town called Dubois west of Teton. Even there everything was booked. After trying half a dozen of them finally we got one room available in Motel 6. We reserved it right away and changed our destination in the navigator to Dubois, WY.
Once again Wyoming! The large expanses of land, miles and miles of openness. This state, by far, became my favorite for Sunsets. We kept driving on the empty roads forever into the darkness. Initially we planned to have our dinner in Dubois but then changed our plan keeping in mind the 10 PM curfew. We grabbed something to eat on our way and started driving again. Finally we reached our Motel at 1 AM. We set our alarm to 6 AM next morning and went into a deep slumber.

Labels: 4000 mile drive, adventure, badlands, chicago, colorado, cross country, grand teton, mt rushmore, New York, ny to portland, oregon, road trip, south dakota, windcaves, wyoming, yellowstone

posted by bachi 21:55 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< HOME

4000 Mile Drive (Part III) - SD

Day 3: Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and Wind Caves - SD

"Beeep.... beeep..." The alarm went off at 5:30 AM. Just about four hours of sleep once again. But already missed one Sunrise and did not want that to repeat. After all, these things will not happen everyday and I could afford to live with little sleep for a week. Since the place looked pretty plain last night I figured it wouldn't be difficult to get a glimpse of the rising sun from our cabin. I put my shoes on and went out fully equipped with my camera and extras. "DUDE WAKEUP!" I went into the cabin shouting at my friend. "Please get out of the bed and grab the car keys. We got to drive a bit to catch the Sunrise." When I went out the first time I realized that we were actually in a valley surrounded my huge hills. Whatever we saw the night before (the sand dunes sort of things) were actually sort of mountains. It took a bit of driving mostly guessing the direction of Sunrise and finally we ended up at this which, I would say, can be marked as the "Sunrise spot". I was extremely lucky to find this spot. Perfect for my photography.

After a hundred shutter clicks, feeling the magical touch of the golden rays and absorbing the warmth of the mighty fireball in the sky we headed back to our cabin. Time was very precious for us. That doesn't mean we had to skip something we wanted to do though. We happened to manage our time just right. I wish this time management works out in all other aspects of my life as well. We pulled over an overlook to look around a little bit. "Driving all the way from NY?" I asked the guys (most probably father and son). I saw the NY plates on their car. "Yep!" they answered looking excited. I came to know that they were actually doing a round trip. I just wish I had the time to do something like that. We went back to the cabin and got ready for the day in no time.
We went to the Visitor Center and handed over the keys to our cabin. We then got some breakfast and decided to take the guided tour. The tour started at 8:00 AM and lasted for about 45 minutes. It was very informative and the guide was well versed with the park. It was interesting to know that literally every inch of this park was accessible to the visitors. I mean, there was nothing "off-limits". The reason is that the analysis showed that the erosion occurring in the park was mainly due to natural sources like rain and wind. The affect of human influence was insignificant. After the tour we strolled around a little bit into the gorges, onto the formations and around some puddles resulting from a earlier downpour. It was not easy to roam around in 108 degrees of heat. We repeatedly saw signs that said "make sure you drink at least a gallon of water a day". Are you kidding me? I would gulp down a gallon an hour in that weather. Finally we picked up our car and headed to Mt. Rushmore. Luckily we could pick a road that went around the park before getting onto the main road. We made couple of pit stops to get different views of the valley and the mountains around.

It was almost 2:00 PM by the time we reached Mt. Rushmore. We still had Wind Cave National Park in our itinerary before heading to the Rockies. We were not that concerned though. This being a national monument, there is only so much time we could spend here. None of us was interested in any of the light shows in the evening or the rock climbing. It was a very nice place and shows you what people can do. We grabbed some lunch from the cafeteria and proceeded to the Wind Caves.

Wind Cave National Park was just about an hour drive from Mt. Rushmore. It was almost 6 PM by the time we reached there. We had an idea about the cave tours. Both my friend and I have been to Luray Caverns in Virginia before and were not very keen on spending a lot of time here. Even my friend's wife was on consensus with us. Cave enthusiasts might say one can not compare Luray Caverns with Wind Cave and that each of them are unique in their own way but I'm sorry I'm not a "cave" man. We took the "Garden of Eden" tour that costed us $7 per head. It was 1/4 mile long and lasted about an hour with 150 steps along the route. The park claims it to be the least strenuous among all their tours.

Good bye South Dakota. Our next crash site was the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It was roughly 350 miles from here with most of it going almost due South in Wyoming. "I'm pulling over guys. There is no way I can drive staring into the marvel." I said to my co-passengers and puled over the car on to the shoulder. The horizon was on fire. I have never seen so much land sky at the same time and actually the horizon stretching into the infinite. The only place I see horizon where I live is from the beach with the sky above the Atlantic. Of course, that view is also breathtaking. But this was something totally new to me.

We just stayed there gazing into one of the most beautiful natural scenes I have ever witnessed. I got behind the wheel only after the Sun fully set and it was dark. Now the weather started to get nasty. This unexpected stopover pushed us behind our schedule and we wanted to catch up. The only way we could catch up to our schedule whenever we fell behind it was to speed. This comes naturally to people from where I'm used to driving :-). Now the elements started to compete with each other and there came the thunder storms. I stepped on the gas a little more, passed a pickup and got back into the right lane. "flash flash" there were the most unwelcome lights flashing in my rear-view mirror. I got pulled over by a cop for the first time ever. Damn! Luckily the cop let me go with just a warning. That was relief and I stayed within the speed limits (not literally) thereafter till we reached our destination. It was almost 2 AM by the time we reached our campsite and luckily it didn't rain here. We had to pitch our tent very carefully so as not to wake our neighbors up. "Good night!" We retired for the day.

Labels: 4000 mile drive, adventure, badlands, chicago, colorado, cross country, grand teton, mt rushmore, New York, ny to portland, oregon, road trip, south dakota, windcaves, wyoming, yellowstone