Category: Adventures Page 5 of 10

9th State.

We started the day with a sunrise bike ride. In PJs 🙂

So technically this is Devils Tower National Monument. It was the first national monument established in 1906, by Teddy Roosevelt.

I know I’m above called it Bears Lodge. That is because that is what 20+ Native American tribes called it. Actually they had many different names ranging from Bear’s Tower to Bear Lodge to Bear’s Tipi to Bear’s House, but Bears Lodge is what most have agreed to and they have been trying to change the name ever since it was called devils tower back in the late 1800s. There was legislation back in 2005 to change the name but United States Representative Barbara Cubin, argued that a “name change will harm the tourist trade and bring economic hardship to area communities”. It was not changed. In November 2014, Arvol Looking Horse proposed renaming the geographical feature “Bear Lodge”, and submitted the request to the United States Board on Geographic Names. A second proposal was submitted to request that the U.S. acknowledge what it described as the “offensive” mistake in keeping the current name and to rename the monument and sacred site Bear Lodge National Historic Landmark. The formal public comment period ended in fall 2015. Local state senator Ogden Driskill opposed the change. The name was not changed.

Ugh, I understand that it is normal to demonize people that you are attacking. It makes one feel better about what they are doing. Makes you feel right. Makes you feel justified.

But can we all just agree that Bears Lodge or Bears Tower or Bears Tipi is just a nicer name for a beautiful place? Instead of Devils Tower? Because it really is quite beautiful.

Beyond all the stories behind the Native American culture of how this rock got its name (I’ll post some of them below) the name Devils Tower arguably comes from the fact that we used to call Indians “red devils”. This place was a place of worship for many tribes. It was their “church”. Therefore somebody coined it “devils tower”. And the name stuck. Even to this day.

It is the bear’s claws that creates these vertical lines. Geologically it’s called columnar faulting. It’s extraordinary up close. It’s the largest example of columnar faulting in the world. Some are more than 600 feet tall and are 10 to 20 feet wide. Some are 4, 5, 6, and even 7 sided.

Geologist agree that the tower is a igneous (hardened magma) intrusion. There are 3 versions of how this may have happened.

Anyway it was a really beautiful place. I really remember back when I was in Australia 1998 and I went to Uluru. It was a similarSpiritual feeling walking around the base of this giant rock the sun shining on it. I highly recommend this place for anyone who is in the area.

Petroglyphs dated back to 11,000 years ago were on the drive from Thermopolis to Cody, Wyoming. After our evening soak when we decided to drive to the petroglyphs and camp out on the side of the road so go see them during sunrise. as we were driving the last few miles it to the petroglyphs site was pretty neat because everything was clear except versus one misty area in the valley. it was as if the spirits all Native Americans were hovering right there where the petroglyphs were. Of course that where the mist was wasn’t exactly where the petroglyphs were probably about a half mile away and when we parked we could smell the salt for a knew there must’ve been a hot Springs close by but it was kind of fun to think about as we were driving in. It was pretty great we were there as the sun was rising because the sun shone right onto the rocks.

Do you know the difference between petroglyphs and pictographs? Petroglyphs are carved or etched into the stone with a tool. Pictographs are painted on the stone.

Since we are driving through Cody to get to Little Bighorn Battlefield and decided to stop in to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West museum.

There was a rifle exhibit

The Buffalo Bill exhibit. William Frederick Cody 1846 – 1917. He worked for the Pony Express. Became a scout for the US Army during the Indian Wars. Became ‘Buffalo Bill’’ in honor of the amount of buffalo he killed (supposedly he killed 4,282 and 18 months between 1867-68. You can put it in an 8-hour buffalo shooting match to exclusively use the name “Buffalo Bill” against Bill Comstock where he won by killing 68 animals to Comstock’s 48). His legend soon followed him as he was written about and became a symbol of the “Wild West”. He later became a showman and toured the country with his famous “Buffalo Bills Wild West Show”. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was also credited for making Annie Oakley famous as well.

After going through the exhibit, the girls were quite sure why he was/is famous and celebrated.

And didn’t even realize and almost left before we walked through was the Plains Indians exhibit. It was really nicely done. As we were leaving I was bothered that the exhibit was in the back past the cafeteria (which is why we almost missed it) and felt like it should’ve been more prominent like the rifle exhibit which caught our attention first…i imagine people going for that would’ve found it 😐

There were approximately 670 Plains Indians tribes. The Plains Indians were nomadic. Their tribal survival depended on the hunter-warrior society. A man’s ambition was to provide for his family by being an expert horseman, successful hunter, and adept warrior. His status in the tribe was derived from his bravery. Spiritualism in the belief in oneness with his/her respect for the natural environment are central to their religion.

Women were vital to the nomadic society. Their responsibilities involved strenuous labor in running the camp, drying meat, cooking, preparing hides, making clothing, and moving their lodges as the people moved. Through it all, they reared their children.

Every adult in the village played a role in a child’s development and education. Grandparents were especially important. They cared for the children, made them toys, and resources of cultural knowledge and wisdom.

Many tribes consider the Buffalo a sibling and provider of life because it provides protection, nourishment, and roll materials. It symbolized protection.

The Bear was power. The grizzly symbolizes inherent strength.

Realizing how much change happened in such a short amount of time must’ve been so difficult beyond traumatic. Plains Indians were assigned to reservations in the late 1800s and expected to “settle” on single family plots. Remember, they were nomadic.

When are driving to Montana, well, you see some colorful folk.

Right when you drive in to Little Bighorn Battlefield you see a large grassy field filled with tombstones. I’ve been to plenty of cemeteries before in Hungary, but I’ve never been to any associated with a war like the Civil War or a World War in Europe. There’s something different about seeing all the matching tombstones and knowing it all happened in one occasion.

I have to say part of me felt happy (happy not quite the word) to know that there were times when Native Americans defeated the Americans. The more you travel around and see and feel the country and learn about the Indians, the worse you feel about the Native American’s end of the stick. At some point, sadly this was probably inevitable, yet the United States definitely did not go about it admirably or honorably. It is definitely a black stain on our history.

Interestingly, right when we walked in I asked the Ranger what tribe he was a part of (it was evident he was Native American). I think I was expecting to hear him be proud in someway about what happened here, that the indigenous people had some redemption, but that was not necessarily the case. He was part of the Crow Indians and currently lives on the Crow Reservation. The Crow Indians actually helped Lieutenant Colonel George Custer scout for the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians. He said the Crow showed Custer and his men where all the Indian tribes were camped. Lt. Col. Custer said thank you that’s all they required of them and dismissed them. He said the Crow Indians went up the hill to “watch the show”. One of the Crow Indian scouts name was (no joke) “White Man Runs Him”. The young lady behind the desk helping the Ranger in the visitor center mentioned that she was a direct descendent of White Man Runs Him. This is where I am happy that me and Edwin are not afraid to talk to people and we spent more time talking to these two Crow Indians then looking at the displays inside the visitor center. After I apologized if I was ignorant by asking her, “Are you proud or embarrassed of your heritage of being a descendant of White Man Runs Him?…helping the white man locating the Indians and telling Custer where they were camped. She responded with “…that is a little tricky to answer. But what I can say is…is that the Crow people were a peaceful people. Family is very important to them. They took care of their elders and their children. They were concerned with keeping their families and their land intact. They had worked with the white man and made an agreement for their reservation land. They were concerned with longevity of their own tribe. The Lakota and Cheyenne has been their natural enemies. These tribes were originally located in the Dakotas. They moved into their territory into Montana and began a hunting the animals that they felt they had a right to. The wanted those tribes “out” of their land. So yes, they helped the white man. And do do not/did not regret it”. We really appreciated her talking to us and giving us frank and honest answers.

They say Lieutenant Custer poked the hornets nest. There was help just a few days away.

We rounded out the evening with a lovely sunset and found some native american humor at the trading post…

We just needed a day of not moving again and it was really nice just sit in the hot springs and so we are planning on doing that again today. This is an area where a lot of dinosaurs are found so we did go to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, checked out the wind river canyon that we drove through on the way here but didn’t want to stop because we wanted to get to where we were staying for the night, of course went back to the star plunge to have a nice evening soak.

The 2 main things this dinosaur museum is known for is the “Supersaurus” and the “Archaeopteryx”

The archaeopteryx is important because it provided the link between non-avian feathered dinosaurs and modern birds.

Just in case you thought T-Rex 🦖 is scary…

The supersaurus is the longest dinosaur, part of the sauropods and is the largest dinosaur found in Wyoming.

We then walked into town and had lunch at the One Eyed Buffalo 🐃

You know how I know Edwin’s loud…when he was across the street kiddie corner and we are on the phone with each other but I can hear his voice better from the echo off the brick building without the phone to my ear 😂

Wind River Canyon

Walking around hot springs state park. The “big spring” serves the area and 2.1 million gallons flow from it each day. a few They have travertine terraces similar to mammoth hot springs in Yellowstone and they also have a swinging bridge (but not as fun as the one in Libby”

now off for a soak…

It was a crazy windstorm last night. We even closed the slide out because it was making so much noise. I’m glad we explored and went walking last night. We woke up and stayed hunkered down in the RV and listened to the wind howl. At least I was finally able to update the last week of posts that I have been unable to because lack of proper internet for upload pictures.

We checked out the visitor center and here’s some info on the Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake is in a very shallow basin. It is about 75 miles long by 35 miles wide, but is only about 33 feet deep at its max. Great Salt Lake at him as a terminal lake because 4 rivers and several streams flow into the lake but because of its shallow basin NO rivers flow out. The only way water leaves is through evaporation. This is partially why it’s salt level is so great. The water evaporates and the salt and other minerals are left behind. The other reason is because the lake is a remnant of the Pleistocene era lake called Lake Bonneville: as the lake dried up the salt remained.

Antelope are the 2nd Fastest mammal on the planet…which puts them as the FASTEST mammal in North America. They can run 70 miles an hour. Did you know that bison can run up to 40 miles an hour? Also an antelope eyes are almost as big as elephants; they can see almost 360° and can see movement 4 miles away.

Great Basin is a National Park we weren’t very excited about going to…and it may been left out of our loop because it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere. Since we were kind of stuck in Salt Lake City anyway we decided this was the time to do the almost 5 hour drive from Salt Lake City. We would never really drive to this area of Nevada probably not go this direction again as it isn’t really close to anything so it was a good thing to get out of the way in the 2 1/2 days we had before we could pick up our generator again. Plus, any other direction we went there was too much to see and it would take us longer than that many days and we wouldn’t want to have backtracked again. You know what they say when you’re not expecting much it’s often better than you expected. I’m really happy we did make it out this way. You’re driving through hours of desert to get there. Actually we drove on what was what is dubbed “the Loneliest Road in America”, highway 50 between Salt Lake City and Reno.

One thing we were kind of excited about was that the “southern taurids” were happening in the night sky and Great Basin is known for its night sky. It is so far away from anywhere else it is one of the areas in America that has the least amount of light pollution. Unfortunately it was almost a full moon and so the sky was very bright. We did not see any of the fireballs we were hoping to see.

Light pollution is a real thing… In 2016 Great Basin National Park has been designated an “International Dark Sky Park”

Great Basin National Park lies to the East of the Great Basin Desert. There are 4 defined in North America. The Great Basin Desert is huge and covers the entire area Sierra to the Wasatch Mountains. The uplifting of the Sierra Nevada 15 million years ago created the rainshadow which is now the desert. They say that Great Basin National Parka is an island in terms of fauna. It’s water system is not attached to the ocean in any way and there’s so much desert around it that no animal can make its way into the national park or leave the national Park. Wheeler Peak with an elevation of 13,065’ high, enough to cause its own weather for Great Basin National Park, The pic is high enough that the weather needs to drop it’s moisture to cross the mountain pass. another interesting thing is that you go through five ecosystems in a very short period of time. Desert, Sagebrush Prairie, Juniper Pinyon Pine, Alpine, Sub Alpine.

This whole area is also known as Basin and Range. The thinning of the crust created mountains and then over time over because of erosion it created flat basins.

We started off in the visitor center with a snake presentation. The Sonoran King Snake tried to mimic the poisonous Coral Snake. To tell them apart here’s a little riddle. Red on Yellow, Kill a Fellow. Red on Black, Friend of Jack.

The Gopher Snake tries to mimic the Rattlesnake. They’re very similar in color and the gopher snake is even able to make a hissing sound similar to a rattlesnake. What you really need to look at is the tail. Want to go for snake it’s stripes go all the way down to its tail.

One of the things Great Basin National Park is known for are the Lehman caves and the Bristlecone Pine‘s.

We found out we weren’t able to drive up to Wheeler Peak because we’re over the 24 foot vehicle allowance. We are pretty bummed because that’s where all the old Bristlecone Pine trees are. So we decided to do the Lehman Cave tour first and maybe we could finagle a ride up there.

Lehman Caves. it’s pretty neat down there. It always stays a constant 52°F no matter if it’s the summer or the winter. There is a one natural opening that is 150 feet above the ground. Of course they have since built an entrance for tours. One thing that was pretty remarkable is that for a few minutes they turned out all the lights and it’s very surprising that you cannot see your hand in front of your face. Period. Whatsoever. To the point where both Edwin and I both hit our own noses with our hands looking for our hands. You don’t really think that things can be really that 100% dark.

Lehman Caves is by no means the largest cave in United States. It’s actually quite small, only a few miles long. The mammoth caves in Kentucky are huge as well as Carlsbad caverns and Arizona. But what is significant about the Lehman caves is that it contains over 300 shield formations. The Carlsbad Cavern has 2 for example.

Quick science: Water drips down from the ground water above. The calcite in the water is what makes up the formations. There are two distinct formations; stalactites and stalagmites. To easily know the difference which one grows from the ceiling down and which from grows from the ground up… Stalactites has a “c” for ceiling, they grow down from the ceiling. Stalagmites has a “g” in it and they grow up from the ground. When a stalactite and a stalagmite meet they form a column.

After the cave tour we had lunch in the visitor center and we were surprisingly floored by how good the food was. They’re handmade potato chips were off the hook. We also start looking for a ride up to Wheeler Peak and the cook was nice enough to offer us his car (not drive us up, but give us his keys and return it) but he said don’t worry about the 24 foot length restriction…our car would make it up just fine especially since there weren’t that many people.

The drive up in our car was totally fine and I’m glad we took the RV. We did the 3 mile walk up to the Bristlecone Pine Forest. I still remember my dad taking us to Bristlecone Pines in the Eastern Sierra‘s when I was little and I’m happy we came here. There is something very very cool about these trees.

Bristlecone Pine trees can live up to 5000 years old. It’s pretty crazy to think how much the world they have seen in this one area. They are used to growing an adverse conditions 9 to 11,000 feet in elevation, with little moisture.

Because of cold temperatures, dry soils, high winds, and short growing seasons, the trees grow very slowly. that is also what gives the Bristlecone Pine tree it’s an usual swirly luck because it is growing in adverse conditions all the time. It’s needles, which grow in bunches of five, can remain on the tree for forty years. Even the dead trees can remain standing for thousands of years.

We ended up taking a detour to an alpine lake. So happy we did because it had a thin layer of ice across the whole lake and skipping rocks, throwing ice, and listening to the sounds of the pieces skip across the top