Day 5: hello Nebraska

New state alert!  I have never been to Nebraska so checking off a new state is exciting for me.  Now I am barely in Nebraska but it counts!

Agate Fossil Beds National Historic Site

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is a protected area in northwest Nebraska that preserves a world-renowned concentration of Miocene-epoch mammal fossils and an extensive collection of Plains Indian artifacts.

The views were beautiful and not what I was expecting for Nebraska.

A quick hike on the Daemanelix Trail . . . 

. . . and then saw this snake skin and was done!

And that’s about it.  It was probably the least amount of time I have spent at any national park system site . . . about 1 hour and back on the road.

Scotts Bluff National Monument

Scotts Bluff National Monument rises 800 feet above the North Platte River, the bluff served as a crucial navigational marker for hundreds of thousands of travelers.  Who stopped here?  fur trappers along the river . . . pioneers on the Mormon trail . . . gold seekers on the California trail . . . land seekers on the Oregon trail.  It is named after Hiram Scott, a fur company clerk/trapper who died in the area in 1828.  Proclaimed a national monument on December 12, 1919, by President Woodrow Wilson.  I have this one on my list but have never been close so I was excited to visit today.  

I drove to the top and did the short hikes to the viewpoints.

 

It was back on the road to Colorado as the trip is nearing the end.

Day 4: Cave Day

It is on the road again for a cave kind of day.  

Wind Cave National Park

Wind Cave National Park is the 7th U.S. National Park established on January 9, 1903.

170 miles of cave has been mapped

3rd longest in U.S.

6th longest in world

The Natural Entrance Tour was 189 steps down and 11 steps up.

The cave contains roughly 95% of all known boxwork formations on Earth. These delicate, honeycomb-patterned blades of calcite project outward from the cave walls and ceilings. 

The tour took the elevator back to surface!  And I jumped in the car to make the drive to the next cave tour!

Jewel Cave National Monument

President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Jewel Cave a National Monument on February 7, 1908.

I arrived with plenty of time and the volunteer suggested I take the Roof Trail while waited for tour to start.  

Again, this trip is showing me how out of shape I am but I made it back in time for the Jewel Cave Scenic Tour.  The tour has 734 stair steps and seemed we went down way farther that Wind Cave.

220.36 miles of cave has been mapped

2nd longest in U.S.

5th longest in world

So why is one a park and the other a monument?  I wish I would have asked one of the Park Rangers . . . I guess I will go ask AI.  I do know that all those steps have me tired!  ***I booked the tours last minute and options were limited.  If you plan to visit either cave, be sure to book tours in advance because they do sell out even during the less busy times of year.  If you are wondering, it is possible to visit both in same day but are at least a 45 minute drive between them.***

Day 3: South Dakota

The tent was comfortable . . . I had to go to the restroom at 2am.  You probably noticed there wasn't one in the tent (some do have them but out of my budget).  There is a bathhouse close so finally at 530am I gave in and went.  Again, I tried my best to be so quiet because you could hear every time the neighbor kids whined (they were older and cried a lot too).  I mean this is a pretty nice view from the patio!

Since I was up so early, I got dressed and hit the road.  Mount Rushmore National Memorial opened at 5am so why not?  I was surprised there were other people there . . . less than 10 but nice to take photos with no people!  You can get the views and hike the short trail but nothing really opens until 8am.

It was a quick stop and back on the road!  I have been to this area before but remember how beautiful it was so wanted to do it again.  I started the slow, curvy drive on the Iron Mountain Road to my next stop but it sure was beautiful!  This is the Scovel Johnson Tunnel.  It is hard to see in the photo but the tunnel frames Mount Rushmore!

The road was a lot of sharp turns and curves but it was so early not many cars were out which was good so I could go slow and enjoy the views.  I have arrived at Custer State Park.  I think this is one of the best state parks in the entire United States!  I was going to do the Wildlife Loop Road to see all the wildlife.  I had just entered and there was a traffic jam . . . . there they were; bison jam!

The weather was so nice that I had my window rolled down.  As the herd approached, I rolled it up because they were close and thought they might stick their heads in.  I am a weirdo.  They were everywhere and man I was loving it.

 

Trust me there were hundreds . . . I took a ton of photos (from the car) for some reason.  The next stop was to see the prairie dogs.  These things are so stinking fast!

Then the wild donkeys also known as the "begging burros" . . . 

. . . which aren't so wild since people can walk up to them and pet or offer a treat.  I circled back to the Custer State Park Bison Center . . . I passed it by but went back since it was still so early in my day.  It was an excellent (and beautiful) interpretative center with displays of how the free-roaming herd of over 1,400 bison are managed and maintained  Glad I went back!  

I had arrived at my destination for the night super early so decided to go check out the local town.  The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, is the world's largest in its original place.  The mammoth research and excavation facility preserves the remains of 58 Columbian mammoths and 3 woolly mammoths inside a sinkhole trap.  It just blows my mind that these sites are just discovered because someone was digging!

Day 2: Wyoming to South Dakota

I had an amazing night of sleep! I don’t know when I ever slept 10 hours! It was back on the road to Fort Laramie National Historic Site.  Fort Laramie was perhaps the single most important location in America’s expansion into the west.  Founded in 1834 as a trading post, it became a military fort in 1849 but abandoned by the military in 1890.  Over the years it influenced major events in the history of the Trans-Mississippi West.  From the eras of the fur trade, the Oregon Trail, and the Indian Wars, the fort served as an American foothold in a rapidly changing west.

The weird thing about me and my travel planning is that over the years I have become unpredictable.  As I was looking at the map, I realized there was a place that I had been wanting to stay for a long time and it was only 3 hours away . . . so I headed that way.  I have always wanted to stay at the Under Canvas tents but they are never near where I am going, out of my budget, or it is just too hot!  So here I am!

 

 

Under Canvas Mount Rushmore is literally in the middle of nowhere . . . the roads are questionable especially in my rental car, but I made it.  I had one thing on the agenda: nothing!  I sat on the front porch while the day ticked away until I grabbed dinner.  I spent way tooo much time watching these guys scurry around!

I signed up for the sunset hike.  I questioned how difficult it was and was told, “oh anyone can do it.”  Ya'll don't believe the young guide who is fit and does this daily that it is really that easy!  That is when I should have walked away, but I did not.  The goal was to see Mount Rushmore as the sun was setting, but it was hazy and hard to see. The longer I looked the easier it was to see the four Presidents.

The hike back was easier but man I’m so out of shape. A quick stop for a s’mores kit and to the tent for hopefully a good night sleep. 

Day 1: hello Wyoming

Yesterday we drove from Texas to Colorado; it was a loooong day, but I did sleep a solid 6 hours without waking up!  The kiddo dropped me off at the rental car place so I could go explore on my own and he could get ready for the start of grad school! He couldn’t wait for me to drive away!  It has been a challenging period for both of us!  Honestly, I was pretty excited too!  I made a quick lunch stop at Yampa Sandwich Co. before I left Fort Collins and the sandwich was so good! 

I was on the road headed north. I was in Wyoming in about half an hour!

First stop were the Oregon Trail Ruts . . . deep, physical grooves carved into solid sandstone by the iron-shod wheels of thousands of covered wagons during the mid-19th-century overland migrations.

 

Then on to Register Cliff . . . during the height of the westward migration in the 1840s and 1850s, it served as a popular first-night campsite and navigational checkpoint roughly a day's journey west of Fort Laramie along the Oregon, California, and Mormon Pioneer Trails.  Wyoming's most famous natural trail registers where trappers, traders, and emigrants chiseled their names, dates, and places of origin into the soft rock. The earliest recorded signature dates back to July 14, 1829.

Of course, with anything these days some people decide to carve their name as if they were important so it was hard to find the old original signatures.

 

Called it a night at an old-time roadside motel, Bunkhouse Motel.  It was as if I stepped back in time but super clean with the friendliest owners.

Huntsville, Texas

I have been to Huntsville several times but this weekend we are being tourist!  Huntsville is all about Sam Houston and the oldest state prison.  First stop was the Texas Prison Museum.  I wasn't sure what to expect but will say it was a good museum with good displays.  As morbid as it sounds the main attraction was seeing Old Sparky.  This was the electric chair used from 1924-1964 and where 361 condemned inmates died.

There was also a very detailed account of the July 1974 prison siege that lasted 11 days when inmates took 15 hostages.   

Next up was all about Sam Houston.  We walked around the Houston Farm complex that is actual land owned by the Houston Family from 1847-1858.  The grounds were very well kept and pretty.  The Houston's Family Woodland Home.  

Stopped by the Memorial Museum complex where there were exhibits about Houston and his life.  Did you know Francis Scott Key (yes, the one who wrote The Star Spangled Banner) was Sam Houston's attorney when Houston was accused of assaulting a member of Congress.  He was found guilty.  Then a short drive to the Sam Houston burial site

And a bit of useless information . . . when the monument arrived in 1911 the word governor was misspelled on the 3rd line . . . so they fixed it by sanding the misspelled word down and putting gov'nor.  

Our last stop was the BIG Sam Houston . . . if you are driving on I-45 you can't miss him!  

 

He stands 67 feet tall on a 10 foot base . . . his cane is 32 feet tall . . . his hand is 7.5 feet wide and he  weighs 30 tons!  Seriously if you don't see him you must have been asleep!

Best Food Spots:
Five Loaves Deli
Farmhouse Cafe

And if you like fabrics and quilting stopping by Little Splitpeas is a must!