Run, Work, Hike, Repeat...

Our week in Rocky Mountain National Park was the end of the "tourist" portion of our summer trip.  We spent the first half of our vacation going to new places to see and experience.  Since RMNP we have moved to Cheyenne Mountain State Park - just outside of Colorado Springs - to start the "camping" portion of our trip.  That means (to me anyway) that instead of sightseeing, we have been just hanging out at camp.  It has been a wonderful change of pace!! Our daily agenda has been to wake up, go for a run (we are following the couch to 5K model), come back to camp and work in our shaded shelter, then hike one of the many hikes located directly in the park.

 I don't know if it is because I am so happy to be out of that RV park, but I am really loving it at this state park. It is really close to Colorado Springs (and directly next to Fort Carson) - in fact we can see the entire city from up here on the side of the mountain - which is normally a negative for me, but I am actually really enjoying the views.  It is especially pretty at night with all the city lights.

Kora watching a bunny

Enjoying a fire.

View out the back of our site at night.

Even though we are really close to civilization we saw a ton of wildlife.  On my very first run (through beautiful thick fog) I came around a corner and was face to face with a deer.  So far we have seen a large snake (gopher snake?), prairie dogs, tons of bun buns (rabbits), birds, and some super large (like 2 inches long) beetle.

Our site is great - private and we are backed up to the edge of the cliff so we have great views out the back of the city and farmlands.  Our spot is huge - definitely big enough for us - with a concrete pad that was already level. Plus we have full hook ups here AND even a laundry facilities! And, we are only 2 miles from a Safeway so it was a piece of cake to get groceries.

View out the back of our campsite.

Tomorrow we are leaving and heading to our last big destination before heading back home and getting back to reality.  We are staying at another state park that is in the woods with NO cell or internet service.  So if you don't hear from us for 10 days or so, you know why.  It will be interesting to stay for so long without any phone or internet, but I am ready for the challenge!  I am super excited about some more "real" camping before having to head back to reality!!

Rocky Mountain National Park

We just left Rocky Mountain National Park after spending a glorious week there exploring the region. Just a warning - this post is going to be quite long since I am cramming our entire week into one post! 

The first few days we laid low, spending time working at camp, getting groceries, and exploring Estes Park while my leg healed from the ladder of doom on the Notch Trail back in the Badlands NP.  After I could finally walk without hobbling around, we did a "practice" 1/2 mile hike around Bear Lake.  This is the most popular hike in the park and it was easy to see why.  The lake was beautiful and the trail is very easy - paved and fairly wide the whole way round. That also meant that there were HUNDREDS of people on this trail at the same time.  Not exactly the type of hike we usually look for, but it was pretty and it confirmed that my leg was ready for a "real" hike.

Bear Lake

So, the next day we ventured back to the Bear lake region to hike the 1.8 miles (straight up!) to Emerald Lake (3.6 miles RT).  Because it gets so busy (there are several trail heads in this region) they offer a free hiker shuttle from a large parking lot a few miles away.  It sounded like a great deal until we got there and saw this huge line.

Waiting in line for the shuttle to take us to Bear Lake and our trail head

The park service was on top of their game, though. They had buses running every 5-10 minutes or so, and we didn't have to wait TOO long. However, once on, they make stops at the various major trail heads (I think there are 4 total?) and our trail head was the very last stop. That meant it took us about an hour just to get to start our hike after parking the truck.  

SELFIE!

Once we got there, we finally started our hike. This hike goes up into the mountains past 2 small lakes (Nymph and Dream lakes) with the trail finishing at Emerald lake.  This hike is labeled as "moderate" and the first half (to Emerald Lake) was a consistent climb, often with stairs (boo!) with a total elevation gain of almost 700 feet. 

The lakes and the surrounding area WAS beautiful, but the entire trail was PACKED with people. But, the lake at the end helped make up for the mass of people.  

Emerald Lake

The next day we decided to try a different location (and to go MUCH earlier) to see if we could avoid the crowds a bit.  We chose the 2.8 (5.4 RT) mile hike out to Ouzel falls based on a review we overheard from a local on the trail the previous day. 

So, by 7:45 am we were hiking this gorgeous trail.  We were a little lower in elevation and you could really tell by the different ecosystem from the previous day.  The whole hike takes you along the river/creek past several falls and cascades until you finally reach Ouzel falls.  Along the way you walk through a portion of the forest that was burned in a fire the same year I was born.  It was pretty cool to see an entire "baby" forest that is growing that is the same age as me! 

A forest the same age as me!

We also saw some wildlife including a snowshoe hare, a blue grouse, and a chipmunk.  We heard from the park rangers when we were leaving that some people right before us spotted a black bear and two cubs! I am bummed we didn't get to see a bear!!!

Critters on our hike

This hike was AMAZING. We both loved it. Beautiful scenery, peaceful nature.  Just lovely.  It was  longer than the the Emerald Lake hike, and it actually had more of an elevation gain, but it felt better because A) not very many stairs (have I mentioned that I hate those built in "stairs" using logs in trails?) B) hardly any people on the way up.

Ouzel Falls

We encountered TONS of people on the way back down though and by the time we reached the parking lot, it was completely full - they were having to turn cars away or make them wait for someone to come back out and leave!

Ouzel Falls

The next day we gave our legs a break and drove into Boulder to meet up with Jason's cousin and her husband.  It was great to see her (it has been probably close to 10 years since we have seen her!).  We had a nice lunch and walked around downtown Boulder and chatted.  

Cousin meet-up in Boulder!

For our last full day we chose to hike something completely different - the Ute trail up in the alpine tundra. 

Ute Trail Panorama

It was amazing - we were up at over 11,000 feet and had incredible views of the surrounding mountain ranges - and Estes Park at our turnaround point. 

Images from Ute Trail 

The hike was relatively flat, but at such high altitudes AND having to scramble over rocks the entire hike, it made it a little more of a workout.

The elevation at our highest point in our hike

It was so nice to end our time in RMNP in a completely different type of hike - it allowed us to get into the mountains and see the park from a different point of view - complete with wildlife, like the several Yellow-Bellied Marmots we saw near the trail. 

Some interesting plants and animals in the alpine tundra (including a Yellow-Bellied Marmot and some Rocky Mountain Sunflowers

After our hike, we ventured back into Estes Park to check out the Stanley Hotel. Jason is lucky because I had completely forgotten that the Stanley Hotel was right next to where we are staying. They offer several different tours, including an overnight ghost tour!!! (For those of you who don't know, the show Ghost Hunters went to the Stanley several years ago). If I had remembered in time I would have totally signed us up for that.  As it was, they made us pay $5 to park and then they only allowed us on the grounds and the lobby area of the hotel. They had everything else off limits except for people on tours or guests. It was still pretty cool to be there - it was a beautiful old hotel.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park

We really enjoyed the Rockies, but our RV park, Elk Meadow RV Park, was a little weird. It had some definite pros; the roads and sites were really big and easy to navigate, the buildings on the property were all historical buildings (like the old RMNP lodge that was reassembled on site here), and the RV park was literally on the border of the national park, so that made it very accessible.   But, there were also some cons - there was NO PRIVACY at all. Just a huge open field where we were all parked. Also, they have a million rules and it felt like it wasn't a very friendly environment with a bunch of "don't _______" signs covering everything. Plus, even though they had a ton of rules, they didn't seem to enforce any of them, like not allowing kids under 16 to be in the hot tubs. We did get a view of the mountains out the back, but that also included a view of a storage lot of RVs.  With all that said, it should be noted that we didn't really see anything that looked any better.

Some actual elk at the edge of the RV park!

We had a great time in the park area but were definitely ready to move onto our next adventure!

South Dakota Part 2

We were just as active on the second half of our time in South Dakota as we were on the first.  On Thursday we stayed in camp and did a bunch of needed chores and work and then we proceeded into downtown Sturgis to check out the local culture.  As some of you probably know, Sturgis is the location of the famous annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally where motorcycle enthusiasts from all over the country converge during the first week of August.  Jason and I are not that into motorcycles, but we have friends who are, and even a couple of friends who rode from Oregon to Sturgis to go to the rally two years ago.  So, we were curious about the town has been running this rally for 74 years.

We scoured the internet and came up with a list of half a dozen or so bars (or saloons as they seem to be called here!) that were supposed to be the best (at least during the rally).

The Knuckle

We went first to the Knuckle Saloon.  It was interesting because it is also a little mini museum of antiques and the surrounding area.  I thought it had a pretty cool vibe in there - plus we discovered a local microbrew - Crow Peak which is brewed in Spearfish. I really like the Canyon Cream Ale and Jason liked the 11th hour IPA and the Pile O' Dirt Porter. Plus, the cans were absolutely beautiful!  We also had some amazing Buffalo Blue Beef Tips as our first round of food for the night.

One-Eyed Jack's Saloon

Our second stop was more of a dive bar called the Oasis Fireside. From there we moved onto One-Eyed Jack's Saloon, which was both of our favorite spot - although clearly not a regular for the folks that live in Sturgis - we were the only ones inside!  It was huge with quite the assortment of stuffed animals on the walls.  Also some very well done murals were in each room giving them a different theme.

Other saloons we visited

We also went to Easyriders (which felt a lot like being inside a Chili's or something - not a lot of local culture) and from there to Sidehack's Saloon (which was having their weekly biker night).  All in all, we had a fun time exploring downtown and the various saloons we made it too.  We really enjoyed how there weren't too many people there, and I seriously can't quite imagine the chaos that it must be like when the rally is going on.

On Friday (and the Fourth of July) we left early to head down to Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Mount Rushmore Selfie!!

The memorial is amazing - they have done a great job making it accessible for everyone and the exhibits were very interesting.

Row of flags and Mount Rushmore

I really enjoyed taking the short hike that takes you up close and personal (like, if you ever wanted to stare up a president's nostril, here is your chance!).  Since we were there fairly early it wasn't very crowded yet.

We actually waited in line to get this picture up George Washington's nose.  Worth it?

By the time we were done with our short "hike" president reenactors had just come out and were taking pictures.  It was pretty much a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to be at such a patriotic place on the Fourth of July AND to get our picture taken with President Lincoln AND George Washington, all with a great shot of the sculptures in the background!!  

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln! 

By the time we left the memorial, it was starting to get really crazy. The line of cars just waiting to get in stretched far beyond what I could see - once again, so glad we got there early! Then we drove the short drive to Crazy Horse Memorial.

Crazy Horse Memorial

So, this is a huge rock sculpture that memorializes Crazy Horse.  It will be HUGE when it is completely finished - like 10 times bigger than Mount Rushmore or something like that. It is being completely built by donations, gifts, and entrance fees (which were crazy expensive - $11 per PERSON vs the $11 per entire carload at Mt. Rushmore). 

What the memorial will eventually look like when completed

They were doing a special blast for the Fourth of July, but we left early - which turned out to be a good thing because, again, as we were leaving, there was a LONG line of cars trying to get in, and no real parking spots left.

"The Fighting Stallions" 

Something about this place didn't set right with me for some reason. I walked away feeling like I had been scammed somehow. The food at the restaurant that we had for lunch was not good. At all.  I am glad that we went since we were right next to it, but I definitely get the hype behind it.

After Crazy Horse, we drove out to Jewel Cave to try to take in a tour - but apparently since it was a holiday weekend, they were super busy and we would have had to wait over 2 hours to take a tour. We weren't all that interested in sitting around, especially since we had some grocery shopping to do and a 90 minute car ride back to our camp, so we scrapped the cave tour.

Badlands Selfie!

On our last full day in South Dakota, we drove out to Badlands National Park to check it out and take in a hike.

So many different colors here!

We had heard about Notch Trail and depending on which description you read was either going to be very difficult (or even impossible!!) or super easy.  Based on our current level of fitness, we figured it would be somewhat of a challenge. 

Hiking Notch Trail

The hike is not very long and a lot of it is fairly flat.  Then, you come up to this "ladder" that you have to scale to get up to the upper level of the hills. Going up was not that difficult, but going down was a whole different situation. 

Climbing the ladder

Once at the top, you hike along a very narrow path hugging the cliff for a bit until it levels back out and you continue your hike in a canyon.  

You are rewarded at the end of a stunning view of the park and surrounding areas.

Made it to the end!

The hike was amazing - I am so glad we did it. It was quite hot and that little bit of a climb and some of the scrambling you have to do to get over some rocks was somewhat difficult, but the views were awesome and hiking through the canyons was like being on another planet. I have never seen rock quite like this before.

Amazing

After getting to the end, we had to make our way back and down the ladder again.  Luckily for us we only had one couple waiting to come up for us, so we didn't create too much of a log jam.  The bigger issue was that somehow I pulled a muscle in my left quad coming down this ladder. The steps were not evenly spaced and I think that I over reached for one of the steps.  After a couple of days I am finally getting better, but it was fairly annoying to have to hobble around everywhere! 

And this is how you hurt yourself, climbing down a ladder!

The Badlands were very pretty. My camera once again doesn't bring out all the subtle colors. There were some places that looked almost rainbow-like in the layers of color. 

Wall Drug Store

On the way back to camp, we stopped at a "famous" tourist trap - Wall Drug.  I had been seeing signs along the freeway for this place for hundreds of miles as we drove from the Tetons to here.  I figured we had to check it out since we were literally going through Wall to get back home. So, we went in....and almost immediately back out. This place is HUGE and is filled to the brim with crap. Between the amount of people and how close all the shelves of tourist trinkets (and all kinds of other crazy items) it started to really freak me out.  I don't do well in places like that - makes me super anxious.  I am pretty sure that I didn't hurt Jason's feelings when I told him I was done! I guess there are all sorts of different rooms with all kinds of random stuff in that may or may not be better than the parts we saw, but that is one place I personally don't ever need to go to again! 

All in all I really loved the parts of South Dakota we saw. I was surprised at how much I liked it - I really felt at home in the Black Hills. I could definitely see going back - there is definitely enough to keep us busy for a really long time! 

South Dakota Part I

Welcome to South Dakota!

I love our summer trips - we are so lucky to be able to explore our great country and discover so many things that we either didn't know about before or didn't fully comprehend how amazing it truly is.  That sentiment sums up exactly what happened for us with South Dakota - If you had asked me what I knew about South Dakota this time last year, I probably wouldn't have come up with much.  That's pretty sad!  But, in our planning for our Summer Trip of National Parks we noticed that Mt. Rushmore wasn't that far away from Grand Teton National Park, and I had always been curious about this famous landmark, so it got included into our plans. And so began our week long exploration into the truly beautiful and interesting Black Hills of South Dakota. 

Our site is AMAZING!!

First we did a search for campgrounds.  Pretty quickly I found a list that included the name "Rush No More" campground.  Obviously, my interest was piqued and I clearly had to click to learn more about this hilariously named park.  I wasn't expecting much with that name, but in our research of the place we discovered that the park was actually pretty amazing. Then we found out that they offer a few sites that come with your own private hot tub! Ok, that sold it for us!!

Wild turkeys + babies went through our site

There weren't any pictures of this sort of site on his webpage, so I was really nervous as to what we were getting ourselves into, but when we got there, all fears vanished.  Our site was AMAZING. We were in a "corner" spot so even if we got neighbors (which we never did) it would still feel very private.  The site was up on the second loop of the campground which meant that we were away from the main part of the campground and surrounded by hills and the Black Hills National Forest - very quiet.  

This hot tub ROCKS!

And the hot tub was the perfect size for the two of us. We learned that they drain and clean the hot tubs after each guest leaves (we actually saw them do this to ours as we were packing up to leave), so that alleviated a lot of fears about other people's random germs floating about. Our site also came with a full sized BBQ and a nice patio set. We had breakfast and coffee outside on that patio every morning - it was a great way to start our days! The whole campground was immaculate.  You could really tell the owner cared about his property and cared about his customers. I would highly recommend this campground (even if you are in a tent!!) if you want to be near Sturgis and the surrounding area. 

Our campground was south of Sturgis, SD by about 5 miles, so it was a good location to go on day trips to a lot of the near by attractions.  We quickly learned that there are a ton of attractions in this area, so we quickly put together a "must do" list.  So, on our first full day we had we drove to the nearby old west town of Deadwood. 

Jason and I have been to a few "old west" type towns before (Tombstone, Bisbee, - a lot of little towns in Arizona, actually) so we sorta knew what to expect.  I generally really love old towns that keep the history and charm alive.

Main street of Deadwood

Deadwood does a pretty good job of feeling like the history is still there without just being a tourist trap (which, of course, it actually is).  The old buildings were in great shape and had a lot of charm. Deadwood is also the only town/city allowed by the state to run casinos, so that should make it a unique draw, but there was something jarring to me to walk into an old building built in 1900 and be bombarded with modern day slot machines.  It was a little weird to me. 

Mt. Moriah Cemetery main entrance

By far my favorite part of Deadwood was visiting Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  It was created in 1878 and has been very carefully maintained.  

Headstone for "Wild Bill" Hickock

The big draw is to see the graves of some of Deadwood's more notable residents, like Wild Bill and Calamity Jane.  It was interesting to see those sites, but what I really loved was seeing all the old head stones.  They were definitely interesting and sometimes (unintentionally?) creepy.

This headstone really creeped us out

Just one of the hundreds of children buried here.  Scarlet fever and diphtheria ran rampant for several years in Deadwood. 

The cemetery is up on a hill overlooking the town, so we were afforded some great views of the whole town before we left. 

View of historic Franklins Hotel (1903) - now the Silverado/Franklin Casino

The next day we decided to get back to nature and drove back into Wyoming to hike around Devils Tower National Monument.

Devil's Tower!!

First off, the tower is very impressive in person. Much larger than I had anticipated (that's what she said. heh)

We LOVE the flowers! And making fudge? We have weird conversations when we hike, apparently. 

There are 8 miles total in hiking around the tower, but we chose the larger hiking path that circles the tower (Red Beds Trail) combined with the closer, more popular paved circle (Tower Trail). All combined it is 4.1 miles.  We started with the Red Beds trail, which was on a very narrow path that cut through tall yellow flowers of some sort (I clearly know my flora! oops).  I usually hike in my various hiking skirts, but this hike really made me wish that I had went ahead and purchased some hiking pants before this trip.  This year we have hiked in more places where we have had to push through plants and I always get antsy about random plants scraping on my legs.  And, in this case, my worry was warranted because the next day I broke out in a rash all on the outside of both of my lower legs!!

Love this balancing rock. And our resulting conversation debating how this clearly igneous rock ended up balancing on this sandstone. 

Besides (or maybe because of) the wildflowers, the Red Beds trail was surprisingly difficult to navigate. The first half is all downhill and I had to constantly be looking down to watch out for unexpected rocks in the path.  I tripped at LEAST 10 times and I was grateful that I was wearing my Teva hiking shoes instead of Teva sandals. 

A cute bumble bee enjoys a thistle and Jason discovers the surface of Mars. 

The second half of the outer circle, is of course, back uphill.  Though it was not that hot outside, the sun felt pretty brutal.  Luckily the uphill portion did not have as much flowers to push through or as many stumbling obstacles for me.

Views of the tower from the path

Despite being more difficult than we had originally bargained for, we really loved the outer circle (Red Beds) hike. There weren't that many people on the trail and we really got some magnificent views of the surrounding area, and the star of the show, the tower.

Pushing through the flowers on the way back up

Once we finished the outer circle (Red Beds trail) we continued on to the tower trail which is a shorter paved trail.  I sorta felt like I should be wearing a sign explaining that we had already completed a longer, harder trail because we got some looks as we went lumping along, all sweaty, complete with our hiking packs right next to people pushing strollers.

Enjoying the paved path of the Tower Trail

Luckily, it wasn't as crowded on the main trail as we feared and once again we were treated to some really lovely views of the tower.  All in all, it was a great hike. I would definitely do it again, especially since I know now what I am getting into. 

PRAIRIE DOG!!!!!

On our way out of the park, we stopped by "prairie dog town" that borders the edge of the park.  I am sure I would feel a little differently if they were as abundant as they used to be (according to the guide we got, the current population is only 2% of what they used to be across the United States just 200 years ago!), but they are seriously cute little rodents!  Previously, I had only ever seen them in zoos, so it was a treat to see them in the wild.

In my next post, I will cover what we did for the rest of the time in South Dakota!!