May 15, 2009. We woke up extra early to drive across some of the most boring landscapes in US. It will take us roughly 13 hours and 915 miles to get from Saint Louis to Badlands in South Dakota, giving time for lunch and pit stops. We got up, packed our luggages, ate breakfast, and left Saint Louis at 7:30AM. We arrived in Kansas City, MO (not to be confused with Kansas City, Kansas) at Arthur Bryant's for lunch.
Not to be confused with Arthur W.M. Bryant, the British historian, Arthur Bryant's is a BBQ joint in downtown Kansas City. The place is a small hole in the wall restaurant with a long queue of people waiting to get their hands on some of the tastiest BBQ ever. The BBQ here is mostly beef briskets served open face on loads of soft white bread, as much as you'd like actually. The specialty is the burnt ends, which is what I had. It's burned to a nice crisp, with a
bit of ash flavor still lingering on the meat. It was finger licking good.
At halfway point, we stopped in Omaha, NE for a quick cup of joe at the local Starbucks. After the pick me up, the weather started to turn on us. And what a great opportunity for Raymond to become sleepy (yes, after the coffee) and wanted me to drive a little. For the next 2 hours, the weather got really nasty, it rained so hard that I couldn't see 2 feet ahead of me, then it hailed, and it was very intense driving. Soon after the storm rolled by, the sun came out and revealed a bright blue sky. The landscape was just as Raymond had described, lots and lots and lots and lots of small rolling hills and cows for the next 5 hours.
By the time we reached the Badlands National Park, it was close to 8PM (after we gained one hour heading west), and the sun was going down fast. I was itching to get out of the car, only to find my flip-flop and long sleeve sweater to be slightly -- wait, scratch that out -- to be very inadequate. The weather in South Dakota was bitter, cold, dry, and extremely windy, even in May. I quickly unpacked my camera and tripod, ran out towards the pretty yellow and green grassland to snap a few pictures. "Ouch!" Yes, I stepped on a cactus.
Badlands was once a hunting ground for the Native Americans. It is here where they hunted bisons, scanned for their enemies and wandering herds. It is 244,000 acres of eroded land blended with rich fossil beds in an once fresh water valley. The once stream banks are now the colorfully carved rocks in the background. It is also the home to bisons, bighorn sheep, black-footed ferrets, swift fox, prairie dogs, and CACTUS. After my cactus injury, the arch of my foot swelled up to the size of a lemon. Raymond had to carry me back to the car. Note to self: Next time -- wear shoes.
We spent better half of the next day exploring Custer State Park. We drove around the park circle looking out for buffalos, elks, mule deer, pronghorns, and bighorn sheep. And finally we pondered upon a big herd of buffalos grazing, with baby buffalos trailing after their mother. I was a bit disappointed that I did not own a mac daddy zoom lens for my camera, so I was only able to take pictures from a distance. For the first time in my life, I saw a wild herd of buffalos. And for the first time in my life, I ate a buffalo burger at a cook out sponsored by the park. It was a bit wrong, I admit.
By noon, I was ready to go for a hike, and we decided on the Lover's Leap. As we got out of the car at the trail head, there was a buffalo about 10 feet away from me, across the stream, grazing alone. I took the golden opportunity to take a quick picture. Please note: It is very dangerous to observe a buffalo from a short distance, do not try this at home.
For dinner, we decided to go to the Corn Exchange in downtown Rapid City, which was a very lovely little town and restaurant. We were only able to snatch a reservation at 9PM, and the restaurant was sold out of a lot of the things I had wanted. The experience was still very pleasant, I settled on a Caesar salad with anchovies while Raymond had a Filet Mignon with sun-dried tomato butter. And we finished the night with a very creamy and slightly sweet creme brulee.
We decided to sleep in the next morning, and finally got out of bed at 7:30AM (which is like 9:30AM on the east coast). Our agenda today was to drive 510 miles/8 hours to Yellowstone, horizontally across the state of Wyoming. For about 6 hours on the road, there was nothing. No rolling hills, no cows, nothing, until finally the sky opened and there it was -- the snow capped Rockies.
We finally reached our destination at 8PM and checked into Yellowstone Lake Hotel. The hotel needed a restoration BAD. It looked as if it was still living in the glamor of the 1960s, which was probably when it was last renovated. There was a lounge/foyer, where guests could sit, enjoy the view of the lake (frozen lake in May), and have an overpriced cocktail. Our room was tiny and old, but the bathroom was clean.
Raymond broke into the beer that he received as a gift from the wedding, and we went straight to bed. In the middle of the night, Raymond jumped out of bed, turned on the light, and he was throwing a towel up and down on top of me and the covers. I was confused, pulled the covers over me, and went back to sleep. The next morning, he told me there was a mouse running on top of me and the covers last night. THAT caused me insomnia the following night.
By now, you'd think I'd be used to the cold north west, but I wasn't. It's difficult to look outside and see 10 feet of snow piled up on the side of the road in May. I was dressed in layers of tank top, long sleeve t-shirt, sweater, coat, and gloves. We headed outside to see Old Faithful this morning. We waited roughly 10 minutes around the geyser, and then it started to produce a ton of steam, and then water spouted for about 3 minutes.
A geyser is basically a hot spring that is usually located near volcanic areas, and the name derives from the Icelandic verb, to gush, gjósa. Geysers are co-located with a pool of water, such as mudpools or fumaroles. Where the underground water circulation system is heated by the magma from the volcanic area, and is then pushed up through the geyser and thus erupts. Then the cycle continues. And Yellow Stone has almost half of all the geysers in the world.
For the rest of the day, we drove around the park loop, checked out Roosevelt Tower, crossed countless waterfalls, and did a bit of hiking in 6 feet of snow. Many of the hiking paths were still closed, and would not open for another 2 weeks or so. There were an abundance of geysers, and the fumes were toxicating and smelly from the sulfur. Then finally we reached Mammoth Springs! I've been looking forward to the Springs; however, I was slightly disappointed when I found out that many of the springs have ceased to flow for a few years now. I suppose the springs flow and die out and comes back every few decade or so. I was just unlucky. The Canary Spring still flowed in abundance, and has a hue of yellow/orange in the bed of the spring that is caused by a specific kind of algae that thrives in the hot temperature.
We returned to the hotel for dinner early in the evening. I have already been forewarned regarding the food at the hotel by TripAdvisor.com, so I was careful not to raise my expectation too high. I decided to go with a seared duck breast salad for $14, with dressing on the side incase they drench my salad. To my surprised, the duck salad was not half bad. The duck breast was generously sized on a big plate of fresh greens, and not over cooked -- just slightly pink in the middle and very juicy. Not bad for a tourist trap.
May 19th, and we were on our way to the Grand Tetons. The drive from Yellow Stone to Grand Tetons was lovely with the Tetons covered in snow. We decided on an easy hike around lake Jenny that is a 6-7 miles loop. However, I did not anticipating on hiking in the snow, so I had to back track to the car to put on a pair of hiking boots. The hike would have been a pretty easy one had there not been any snow. With the snow, the trails are sometime ambiguous and we got lost, and half of my body fell through the snow drift into a stream and placed a deep cut on my leg. However, the hike was well worth it, along the way we saw a few black marmots (much like a beaver but without a flat tail and doesn't build dams), chipmunks, and a baby elk.
I was exhausted when we finally checked into our motel in Jackson Hole, and slept like a log for over 8 hours. The next day we were on our way to aunt Janet's in Erie, CO. I started my day off with a 6 mile run, felt great about myself before we stuffed ourselves back into the car for another 8 hour drive. By now, I was getting a bit sick of ridding in the car and was hoping therun in the morning would give me a bit of a jump start, but it wore off in about 30 minutes.
The weather has been pretty good all along in the trip, so by the time we reached Erie, it has become cloudy and rainy. We spent the day walking around the sleepy college town of Boulder (most of the kids would have gone home by end of May), visiting the college campus, and then the outdoor shopping district -- Pearl Street Mall. Since Estee Park was not yet open, we went on a short hike up Flat Iron Mountain, called Royal Arch. The last 0.7 mile of the hike ascends you to the top of the mountain where you could view the entire city from atop the clouds. Quite an invigorating view!
We left aunt Janet's on May 22nd, for another 7 hour car ride to Durango, CO. The highlight of the day was when we passed through the town of South Park, CO, while I watched "He's Not That Into You" in the car. The next day we fulfilled one of Raymond's childhood dreams. We rode on the steam train from Durango to Silverton, CO. The train ride up the mountain was spectacular, waterfalls left and right, streams crossing underneath us while we crossed over wooden bridges, mountains on both sides of us so close that I could easily reach out and touch them. After about 2 hours of the train ride, I was no longer visually stimulated, and there was still 1.5 hours left on the ride up and then another 3.5 hours of train ride back down the mountain. Oh boy.
The name steam train was a bit misleading, because the engine was actually run by coal. And the sot from the coal gets picked up by the steam and was then released into the air, and eventually lands on my face as we strolled slowly up the mountain. This was NOT very environmentally friendly. The train also moves very slowly at about 5-15 miles an hour, we noticed that some people actually got to the top of the mountain in Silverton faster by bicycle.
The town, Silverton, was formerly a silver mining town with a small population of 500. Today, the town is mostly a small tourist trap, with small bar/restaurants/saloon, such as Shady Lady in a former brothel, few shops for souvenirs, and such. The train allows the tourist to roam around town for almost 2 hours, and that would be plenty to see the town and catch a bite to eat. Then another 3.5 hours back to Durango. Raymond came to Durango almost 15 years ago, his parents refused to take a trip to Silverton on the train, I can see why.
For dinner, we went to the famous local eatery called Red Snapper in down town Durango. I decided on the local almond crusted trout, since I see a lot of trout finishing in the CO area. However, I was disappointed by the dish, the trout was over cooked, the almond was overwhelming, breading was too thick, fish skin was not roasted with a flavorful crisp, and the whole dish was just quite bland. Raymond decided that we should contribute the unpleasant dinner experience to the high altitude. It apparently is very hard to cook in high altitude, but Raymond also contributes the fact that he misheard me to that he can't remember any things he did wrong on this trip to the affect of altitude. SURE... honey!
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