Rapid City to Park City…Via Yellowstone!

Our next destination is Santa Maria, California. Neither Jesse nor I have ever been to the Pacific Coast so we are very excited. Our journey started on Sunday morning after a day of packing furiously, we had the new trailer loaded up high and less stuff in the cars so the dog had more room to spread out. The first stop was Cody, Wyoming, a town of about 9,000 people and a pretty cool town from what people in SD had been telling me.

But before we could get there we had to drive up and through the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. We pulled over to get gas and consulted our road atlas to see which would be the best way to go since it could possibly be quite a slow climb with the Jeep pulling the trailer. A trucker saw us and suggested we use Route 16 instead of Route 14 since that is what he uses and doesn’t have too much trouble. He did warn us about two hairpin turns on the route. We thanked him and decided Route 16 was the way for us. We headed out and started a beautiful drive into the mountains. I loved the views and we had to stop and pull over to take some pictures near those hairpin turns because it was just stunning. The Jeep did pretty well chugging up those hills and we never really had a long line of traffic behind us so that was good.

We finally made it to Cody and checked into the hotel. The cat had to be settled in before taking a stroll downtown to find dinner. The hotel we stayed at was recommended by a friend because of how easy it is to walk around and findgood shopping and food. One of the hotel rules was that the dog could not be left alone for any time in the room so we had to find a place with outdoor seating so we could have her with us. We ended up at the Silver Dollar Bar where the burger was huge and delicious and the dog shared my fries. There was even some live music to listen to as we finished our really good local beers. After dinner we wandered back to the hotel since all of us were tired from being in the car all day.

The next day we headed to Yellowstone National Park (again with the dog in tow). We had never been there and it was something I never thought I would see. It was so beautiful. The day was perfect and we had my fun little car so driving down the curvy roads was great. It was a breezy day so the large Yellowstone Lake in the center of the park was very choppy with large waves. The pictures hardly do the view justice. It is such a large park that driving was the way we would be able to see a lot in the short day we had. Both Jesse and I would love to go back and hike some of the trails. Yellowstone is full of wildlife and we had the chance to get up close to a small group of bison that chose to walk up the road way in front of my car and of course stop for a little while and just stand there. I was driving and this was a new experience for me. Eventually a ranger and an ambulance went by and chased them off the road so we were able to continue on. They have gas stations in Yellowstone so thankfully we were able to fill up my car and get that worry off of our minds. Our original plan was to head toward the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone but a herd of about 30 bison was blocking that road so we went the other way and decided we should go see Old Faithful instead. On the way to the famous geyser we stopped at the continental divide and the Cascades, a set of very pretty waterfalls. We made it to Old Faithful just in time to see it erupt. I had the dog with me so I could only watch from afar. Jesse took a speed walk along the boardwalk to the other geysers in the area so he could take pictures for me. The dog was not impressed and she just sprawled out on the sidewalk and watched the people go by. One older gentleman proclaimed, “Now that is a good looking dog”, I beamed with pride; Twicks did not seem to notice.

Jesse returned from his speed walk and we went up to the General store so I could buy ice cream, coffee and a keychain. I also impulse bought a HUGE mug that says Yellowstone on it. I cannot wait to use it for tea, coffee or soup. Jesse was kind enough to drive back since it was getting late and I wanted to eat my ice cream. We grabbed some awesome take out subs from Millstone Pizza and Brewing in Cody and headed to the hotel to eat and watch American Ninja Warrior (it is the Vegas finals!). We even drank the half growler of beer a wonderful woman I worked with in Sturgis gave us as a parting gift. It was a great way to end a fun day. The dog was exhausted and promptly went to bed. She didn’t even get up the next morning while we loaded up the cars to head out. She just lounged in her crate and watched us pack. Eventually I had to get her up, out and back into the car. We were headed to Park City, Utah to see some friends!

There are many ways to get from Cody to Park City but we decided to drive straight through Yellowstone, into a tiny part of Montana and then down through Idaho since it is mostly interstate and there are more towns in case we got into any car trouble. It was not the most exciting drive but being able to see the Rockies and the Tetons in the distance was pretty damn cool. I want to go to the Grand Teton National Park someday, hell maybe I can get an assignment in Jackson Wyoming and we could go every day! But I digress; we made it to Salt Lake City and dropped the dog and cat off at the kennel. We arrived at rush hour and it was WAY busier than Rapid City and I am not mentally prepared to handle the aggressive driving that I had to do. I was pretty stressed and fried by the time we made it to the home of the Bests high up in the hills. Jesse is the lead car and I have to block lanes for when we have to abruptly get left or right. I am going to apologize to the many drivers of Utah that I cut off and pissed off during our brief drive in Salt Lake City.

So far our time here in Utah is wonderful. Julie and Hunter are fabulous hosts and the area is just beautiful. It is a much higher altitude (>7,000 feet above sea level) so it is harder to breath while hiking but that does not stop us!

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