Where the heck is Wall Drug?

I have seen these signs on the highway and bumper stickers since I was a kid.  This was the first time we actually stopped in Wall, SD to visit Wall Drug.

Wall would normally be a sleepy town at the entrance of the Badlands, but because of Wall Drugs, its actually a destination.  They are the master of marketing, with goofy slogans and signs placed hundreds of miles away along the highways. They also give out those bumper stickers for free.

Wall Drug was started as a regular drug store. To draw travelers to their store, they offered free ice water. Now they offer coffee for five cents, goofy statues to take photos with, western themed gifts, and cafeteria style food and I'm sure much more that we missed.

Its hot in the Badlands

The Badlands was a short drive from Rushmore.  Its amazing how quickly the terrain changes from the rolling grassy hills to the exposed/eroded hills of the Badlands.  While driving the 40 mile loop through the park, the views changed at every turn and we seemed to stop at every viewpoint. 

The temps outside soon reached 100 degrees and our stops became less frequent as it was hard to leave the air conditioned vehicle.  Photos were also difficult with the intense sun overhead. It would be best to visit this park in the morning to avoid the heat!

Rushmore

We spent the day driving from the Tetons to the Black Hills area of South Dakota and stayed in a hotel near Mt Rushmore. There are two small towns near Rushmore, Hill City and Keystone.  I selected Hill City even though it was 13 miles from Mt Rushmore but I was concerned that we might arrive late and I didn't want to drive on 11 miles of twisty roads to get to Keystone which was just past Mt Rushmore.

Our goal was to get to Rushmore in the early morning before the crowds and the heat...We pulled up to the entrance and there was already a long line. From the approach from Hill City we were able to turn left into the driveway and into the payment lane and wait about 6 cars to pay our entrance fees.  I could not see the approach from Keystone but I could see a line of cars waiting on the highway waiting to turn into the driveway so by staying in Hill City our wait was reduced when entering the parking lot!

We arrived just in time to take a ranger guided tour which took us to the path to the base of the statues.  The monument is impressive even when you first walk in, but is even better when you get closer at the base.  After the tour we continued down the circular path which took us down many flights of stairs and different perspectives of the monument and to the sculptors studio and back up to the visitors center where we started.

On our way out we drove towards Keystone and saw that the line to enter Mt Rushmore was about a half mile long while there was still no line from the approach from Hill City.  I'm glad we stayed in Hill City.

Tetons

After going on a boat tour on Yellowstone lake, we drove down to the Grand Teton National Park. When we arrived at the exit/entrance we could not find our ticket/pass that we had purchased the day before as we had packed our National Park Pass in one of our many bags.  We had to partially unload the back and roof box to dig through our bags till we found the card.  Its like leaving Costco and misplacing your receipt so you can't leave.

We spent the afternoon exploring the area, stopping at Jenny Lake and going to the top of Signal Mountain where the views of the valley and the Tetons were amazing.   We were not sure when Signal Mountain got its name, but we were surprised when we arrived at the very top was a cellular tower.  We would have stayed longer at the top of the mountain but the mosquitoes were fierce!

We stayed the evening at the Signal Mountain Lodge.  Our unit was right on the shore of Jackson Lake so we had a great view!

Old Faithful Inn

We had heard that reservations required advanced planning so when I logged into their reservation system, I was surprised that there were two rooms available.  Actually, they were the only two rooms available in July.  I quickly grabbed them and started our summer roadtrip plans based on the date.  I suspect someone had just cancelled their reservation and by luck I was the first to see them.

The original part of the inn is a log/timber constructed building from 1904 with a 6 story open atrium and huge rock fireplace.  Its built about a 100 yards from the Old Faithful geyser.  The original log style rooms have sinks but use a shared bath.  We stayed in the guest wings which were added a few years after the original construction and the rooms here had their own bathrooms.  Our room had a view of the geyser, fortunately I didn't pay extra for that view as the rooms were uncomfortable to hang out in as it was hot with no breeze and limited seating.   We spent our time on the deck built ontop of the porte cochere which had a great view of the geyser, and relaxing on the mission style chairs and sofas inside the inn.

The inn also offered dining services.  As a guest I was able to make the dinner reservations a month ago.  However if we had wanted to eat after 8pm it would have been pretty easy to get a table at least for groups of 4 or less.  Our table was next to the large fireplace in the rustic dining room.  Ambiance and service was nice, food quality was definitely not worth it. You are paying for the dining experience, plus your food options at the park are pretty limited unless you packed it yourself.

Yellowstone

This was our second time in Yellowstone.  When we drove through 9 years ago, we did just drive through, but stopping for the obligatory photo at Old Faithful.  We only spent a day in a half this time but we did cover lots of ground.

We entered via West Yellowstone with the kids commenting how commercialized that little town outside of the West entrance was, like who needs to watch an IMAX movie here?  It was definitely a long line to pay the fees and enter the park, in fact the wait reminded us of crossing the US/Canadian border with the right express lane for the pass holders and the other three lanes for the newbies. Once inside, we drove the northern loop while stopping at all the major viewpoints.  Most of the cool sites were the thermals and the surrounding ground where the acidity had changed the ground surface into cool colors.

We also stopped at the various water falls. We also stopped for random wild animal sightings. We usually knew an animal was sighted when the traffic would slow way down as the inconsiderate drivers would slow down and take a photo from the car. We spotted lots of elk, bison and one bear cub, not sure where the mama bear was hiding.

After a long day of exploring the park we stopped at our destination for the evening, the Old Faithful Inn.

Road trip across America

Unlike our other road trips, we did not leave at the crack of dawn.  The boss likes for us to be on the road by 5:30am on our first day.  I don't think we started packing till 7a.  Also on our previous family trips all we took were carry ons for 4 weeks away, but since we were taking the biggest car of our fleet packing light was not a priority.

Day one was just to get us near our first destination. We covered parts of the US that we have already been through so it was just a day of driving across interstate 90 across Washington and Idaho and Montana and stayed our first night in Bozeman which was 680 miles from home. 

I usually don't drive on family road trips as I get sleepy when driving slow for long periods of time. I thought I could do it this time but less than two hours on the road it was time for a driver change. Al least between naps I was able get take some pictures.