Monday 22 August 2011

Custer, Crazy Horse and All the Presidents

behind the hills of Custer


Before we left Cody and the cowboys and Indians behind, we replenished supplies and made phone contact with our cell phone system provider, now confident that we would have service for the phone and internet. We were still trying to avoid Sturgis and were advised to follow Highway 16 to Custer and get to Mt Rushmore from there. Highway 16 was another steep and severely winding road, steeper than anything we have encountered so far, and to make it more challenging, just throw in roadworks to the mix.

What we climbed - we had to descend. At one stage we had to stop at traffic control and had Freddie engulfed in smoke from the overheated brakes. Panic in Wendy’s eyes and voice, so we stopped in the next pullout and let it all cool down. We came across a train [a long, long  one] hauling coal to Newcastle which brought a chuckle.

Arriving in Custer we found the main street blocked by people dressed in confederate soldiers uniforms directing traffic and detouring us to a back street to park.
bikes

Curious to know what was happening, I climbed up the back ladder of Freddie to see thousands of bikes and bikers blocking the street without an inch of room to spare between…Harleys mostly….Sportsters, Fatboys, Trikes, Choppers, you name it - but I did see a couple of Triumphs - and merchandising tents with all sorts of bike gear, clothes, and banners. Things like “I’ve ridden Sturgis 2011”. 
Mt Rushmore


I was GOBBSMACKED by the sheer numbers, so we went for a walk along the street just to take it in. We had lunch in a bakery/café in amongst the biker crew. I never saw any Colours of any outlaw gangs being strutted and the guys we talked to were just regular guys - accountants, solicitors and a dentist.

We are told that the best time to see Mt. Rushmore was in the morning, but we couldn’t get into the close campgrounds (no prizes for guessing who had taken up all the sites), so we backtracked about 6 miles and found a State Park Campground called Commanche — no facilities but we are fully self-contained so it was all good.






 Next day we had to choose our route to Mt Rushmore wisely to bypass the narrower roads with the tunnels as Freddie is too tall and too wide.

On arrival at the entry we were directed to the RV parking which to my surprise was more convenient than the general parking lot, usually the RV’s are out in the back. Mt Rushmore is a shrine to four leaders (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt) who have brought America from its colonial times into the 20th century. It features their faces carved out of the mountains of the Black Hills. Upon entering the exhibition area we found the sunlight shining on all the presidents faces and looking up through the colonnade of State Flags and plaques stating when they joined the Union, Wendy took her photo’s.

We went to the theatre and watched a movie on the making of Rushmore, and then checked out the memorabilia as the place filled with more and more bikers. Whilst the spiel is all very patriotic and pro-America it felt a little over-the-top and the propaganda machine was in full swing here.


Wendy’s attention was caught by a little boy who was excitedly asking his mother, “Is that legal mom, is it, is that legal?”  She looked across at an unusual sight – amongst the bikers was a woman wearing psychedelic flares and on her top was nothing but body paint. The bikers were keen to be photographed with her; Wen got one quick shot and off we went.


When we were back in California we were told about another mountain sculpture in the Black Hills area. It was described as ‘the Indian answer to the Mount Rushmore’. When I made enquiries at Mt Rushmore I got the feeling the staff were avoiding my questions and didn’t want to tell me where it was, so I approached an American Indian looking biker and he told how to find ”Crazy Horse Mountain”.
We had to backtrack a ways but were so pleased to have found it. It is being built by the wife and descendants of sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, who originally worked at Mt Rushmore with the sculptor of the Presidents, Lincoln Borglum. When Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear heard about Mt Rushmore, he wrote to Korczak and asked for his help. He said, “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes also.”
So they agreed to carve Crazy Horse out o the Black Hills. A ‘free enterprise’ project and no government funds it was started in 1947. They use dynamite to carve out the rock but this one is huge and so far, only the head and the basic shaping of the sculpture is complete.
Crazy Horse - August 2011 
Crazy Horse Sculpture

It is a huge undertaking, very visionary and whilst unfinished, there is still so much to see, learn and absorb at the information and exhibition centre where Native American artists and crafts people demonstrate their skills. There is also an Indian Museum and a sculptor’s studio. They say it will dwarf the ‘presidents’ when it is finished.


It will be the largest mountain carving in the world and as a memorial to American Indians will include The Museum of North America and the Indian University of North America and a Medical Training Centre – probably not in our lifetime but if ever you get to the Black Hills of South Dakota you must check out both Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore.
Indian Prayer

On the Road to Yellowstone and Cody

sooo cute!!
We left Canada behind and headed towards Yellowstone, our next big stop. The landscape continually changed as we went further south through the Glacier National Park. We spent a night at St Mary at a place called Johnson’s Campground, on a hill overlooking beautiful Glacier Park and the St Mary Lake. We met a guy there from Perth. He lives in Australia but is American so takes long vacations back over here. I’m thinking that would be the way to have the best of both worlds.

The colours of the mountains seemed to change to match the foliage and we were seeing beautifully bright purple and sage rocks, and mauve wildflowers and bright green grasses. The rock was like a shale and there were rock slides evident on the mountains - then we saw a sign warning of avalanches in the area. It was about that time that we stopped at a rest area and there was another warning ‘that rattlesnakes has been observed’ – needless to say we didn’t spend too much time there.

We needed to cover considerable distances so put the foot down and spent a couple of long days on the road and just slept rough at rest areas. The vista continued to change – hills, plains, valleys, lakes, wide-open grasslands, but the Rocky Mountains were never far way. They could nearly always be seen somewhere on the horizon – sometimes snow-capped, sometimes not.

our new bikes
We stopped at a town called Butte, pronounced Beaut, to pick up supplies and a lady in Walmart asked if we were Australian. I said yes, and her reply was to give me a BIG hug and just hold me. Then she said, “I’m from Ireland and we are both a long way from home. It feels very different here.” Then she turned around, walked away and we never saw her again. While there we bought two brand new pushbikes so when we finally stopped at Livingston (only 50 miles from Yellowstone) we practiced riding them around the campground and YES! I can still ride.

We went to the Post Office in Livingston and were chatting with Verne who has lived there all his life. The other guy working at the PO was Jim Bob – I’m not kidding. J

I commented that Livingston was a really lovely little town. (All the old buildings have been preserved - both the county buildings like banks, hotels, town halls, and the lovely old private homes). Verne agreed and said it was a great place to live and the only place he ever wanted to be. He said when he got out of the army the US government said they would give him a ticket to anywhere he wanted to go. He said, “Livingston”. The guy said, “I’ve never heard of it,” to which Verne replied, “And that’s the way we like it.”

I caught a summer cold so we stayed two nights in Livingston so I could rest, then we headed into Yellowstone. We took a secondary road that one of the old guys in the campground suggested. It took us alongside the Yellowstone River (the only river in the United States that has not been dammed) and past some of the largest and most beautiful country homes I have ever seen. Looked like a rural residential area and many of the houses were built from stone and logs and had huge windows looking out towards the mountains and the river – very nice!

So, we arrive at Yellowstone, and drive through the stone archway. This Arch is the northern entrance to Yellowstone and was dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt way back in 1903. It is very high and can be seen from about 2 miles away.

We headed straight to Mammoth Campground, hoping for a site as we hadn’t made reservations. Thankfully we got the last site available and after checking about available tours, booked for three nights. I had no concept of what Yellowstone would be like. I guess I thought it would be like Yosemite (mountains, waterfalls, raging rivers) so I was very surprised at what I saw and learnt.

Firstly, the animals – they are roaming free and within minutes of entering the park we had seen deer grazing near the road. Up in Albright (a park village with hotel, information centre, toilets, provisions store and lots of government buildings) there were elk in the streets. So I thought I was sure to see a grizzly sometime.

Secondly, the topography - on our second day at Yellowstone we took a guided tour with the park ranger through the Mammoth Hot Springs. They are nothing like I expected. There are no bathing areas (the water is boiling) and no spas. This is an area of active and non-active hot spring activity. There are beautiful travertine terraces which have been created by the hot mineral filled waters running over and thru the rocks causing its very own changing landscape. They smell of sulphur and there are some which bubble, some that seep and some that explode. There are a series of boardwalks that run for about 1 ½ mile around the site and the parks staff have to keep changing the paths to allow the springs to run without intervention. We spent some hours just looking, learning and listening. I hope you enjoy the photos.

God's own colour pallett
Thirdly, the people  - That night we met our camping neighbours, Charlie and Nancy from Salem, Oregon. I mentioned that we were on our way to Chicago but were having trouble locating an RV park close to the city. Chicago is Nancy’s hometown so she offered to make some enquiries. The next day she came by with all the info we needed and she had already phoned ahead to make sure we could leave the RV in a parking area while we do the tourist thing. Again we are blessed to meet such helpful and friendly people. Charlie had lots of things to share about what we might find on our journey west – he said we had to stop at the drugstore at Wall. He said we would see the signs. We visited with them again the next evening as well – we are enjoying generous hospitality all along our travels.
hot mud baths
Fountain Springs 

Because the RV is so big and difficult to manoeuvre on narrower roads, we decided the best way to see the park would be to book at tour. We met our tour guide, Tamarak , and our ten new best friends at Albright and spent the next ten hours exploring Yellowstone. It was the BEST day. We saw more hot springs, bubbling mud puddles, huge geysers, waterfalls, hot pools, museums, beautiful old buildings, beautiful newer buildings, Fort Yellowstone, forests, valleys, rivers, grasslands and wildlife. Our earth is living and breathing and this is very much evident at Yellowstone. I just closed my eyes and listened and I’m sure I could hear it taking in breaths. 

The ground is so brittle that it crackles under your feet and sometimes people fall through cavernous holes created by the underground steam vents. He, who created this, is indeed mighty.

We got caught in numerous ‘animal jams’ mainly buffalo and deer, but we did see a grizzly way off in the distance and we saw eagles and hawks in the skies. The buffalo even held up the traffic for some time while they meandered up the middle of the road. There were lots of chipmunks and marmots in the campground as well.

can you see the boiling water bubbling to the surface - centre front?


more geysers

amazing natural colours


boiling, bubbling, steaming


Old Faithful


While at Old Faithfull, the most well-known of the geysers, we shared lunch with a lovely couple (Alan and Mary Yetta from Texas).


They were on our bus as well. Since then, they have written and extended an invitation to visit – again such open friendly people. You never know – we might get to see them again before we come home.
painted canyon

buffalo crossing the road
animal jam






































Leaving Yellowstone the next morning, we chose another ‘road less travelled’ through the Lamar Valley and there we saw hundreds of buffalo making their way north. We were told they would be heading that way for the winter. It was also along that road that we got caught in another ‘animal jam’ and this one was a grizzly on the banks of the river – the other side of the river so it was safe to get out and get some photos. Finally – a grizzly in the wild. 


He was only interested in what he could forage under plants and rocks along the riverbank and the sun was in the right position to get some good pictures.




big grizzly bear at Yellowstone
After leaving the park we continued to drive on the Beartooth Highway through the Shoshone National Forest. This was a very panoramic drive and, at times, a real test for Freddie the RV. We climbed to 10,000 ft and then descended about 6,000 ft on our drive into Cody, Wyoming.

Cody is named after William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and the town prides itself on its Western flavor. The downtown area is on the National Register of Historic Districts and it is the home of the amazingly comprehensive Buffalo Bill Museum and Historical Centre. Johno really enjoyed it and visited twice in the two days we were there.

rodeo in Cody
There is also an authentic rodeo every night of the summer and a ‘shoot-out’ re-enactment in the main street most evenings.  The whole town is geared to the Western theme. They really know how to get their marketing right over here – every shop, every business, every body promotes the ‘cody-ism’. It’s all a bit cheesy, but it works! Excellent coordination and marketing strategy, Lismore could learn a lot from them. A lot of money is spent by tourists in Cody, either going to events, eating, sleeping or just taking home a ‘Buffalo Bill’ momento.

Cody also had another attraction the weekend we were there. There is a motorbike rally held very year at a town called Sturgis and many bikers took the opportunity to ride the winding roads and visit places like Yellowstone and Cody.

Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is the experience of a lifetime in a place where local people can still show you a thing or two about hospitality and visiting exhibitors can show you anything and everything you’d want or need to dress you up or dress up your bike. Taken from the Sturgis website -  http://www.sturgismotorcyclerally.com

Up to 800,000 motorcycles were expected to turn up this year and as you would imagine they can’t all fit in one small town so spill out into the surrounding towns and cities – for up to 100 miles around. I think we saw a good number of them, from Cody through to Custer, all through the Black Hills and even west towards Wisconsin – bikes everywhere, mostly Harley Davidsons but many others as well.  

Johno was blown away, but I’ll let him tell you about it …..

After leaving Yellowstone and the grizzly, we thought of bypassing the town of Sturgis as to avoid the manouvering Freddie through the mass of bikes, as Wendy has said, up to 800,000 expected, and if you clipped one that’s an awful large angry crowd. So I decided to take a slower and less busy road. A mountainous route called The Nez Perce Trail where an Indian Chief led his people out the clutches of the Cavalry and escaped into the Black Hills many, many years ago.

We drove on, winding back and forward, climbing, climbing and climbing even more. But what goes up must go down so we descend, following the road as it works its way to Cody. There were, however, hundreds of motorbikes on this particular road. It would have been a ‘dream’ on a bike, so many twists and turns, and long sweeping bends …… and no helmets!
Very few States enforce the bike helmet law over here.

Our first stop in Cody was the Tourist Information Centre. While there, a lady walked up to Wendy and asked if we had just come from Yellowstone. She said, “yes’, and so began a conversation with these three couples who were wanting information about what to see and where to go, camp, visit, etc. We spent quite some time chatting and telling them where else we had been and what we had seen and experienced. We all had a laugh as it seemed a bit strange that a couple of Australians were telling the Americans ‘where to go’ in their own country. 

After we settled into an RV park in town, off we went to find the Buffalo Bill Museum and purchase tickets, valid for two days, and spend a leisurely couple of hours there.  We also had been told that downtown there is gunfight re-enactment outside the Irma Hotel which is historically revered (Irma was Buffalo Bill’s wife). This happens six days a week but never on Sundays. Some people at the RV park told us it was a bit cheesy so we gave that a miss choosing to attend the Cody Nightly Rodeo instead. It is on every night of the summer and was an opportunity for us to cross another line off the Bucket List.

As this was a day after the death of the 30 Navy Seals in Afghanistan there was an enormous show of patriotism. Before the rodeo began they sang their Anthem, then there was prayer not only for those who had lost their lives and their families but also for safety and good times at the rodeo. Just like our experience with Fourth of July everybody stood, took off their hats and, with hands on hearts, everybody sang and everybody prayed. The Rodeo was OK, professional, colourful, skillful and featured most events you would see at an Aussie rodeo but Wendy felt sorry for the animals. Australia was represented in the competitions and won the night overall.

Next day Wendy caught up the domestic duties and I went back to Buffalo Bill Museum to see the rest of the displays — there are five wings (separate pavilions covering different exhibitions) -
    • Yellowstone Natural History
    • Plains Indian Peoples
    • Western Art
    • Buffalo Bill & his history
    • Firearms

The displays were incredible. I was enthralled by it all. The American love of all things ‘GUNS’ was revealed here with over 3,000 firearms on show in two stories of displays. The American Indian display was both informative and entertaining. All in all, this entire exhibition was so comprehensive, if we saw no other we would have been well educated and got a good sense of American history and culture. There!! my fix for Cowboys and Indians has been fulfilled.

Once again in Cody, we met and visited with our camping neighbours – a Christian couple from Michigan (Jim and Theresa). We shared a special time with them and together prayed for safe travels and good health – then we headed away to our next adventure.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Head Smashed In




written by Johno

After a pleasant day exploring in Seattle, we boarded the light rail to return to SEATAC , to catch our bus to Kent where our RV was parked when, from over our shoulder, came a burly voice enquiring, “where are you from?” “Australia” we replied.

So into a conversation with our fellow passengers we plunged. “Where’ve you been? What’s your plan next? Where are you going? Do you like our country? he asked.  “Heading to Canada to the Rockies,” we said.

That’s when the holiday planner in him took over… You must do this, or see this, but in the middle of the diatribe he said, “You must go to ”Heasmashinbuffalojump”. I said, “what !!!”  He repeated it  “Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump -  it’s a really cool place.” He spoke really fast and my head couldn’t absorb it. One of those “WHAT THE” moments of our trip and that was the end of conversation.  We left for the Rockies next day.

A couple of weeks later, after leaving Banff, we had planned to stop at Calgary but we discovered that Blues Festival we were hoping to catch was a week later than we thought. Wendy and I decided we didn’t care to hang around in just another big city, so onward we went, aiming to arrive in Fort McLeod late that night.

After driving for hours and getting quite tired a road sign popped up “Smashed In Head Buffalo Jump”---15k to the right at the next intersection, bringing the aforementioned conversation back to our memory.

Near Fort McLeod
To our surprise, at the intersection we found a Truck Weigh Scale and a parking lot for semi-trailers, an ideal place to boondock. So we took up this opportunity and snuggled Freddie between a couple of semi’s and bunkered down for the night. Early next morning we quietly left our rest stop and headed the 15k to “Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump” still not knowing anything about it apart that “it’s really cool”. Arriving much too early for opening time, we had breakfast in the carpark and waited, watching the staff arriving and other tourists. At opening time we filed into the Interpretive Centre and paid the $10 per person entry fee only to completely blown away by whole presentation of the place. It was unexpected, but fun and educational, with excellent quality exhibits, and

  1. World Heritage Listed site
  2. Architecturally Awarded Design of the complex
  3. Displays and Films to enthrall
The Site of the Buffalo Jump
Buffalo jumps are an integral part of the practices of the North American native people and have been for over 10,000 years. Due to their excellent understanding of the land and the buffalo behavior, groups of native hunters would kill them by driving them over a cliff. The hunts required a huge amount of planning, organisation and skill to lure the buffalo from the plains and into cleverly built lanes (relying on perspective and not reality by creating a sense that there are thousands of people forcing them into the path) and then over the cliffs. The reason this jump is a world heritage site is because there is evidence that goes back over 6,000 years.

buffalo skulls - evidence that it really happened

We just wandered around for a couple of hours mind-boggled at the design, six levels of theatres, a very well resourced museum, cafeteria, displays and shop. As we left Wendy commented that Ryan could design her a house like that but she would have difficulty finding a suitable block of land. 
So, thanks again to that guy on the light-rail back in Seattle who was keen for us to see the best of his country, we had another enjoyable and fulfilling experience.


 If you are really interested, go to www.head-smashed-in.com

Smashed In Head
award winning building

Sunday 7 August 2011

Canadian Rocky Mountain High

Heading north from Seattle, Washington we were keen to get to started on the next part of our journey so refilled the pantry at Trader Joe’s and headed to Chilliwack. We had been told to avoid the main border gate at Vancouver and take the road less travelled – it would save waiting time. So that is what we did and still had a good long wait at Sumas before getting permission to cross into Canada.

Chilliwack was a lovely campground with full hook-up in a bush setting down the end of the road filled with blueberry farms. It suited us perfectly and from there we explored the local area and the very pretty Chilliwack Lake. After a couple of days we headed up to the mountains.
Lake Louise
The roads were really good, sometimes the highway and at others, good two lane country roads. Our first stop was Kamloops where we stopped for lunch and a quick look around. Kamloops is where our friend, Lauren, was studying earlier this year so we wanted to visit it for ourselves. The landscape changed from farmland to forest and the mountains got higher and more snow-covered the higher we went. Freddie the RV coasted along at sensible speeds with Johno at the wheel. We camped rough a couple of nights, just stopping at rest areas. We went to Jasper in the north of the Jasper National Park – some lovely old buildings here and a cute railway station.  It is a stop for the Rocky Mountaineer.  The landscape all along our route is spectacular and it’s easy to get lax and fail to appreciate the beauty and wonder of it all. More glaciers, more snow-topped mountains, more deep ravines, cliffs, waterfalls and raging rivers and just when you think it can’t get any better, you see something else that takes your breath away.

On our third night we camped at a beautiful spot with an unfortunate name, Mosquito Creek. It was a National Park and cost $15.00 a night with all the firewood you wanted and a jolly, helpful camp caretaker. We had a great fire and a lovely cosy night. Getting cooler up there.

canoes at Lake Louise
Next morning, we headed to Lake Louise. There is a beautiful luxury hotel built on the edge of the lake some 5,000 ft above sea level surrounded by forests. It looks so spectacular, very regal and when the sun is in the right position you can get the most beautiful photos of its reflection on the lake. We did not have those conditions. The weather threatened so we hurriedly took a walk along the lake, got some photos and then the skies opened so we moved on into the little village. It was very busy there and we couldn’t find a parking space so headed away.
first bear sighting








Just a little further down the Icefield Parkway, which is the highway running through the National Parks, we made a turn to go to Athabasca Falls and up ahead was an ‘animal jam’. Yes, that’s right, an ‘animal jam’ – the first of many we would encounter over the next few days. A bear had been sighted and cars had just stopped where they were so people could get a look and a photo. We were no different and excitedly we got our first look at a bear in the wild. He was big, black and shiny. He was digging and rooting under rocks and not very bothered by all the fuss around him. Thank goodness, too, as we found out later that we were all way too close for safety.

We then continued on to the falls which are very accessible and only a short walk from the parking lot. The Athabasca River is forced to funnel through a smallish channel it has cut through the rock over thousands of years, creating a canyon which deepens as the years go by. 
Athabasca Fall
The water crashes through, causing fine spray through the area. People were white-water rafting down below. 


It looked like they were having lots of fun as the waters were quite turbulent. It was a great spot for photos.

We got to Banff in time for a late morning tea so headed to Starbucks, yet again, for coffee and wifi. We had received very sad news about a family friend back home and needed to touch base and be reassured from our friends and family that the Lord’s comfort and strength would be their portion in the coming days. So after some tears and prayer-time, we headed out to see what Banff had to offer.

 While at Starbucks we met a lovely Australian family from Victoria who had been visiting their daughter, son-in-law and new grand-daughter. They were so friendly and it was good to chat to some Aussies and feel connected to others after our sad morning.

Banff is such a pretty little place, some very old buildings and many others that look like they have only been built in the past 10 – 20 years to accommodate the tourist trade. It is certainly a bustling and very modern place with some very appealing features – like another beautiful old hotel built on the edge of the lake similar to Lake Louise.
Banff gondolas
We had been told about a gondola ride at Banff so decided to go and see what was so good about it. Well, it was just great after we got used to the steep climb, the fact that only steel wire cable prevented us from falling from a great height and we were climbing steadily for 8 minutes. Again, the sky was fairly clear so our views became increasingly spectacular as we climbed 2,292 feet to an elevation of 7,500 feet. We were on top of the world – or so it felt. We had panoramic views all around and the vista kept changing as we walked around the tower top – valleys, mountains, plains, rivers, the town of Banff way down below – so exhilarating. You know, I am starting to run out of words to describe all the things we have seen and experienced – it’s so much fun and I love learning new things all the time.
view of Banff from on high
We left Banff and headed to Calgary where we thought we would stay a night but when we got there we saw it was such a big city and decided we weren’t ready for a city just yet so drove on another two hours and boon-docked in a council depot outside Fort McLeod.

We were up early the next morning eager to get to a special place we had heard about when in Seattle. It is called Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump and it is Johno’s story to tell, so I will finish this up now. Ending our amazing trip down through the Canadian Rockies – a truly magnificent and awesome landscape.

some extra pic's if you are interested...
totems and mountains
waterfall near highway
magic view
a little chipmunk

snow capped mountains