Road Tripping - Heading East

Here is the travelogue our east bound travels. I'll get back to what we did in Oregon in a later post. 

Maggie and I left Jill's in southern Oregon on Monday morning. The plan was to travel the "southern" route through Oregon-Idaho-Wyoming-South Dakota-Minnesota.

The majority of the Oregon population lives in the western 1/3 of the state. The other 2/3rds is nearly empty. Once over the Cascade Mountain Range, there is a lot of nothing. I wrote in my notebook,  "desolate high plateau." There are sage brush and trailers. 

Self-captioned

We zig-zagged our way across the state to Ontario, Oregon. There were no rest areas but right before the interstate there was a picnic area with an outhouse so Maggie could get out of the car and I could take care of business.

Eastern Oregon through the bug-splashed windshield

At Ontario, we hooked up with Interstate 84 crossing the Snake River to Boise, Idaho. Another capitol building, yay! There was still daylight and we successfully made it to Mountain Home, Idaho. The hotel was nice and there was a nice restaurant nearby.

Snake River

Idaho capitol - impressive

Our typical hotel setup and relaxation

Tuesday started off a little rough. I wanted to take local roads across Idaho to Idaho Falls but Google Maps insisted we take the Interstate. After some choice words, we finally got off the interstate onto local roads in search of US20. We zig-zagged north and east and north and east on unmarked roads and eventually made it to US20 east bound. As we drove through flat ranch land, an honest-to-goodness cowboy rode by on his horse out to the cattle herd.

There were also lots of wind turbines that were super close to the road. I'm pretty sure one of turbines had blades that swung over the road! 

On US20 is another very cool national monument, Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. This is a very large national monument with only a small portion of it is open to visitors.

The visitor center was closed (Mondays and Tuesdays) but the trails and a loop drive were open. The site is not asteroid craters but volcanic geology. There are lava fields and huge cinder cones. The guide signs are very well done and focus on preserving and not destroying what the vistor is seeing. I spent more time here than I thought I would or planned. It was so fascinating.

Witches' fingers along the Devil's Track Trail

The view from the top of Inferno Cone to Broken Top cone

From the top of Inferno Cone looking down to the parking area. My car is the tiny black spec in the center.

The goal for the day was to drive through Yellowstone National Park. From Idaho Falls it is not too far to West Yellowstone and the western entrance to the national park.

Eastern Idaho

We drove the northern section of Yellowstone National Park. I stopped at Norris Geyser field where Steamboat Geyser, the tallest geyser in the world, is. It has a very irregular schedule for the "big one" and just my luck the "big one" had occurred at 8:45am that morning -- missed it!

We encountered a little snow squall and a lot of snow along the side of the roadway. A section of the park's road system is still closed because of snow. [I am writing this after the big flooding that has closed the park. Our visit was before the flooding.] 

Lots of bison everywhere in the park. Also, steam vents and geysers are spread throughout the park. I had not remembered that when I drove through in the 1980's.

Kept the edge of the road in the photo to see how close the bison are

Steamboat Geyser steaming

Yellowstone Lake is ginormous. It was also still mostly frozen! The drive to the east entrance (or as I preferred to call it, the east exit) was crazy beautiful.

Yellowstone Lake - ice at the shore and in the distance

The drive out of Yellowstone

We made it to Cody, Wyoming by the end Tuesday. I had hoped to make it to Greybull but the mountain driving and my extended visit of Craters of the Moon and the geyser field in Yellowstone meant we were going to be a little short.

The Cody hotel was okay. We passed a supper club on the way to the hotel and planned to treat myself to a steak. Where better than Wyoming to have a steak? Unfortunately, I ran into the "restaurants don't stay open late" conundrum. I ended up having to get pizza to go at Pizza Hut....ugh.

Wednesday's goal was Pierre, South Dakota. Another state capitol! - but I get ahead of myself. Wyoming provided dramatic views with mountains and wide-open pastures. We continued on US20 to Buffalo where we picked up Interstate 90.

There were lots of antelope which seem to like to be on the highway side of the fencing! And everything was green, green, green. We stopped at a nice rest area where Maggie had fun climbing a tree.

A rest area for Maggie

Made it into South Dakota on Interstate 90 at Spearfish. I had been to Mount Rushmore and did not want to stay on the interstate so at Sturgis we picked up State 34 to head more-or-less straight to Pierre. There is NOTHING on State 34 and US14. No rest areas - no trees - no towns. Desperation to relieve myself meant just pull over by the side of the road. Nothing saw me except for a small herd of antelope across the road. Seriously, no cars, no nothing.

Emerald green as far as the eye could see

The capitol in Pierre is pretty. Again, I couldn't go inside because of the late hour. The odd thing about the capitol is that it sits pretty much at the edge of a field. I parked "behind" the building and walked around to the front for the photo. When I walked back to my car, I noticed that there wasn't anything on the north side of the building...just farmland!

South Dakota capitol

Capitol parking lot looking north

Pierre sits on the Missouri River. Another Missouri River encounter. This time I got to take a run along the river. There is a really nice island park that has lots of paths.

Thursday was intended to be a "short" day back to Minnesota and home. Eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota are farm country. The wildlife consisted of pelicans and swans in the over-full lakes along the way.

Not really much to say or show about this part of the trip. I know I was anxious to get home and pretty sure so was Maggie. 

Road Tripping - Heading West

As many of you know, my friend, Jill, lives in Ashland, Oregon. Friends in Minnesota, Amy and Jennifer, wanted to visit Jill and Oregon for the first time. I was invited to join them. I decided I would drive out with Maggie as a practice road tripping run.

The title for this post is "Heading West" but it got off to a rough start. I made it 2 hours out of Minneapolis up I-94. I made it past Saint Cloud, MN which is the farthest I've been on I-94. When I was thinking about where we would stay the first night, I realized I did not have my wallet. Without my wallet, I did not have any credit cards, and more importantly, a driver's license.

I really had no choice but to turn around and drive back to Minneapolis. I considered bagging the trip for the day but really wanted and needed to make some progress on the first day. So I drove back to Minneapolis, left Maggie in the car, dashed in the condo, grabbed the wallet, and got back out on the same road.

We made it as far as Moorhead, Minnesota. To show how much I did not know about this part of the USA, we stayed in a motel in Moorhead but ate supper in Fargo but not knowing I was in Fargo until after eating and walking around. The two cities are so intertwined as to not really have borders...which is actually very geographically prominent - the Red River separates the two cities!

The Red River is infamous in Minnesota for flooding and overflowing which is exactly what it was doing when I passed through. I stayed in a motel called Bison Plains. It looked and smelled like the bison had just passed through the hallways. It was a unique experience. Maggie didn't seem to mind exploring all the smells.

Maggie off the floor and enjoying her first hotel stay

Fargo was a hopping town. Turns out it was graduation weekend at the University of North Dakota. Downtown Fargo is clean and vibrant. A large section of the city had burned during flooding a few years ago but there were still historic buildings along with newer ones.

I had started the journey on Friday. So Saturday was day two and now I had to get across North Dakota - a state I had never been to. If you have heard that North Dakota is flat, you have heard correctly. Crazy flat except there is a hill in the town of Jamestown.

You are going to see a lot of photos shot out of the window of my moving car

Lots of fields along I-94 were flooded. North Dakota had been getting the same rain, rain, rain that Minnesota had. The few lakes I could see were very full. Pelicans migrate through North Dakota and were enjoying all the water.

Told you it was flat

I stopped in Bismark to see the capitol. Yikes and apologies to North Dakotans but the North Dakota capitol is not pretty. I couldn't go in because it was the weekend so I cannot critique the interior. Hopefully it is awe-inspiring.

The nicest part about the North Dakota capital is the beautiful green lawn lined with big trees

Continuing west, Amy suggested a stop at Salem Sue, a giant holstein cow on the top of a very big hill. The wind was incredible. We were driving right into this same wind. The constant uphill which is the geography of heading to the mountains combined with the wind really impacted my gas mileage.

Maggie didn't think much of Salem Sue. She wanted back in the car where it wasn't windy

Another friend and North Dakota native, Kathy, suggested the Enchanted Highway. This is an interesting, off-the-interstate marketing campaign. A series of oversized metal sculptures lead you to the Enchanted Castle which is really just a motel way off the beaten path. It was worth the extra miles. In addition to the sculptures, I saw pheasants and mule deer.

The wind kept up here we are at the start of the Enchanted Highway

One example of the Enchanted Highway art (these are huge)

I really wanted to see Theodore Roosevelt National Monument outside of Dickinson and Medora, North Dakota. This was a fantastic adventure. Using my senior national parks pass, I entered for free and took the loop drive in the southern section of the park.

I like this photo because in addition to the bison you can see how the terrain has changed in the distance

Right at the first pullover there were bison and a herd of wild horses! The park also features prairie dogs and painted canyons. The loop is partially closed due to rain washouts. It was all so beautiful and especially as the sun was starting to set.

Yes, they were this close to the roadway

Maggie was interested in the wild horses

Painted canyons

We made it into Montana the second day. We stayed in a nice motel in Glendive near the Yellowstone River. Side note: the restaurant at the River Inn has fantastic food and desserts.

Sunday's goal was to get across Montana. I also decided to get off I-94. We took State 200 which followed the Lewis & Clark route. Honestly I think there are many Lewis & Clark routes.

This took us through what I called the Montana badlands...ravines and stretches of open pasture. There are no crossroads on 200S. There are only drives to ranches. There are mule deer and cattle.

The terrain changes to pine trees then to mountains. This route has very nice rest areas that are well maintained. From Great Falls to Missoula we ended up in the Blackfoot River Gorge. A beautiful drive down in to Missoula, Montana. We were to drive many river gorges on this trip.

Maggie's first time out on harness and leash and she did great

Finally mountains

We spent the night in Missoula. With the gain in an hour (mountain time) it was still light so I went for a run and found a tap room called The Dram. This name has some history for me as it was the bar in the old Guthrie Theater. Missoula is on the Clark Fork (river). It is also a college town.

Monday morning while packing up the car, Maggie escaped from the hotel room! Our room was right on the parking lot which was right on the street. There were a few minutes of panic but a couple a few doors down helped corral Maggie in their room.

Day four, Monday, is when my lost progress on the first day caught up to us. I also needed to decide which route we would take. A faster route would be to go through Bend, Oregon and down 97. This was a route I had already been on just last summer. It also might mean going through mountains with more snow than I had encountered already.

I decide to go through Portland and down I-5 through nearly the full length of Oregon. But I get ahead of myself. To get through the small section of Idaho we were going to hit, we drove down the Clark Fork Gorge. Dramatic is an understatement. The drive is very amazing and the entrance into Idaho is dramatic to put it mildly. The view of majestic snow-covered mountains though brief and on a very sharp curve is nonetheless worth it. I have no photos of this portion of the trip because all concentration was on driving.

Rest areas in Idaho were not nice. I wrote "yucky" on my notepad. From Idaho there is a long section of Washington state before you cross the Columbia River into Oregon. I haven't mentioned up to now but this time of year - mid-May brings so much color, lots of it green. And southern Washington has fields/pastures of blooming purples, pinks, red and yellows.

My unsuccessful attempt to get the Washington state fields

Next was Oregon and the decision to press all the way through to Ashland. Okay, the Columbia River Gorge is A-MAZ-ING! The other river gorges are narrow, curving, intricate and generally steep slopes with lots of trees. The Columbia River Gorge is wide with a very wide river but with sheer cliffs that block the sun and the Sirius XM satellite!

The south side of the Columbia River Gorge which is the road side

The north side with the Columbia River

Portland, Oregon lived up to its reputation of having awful traffic. This was my first big city and I had the bad fortune of driving through during rush hour. It was stop and go for miles.

Maggie all the while had been a trouper. She would look out the windows, sleep in her carrier, nap in my lap. Eat her treats, drink her water, and use her litter box. She enjoyed the motel rooms by walking from bed to night stand to chair to table to window sill to tv stand and back to bed. But the easy times had a bump in the road.

Typical daily nap in papa's lap

Many if not most restaurants closed by 7 or 9pm so getting a late supper was difficult. Monday's full throttle push to arrive in Ashland meant stopping for a quick meal at a Dairy Queen in Albany, Oregon. The drive-thru was the only option. Maggie was in my lap as we drove through and when I pressed the button to power-down the window, she freaked out. In my effort to not have her jump out the window, I grabbed her. The leap using her back feet clawed at my stomach and grabbing her caused her to bite my finger.

Without knowing all the damage, I ordered an ice-cream and french-fries. I pulled into a parking spot to investigate the damage. My t-shirt was shredded, and my stomach was slightly bleeding. My right hand and bitten finger were profusely bleeding. Fortunately, I had packed a first aid kit. I bandaged myself up and pressed on. Maggie eventually calmed down but could not bring herself to have any ice-cream.

To add to state capitols I stopped in Salem. While under renovation, it was still far better example of state capitols than was North Dakota's.

Oregon state capitol, Salem

We did make it to Ashland on Monday night.

The numbers below are mileage from my cars trip odometer and trip time (the amount of time the car is running so doesn't include when I stopped the car at rest areas, waysides, meals, etc.):

Friday - false start was 298 wasted miles - 4 hours 34 wasted minutes

Friday - productive 231 miles - 3 hours 50 minutes to Moorhead, Minnesota

Saturday - 514 miles - 9 hours 44 minutes to Glendive, Montana

Sunday - 513 miles - 8 hours 9 minutes to Missoula, Montana

Monday - 839 miles - 13 hours 49 minutes to Ashland, Oregon

Total west bound - 2105 miles and 36 hours and 18 minutes. The gas mileage averaged 21.9 mpg