Road Trip to Oregon - Heading back home

Eastern Oregon

The road trip back from Oregon was designed to be 5 days (the outbound trip was 6). One less day translated into about 100 more miles more each day. The difference between 5 and 6 days is noticeable. There's also something about going home where you just want to get home 💖 Link to video.

Said goodbye to Jill and Ellie, who was heading off to the first day of school, on September 1. There are only a few routes to cross eastern Oregon and I have taken most (if not all) already so this was familiar territory - long and not much to take in. 

The first day goal was Boise, Idaho. A word to the wise on crossing eastern Oregon - there are NO rest areas, and therefore, no facilities! Once again, I had to make my own "accommodations."

We did not make it into Boise (had stopped at the capitol on a previous road trip) but opted to stay in Meridian, a very suburban town on the Interstate.

Day 2 destination was Bozeman, Montana, which meant driving nearly the full length of Idaho. This day was a no Interstate day. Drove by Craters of the Moon National Monument. I stopped here on a previous road trip. It is an incredible geological area.

Lunch at Idaho Falls falls park.

We stopped in Idaho Falls for lunch. I had driven by Idaho Falls but not stopped before. The falls are really cool - instead of dropping off perpendicular to the flow of the river, the falls cut through the river lengthwise. There was a critical incident occurring at the falls when we arrived with 3 different sheriff's rescue watercraft involved 😰

A long portion of the route to Bozeman through Idaho was primarily along the Madison River. There are some really fancy "cabins" along the river and I saw several people fishing (fancy boats), too.

I'd like to spend more time in Bozeman. It has a funky, cool vibe even though the motel we stayed in was on the skanky side. Motels should not have upholstered LazyBoy recliners!

Day 3 destination was Spearfish, South Dakota with a stop at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. This day required Interstate driving but this is a beautiful section along the Yellowstone River (have done this section before).

Devils Tower National Monument did not disappoint. I took way too many photos. I loved the indigenous sacred narrative that I read on one of the viewpoints (a photo is included in the video and shared here).

Day 4 started with a drive through Spearfish Scenic Canyon into the Black Hills. This was probably the most difficult day for Maggie. I'm not sure if the curvy road, the elevation changes, or simply being done with traveling was the cause for a protracted complaint (loud meowing) episode.

The goal on Day 4 was to drive through Badlands National Park. After much struggle with GPS-based driving apps, I got to Badlands National Park South Unit, which is entirely in Tribal Trust land under the Ogala Sioux Tribe. Approaching the Badlands from this direction provides a very, very dramatic view and unfortunately neither the photos nor the video capture it.

To get to the Badlands, required a beautiful tour through the Black Hills including Lead and Deadwood, South Dakota. Interesting coincidence: I stopped briefly at the Sanford Lab Homestake visitor center in Lead, SD and just heard that they may have discovered dark matter.

The goal on Day 4 was Sioux Falls, SD. To get there after the Badlands and NOT go to Interstate 90 required more back-country roads than I had anticipated (yes, gravel roads). But it was also beautiful and very much greener than I thought even with temperatures reaching 102 degrees!

I had been to Sioux Falls before and after a day of endless driving and sightseeing, the goal was mostly rest before heading home on Day 5.

If you made it this far, here is link to the video montage.

Link to Part 1 of this road trip - westbound.

Link to Part 2 of this road trip - Ashland and Illinois River cabin.

Road Trip to Oregon - Westbound

Road trip to Oregon (Part 1 of 3) to go camping with Jill, Ellie and a friend from a long time ago, Steve. Decided to make the drive a 6-day adventure to provide time to stop and explore along the way. This amount of time meant I did not have to use Interstate highways with the exception of a short section through Montana (because there really isn't any other way over the mountains). Here is link to video montage.

 

Day 1 Wednesday, August 19: Minneapolis, MN to Aberdeen, SD through Montevideo and Ortonville, MN (288.1 miles)

• MN 7 to US 12 into South Dakota
• Prairie
• Big Stone Wildlife Refuge
• Aberdeen has a small Main Street downtown with some redevelopment

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.