Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound

Quick link to video montage.

Finally, the last edition of the Las Vegas Road Trip.

Left Vegas on Tuesday, September 26. My first stop was planned in advance. I wanted to the see the Great Salt Lake. I had heard that it was fuller now than it has been for years due to huge snows in the surrounding areas over the winter.

On the way to Antelope Island, I stopped in Cedar City, Utah, to check out the Utah Shakespeare Festival site. I worked there in the mid 1980's. Yikes! The little outdoor theater is still there but now there is an enormous complex of buildings and grounds that are just for the Shakespeare Festival. What a difference.

Antelope Island is a Utah State Park that is IN in the Great Salt Lake and there is camping! I had reserved a cabin for two nights so that I could explore the area.

It turned out I needed to get home a bit earlier than initially planned so I modified my reservation to stay just one night. I only got to explore Antelope Island and not any of the other Great Salt Lake area.

The Lake was not full, but it was definitely spectacular and being on an island meant I could see the Lake from nearly everywhere.

There are lots of bison on Antelope Island and some mule deer but no antelope. There are also some waterfowl especially near the causeway that you take to get onto the island. The other thing that makes so much sense but that I hadn't considered was there are billions of mosquitoes...nothing like briny water to attract the state bird of Minnesota!

The cabin was more like a tiny house. It had a bedroom and a bunk room along with a kitchen including a full-size refrigerator.

I took what was supposed to be a short hike along the lake but turned into a long hike up and over a small mountain. I ended up doing a bit of rock climbing which I'm pretty sure I was not supposed to do. The views of the Lake were fantastic, but I was nowhere near the water. Nearly hiked right into a bison lying near the path which scared the you-know-what out of me.

I headed east from the Great Salt Lake and unfortunately was not able to visit the Utah capitol as there just wasn't enough time.

I wanted to avoid the interstates even though I was trying to cut an entire day out of the return, so I made my way up to US-30 to drive through southern Wyoming. My tourist destination was Fossil Butte National Monument. Didn't know anything about it other than it sounded interesting and would take me through the mountains off the interstate.

It was a beautiful drive as Fall was in full color in the higher elevations. I ran into (literally) some cowboys moving cattle from the higher elevations to lower. The geology of Fossil Butte is very interesting. You can read about it here. The visitors' center at Fossil Butte is really well done and informative. The trails near the visitors' center don't get near the actual fossils and there are still archeological sites within the park and regular visitors aren't allowed near them anyway.

I did take a really pretty hike that has good views and descriptions along the way.

I was hoping to make it to Cheyenne for the overnight, but I did have to end up on I-80 which was down to one lane of traffic, and I was running out of steam. I spent the night in Rawlins, Wyoming and was hoping to see some of the cowboys I had encountered on US-30...alas...no cowboys for me.

The goal of day #3 was to get to Grand Island, Nebraska. The only planned stop was Cheyenne to see the Wyoming capitol. Sorry Nebraskans but there just isn't much to see and I really wanted to get home.

The capitol is quite handsome. It was a beautiful day and I ate lunch in Cheyenne at a local café.

Back on the Interstate I realized I wasn't going to make it Grand Island. It was just that much too far for my tired eyes. I had gained two companions from Wyoming - a pair of flies - that kept me company but even they were getting bored.

I made it to Kearney. If you recall, this was the first stop on the west bound journey.

Stayed in a different hotel this time. I love those Belgian waffle makers that a lot of hotels have. Well, this one didn't have that but that had an automatic pancake maker! You know I had to try it. The pancakes were okay...the process was hilarious.

My last day was going to be a long one and I really didn't want to go back the same ole' Interstate way so I zigzag-ed my way across Nebraska to South Dakota.

I heard the falls at Sioux Falls, South Dakota were worth seeing so that's where I was headed.

There was one hiccup along the way. After driving over some railroad tracks, my tire pressure alarm went off. I was kind of in the middle of nowhere except the railroad tracks were in a small town. I turned right and wouldn't you know it, there was a tire repair garage right there in this small town! I pulled in, explained my situation, they had me pull around to the garage doors, two young people fixed my tire in 15-20 minutes, charged me $20, and I was on my way! To say I was lucky is an understatement!

I did make it to Sioux Falls and "the falls." I ate lunch next to the falls with food I had left over from all my road-food stops. I was tired but bound and determined to make it home...and I did.

Again, here is a link to the video montage for more of the photos of Las Vegas Road Trip East Bound.

The other two blog posts are here...

West Bound

Las Vegas

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.