Primitive but more on the way hopefully

http://becauseweremen.shutterfly.com/pictures

Tale Of A Few Days

We realized that whenever we do not keep up with these posts, the blog becomes an arduous task. But we are going to power through this, so be prepared for a long post.

                                                                                                                                           July 19^th

Mt. Rushmore

Can you believe they charged twelve bucks for this place? All we wanted was some nice snapshots, and as soon as we turned the corner there was a toll booth, accompanied by numerous signs all saying “NO U-TURN”. As a very smart man-squid hybrid once said, “It’s a trap!” There is not much to say about this place, it was pretty much what you would expect from the pictures of it. The funny thing is that Rushmore did little to appease us, but as soon as we turned around to walk towards the car, we faced a ginormous mountain with pine stands all around. We now understand why they built the presidents facing in that direction. Also, it was humorous to us that everyone was taking pictures of the stone structure, yet nobody stopped to admire the actual natural beauty of the trees. Not everyone is a nature nut like us I suppose.

 Heading out of South Dakota, steep inclines formed the Black Hills territory, with gorgeous mountain lakes and sheer cliff sides surrounding us the entire way. At some point numerous sections of trees became barren. We played detective and tried to figure out the cause of all this. Was it logging? Fire? Some sort of mutant beaver? Although we could never truly rule out the beaver, we decided the bark showed signs of being scorched. It was quite a spectacle to see just how many miles of trees were now gone. Barren wastelands took the place of what used to be forest. But this led to more questions, what caused the fire? Was it natural, since we are in the middle of a heatwave? Or was it a control burn, perhaps an accident? Who knows. But we do understand the huge importance fire plays in the ecosystem, recycling the nutrients into the soil and keeping the land fertile.

Wyoming

This state is full of many different landscapes. Initially, it was comprised of mountainous terrain with beautiful pine forests along the hills every twist of the way. It seemed almost unreal, how places like this could exist, being touched by mankind so minimally. As we drove on we noticed a large and intriguing cloud in the distance. It was lower than all of the other ones, but it was still white. It was more like a column than an actual cloud. Since we had been seeing stands of barren trees we assumed it was a fire. The highway we were on interestingly enough was headed straight for this mystery cloud. The more we drove, the bigger it got, and soon we knew for sure that this was a signature forest fire. Eventually we rounded a bend and on a far Hillside we could see the roaring fire in action. Well it wasn’t necessarily roaring but it felt intense, sending smoke into the air that could be seen for miles. We pulled over to take some photos and I noticed an odd mix of circumstances. There was this fire in the distance, completely obliterating a large tract of land, but where I stood, horses were grazing and birds resumed chirping as normal. Continuing on, the mountains disappeared and were traded for flatter turf. Unlike previous states, this flat land was somewhat homogenous, which led to boredom. Wyoming broke our rule of each new state being cooler than the last. I suppose we were wrong in assuming the entire state would interest us, as were driving through the whole thing.

                                                                                                                                        July 20^th

After staying over in a motor lodge, we were on the road to Grand Teton. Flat roads again became beautiful mountains, this time with new rock formations we hadn’t seen before. Rich browns, reds, grays and blacks filled these stone structures with beauty. The trees were also of different colors, not just green but also orange and grey. The Wind River flowed beside our highway and some beautiful cabins were built right beside it. We agreed that we were quite jealous of the residents in those homes. Some roadwork was being done in the area so we had to sit idle for a while. I got out and snapped some shots of wildflowers. Soon enough we were granted passage and we continued on. All of a sudden we were blessed with a glorious image of the Rocky Mountains in the background. They were incredibly picturesque, dark brown with snow capped peaks, and even some trees resided on the slopes. The more we drove the bigger the mountains got, and the pictures we took sincerely do not do them justice. They look so small and minor in the photographs but truly they encompassed it all. We ended up reaching Grand Teton National Park and this place was beautiful.

 Grand Teton

As we drove around some absolutely stunning mountain lakes, Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable was playing in the car and it was the perfect pick for the scene. We stopped a few times along the road to soak in everything. I noticed that there were fifty thoughts running through my head all at once, and I couldn’t give one more than three seconds before switching to another thought. Finding a campsite was no arduous task as it gave us an excuse to look at the mountains, lakes, forests, grasslands, or flowers. I even think I saw a bison herd in the background, but I am not sure. After setting up camp, Dan and I geared up and hit the Lupine Trail. We had no idea what we were in store for. For starters, we began the trail at 3pm and didn’t return until 8:30pm. The entire trail, the whole thing, was swarmed with mosquitoes, and in our infinite wisdom we did not spray ourselves nor bring any bug spray. Needless to say, the bugs definitely drove our pace up the mountain. The entire trail was a steep incline. With each little jump in elevation, the ecosystem definitely had a change. Forests lined the bottom, even being somewhat swampy. Next up vast patches of wildflowers, yellow, purple, red, and green ones grew as far as the eye could see. From that point on the landscape alternated between forest and field. In the pines we came across some grey little fowl, a little larger than a chicken. It curiously watched us until it climbed into the brush. As temperatures dropped the path became covered in snow. Trekking through the snow was slippery but doable. I noted that coming down would be a different story, as the snow mounds were quite steep, easy to climb up but not down. After about a mile in the snow we reached the endpoint, a beautifully frozen over mountain lake right adjacent to Grand Teton. It was quite, serene, even the mosquitoes understood not to bother us for the time being. By this time it was getting late, the sun was already not visible, and both of us were achy from the hike. Not wanting to encounter any bears becoming active during sundown, we were now in a race against the clock to get back to the car, joy. Rushing down the snow was not an easy task by any means. Steep declines provided some interesting antics for Dan and I. He preferred the one foot slide method using the other one for stability. I enjoyed the skiing method, not as safe but definitely twice as fun. Once we cleared the snowy parts the path became very rocky, which I think did wonders for my knees -_- Along our travels a cute little martin paced our way. It was intriguing, it wasn’t rushing but it wasn’t casually coming to us. It may have sniffed us, or just passed on by, but we clapped it away so no harm was done. After many, many bug bites, we finally reached the car, and man oh man were we glad to see it. Rushing in so no nagging bugs followed suit, we drove back to camp. Along the way the sunset cast awesome rays from behind the mountain. Dan got out to take pictures and I stayed in the car, just staring at the magnificent site. The song Hallelujah came on and it took me away to a spiritual realm where all was well. We grabbed a bite to eat at the Trapper, a grill residing by Signal Mountain. I had their signature Trapper sandwich, which was yummy yummy. It had alfalfa on it which intrigued me. Dan ate an Angus beef burger along with elk chili delight. His review was “delicious”, with a smile no less. Afterwards we did some housekeeping back at camp, and promptly passed out for the night. But not before Dan went to the loo, staring at the starry night and having a mindgasm. He wants to really stress how gorgeous the stars looked, every single one of them glowed exceptionally well.

                                                                                                                                         July 21^st

Now knowing much better, we decided it to be a bright idea to be as prepared for today’s hike as possible. It was called Death Canyon after all. Dan made a hearty meal consisting of sautéed onions and potatoes, baconnn (mmm bacon) and scrambled eggs. Delicioso! The only annoyance about cooking our own meals is that it takes a while to make, and cleaning dishes is a hassle. But it is much cheaper in the long run. With all of this out of the way, we headed for the trailhead. Beginning the hike, we started out in a lowland forest. An abundance of water derived from the ice melt. We saw all of the plant species from yesterday, and a whole variety more. This ecosystem must not be as harshly specialized as the Lupine area. This may have to do with elevation differences, positioning, etc. As we hiked onward I was formulating that this terrain would be ideal for moose habitat. Lo and behold, not fifteen minutes from the trailhead, a female moose was resting in the marshy shade, not twenty feet from us. She just remained there the whole time, probably very much conditioned to hikers coming through daily. As we climbed in elevation, the diversity shifted to somewhat drier microclimate. There was still a lot of plant diversity, just different species this time. The thing we greatly enjoyed about this section was the abundance of shade, and breezes occurred frequently to please our souls. Next up we enjoyed a wonderful mountain lake view, more beautiful than the ones from yesterday. Every time there is a clearing it is so serene. There were so many crazy trees that grew right out of the side of a mountain, reshaping their trunk to suit them. They looked to defy gravity. One of the trees even used a rock as a support to grow higher. What kind of mountain hike would it be without the wildflowers? At this point, a lot of the turf was sunny wildflower fields. To our right, in the distance was an old school looking waterfall. Ahead were two mountains, and we were going to hike the valley in between them. As we continued we heard what we thought was howling wind. Further up the valley we saw very brief glimpses of rapids. We got pretty excited and quickened our pace. Soon enough we were treated to the site of gushing torrents, the result of the year round melting snow. It truly was a spectacle to behold. The pictures won’t do it justice. They lack the feeling of the mist, and the sound of the falling water. The higher we hiked the more intense the rapids became. Every fifteen minutes the water would do something more incredible. Seeing as how we decided we did not want to race the sun again, we decided to head down at this point. Along the way we noticed a couple varieties of animal scat. Some were really fibrous, kind of like horse manure, but horses weren’t anywhere nearby. I ruled out elk poop because my experience working at Safari provided me with the knowledge that elk poo looks like raisinettes. We also found some pebbly scat, possible belonging to bighorn sheep. We didn’t see any but who knows right? Personally, the size didn’t really match up with what I knew to be elk scat. Maybe the difference in diet or general lifestyle had an impact of fecal appearance. Maybe it was moose crap. Again, who knows? Trucking through the path once again, this time in reverse, we came across the same female elk, this time a couple hundred feet higher. One thing to note was that the mosquitoes were a very minimal nuisance at best. It could have been due to the fact that we actually used bug spray, or the change in ecosystem made all the difference. We were grateful for this regardless.

Now we are heading back to embrace the facility’s shower. We probably smell but frankly neither of us gives a damn. Maybe when we are in public, but that hasn’t happened too often. Then we shall cook us a meal, and sleepy sleep. We’re trying to sort out the photos (we have over 1000), we really want to post them as soon as we can. It’s just a lot of effort so bare with us. Adios!

                                                                                                                                         July 22^nd

In the morning we headed for good ole Yellowstone National Park. It was a pretty short drive, and that’s not just because we were used to 4-8 hour drives. The 2 parks are really close to each other, but they are veeeeery different once you get to know them. For starters, Yellowstone is big, very big. Extremely big! New Jersey is 8722 sq. miles, and Yellowstone is 3472 sq. miles. That means you can almost fit 3 Yellowstones into our Garden State, craziness! Regrettably we tried to find camping on a Friday, which meant every place was booked. After a while driving around we decided to book a campsite outside the park. We stopped a bunch of times along the way to check out the natural sites. Initially, the forests were much more of a monoculture, consisting of lodge pole pines. This gave off a much more open feeling, with little to no understory. We read some article explaining how these trees are very susceptible to diseases and a certain type of beetle, and I believe we saw evidence of this out in the wilderness, with many trees barren or dead brown. This made us sad. Once we got further into the park, the terrain shifted into hilly meadows containing sagebrush and numerous colors of wildflowers. Blue skies, white fluffy clouds, a really cleansing breeze, plus these beautiful meadows were all that we needed for a good cleansing. We passed a few bison herds just chilling by the river. Thanks to Safari I had become jaded to the site of buffalo, but Dan was eager to snap many photographs of the creatures. As we continued on there was a coyote strolling along the road, in no real hurry. We slowed down to snap a shot and just at that moment it decided to take a load off, literally. It was pure form I’ll tell you that much. The photo will tell it all. Following the river from high up on a mountain road, it turned into some pretty intense rapids. Wonderful site indeed. The rock formations were again something we had never seen before. Some of the rocks had crevices causing them to appear like a picket fence deep within the side of a cliff. We passed a little town which had an extremely odd quality. It was riddled with elk everywhere. Most of the individuals laid down not more than 5 feet from cars and or pedestrians. They seemed completely complacent in this location, Dan and I laughed at the circumstances and shrugged. Unfortunately, the weather was really shotty, thunderstorms expected to rain until early next morning. We raced against the clock to set up our tent in harrowing winds. Unsure whether we would see our lovely tent again, we decided to book it to a safe shelter. We ended up staying at a nice little local bookstore and café, waiting out the storm and/or enjoying some quiet time. And this is where I am currently, now let me drink my huckleberry tea!

South Dakota But Of Course!

South Dakota

This state’s nickname should either be the Indoor Water Parks State or Bug Splatter State. Perhaps this needs further explanation. On our travels, our vehicle has caused so many bug deaths that we can no longer take photographs from the front seat. It is a cruel graveyard upon which we stare at all of the time, ALL OF THE TIME! We didn’t ask for this, why didn’t they fly a bit higher, whyyy!? Now onto the other point. Seeing as how South Dakota lacks a coastline, it makes sense for every damn hotel to include an indoor water park. We tried to enjoy these sites but right away the taint of our ecological education forced us to ponder the negative implications of all of this water use in a territory where there is not an overabundance of it. Yayyyy knowledge is power (and depressing).

While driving through South Dakota, the landscape transformed a few times. First it was flat, consisting of open pastures, beautifully blue skies, and pleasant scenery all around. Then the land became hillsides, which may sound boring but they were actually quite inspiring. It was hard to drive past everything without staring, taking our gazes off of the road.  Some of the stretches we drove on had us gain a lot of elevation. Lastly, the composition became one of mountainous forests. Beautiful outcroppings of rock mixed with coniferous forest were the sites we longed to see. We only got more excited knowing that Washington and Oregon will be even more of these land types.

Knowing that we should try and understand the area’s flavor of music, we turned on the local radio stations and you know what we found? There are loads of country radio stations. No seriously, there was maybe 4 radio stations that weren’t country, one of which was classical, another was public radio. Is there something that we don’t understand? Are there subtle intricacies to country music, leading to 10 different mini genres? Or did each station focus on a particular emotion, aka lovin your sweet baby, cruising for a boozing, or being hung up on a sweet honey that don’t love you back. We may never know. Annnd not to sound too hurtful but we don’t really need to ever find out.

They really seem to like their billboards here.  I couldn’t tell you the number of signs we saw for Wall Drug (which apparently has everything from home made pie to “Black Hills gold”, not to mention an utterly insane budget for billboards), 1880 Town (A great place for the kids!), and, my personal favorite, “Nature in Action! Wild Taxidermy Exhibit”.  That last one doesn’t even make sense! I suppose billboards are a fairly effective means for advertising, considering there isn’t really too much out here to look at. Note: Wall Drug’s advertising got the best of us and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check it out. If something could scream tourist trip, it would be Wall Drug. It was kind of like a mini mall, built upon a conglomerate of different shops. They all sold cool items, regrettably we spent a little too much time at this place.

While driving we discovered an interesting case of subconscious conditioning. For most of the drive the speed limit is 75. Numerous times we’ve had to make a conscious effort to drive faster than 70. JG- “The only time it feels natural to drive 75 is when I’m speeding back home. Apparently we have been subconsciously programmed to know when we are driving 65, and intuitively cruise control at that speed.

The Badlands

 Perhaps it was due to us arriving at the Badlands in the middle of a heat wave, but we can certainly see how they earned their name.  Trying to live in such inhospitable conditions would be… unpleasant.  Thankfully, we were only there for a day or so.  Heat wave aside, the scenery was beautiful.  One minute you’d feel as though you were caught in a maze, the next you would be gazing upon a huge open vista, grasslands stretching off into the distance, broken up by formations of the striated rock that makes the Badlands so famous.  The formations were painted with a splash of rich colors, ranging from soft pinks to warm red-browns.  It would be easy to assume that nothing can live there, but that was not the case.  We saw countless species of insect, bird, even a ground squirrel (or kind of mouse, not sure), and a small rabbit.  It became easy for us to stare off into the horizon, imagining an ancient land full of bison herds, and even prehistoric mega fauna from the Pleistocene era. We set up camp after briefly checking out a few trails, and then went out to explore more.  A ranger directed us towards “Notch Trail”, which took us longer to find than expected, but resulted in us clambering up a log ladder that went nearly vertical up a cliff.  Our favorite part was climbing back down the ladder.  Good times.  Cooking for the first time was interesting, but surprisingly uneventful with few or no injuries, minus the obnoxious bug bites.  As time passed by the sunset became quite lovely, painting the sky in lovely pastel colors. Then the stars came out, and that was a wonderful site to behold. They were pretty bright, but we know they will be even brighter in the parks we visit in the future.

States From A Car Window

Let me preface this entry by stating that we have not driven all over each of the following states. We've been traveling on interstates the whole time and so our perspectives will not be a wholly accurate representation for the whole state. Anywho!

New Jersey
Swamped with traffic due to hoards of people heading to the beach. The scenery was so-so, nothing memorable. Well except for the carnage caused by feuding factions of unicorns and ninjas. Okay that may have been a hallucination brought upon us by stifling boredom, or maybe it is a complete lie. >_>  <_<  >_>

Pennsylvania
First half was more or less the same as New Jersey’s scenic vibe. The second half had a lot of mountainous terrain, which was very pleasing to the eyes. Beautiful landscapes were spotted by patterns of clouds floating above. A couple of tunnels led us deep within the mountains, which was always fun. 

Ohio
This state’s name is very fun to say, many, many times (Ohhhhh-hio, Ohiooooooo, you get the point). The terrain is pretty flat, which is probably related to the abundance of farmland along the interstate. In our opinion, the entertainment value of state's name was unable to compensate for the lackluster aesthetics of the countryside.

Indiana
To tell you the truth we had no idea that we entered Indiana until we saw road signs for Indianapolis and Notre Dame. There was no sign to welcome us when we graced the state with our presence. We passed lots of corn fields on our drive. This place kind of reminded us of home, given the abundance of roadkill. One might ask, "Why did the raccoon cross the road?" Answer, "To get hit by a car." 

Illinois
Just like its neighbor, we didn't notice we were in this state until we saw signs for Chicago accompanied by a very large body of freshwater (We think it's Lake Michigan).Very industrial feel to the drive, we didn't really like it. Traffic in Chicago was horrible, womp womp.That's all I have to say about that.

Wisconsin
We liked Wisconsin. We assumed it would be nothing but farms, but we were pleasantly surprised. As soon as we entered the state, we were greeted by luscious green forests and mountainous terrain, with sparsely scattered corn fields clinging to the hillsides. After a while the mountains transformed into a flat expanse of corn and cows, broken up by the occasional clump of trees. Side note, we noticed the tree diversity has already changed from what we are accustomed to back on the East Coast..

Minnesota
This state is pretty much all fields as far as the eye can see, and we don't really mind it. Traffic is light, we go at our own pace. The sunset casts a beautiful hue upon the acres of crops, which would seem endless but for the intermittent stands of trees. One of the perks about this leg of our journey is that we are constantly driving into the setting sun. It is quite majestic.

We are stopping in South Dakota for the night. Badlands tomorrow, weee!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did you decide to go on this road trip?
-Because we're men

What are you looking forward to the most?
-Because we're men

Why did you decide to go the National Park route?
-Because we're men

 So there isn't much emphasis on visiting the cities?
-Because we're men

Why did you decide to camp outside most of the time instead of the hotel option?
-Because we're men

Why are you not shaving throughout the duration of the trip?
-Because we're men

Why don't you need to stop and ask for directions?
-Because we're men

What do you believe will be the ramifications of the Arab Spring on the US economic and political stability?
-Because we're men

So I hear you are making a stop-motion film utilizing toys, any reasoning behind this?
-Because we're men

Why do you like getting kicked in the crotch repeatedly?
-Because we're men

Why are you both eating your soups with ginormous spoon utensils?
-Because we're men

Why do you pee standing up?
-Because we're men

Why did the chicken cross the road?
-Because we're men

Why did you bring an axe on your journey?
-Because we're men (and to fight off zombies)

Which would you pick: A) a soft cushioned down comforter B) a boulder
- B, because we're men

Is it true that Chuck Norris asked if you had room for another?
-Yes, because we're men

How come you are not playing in the Women's World Cup USA vs Japan on Sunday?
-Because we're men

Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?
-Because we're men

Why are you driving with a zebra striped, devil horned rubber ducky on your dashboard?
-Because we're men

If you had to pick between a healthy leafy green salad and an arterie clogging meat stew, which would you pick?
-Meat, because we're men

You've been stuck forever on the Turnpike haven't you?
-Yep