The Badlands...Not So Bad

Today was our longest day yet. I’m typing this at 9:41 p.m. and while Zach is driving with another 3-4 hours left before we arrive in Lincoln. So why are we still driving you ask?

Before leaving Keystone, we decided to take a run down the President’s Alpine Slide. We took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and then we each rode a wheeled sled down 2000 feet of slide. It was fun but we lost about an hour as we enjoyed zooming down the hill.

We finally hit the road for Badlands National Park. It was 1.5 hours away. We punched in Badlands National Park and my GPS decided to take us to the southern entrance. To get there we drove through Pine Ridge Reservation to the visitor center which is just a portable trailer. After speaking with the ranger, we realized we should have turned a different way 30 miles back, so we headed back the way we came and then an additional 30 miles to the Interior Entrance and the main visitor center. That ended up being an additional hour of unnecessary driving. The only good thing was that on the way to the Southern Entrance, we saw a herd of privately owned bison close to the road. Unfortunately, we didn’t think fast enough to stop and take a photo. When we backtracked, they were nowhere to be seen. They must have moved on to greener pastures.

 

The Badlands is a barren land of tan rock that looks like dried mud. It is slowly eroding leaving canyons and walls to view and explore. We went on several hikes and visited a working fossil lab in the visitor center. Hikers regularly find fossils buried in the walls, but alas, we found none. It was still pretty cool to see paleontologists slowly drilling rock away from a fossil. She looked like a dentist cleaning tartar off of someone’s teeth.

Everything in the park is spread out, so to get anywhere it was a drive. We took the scenic loop and ended up further north and west in South Dakota which again added time to our trip. Before leaving the park we drove 5 miles down a gravel road toward Prarie Dog Town. The prarie was full of prarie dog holes with the little critters popping their heads up out of holes and running from one hole to the next. They were squeaking at each other and it was fun to try to predict where they would pop up next. It was kind of like “Whack a Mole.” Off in the distance we saw some buffalo so we took some photos and headed out once again.

 

Aside from a quick stop at Subway for sandwiches and stopping for gas or to change drivers, we’ve been driving ever since. Well, it’s my turn to drive…

P.S. We arrived at 2:00 a.m. We’ll spend the next three days visiting with my sister, brother-in-law, nephews and my parents.

Mountains & Monuments

It's Tuesday morning and today is the last leg of our trip to Lincoln. We have a long day of driving ahead of us, so we decided we should break it up with a quick trip to Badlands National Park. We'll leave in just a bit.

We spent the night in Keystone, South Dakota after visiting Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore. Keystone is a cute little mining town that exists mainly to host the many visitors to Mount Rushmore.
Our drive through Wyoming was uneventful and David got to do some of the driving this time. We disagree on how fast he was "allowed" to go. You can read his perspective on his blog at: http://favoritesonsspiel.blogspot.com/

Crazy Horse Memorial is an unfinished monument to the Lakota leader. The memorial is a work in progress and will take more years than I will be alive to complete, since it is funded only by donations and admission fees. It was the belief of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, that this should not be a state or federal project and his family carried on this philosophy after his death in 1982. Even though he is gone, the artist's wife and seven of his ten children have continued the project. We spent about two hours looking through the exhibits and learning about the sculpture, sculptor, and the Native American people. I bought a necklace made of red jaspar, silver, and black buffalo horn. It has a carved turtle ("Keya" in Lakota) pendant that represents overcoming obstacles in life and finding alternatives and solutions to problems that are faced. I like that idea.

Mount Rushmore is less than 20 miles from Crazy Horse also in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We arrived right when it was starting to rain. It was dinner time, so we decided to eat at the Carvers Cafe at the monument and wait for the rain to subside. The skies cleared soon and we proceeded to walk the Presidential Trail which takes you to the base of the mountain for different perspectives of the sculpture. We climbed up and down about 400 stairs and took more photos than we ever needed of the four presidents. 

We wandered through the Visitor Center, and watched a movie about the sculptor and the reason why these four president's were chosen. Originally, the idea of a mountain sculpture was to highlight the legends of the West like Lewis & Clark, and Buffalo Bill Cody. But the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, a prolific artist of the time stated that he would not devote his life to this project unless it was something that had meaning to the entire nation. He chose the four presidents, to create an eternal reminder of the birth (Washington), growth (Jefferson), development (Roosevelt), and preservation (Lincoln) of a nation that is dedicated to democracy and liberty.

We stayed for the lighting ceremony which happened at 9:30 p.m. It took that long for it to get dark enough. It was a nice ceremony that stirred the patriotic spirit within me. It was a good end to a fun and educational day.

Rocky Mountain High

I'm sitting here in our hotel room in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We are staying at the Historic Plains Hotel, an awesome old building located in downtown Cheyenne. I love old historic places and this is perfect. We are on the 5th floor and our room is the nicest we've had so far. We have a sitting area complete with couch and two easy chairs. The hotel was built in 1911 to serve cattle barons, oil tycoons and travelers on their way to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It has a century of history and is just plain cool.

The hotel is across the street from a movie theater, so Zach and David decided to see the late night showing of Iron Man 3. They were excited, because tickets were only $3.50. We spent most of the day in the car, so they are enjoying a little entertainment.

We left late from Grand Junction this morning, because we slept in and then took our time posting blogs and photos. By the time we got on the road, I knew we weren't going to be able to do much of anything in Denver. To complicate things even more, we hit a lot of traffic on I-70 and that added about an hour to our trip. The drive though long was lovely as we climbed higher into the Rocky Mountains. The Colorado River was our constant companion, and we saw people rafting and tubing along the way. At one point, I commented to the boys that I felt like we were in a model railroad. The red mountains and the green pine trees just reminded me of the landscape used by model train builders.

Near Red Rocks Amphitheater

I wanted to stop and see Red Rocks Amphitheater located just outside of Denver. We got there around 4:00 p.m., but our plans were foiled when we realized they were having a concert and a thousand people were converging onto the site. That was a bummer, but I also had been told we could see dinosaur footprints nearby, so we began the hunt for those instead. After several trips around the mountain, and asking for directions, we successfully discovered Dinosaur Ridge which has a wealth of fossils including dinosaur footprints. It was a fun experience for the closet archeologist hidden in me.

Zach having a conversation with a dinosaur

Fossilized dinosaur footprints

It was getting late so we decided to forego a trip into Denver and instead stopped for dinner at Jay's Grille & Bar before heading onto Cheyenne. Since last night we ate at Pasta Jay's, we thought it was apropos to eat at another restaurant with the name Jay in it. It was in honor of our missing traveling companion whose name starts with a J.

Despite the delays and disappointments it turned out to be a pretty nice day.

From Hoodoos to Windows

Yesterday was a busy day. The goal was a little hiking and exploring of two National Parks about 270 miles apart. Bryce Canyon is one of my favorite National Parks. I love the magical hoodoos that are a fairy world of castles and turrets. Last time we were here, we only looked at the views from above. But this time, we chose a short hike called Navajo Loop which was a steep descent into the canyon and then back out. The hike itself was only 1.3 miles, but the elevation change was dramatic and the views were exquisite. We took lots of photos mainly because I stopped so many times to rest and drink some water.



















Around mid-day, we said our goodbyes to Bryce Canyon, and drove toward Arches National Park. The plan was to get there early evening when hopefully the temperature had cooled down a bit. The drive was long and desolate. Not much but open space in this part of Utah. The boys watched the movie Inception (David's favorite) and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (produced, written, & directed by Joss Whedon during the writer's strike) to pass the time.

The massive rock formations at Arches National Park are impressive. The red rock looks like a giant's play area filled with red clay that has been rolled, balled, and pinched. Everything is huge. The temperature was bearable so we got out of the car several times to hike around the big structures as the desert wind blew through our hair.

It was getting late, and we still had more than an hour drive to our motel in Grand Junction, Colorado, so we left the park and decided to eat dinner in the town of Moab, Utah. We were hungry and the food was delicious. We arrived around 10:30 p.m. and collapsed into bed with satisfaction of a mission accomplished. We could have spent more time at any of the parks we visited, but we got a decent taste of each and a renewed appreciation of the glory of God's creation.

Hiking the Narrows

Years ago, when the boys were much younger, we took a similar road trip to Nebraska. While Joe & Zach have some memories of the trip, David just doesn't remember it. So I wanted to make sure that we went to some of the same places we enjoyed on that first trip including three National Parks in Utah: Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Arches.

Yesterday we went to Zion National Park. We stopped in town and rented some footwear and a walking stick, because we were going to hike the Narrows! Or at least part of it. This was something I always wanted to try, but the boys were just too young and we weren't prepared back then.

Zion National Park is a gorge that has been slowly eroded by the Virgin River. The sides of the canyon tower over you as you drive to the different trailheads. Many of the peaks have biblical names and even a few Mormon titles. The three most impressive are The Three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob. They keep a watchful eye over the many visitors as they travel through.

While there were many hikes we would have liked to venture on, our purpose was to hike the Narrows. So we took the shuttle to the end of the line at the Riverside Walk. This is a mile-long paved hike that takes you alongside the Virgin River. It was hot, really hot, but we were on a mission. When we arrived at the end of the Riverside Walk, we walked down to the river edge and continued to hike up and IN the river. It was awesome!

Hiking the Narrows from the bottom up is about a 5 mile hike one way. 75% of the time you are in the water; there just isn't any dry land to walk on. You can also hike from the top down and that's about 16 miles. The river is shallow and at most you might have to hike in waist deep water. The views are spectacular and majestic.

We only had time to hike about a mile or two up the river, but it was fabulous and exhausting. I chose the rocky shoreline when available, but Zach and David always took the hardest route, against the current. Although cold, the water was cool and refreshing and most of the time we were in the shade as the canyon walls were so close to each other that direct sunlight couldn't find its way into the canyon.

We left around 6:30 p.m. and headed to Bryce Canyon. The drive was beautiful, but we were tired and couldn't wait to check into the Lodge and get some dinner. After settling in we had a light dinner at 9:00 p.m. and collapsed into bed. The only sad part of the day was that Joe wasn't with us. It was his birthday, and I think he would have liked the hike.

We are staying in Bryce Canyon National Park, so WiFi is limited to the lobby and coffee shop. David and I woke up early to see the sunrise over Bryce Point. We snagged a quick breakfast at the coffee shop, uploaded our photos and blogs and now we are headed out to explore Bryce Canyon and then on to Arches National Park.

Vegas, Baby!

In typical McKay fashion, we left two hours late. The car was finally packed and we headed out of San Diego and on to the blistering heat of Las Vegas. 

Our first stop was the Hoover Dam. We arrived too late to go on a tour of the power plant, but we wandered through Visitor Center, went on the observation deck, and walked across the dam. It is an impressive structure. Made of 2.6 million cubic meters of cement blocks, the Hoover dam is 221.3 meters (726.4 feet) tall and 201.2 meters (600 feet) wide at the base.

We were not only impressed with the size of the dam, but also by the fact that men built this thing in the crazy heat! And ahead of schedule and under budget to boot!

After about an hour or so, we drove to our hotel in Las Vegas. As we drove past a bank, the marquee declared the temperature to be 119 degrees at 7:00 p.m. We are spending the night at South Point. My husband, Matt comes here every year to see his favorite singer, Crystal Gayle. Our room is nice, but in typical Vegas fashion, we had to walk through the casino to check in, to get back to our car, to go get dinner, or pretty much anytime we wanted to go anywhere. Hmmm...I wonder why they do that...?

Dinner was late, but delicious at Steak and Shake. As the City of Lights carries on through the night, we are drifting away into sweet slumber looking forward to a day at Zion National Park. Good night!

My Three Sons

It's 6:30 a.m. and the house is still fairly quiet. I've been up for about 30 minutes enjoying the solitude before everyone else begins to stir. Today is the day we head out once again for a summer road trip. This week, as I've run around completing errands getting ready for the big trip, the anticipation has been growing. We are headed to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit my sister and her family. My parents are also going to be there, so it should be a blast. I LOVE road trips and even more I absolutely adore going on road trips with my sons!

Years ago, when Joe, Zach, and David were just toddlers and preschoolers, I would grow sad as I thought about the day when my babies were all grown and wouldn't need their mother. I fearfully envisioned being one of those overbearing matriarchs who couldn't cut the apron strings. I even told my mother-in-law one time to smack me upside the head if she saw me acting that way. But at some point, I stopped prematurely grieving the loss of their childhood and created memories. I also learned that parenting is a slow process of instilling independence to release your children into adulthood as responsible citizens who contribute to the good of the world. Also I realized that if I didn't mess things up too much, I  just might have my sons as friends one day.

Recently, a friend asked me what it was like to have adult children. I shared with her my early fears and resulting epiphany. As mother and sons, we have gone through many stages together: nurturing mama, playful mommy, disciplinarian mom, demanding teacher, worried mother, comforter, cheerleader, coach, and counselor. As the years progress, we have moved between and through these different relationship dynamics. I was able to tell my friend, "I love adult children!" I love having adult conversations with them. I love hearing their perspectives, and debating issues. I love seeing their spiritual lives develop, and their relationships with God becoming their own. I feel so blessed to have my sons as friends.

Although there are times that I miss my babies,  I can honestly say that I wouldn't go back to those days. These times are so much richer and deeper. And I hear that grandchildren are even greater. So there's even more to look forward to!

But, I digress. We are going on a road trip! And we'll be leaving within the hour. You can see our itinerary here: Summer Road Trip 2013

I plan to write every day and my youngest, David is also going to write in a blog. You can read his perspective on the trip here:
http://favoritesonsspiel.blogspot.com