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OK, here we go again. Once again secured some internet after bing cut short yesterday so will pick up roughly where I left off. Sadly I'm not entirely sure where that was and I tend to lose track of things we've done quite quickly, I not even sure what state I'm currently residing in.
Anyhu, Rushmore. Made it into the state park and headed immediately to the my Rushmore monument on whatever day that was. The monument was impressive though not as big as it had been in my mind, still big just TV made it seem even larger. But none the less impressive. There is a little trail that leads you near to the bottom of the mountain and a viewing area further back so got a good view of it. Despite this we went on a hunt for an even better view point eventually finding a mountain next to it which I'm pretty sure we weren't meant to be on (there was no paths and big no hiking signs not far off from it though not directly on the bit we went up) and climber to the top of this precarious mountain where we were about level with the heads of the presidents. This had been a wise move as despite the fact we could any moment fall and die off the edge of the cliff side the views were rather good. One thing to be noted was the monument seemed slightly half finished. The original model had had full nbusts but the monument was missing any body for all but Washington. Lincoln they hadn't even given him hair, just left uncarved rock on top of his head.
Moving on from this we went to the crazy horse monument. Even bigger though not at all finished. Also, we didn't have time to catch the bus to the cliff face so could only look on from the visitor centre. This thing is never going to be finished. For the first 10 years or something, despite being far larger than Rushmore, they only had one guy working on it. The whole thing didn't seem to have had much planning and they seemed to have ebeen rather optimistic that somehow it will all just come together. But perhaps it will.
The following day we went to Custer state park.big wildlife loop where we saw our first buffalo. Also eagles, deer, and other animals whilst watching out for the supposed rattlesnakes which were apparently abundant. In the afternoon we decided to take a hke and go to cool ridge point, a hill top look out point. There was a road which went to the top but since we were on foot a d we found the incdredibnly mild incline a bit too long and dreary we decided the best option was as the crow flies and to go straight to the top directly. Probably a 75% incline but after a slight struggle we made it to the top only to find we hadn't surveyed the mountain properly and the top was still further away. But we made it and again great views.
Upon leaving Rushmore and heading to Yellowstone we encountered our first snow. We stopped off at devils tower on our way out, which the cloud cleared just in time for us to see and was cool, then off to billingslyt for our next stop on way to Yellowstone.in this we ran into a blizzards, found our windscreen washers were out of fluid and our wipers were damage and incapable of clearing even slight wet spots off the windscreen, which lead to an interesting journey,but we somehow made it alive. Those who have seen my Facebook will have seen Pierre the snowman and so can gauge that the snow was pretty substantial.
We soildered on, waiting a day for the snow to pass so we would have a 3 day gap in Yellowstone where it wouldn't snow. On first day in Yellowstone, having arrived in the afternoon, we went on a quick hike to see some waterfalls and almost Immediatly saw 2 wolves rather closer than I would have liked but still cool to see. We also did mammoth springs which were good but covered In a large section where the hotf springs had moved was covered in snow. The next day we had a drive through some wildlife areas and a long hike to tower falls. Sadly we did not see any bears.
on the final day before leaving Yellowstone we decided to have a swim. It isn't allowed to swim in the hot springs since you would cook pretty much instantly but there's an area where one of the springs empties into the river and you can swim in so headed there. sadly to get to where the spring empties and water is warm you first have to wade through the freezing river, which wasn't fun but was worth it. Hot water was great. Though in certain spots you would find the cold river encrouching on you or boiling water starting to scold you so location was important.
Anyhu, ,made it out, have past our most northernly point and are now heading south leaving the snow behind us. Hope your all annoying the extra water features in england and shall talk to you all soon. Also apolagise for the spelling mistakes but i too lazy to go back and check those all when i have better things to be doing. much lave all
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Dad Brilliant report. Loved it. Is devils tower the one from close encounters...... Get those windscreen wipers fixed. You'll need them to be in working order. Is it Salt Lake City next?
ruth Noone will give me your email address...think they are trying to protect your celebrity status! Loving the blogs...with a strong dose of the green eyed monster. Stil cant quite get over sentences which start with "we decided to hike....". Surely this shoud read "Paul decided to hike up the mountain and I was scared of the wolves so decided Id have to go with him"!! Hard to believe you would do this by choice!! It all sounds fab esp the mountains, the wolves, the hotspings. Keep em coming. Love ruthxxxxxxxx
Tony Skipper You're driving me crazy with what you are not paying attention to! The "river" you glossed over in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was the f***ing Mississippi, no less, albeit the upper reaches before the confluence with the Missouri (in St. Louis). And you crossed the Missouri itself between Sioux Falls and Rapid City, did you even notice?! These waterways are the most important geographical features in America's history! Then you act surprised at the onset of Thanksgiving, and no plans for it, with the paucity of people followed by the crowds in the stores -- all of which I told you about ahead of time. Yes, Devil's Tower, Wyoming is the one from the movie. You didn't check the wishshield washer fluid? And the streaks on the windshield were almost certainly frozen snow/ice, if you hadn't noticed a problem in rain. You'll have to figure out how to cope with bad weather driving, 'cos you're not out of the mountains yet! "South" is not the point. "Up" is the point. I give up!
sam Sure someone will divulge my email. Yeah we saw it was the mississpi but only because we passed a sign saying so. And south didn't bring much snow, besides when crossing the mountains to the west coast. We powered through the windshield problem and somehow came out alive