Badlands

Moon Rising

We arrived at the Badlands National Park a few hours before sunset on July 24th. Just in time to experience the park during the "golden hours". Millions of years ago, the Badlands used to be a sea, then (still millions of years ago) the sea dried out and it became a subtropical forest. Some more millions of years later, the climate became drier turning the Badlands into a prairie. Because of this geological history, the Badlands are rich in fossiles...

It is a very strange place. The dry, hot climate and the strange rock formations make it feel as if you're on the moon. It's hard to believe that the Badlands have so much wildlife... But when we woke up at 4.30 am (yes, we are crazy) on July 25th to explore the park during the cooler, more quiet hours, we came across antelope, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs, birds, bisons and even a burrowing owl!

We made the wise decision to take a siesta during the hotter hours of the day but by evening, we made it back into the park. We were planning to focus on the sunset, but the moonrise turned out to be much more beautiful! (note: these pictures are not photoshopped!)

Wall, SD

How to Market the Middle of Nowhere?

Driving from Mount Rushmore to the Badlands through the prairie in South Dakota, we were not expecting anything exciting except for some hayfields or abandoned tractors along the road. And that’s what we saw for about 30 miles before noticing all these peculiar road signs advertising “Wall Drug”.

Now, the following should be in all marketing textbooks (and maybe it is). When you see a road sign every mile advertising a store for more than 50 miles, you get curious, very curious... so much so, that you actually want to stop and see what all the fuss is about. And that was exactly what the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hustead, had in mind.

In 1931, they opened a little drug store in their little "in the middle of nowhere" town. Not surprisingly, their business didn't take off very well. But then, one hot summer day, Mrs. Hustead saw all the tourist cars passing by on the highway next to Wall and wondered how she could make them stop at their little store. Tourists driving through the hot prairies? Well, why not offer them free ice water... The Husteads started putting up road signs advertising their store and the free ice water... and it worked! All these years later, Wall Drug store is still a very popular stop for tourists and the road signs have only multiplied in number. The store itself is huge (think Walmart size) and offers everything from food to jewelry to cowboy boots. These days, anyone can ask for a free road sign advertising Wall Drug as long as they promise to put it up near a road. And that's why South Dakota's Wall Drug even has advertising signs at the Taj Mahal and in the London tube.

So yes, the road signs did make us stop at Wall Drug. And they did make us buy stuff we absolutely had no need for... but we also had a cup of free ice water!

Grand Teton & Black Hills

Quick Visits

On July 22nd, we drove from Yellowstone to Grand Teton (disclaimer: not to be pronounced in French) National Park. You would think that after a monument like Yellowstone, every other park would be a disappointment. But no... again, we were amazed by the beauty of this park!

We had only one day to spend in the park, so, we did the "drive-through" route. But we saw white pelicans, beautiful mountain lakes and again herds of buffalos...

 
The next day, we spent about 7 hours in the car to drive to Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills, South Dakota. For some reason, I had the feeling that our road trip wouldn't be complete if we hadn't seen Mount Rushmore. We visited the monument quickly the next morning... It is not as big as we thought but still, impressive.

We spent the rest of the day in Deadwood in the Black Hills, an old mining town of the 19th Century, most famous because of the murder of Wild Bill who's also burried there next to Calamity Jane (plus, now of course there's the famous HBO series "Deadwood").

Yellowstone

The Holy Grail of the National Parks?

It is impossible to describe Yellowstone in one little blog post… but I’ll try nevertheless.

We arrived in West Yellowstone, Montana on Sunday evening, July 19^th. Despite the fact that we were tired from our 6 hour drive, we were too excited not to visit Yellowstone National Park right away. And we soon realized, we were in for a treat… Granted, the park is very touristy (roads and paved walks lead you right up to the action) but that didn’t spoil our fun at all.  For the two and half days we were there, we woke up very early and stayed very late. When most of the crowds had left, the wildlife came out and the lighting was perfect.

First of all, I have never seen so many geysers, mudpots, colorful hydrothermal features, fumaroles, … in my life and I have been to Iceland. These are just a few examples:

Of course, we also checked out the Old Faithful, the famous geyser which has been attracting crowds since the 19^th century. The geyser erupts every 92 minutes, we waited patiently together with hundreds of other tourists… Maybe not an example of beautiful, unspoiled nature but at least a nice caption the kind of crowds this park attracts.

But Yellowstone is not only about volcanic activity… there is also Yellowstone Lake:

… and the canyon, described as the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone:

… and waterfalls:

… and wildlife:

We spent about two and half days in the park but it feels more like a month since we’ve seen so many different things (and probably also because we spent about 14 hours per day in the park). We heard a lot of different languages while we were there, and I know this park is a very popular destination in Europe... with reason! I think up until now, if you could only visit one park, I would recommend you to go to Yellowstone. But I would also recommend you to take more days off and explore the rest of the States!

Mount Rainier and Glacier National Park

High in the Mountains

On July 15^th, we drove through (due to time constraints) Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. Mount Rainier can be seen from Seattle – so you can imagine how impressive it is up close. The park is beautiful, a lot of wild flowers, waterfalls, green valleys, …

The reason we had to rush through Mount Rainier was our 6 hour trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. Our good friend, Chris, recommended us to visit this park (along with a lot of other great recommendations btw) – we had never heard of it before. I don’t know why this park isn’t popular in Europe. It has been described as the American version of the Alps.

We were there for two days. So, we had plenty opportunity to explore the park. We went hiking through an ancient forest, next to a glacial river, to a beautiful glacial lake.

We drove through Logan Pass, with incredible views on the snow capped mountains and a waterfall everywhere you looked.

We hopped on one of the tour boats to explore one of the big lakes in the park.

 We went hiking in the snow (in sandals!) to another more amazing glacial lake.

We saw marmots, deer and mountain goats.

 An amazing two days!!! So Europe, be advised and put Glacier on the map!