USA September 2016
Graham and Elaine
Last Updated 3rd August 2016
Pictures can be viewed here
1st September 2016 – Home to Georgetown, Colorado.
That’s it we’re off to the USA again, this time accompanied by our very good friends Bob & Sue who live just a short way away in the village. Our car service picked us up promptly at 08:30 and we had a surprisingly easy journey to Heathrow arriving at 11:45 and our flight was typically boring and pleasingly uneventful.
We had pre-booked a car via Graham’s Avis Preferred membership and everything went well there too (although the first car they allocated us in space D18 didn’t exist, it was just an empty space) and we were on the road pretty quickly. As we made our way West towards the mountains we could see a really, really big black cloud in front and we met up with a very heavy downpour and some pretty spectacular lightening too so it took us a little longer to get to Georgetown than it might have done otherwise.
We had pre-booked a motel and arrived to be ‘greeted’ by someone who HAS to be a front runner for the title of Mr Grumpy 2016 and his demeanour wasn’t improved any by the fact that the nice new pre-paid Mastercard account that Sue and I had opened specifically for this trip wouldn’t work! We paid on another card and once we’d checked-in we walked across the road to a restaurant only to find that they’d stopped serving food 20 minutes earlier so we went back for the car and drove a little further in to town where we found ‘Mother’s Saloon’ which is definitely a locals bar where we each had a BLT which was somewhat short on the B (bacon) and rather heavy on the grease, oh well, we’ll find something better tomorrow (but least the locals were very very friendly). We tried again to us our nice new Mastercards and once again they wouldn’t work so it was then back to the motel and on to the e-mail to the card company to try to find out what the problem was.
2nd September 2016 - Georgetown to Leadville via Mount Evans.
We woke this morning to bucketing rain and were unsure whether to stick to plan A which was to head up the Mount Evans road which is said to be the highest paved road in the USA at 14264 feet. By the time we left the motel the rain had stopped and we decided to give it a whirl on the basis that we could always turn around and come back if we had to. Thankfully the weather improved as the day went on and we had a really good run up the mountain with some fabulous views to be had in both directions. We didn’t spend long at the top though as there was a bitterly cold wind blowing. Once down the mountain we took a slightly circuitous route back past Georgetown and on to Leadville (with a stop at Walmart to buy a ‘phone and some other bits) and a very pleasant little town it is too. After a walk through town, a stop for a smoothie followed by a very good dinner at a restaurant recommended by the young lady at the motel we’ve retired to the motel for a drink (there’s a zero tolerance on drink driving in Colorado so none of us had a drink with dinner) before calling it a night.
3rd September 2016 – Leadville to Ouray.
Our first port of call this morning was the Leadville Mining Museum and Hall of Fame where according to some posters we’d seen locally there was a photographic exhibition on during August and September. The museum was bigger than we had expected and proved very interesting but we discovered that the exhibition we’d gone to see wasn’t due to open until September 8th. We explained to one of the young ladies on duty that we’d come especially to see that exhibition because of the posters we’d seen and she very kindly agreed to let us in as long as we agreed not to take any pictures (or to tell anyone).
Once we’d left Leadville we headed out into the mountains taking a slightly more convoluted route so that we could cross Independence Pass (12000+ feet) into Aspen, the famous ski resort which turned out to be extremely built up and busy so after a brief stop for fuel we continued on and stopped for lunch at a small town called Basalt and very pleasant it was too; sitting outside in the sunshine with some good food and good company. We then continued on a road which is not marked as a pretty route but which, for the most part, most definitely was.
We had seen a good deal of sunshine all day but about 40 miles out from our destination we hit some very dark clouds and a few heavy showers which were accompanied by some lightening but, thankfully, by the time we reached Ouray the sun had come back out. After checking in to our hotel we took a walk in to town (very pleasant but more touristy and much busier than Leadville), had a very nice meal and then visited the local Brewery where we managed to try a flight (6 taster sized glasses) of the local beer before they shut a 9pm! All in all it’s been another very good day.
4th September 2016 – Ouray to Cortez.
Whilst researching this trip we had spotted that there was a quilting exhibition on in Ouray over the Labour Day weekend and as Sue is very interested in sewing etc. we decided that we would take a look whilst we were here. According to the town council’s website the hours for both Saturday and Sunday were 10:00 to 16:30 so we were outside the museum by just before 10:00. Shortly after that a young lady came out of the church next door and in to the museum so we let ourselves in through the freshly unlocked door only to find out that they weren’t due to open until midday. Once we explained that we had come specifically to see this exhibition and that the hours on the internet advertisement seemed to be wrong this lady couldn’t have been more helpful and even called in a colleague so that we could take a look around.
Once we had seen enough there we continued south across two more mountain passes (Red Mountain Pass at over 11,000 feet and Molas Pass at around 10900 feet) and onwards to our lunch stop in Durango. It was then only another 40 miles or so until we reached Mesa Verde National Park which is home to a number of Anazasi Indian ruins and some enormous views over the countryside. Our visit here lasted the rest of the day during which Bob, Sue and I walked the mile long loop to one set of ruins to see them up close (the majority can only be visited on guided tours) whilst Graham waited for us at a rest stop. We also visited a number of overlooks from which we could see numerous other sets of ruins some dating back to around 650AD.
We’re now ensconced in a cheap and cheerful motel in Cortez and have been along to a local diner recommended by the staff here which proved to be very good and very reasonably priced. The weather today has been very warm and sunny (apart from an odd shower first thing this morning) and there is promise of more of the same tomorrow so we’ll be continuing our trip through the mountains once again.
5th September 2016 – Cortez to Grand Junction.
This morning dawned bright and sunny and we started our day by visiting the Anazasi Heritage Museum just a short way out of town. It proved to be well worth the time and provided a good insight into some of the ways of the ancient pueblo Indians. We then drove through more great mountain scenery and across two more passes (both over 10,000 feet) stopping along the way to have lunch at a very busy ski resort called Telluride.
We had been speaking to a local guy a few days ago and he said that we should make the time to visit Grand Mesa if we were able to so that’s what we did next. Basically it consisted of another very pretty drive this time across the tops of a very large plateau in the mountains which was peppered with lakes. According to the road signs there are Moose in the area but unfortunately we didn’t get to see any.
This evening, after a walk down the road to eat, we spent a fairly painful hour or so trying to book accommodation for our up-coming visit to Yellowstone National Park. We had, perhaps foolishly, thought that visitor numbers would have started to dwindle by now but it seems that’s not the case and we’ve had to pay a lot of money for a mediocre looking motel but at least we’ve found somewhere!
We’re going to be making a slight detour in to Utah tomorrow and as it’s not going to be a long journey we will be making a stop at the shopping mall which is quite close to tonight’s motel and we’ll also be visiting the Colorado National monument along the way.
6th September 2016 – Grand Junction to Vernal, Utah.
We woke to another glorious day and, as planned, made our first stop the shopping mall which was fine except that most of the shops inside the mall didn’t open until 10:00 and we decided not to wait it out but to head off to the Colorado National Monument instead. This is a not a monument in the traditional sense of the word but is a scenic drive through a National Park with lots of viewpoints overlooking some pretty amazing rock formations (we also saw some Big Horn sheep along the way). Shortly after leaving the park we spotted a Dinosaur museum and stopped for a look. It was a fairly interactive exhibition and well worth the few dollars it cost to get in.
From there we started out on a fairly long drive north along another pretty road which turned out to have very little in the way of habitation so we were fairly late stopping for lunch. It was then a relatively short run to our home for the night, a very reasonably priced motel in Vernal where we spent some time making use of the guest laundry before going out to eat. Once again we asked for a recommendation for dinner and were directed to a very good local restaurant/diner where we got chatting to the local Sheriff who was able to give us some useful tips for our journey tomorrow.
7th September 2016 – Vernal to Lander, Wyoming.
We left Vernal reasonably early this morning and made our way north through part of the Flaming Gorge National Recreation area stopping at the Flaming Gorge Dam en-route and very pretty it was too. It then wasn’t long before we crossed the state line into Wyoming and, knowing that we would be travelling across some enormous wide open spaces, we stopped at a Walmart to buy some supplies for a picnic lunch. There was a rest stop marked on the map so we headed for that but having found it we discovered that it was way too windy to sit outside and eat so we retreated to the car which wasn’t ideal but better than losing our food to the breeze.
We did time one thing right today though, as we were driving across the high plateau we spotted a fairly large group of deer accompanied by a very impressive stag crossing the road in front of us. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to get much in the way of pictures of them because of the reflections on the windscreen but at least we know we saw them!
We arrived in Lander (a town Graham and I have visited before) in plenty of time to take a walk through town where we stopped at a quilt shop for Sue and an Ice cream shop for me!! It’s still very warm and sunny out so we’re currently taking a rest before we go to the restaurant next door to eat and then a short way back in to town for a nightcap at the town brewery.
8th September 2016 – Lander to West Yellowstone, Montana.
We’ve had a bit of a mixed day today, it started out well enough with a fairly gentle and pretty drive North West until we reached Grand Teton National Park. We used the National Parks Annual Pass that we had bought at the start of our trip to get in to the park and I then placed it carefully on top of one of the cubby holes in the car centre column only to watch it slip between two pieces of plastic –Arrrrggggh! We tried in vain to remove said bits of plastic before giving up and deciding that we would ask if we could get a replacement for a lost card (as we knew exactly where it was). We finished our drive around the park and then headed off towards Yellowstone National Park where we set out to explain what had happened. The Ranger on duty said that he couldn’t just issue a new pass but that he would let us in so that we could go along to one of the service centres in the park to see if they could help. We found a very helpful mechanic at the first services, he came and had a look then went and consulted the internet to see how the offending pieces would come apart but, unfortunately, it wasn’t good news as he said the job would take around 2 ½ hours and it would probably be cheaper for us to just buy a new pass. We’ll be going back in to the park again tomorrow so will ask again if we can get a replacement and, if not, I guess we’ll just have to swallow and pay again.
From the services we took a drive around a small portion of the park stopping to see ‘Old Faithful’ (a very impressive geyser) perform and we also saw a few Buffalo and some Elk during our trip so all was not lost. We then drove on to West Yellowstone where we’re staying in a fairly crappy yet very expensive motel, there are better places to stay but they’re even more expensive so it’s been a case of needs must. It also turns out that all of the restaurants in town are somewhat over-priced too but I guess that’s supply and demand for you and as we wanted to visit Yellowstone we’ve had to go with the flow.
9th September 2016 – Yellowstone National Park.
As our over-priced hotel didn’t supply any sort of breakfast we did something out of the ordinary for us and went to the local McDonald’s for breakfast. We then headed to the park gate to ask again if we could replace our ‘lost’ parks pass and, once again, we were told that we couldn’t get a free replacement but we were still allowed in to the park ‘just this time’. We’ll try this trick again tomorrow but I suspect we’ll need to buy another pass as there are a number of other parks we plan to visit.
Pretty soon after entering the park the traffic came to a standstill as there were some Elk feeding at the side of the road. We had visions of sitting in heavy traffic all day but were pleasantly surprised when it quite rapidly thinned out and, for the most part, we had fairly clear roads. The only exceptions being the real tourist hot-spots e.g. where the hot springs/mud pools etc. were and one or two areas where there were wildlife sightings. We did pretty well with wildlife encounters too seeing lots of Buffalo, Elk, Moose and even a mother Black Bear and her two cubs in a tree just at the side of the road. In total we spent around 9 hours in the park in beautiful sunshine (although it was rather nippy this morning) so it really has been a good day.
We finished off the day in West Yellowstone first eating at a local café where we sampled the homemade chilli (very good) and homemade pie (well it would have been rude not to) and then taking a stroll around the local gift shops many of which are having their end of season sales.
We have to go back in to the park again tomorrow as we’re heading east to the town of Cody where we’ll be spending at least one night before heading back in to the mountains of Montana.
10th September 2016 – West Yellowstone to Cody, Wyoming.
It’s been another great day. It was beautifully sunny when we left this morning but very cold at close to freezing so we were pleased to find an empty table at McDonald’s where we, once again, stopped for breakfast. We then headed back into Yellowstone (and again managed to blag our way in without our Parks Pass) where we saw masses of Buffalo and some Elk as we made our way across to the East entrance and on to Cody.
We arrived in town fairly early so stopped for lunch at a café in the old town where we spotted a poster for the Student Rodeo that’s on this weekend so we’ve now decided to stay an extra night, go to the rodeo tonight and then check out the very extensive Buffalo Bill Cody Museum tomorrow. The motel we’re in is a bit on the tired side but better than last night’s and about half the cost so we’re all set for a different sort of weekend – should be good.
11th September 2016 – Cody.
We went along to the Rodeo last night and we’ve all agreed that it was an experience but not necessarily one we’d wish to repeat. There were a variety of competitions taking place and we stayed for a fair while but eventually decided it really wasn’t for us. The seats (bleachers) were also way less than comfortable so we left early and went to the local Pizza Hut for some additional entertainment (in the form of some less than competent staff, there seemed to be just one guy running around like a loony and everyone else letting him!).
Today has been another good one. After breakfast we walked just along the street to the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Museum and spent the next six hours or so walking through the various exhibition halls and very interesting it was too. We then jumped in the car and drove down to the old town where we called in at the Irma Hotel, which was built and owned by the Cody family, for a rather nice ice cream/pie. After a walk around the local shops we returned to the motel to work out what we’re going to do tomorrow.
The plan HAD been to drive back up into the mountains, across the Beartooth pass and to stay at the mountain town of Red Lodge. However, Mother Nature has other ideas as the weather forecast is for snow (some websites are suggesting accumulations in the millimetres and others up to 6/7 inches). Rather than risk hitting any significant snowfall we’ve decided we’re going to head to Billings in Montana and hit the shopping mall (there’s no sales tax in Montana) we’ll then see if we can swing back to Red Lodge later on. There is a definite weather change in the air here too, we were quite comfortably sitting outside on the motel’s patio but since we arrived back an hour or so ago the wind has picked up considerably and there is a pall of smoke from the Yellowstone fires covering the area so we’ve retreated inside until it’s time to go and eat.
12th September 2016 – Cody to Billings, Montana.
It’s a good job we decided not to head for Red Lodge as, according to the local news, the Beartooth Highway is closed because of the snow! We didn’t see any snow in Cody but we did wake to pouring rain and that rain stayed with us all the way to Billings.
Our first port of call when we arrived in Billings was a Walmart for some shopping (as I said there’s no sales tax in Montana), we then found a reasonably priced motel before going to the shopping mall which turned out to be somewhat smaller than many over here. A walk around the mall produced a few more items we all need to find room for in the suitcases and it was then on to yet another Walmart as the first one didn’t have the jeans Graham wanted in the right size.
Once we finished out shopping trip we sat in the motel foyer and looked at the possibility of back-tracking to Red Lodge but the weather forecast is for snow showers again tomorrow and then thunder on Wednesday so we’ve decided that the sensible thing to do is give it a miss. We will instead be visiting the Battle of the Little Big Horn site tomorrow before making our way further east across the state and through a couple of Indian reservations before stopping for the night at Miles City.
13th September 2016 – Billings to Miles City.
It’s been a different sort of day again today. It was cloudy and cold when we left Billings and drove to the Battle of the Little Bighorn Battlefield memorial. We spent an interesting hour or two visiting the museum, watching a video about the battle and then taking the drive around the battle sites. We then stopped at the nearby Crow Indian trading post where we had a very nice lunch of Indian Tacos etc. We then took the back roads East and then North through mile after mile of open, undulating countryside where we saw little except quite a few Pronghorn antelope and lots and lots of cattle.
Once we reached Miles City we took a drive through the old town and, on the way, spotted a store which was listed as a dealer for the wood stoves we have and are looking for spares for so we naturally stopped. Unfortunately they didn’t have the parts we needed but were extremely helpful in try to help us locate some. We’re currently still looking but it looks as though there are a number of dealers in the Denver area so we may be able to pick some up on the way back to the airport.
Once back at the motel we started to have a look at our onward route and we now have a plan A and a plan B for the next few days, the reason being there are currently some thunderstorms forecast just as we were due to visit one of the national parks. Plan A will come in to force if the forecast changes otherwise it’s on to plan B!
This evening we visited a local restaurant that was recommended to us and it proved to be really good. Thankfully we decided to split (share) the meals we ordered as they were typically oversized.
14th September 2016 – Miles City to Dickinson, North Dakota.
The weather was better this morning with sunshine and, after a cold start, nice warm temperatures. Our first stop was at The Range Riders Museum which we had assumed would be a fairly small affair, how wrong could we be? The museum turned out to be made up of around a dozen rooms/buildings all chock full of ‘stuff’ relating to those who have lived and worked on the range over the years and very interesting it was too.
Our route then took us across another vast expanse of not a lot other than undulating countryside, this really is ‘big sky country’. Part way through we decided to make a stop for coffee at a small town called Baker and ended up having lunch in a local deli followed by a visit to the classic car collection we happened upon in the centre of town. Most unexpected and well worth the time.
We then continued on to Dickinson where we chased our own tails for a while trying to find a reasonably priced motel that had a working guest laundry. That done (and the laundry) we sat for a while planning out the next few days. Unfortunately the forecast for tomorrow is for rain and thunderstorms so there doesn’t seem any point in going in to the National Park as originally planned so we’re going to stay over and extra night (the forecast for Friday is much better) and visit some local museums etc. tomorrow and then visit the park on Friday instead.
We’ve just been next door to the motel to the Mexican restaurant that was recommended to us and the food was okay but nothing to write home about (although I guess that’s what I’m doing) so we’ll be on the lookout for somewhere else for tomorrow night.
15th September 2016 – Dickinson, North Dakota.
The weather forecast was partly right although it was still dry when we left the motel at 09:00 this morning it was bucketing with rain by about 10:00, we haven’t seen any of the threatened thunderstorms though.
Our first visit this morning was to the Dickinson museum which incorporates the Dakota Dinosaur Museum and although there was quite a bit to see the displays were not particularly inspiring in their presentation so we were in and out within about an hour. Next we visited the Visitor Centre to see what else there was to do in town and it turns out that there isn’t a whole lot, even the Downtown area was sparsely populated as far as stores are concerned. One thing we did find was the Barbers shop Bob had been looking for so that he could get his hair cut. After a leisurely cup of coffee and a spot of lunch we then went to search out the Quilting shop where Sue bought some rather nice material, next was Walmart (another one) and then the Mall (which turned out to be very small) and another cup of coffee. Having seen about as much as there is to see in Dickinson and after being asked three times why we were here, we’ve retreated to the motel for a rest before heading out to eat.
16th September 2016 – Dickinson to Bowman via Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
One of the young ladies at last night’s motel recommended a local restaurant The Country Kitchen so that’s where we went and it turned out to be pretty good too.
It was still cloudy when we woke this morning but brightened up quite quickly and by the time we reached the park it was sunny and warm. We first stopped at the Painted Canyon visitors centre & overlook where we were greeted by quite few Buffalo gently grazing around the parking area, one of the youngsters looked a little worse for wear and Bob gave him the nickname The Scruffallo, very apt. As it would have meant a round trip of 100 miles for a 12 mile scenic loop road we decided to give the North section of the park a miss so next we made for the entrance to the Southern section where we once again pleaded our case and blagged our way in using the receipt for our Annual Parks pass. We then started out on the 36 mile scenic drive past some Prairie Dog towns (very cute) before coming to a complete halt when we came across a small herd of Buffalo wandering back & forth, back and forth across the road. It took quite a while to get safely past them (I was beginning to think they were going to walk the entire 36 mile loop themselves) but we were eventually on our way again. We also saw a few birds of prey, a pronghorn antelope and a number of wild horses along the way. The scenery was pretty good too.
After leaving the park we headed south stopping at a (very) small town called Belfield as we’d been told about an Antiques shop we could take a look at. It turned out that the ‘shop’ was a small room in someone’s house that was filled with all sorts of odd bits and pieces of mainly junk. We then stopped at the town’s burger bar where their idea of serving a Decaff coffee was to give you a cup of barely hot water and a small sachet of powder, not good. The burgers were better than the coffee but not that much! After lunch we then took a slight detour as Bob had seen some information about a vein of coal which is permanently burning and as we had to pass quite close to it we went to take a look. The detour turned out to be around 12 miles along a dirt road (don’t tell the rental company) with nothing at the end of it but a camp site (we’ve since learned that the burning seam is “several feet” underground), still it was a pretty drive. Once we’d retraced our tyre tracks we drove further South to Bowman arriving at about 3:30 at what turned out to be a slightly run down motel with a decidedly odd lady running it (pleasant but odd). We then drove into Downtown i.e. one small street with a couple of shops but three Banks and a coffee shop that seems to be the social hub of the town. Our walk around the town took all of about 20 minutes so we’re now back at the motel getting ready for a night on the town (yeah, right!).
17th September 2016 – Bowman to Spearfish, South Dakota.
We were definitely in Hicksville USA last night. We went out to eat at 18:30 arriving at the local diner a few minutes later to discover that it closed at 19:00. We were served by a very friendly young lad with a great sense of humour who, unfortunately for him, Bob & Sue described as looking like a character from the Beano or some similar publication. As a consequence we were back in our motel rooms by 20:30 so it was an early night all around.
The first part of today’s journey entailed 117 miles of almost dead straight road through wide open undulating countryside peppered with thousands of cattle, some sheep and lots and lots of Pronghorn antelope. We also saw some REAL cowboys round up cattle but weren’t quick enough with the camera to get a picture. Our first stop was at a small town called Belle Fourche which is famed for being the closest town to the Geographical centre of the USA. We found a coffee shop (aptly named Bob’s Café) and after some refreshment had a brief walk around the town visiting two more antique shops while we were at it. Our next port of call was the visitors centre and ‘centre’ monument.
Next we took a detour west back in to Wyoming to visit the Devils Tower National Monument, a huge monolith of stone which is said to be sacred to the Native American people. After having lunch there we drove on to Sundance, a small town Graham and I had visited back in 2007, as we were curious to see if it had changed and it has, but not that much. From there we took the pretty route (and it certainly was) up to Spearfish taking in the Spearfish Canyon scenic byway en-route. All very pretty. We arrived at Spearfish at around 16:00, checked in to our Motel and then Bob, Sue and I went to check out the town to see if Graham would be able to walk to the restaurant that had been recommended by the young lady at the motel and the answer was yes, he would.
We found said restaurant and Graham managed to get the Buffalo steak he had been hoping for but although it was nice it wasn’t the best we’ve tried. I ordered the Elk steak and that, along with the fish Bob & Sue ordered was very good. As it was still very early we called in at one of the local bars for a drink before walking back to start looking at our route for tomorrow. There is a lot to pack in in this area so we’re staying here again tomorrow night (in an rather basic, older style motel) and then we’re staying in another town further south, but still in the Black Hills, on Monday to give ourselves a chance to see everything we want to whilst we’re here.
18th September 2016 – Black Hills area, North Dakota.
As our current motel doesn’t provide breakfast we walked to the coffee shop just down the road for bagels and coffee before we started out this morning.
Once fed and watered we drove down to Deadwood (of stage coach fame) but decided not to stop as there is no parking allowed on Main Street and it also appeared that many of the stores were closed (it may just have been that it was quite early but in other towns many of the shops are closed on Sundays). Next we drove part of one of the scenic Byways stopping off at the Crazy Horse Memorial to take a look at the memorial and to find out more about it’s building (it’s been going on for years and still has many more to go by the looks of it). We then made the decision to hit the Interstate and make for the ‘World Famous’ Wall Drug Store which was around 100 miles east of us, reaching there at about 15:30. Wall Drug is said to be the largest Drug store in the world and it certainly is huge but it’s no longer specifically a Drug store it’s more of a café/tourist shopping experience full of all manner of goods ranging from old fashioned kids toys to expensive cowboy boots etc.
It was then a quick dash back along the Interstate, a quick wash and brush up and out for dinner. We walked in to town again to another restaurant which had been recommended and it turned out to be really, really good.
It’s been warm and sunny all day today and there is more of the same promised for tomorrow so we intend driving some more of the scenic routes, visiting the woodworking museum in Custer and visiting the Custer State Park before driving down to Hot Springs so it looks like it’s going to be another busy day.
19th September 2016 – Spearfish to Hot Springs.
It’s been a funny old day. We left Spearfish in nice warm sunshine again despite having had a few showers overnight. Initially we had to retrace our steps this morning heading back to Custer so that we could visit the National Woodcarving Museum. It was an interesting visit but not really what any of us had expected as it consisted almost entirely of the work of one man (who helped to design Disneyland) and his specialty was wooden automatons.
Once we’d finished there we started to make our way towards the really twisty roads just north of Custer State Park and the views of Mount Rushmore but, unfortunately Sue hadn’t been feeling too well when we left this morning and things hadn’t improved by the time we reached the Park visitors centre so we decided to head straight for tonight’s motel so she could have a lie down. Graham, Bob and I then took a trip into town to get some lunch and found that there really isn’t very much to Hot Springs in the way of things to do on a hot, sunny Monday afternoon so we returned to the motel, sat outside and re-jigged our travel plans. We’re now planning on visiting the Mammoth site we came here to see tomorrow morning before heading back to the twisty roads and we’ll now be staying in Custer for tomorrow night.
After a few hours rest Sue was, thankfully, feeling much better so we all took a trip in to town to the only restaurant that seems to be open. Luckily it proved to be very good.
20th September 2016 – Hot Springs to Custer
After sitting outside in the sunshine to have our breakfast this morning we went along to visit the Mammoth site which Graham and I had visited when we were here nine years ago. The site is an active paleontological dig where over 60 mammoth skeletons have been uncovered so far and it is believed that the animals fell in to a water filled sinkhole when they went to drink and couldn’t get out. The current thinking is that they have another 10 years or so of digging to reach the bottom of the pit so it would be interesting to come back in another nine or ten years to see how it’s going (sounds like a good excuse to me).
Next we drove north for around 30 miles to get back to the twisty roads we missed yesterday first taking the very scenic Iron Mountain highway which afforded some great views of Mount Rushmore along the way. We then stopped off in the small town of Keystone for lunch. We know it’s a bit late in the season but we were surprised to find that the vast majority of eateries in the town were closed for the season especially as there still appear to be plenty of tourists about. The one café that was open proved to be very good though so it wasn’t an issue for us.
Next we drove along the Needles Highway, so called because of the needle like rock formations that are encountered along the way including ‘the eye of the needle’ where you actually drive through the cracks in the rocks without a lot of room to spare on either side.
After another brief stop we took to the Wildlife Loop Road through Custer State Park and initially we wondered if we were on the right road as there was no wildlife to be seen anywhere. Eventually we did spot a number of Pronghorn, wild donkeys, white tailed deer, prairie dogs and more of the Buffalo that the part is renowned for.
A short drive then brought us to our home for the night (The Dakota Cowboy Inn) and after we’d checked in we headed for town only to get there shortly after the ice cream parlour we’d spotted had closed (we did find another one that was still open). A brief trip around the town showed that quite a few of the stores and restaurants have also closed for the season and most of the restaurants that were open were only serving until around 8pm or were very expensive so we decided to make a cheap night of it and went along to Pizza Hut. Rather than have pizza we ordered pasta dishes to share and it turned out they were the ‘Tuesday special’ so it turned out to be even more reasonable than we expected, co complaints there!
21st September 2016 – Custer to Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
It was cool and cloudy when we left this morning and started heading south towards Nebraska. It was after we had driven around 50 miles or so, at the point where we passed the sign saying ‘pavement ends’, that my map reading faux pas became evident (I had missed the fact that one of the red lines on the map was actually a red dotted line signifying a dirt road) still, it was only around 14 miles of dirt before we re-joined the tarmac albeit with a very, very dirty rental car.
The scenery in this part of the world is different again with vast wide open areas of undulating farmland and incredibly long mostly straight roads. The railroad trains are also oversized, Sue managed to count 135 full sized freight carriages on a single push-me-pull-you train (one engine at the front and one at the back).
Around 30 miles after we’d crossed the state line we took a (planned) detour to Fort Robinson State Park and took a drive around the old fort town where Crazy Horse surrendered and was later killed. There was also a short scenic drive in the park which we followed before stopping at the town’s only food store to get a few provisions. It was then back on the road heading further south before we stopped at a convenient historic point to eat our picnic lunch. Another 30 miles or so south brought us to our destination for the night and a motel with a much needed laundry which is currently working overtime.
22nd September 2016 – Scottsbluff to Trinidad, Colorado.
We’ve covered a lot of miles today (around 380) and most of those have been driving due south on an almost entirely straight Highway 71. We’ve also added yet another change of plan to the list.
Originally we had planned on stopping at a small town called Limon (pronounced Lyman apparently) which would have been a journey of around 200 miles but we had arrived there by 12:30 and there was very little to tempt us to stay there so Graham said he was happy to drive the extra 180 miles or so to Trinidad which had been our planned stop for tomorrow night. This means that we now have an extra day to see something/somewhere else.
The first 50 miles or so were dual carriageway (or divided highway as they say over here) and we made a stop at that point to use the restrooms at a visitors centre as we knew that there were no services at all for at least the next 75 miles. It turned out to be a good place to stop as the lovely lady who worked there provided us with coffee and the information we needed to make the decision to carry on to Trinidad. Our next stop was at a gas station, again for restrooms, and another very helpful lady there let us help ourselves to ice from the drinks machine to use in our own drinks. She also told us that there was a nice park in the town (Limon) where we could have our picnic lunch and very nice it was too sitting out in the warm sunshine.
The weather has also been very mixed today. We started out with low cloud and drizzle which lasted most of the morning, the sun then came out and temperatures hit 92F before we found ourselves driving through a few showers, it’s still nice and warm though.
We’re now ensconced in a pretty big motel close to the Interstate which wasn’t too badly priced and we’ll be spending a bit of time this evening re-planning our route.
23rd September 2016 – Trinidad to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
As we had a few days to spare in our itinerary we decided to tick off another State by visiting New Mexico (albeit briefly). We were originally going to go to Taos today to visit the Indian Pueblo (more about that tomorrow) but in the past few days two separate people have said that, if we have the time, we should visit Santa Fe so we decided to take their advice.
Unfortunately there is only one way to get from Trinidad to Santa Fe and that’s via the Interstate. Thankfully the traffic was light and the scenery wasn’t bad either but it did mean we arrived rather too early to be able to check-in to our motel (we did try but the rooms weren’t ready) so we went out to find a spot of lunch. As we were driving down the main road Graham spotted a ‘Sonic’ drive-in so pulled in there as he knew neither Bob nor Sue had been to one before and once we had managed to work out the menu then how to order and even more crucially how to pay (their machine wanted our zip code!) it turned out to be a reasonable lunch stop.
We then walked around a very large craft shop to spin out the time until we could check-in. That done we took a drive into the old part of the city to do some site seeing. It’s a very pleasant, fairly small historic city centre and after a brief walk around (and some coffee and cake) we decided to go our separate ways for a while having agreed to meet up back in the main square a little later on. Graham and I took a free hop-on-hop-off shuttle bus around the town and Bob & Sue went for a walk and all was going well until Graham & I arrived back at the square to find it sealed off by the police because of a bomb scare! We decided that we would walk back to where the car was parked as it seemed a logical place to meet up but Bob & Sue weren’t there and neither were the coats we’d left in the car so we tried another few possible places before we decided to split up again with Graham staying with the car and me walking up towards where we had caught the bus. That’s where I found them waiting for us with our coats as it had turned quite cold and they knew we’d be freezing.
We had had thoughts about staying in town to eat before returning to the motel but as there seemed little chance of the centre opening again in a hurry we decided to cut and run. We’re now back at the motel and will be going out to eat more locally instead.
24th September 2016 – Santa Fe to Taos, New Mexico.
When Graham and I travelled through this area back in 2007 we happened upon an interesting ride through a government owned research facility called Los Alamos which turned out to be the site where the first atom bomb was designed, built and tested. It was a strange experience as we turned off of a small highway, through a security checkpoint and in to a large area of big white buildings with cryptic names on them and there were lots of people wandering around wearing suits and/or lab coats and wearing government I.D.
As we were quite close by we decided to take another drive through and see what had changed in nine years and the answer was, everything! When we arrived there was no security checkpoint and what appeared to be a very ordinary if fairly affluent town. We stopped off at the visitors centre and that’s where we discovered that the road we had taken on our previous visit had been closed to the public for quite a few years and that much of the facility had been disbanded (or so they say!!!). As there was little to see that was of any interest to us we fairly quickly moved on.
It was a pretty drive from there up to Taos and we arrived in time to have what turned out to be a very nice lunch. The reason for coming to this town was so that we could visit the Taos Pueblo which is said to be one of the oldest continuously occupied towns in the world, I’m not sure where this statistic comes from or if it’s in any way accurate but it is a world heritage site and it’s certainly very old. The town is famed for its multi-storied adobe homes many of which have been opened as stores selling a variety of crafts to the tourists who now visit in fairly large numbers. When talking to one of the store keepers I was told that our first visit would have been soon after they had opened up the town to visitors.
Next we tried and failed to park in the old part of the more modern town so instead we went along to our motel to check-in. The motel is also built in the adobe style, it’s okay although a bit frayed around the edges and lacking in a few facilities (including breakfast) but it is only for one night.
A little later in the afternoon we drove back in to town and this time found a parking space although it cost us $10 to park as there is an arts festival on this weekend. There were supposed to be a number of events going on including some form of light show after dark but details of what was supposed to be happening when were in short supply.
We ate in one of the restaurants in town but by the time we left there it was still light and there were no signs of anything happening, the temperature was also dropping like a stone so we decided to visit the local Walmart, buy something to drink and take it back to our motel.
We’ve bought booze in a variety of Walmart stores over the years and this time we very carefully selected a bottle of wine that had a screw cap and went to the register to pay for it. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, it would be anywhere else but here in a New Mexico Walmart we were asked if we were all together and when we confirmed that we were we were asked provide I.D.’s for all of us, not one of us but all of us. Now, as anyone reading this blog will know none of us looks like were under 21 but as we weren’t able to produce all four I.D.’s we were refused service. I know the lady on the counter was only following the rules but in my book this is absolutely bonkers, not only did it mean that we didn’t get the drink we wanted but they lost a sale too!!
Rather than drive around looking for somewhere else to buy a bottle of wine we settled on coming back to the motel for what turned out to be a fairly grotty cup of coffee and an early night.
25th September 2016 – Taos to Salida, Colorado.
We left in lovely sunshine this morning and started on our way back in to Colorado. Not too many miles from the motel we turned a slight bend and, as expected, saw the bridge over the Rio Grande what we hadn’t expected was the depth of the gorge. We stopped briefly for a photo opportunity and then carried on across the Taos plateau, a huge area of flat land which it’s hard to appreciate is at an altitude of over 8500. We also passed by an area filled with ‘Eco’ houses many of which were built part into the ground and which definitely conjured up images of a hippy commune.
We also made a very slight detour to visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park (where we managed to blag our way in again using the receipt for our lost pass) which is exactly what it suggests a very large set of sand dunes which look completely out of place at the base of some mountains. They have apparently developed over the years by a fluke of nature which causes eroded sand to be blown into the area through three different river beds.
It was a while further down the road before we spotted somewhere we could stop for lunch. It was a hotel/diner/shop etc. etc. in the middle of a very small community which had very definitely seen better days but the staff were friendly and the food and prices were good.
It was then a fairly short run in to Salida and to our motel. We were all a little dubious about this one as the pictures on the web showed some interesting internal décor with much of the furniture and the staircase apparently having been made from bits of tree. We were very pleasantly surprised once we saw the place, yes there is a lot of what looks like homemade furniture but it’s really nice and the rooms are 100% better than last nights for very slightly less money too.
We’ve just returned from a walk around the town having driven in past deer feeding in the front gardens of the houses, very pleasant. There appear to be lots of restaurants to choose from in town but many of them are serving mostly burgers, sandwiches or pizzas so we’re going to walk a short way down the road for a steak.
26th September 2016 – Salida to Colorado Springs.
There was frost on the car when we got up this morning, that was a bit of a shock to the system but it warmed up nicely after that and it’s been a lovely day since.
Our route first thing this morning took us through a very pretty gorge with the Arkansas River running alongside the road for most of the way. We then turned off to go and take a look at the Royal Gorge Bridge as we’d been told this was a must. According to our map this bridge was in the middle to a short loop road only it seems that the bridge itself is no longer open to traffic so it’s now a drive in and drive out. We had expected there to be a toll on the bridge but when we arrived at the site to find that they wanted to charge us $22 per person to cross the bridge by Gondola (which Bob wasn’t about to do anyway) with the opportunity to take a zip-wire back we decided not to bother and continued on our way.
We then took a road less travelled across a massive open plain that went on for 47 miles and which we were surprised to find ranged in elevation from 8500 feet to 9498 feet. As we turned back on to a more well used road we stopped for lunch at another rather seedy looking (but very good) café before driving on to Manitou Springs so that we could gather some information about the trip we have planned for tomorrow morning (on the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway).
Next we drove on in to Colorado Springs and our motel which has turned out to be a good choice for our last three nights in the U.S. as we are booked into suites which have a very large bedroom, a sitting area and two, yes two, bathrooms. The only slight snag was in trying to get our pre-paid card accepted when we tried to check-in. Eventually the receptionist told us she had managed to get the payments through by running my card for one room and Sue’s for the other (this didn’t make much sense as they’re both on the same account). All was well until we tried to use the cards later in the evening only to have them declined. When I went on-line to check the account this evening I found that we have been charged for a total of five rooms (I’ve also had an e-mail from the company that runs the account querying this). The (new) reception here tells me that as we had pre-booked the rooms they had put a hold on the funds from our card and that this money had now been released but, or course, it still isn’t showing on our account. Where the fifth payment has come from still needs to be determined. I’m in e-mail contact with the company that runs the account so I’m sure it will all get sorted we just need to hope it’s done quickly enough for us to be able to get to the rest of our money!.
27th September 2016 – Colorado Springs and Pike’s Peak Cog Railway.
We didn’t start off too well today, as we received an e-mail from Graham’s sister letting us know that his Mother had passed away in the early hours of this morning. She was 93 and had been in poor health for some time so it wasn’t totally unexpected but it was still a bit of a shock to the system. As there was very little we could do from this end we decided that we should simply get on and enjoy, as best we can, the last few days of our trip.
We left the motel fairly early this morning as we had seats booked on the 10:40 departure of the Pike’s Peak Cog Railway. It’s not very far from the motel but having seen the traffic in the area yesterday we made sure we left ourselves plenty of time. This particular cog railway is said to be the oldest and highest in the U.S. It leaves from the small town of Manitou Springs and climbs to the summit of Pike’s Peak which is 14,115 feet. It is certainly a feat of engineering (especially when you remember when it was built) and the views as you get further up are spectacular especially on a day like today when there wasn’t a cloud to be seen. The ride up takes around and hour and a quarter, you have around 40 minutes at the top to take in the views and then it’s back down again. Well worth the $38 per head.
Once we’d retrieved the car we drove down in to Manitou Springs, found a parking space and took a walk around the town (and very pleasant it is too) stopping for some lunch along the way. Next we drove the short distance to ‘The Garden of the Gods’, a large area of public land which is dotted with all sorts of interesting rock formations, trails etc.
On the way back to our motel we took a drive through old Colorado City and got very slightly mislaid on the way back. It seems that our SatNav simply couldn’t work out where we were and kept sending us round in circles eventually taking us directly across the interstate from where we needed to be, still we got back in the end.
Now, I mentioned last night that we’d had a problem with our pre-paid mastercard, well that still hasn’t been entirely sorted out and things got even more confusing when a member of the hotel staff knocked on Bob & Sue’s door, then let himself in to their room to tell them that the front desk wanted to see their credit card. Having left their room they then discovered that their room keys no longer worked!! Bearing in mind I still think they’ve charged us twice Bob, Sue and I went down to reception together and saw the young lady I’d spoken to last night to try to sort things out. It turns out that they only wanted a card on file in case of any incidental spending (telephone calls etc) and the reason the key cards didn’t work was that the staff member’s master key had wiped the lock. Their keys are now re-set and we’re back to where we were last night i.e. still waiting on an e-mail from the Card company.
28th September 2016 – Colorado Springs & Pike’s Peak Highway (by car).
We’ve had another really good day. The weather was great again, a perfect day to make the journey up the Pike’s Peak Highway by car. It’s a 20 mile drive that takes you from around 7500 feet to 14,115 feet and it’s very steep and quite twisty in places, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. On our way up we came across two people who definitely need their bumps feeling, one who was hiking up and one who was cycling, their legs must have been like steel by the time they got to the top.
The journey back down gave some great views too. The advice is to drive down in as low a gear as possible and to try not to over use the brakes. Part way down there is a ranger station where they conduct a compulsory brake check, if your brake temperatures are over 300 degrees you are required to pull-over and wait until they have cooled (ours were 228 degrees). One guy who arrived there shortly after us had his brake temperatures measured at 600 degrees and he was arguing about being made to stop – some people!
Having driven this road it is hard to comprehend how the competitors of the annual hill climb do it. There are very few barriers along the road and many of the drop offs are massive, they must have nerves of steel. We were told that they come past the brake check point at around 130 mph – that’s just nuts.
Next on our agenda was a drive of around 30 miles to an old mining town called Cripple Creek, it’s in a lovely setting and has an attractive old town area the only drawback being that many of the buildings are now casinos. The town also has a narrow gauge steam railroad so we took a 45 minute ride on that to some of the old gold mining sites, it was a very pleasant way to spend some of our last afternoon here.
29th September 2016 – Colorado Springs to Denver.
Today has really been a day of kicking our heels. As our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 19:40 this evening we
whiled away this morning at the motel where I spent some time catching up with the photos etc. whilst Bob & Sue went for a walk.
We left at around noon and drove north on Interstate 25 stopping on the outskirts of Denver for lunch at a burger joint. After re-fuelling we reached the car rental return and handed the car over with our final mileage for the trip being confirmed as 5245 miles. It was only then that we received the message that our flight had been delayed by 1 ¾ hours – what a pain!
As we now had no transport there was little we could do but continue on to the airport, hang around and do some people watching (boy, you do see some sights).
30th September 2016 – Denver to Home.
After an uneventful flight we arrived at Heathrow a full 2 hours late and then sat on the tarmac for a while longer as there was a problem with the air-bridge we were supposed to be using. We then started with the usual debacle with the ‘Special Assistance’ service at Heathrow. As they, once again, proved to be worse than useless I eventually high-jacked a wheelchair and pushed Graham through immigration myself (the immigration officer made a point of saying we should complain about the service as he was aware of many others having issues too).
Our driver was there waiting for us once we’d made our way out so we were on our way by around 2pm but the delays meant that we hit the roads just as the Friday afternoon rush was starting. It took rather longer to get home than it should have but we arrived safely at around 6:30pm after what was a really good trip. Total mileage covered 5245.