Day 5

After a short and brisk night of sleep, we woke up around 6:15 to a beautiful sunrise creeping over the mountainous terrain, surrounding eagle creek campground.   Evan, Dave, and Josh ended up not sleeping outside of the tents under the stars.  Because it was extremely chilly, a fire was immediately made.  We warmed up and scrounged for breakfast as we began planning the day’s events. Josh had to leave by 2 in the afternoon, so we designed our stops with that in mind- by 2 pm we ended up in the southern portion of Yellowstone, cutting about an hour off of his commute back to Utah.  We were on the road by 8:45 and into the Park by 9.  

Having seen much of the attractions and natural wonders in the north sphere of the park the day before, we drove south for an hour towards the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  After a quick check in at the visitor center, we arrived at the Grand Canyon around 10:30.   One of the first things that we noticed as a group was the amount of people packed in around the guardrails overlooking the beautiful ravines.  The touristy, commercial feel of Yellowstone stood in contrast to the peaceful and calming atmosphere that we enjoyed in Badlands National Park. 

We wove our way through vacationing Americans and bus-fulls of international sightseers and eventually secured some good viewpoints.  We all took a moment to admire the brightly colored stratified rock of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon.   Further down the gorge, a large waterfall tumbled and rushed down the cliff to feed a picturesque river carving its way through the ravine. We took a group shot as well as some panoramic pictures before climbing a short hike.  We made our way back to the car to proceed to our next stop.

From the Grand Canyon, we continued south another hour and hunger struck.   As we looked around for a place to eat, we came upon Yellowstone Lake, the biggest standing body of water in the park.  We had not initially planned to stop at the lake but we were hungry and it seemed like a cool spot to explore.  When we rounded the bend to park and got our first good glimpse of the view- we immediately knew that it was good decision.  The lake itself half-frozen and surrounded by snow covered mountains was one of the most beautiful sights that we saw in our stay at the park.  Josh, who worked a summer in college on a crab boat in Alaska, said this view was comparable to those in Alaska.  A perfect temperature of 65 and breezy completed the afternoon as we stopped to eat and take in our incredible surroundings.

When we were finished with our meal, we hopped in the car with Josh for the last time as we drove to our final destination in Yellowstone, Old Faithful.  When we arrived, the boardwalk surrounding America’s most famous geyser was packed to the gills with tourists from all over.   About a thousand people huddled around for a glimpse of the majestic fountain.  We filmed and photographed Old faithful and left quickly as it was hot and crowded. 

As we prepared to drive back through the park to Bozeman, Montana we exchanged goodbyes with Morken.  It was an incredible experience to see Yellowstone Park and we were honored to have Josh join us.

To close the day we drove out of Yellowstone and stopped just outside the park entrance in Gardiner, Mt.  As we perused the gift shops and antique stores, we met an amazing couple working outside the park.  A Christian husband and wife team with many stories of church planting and adventures in the park.   The husband was ex-navy and was clerking Elk Inc, a hunting outfitters store.   The wife was the owner and operator of an antique store a block over.  One of the greatest things that stuck out to us was their opportunity to witness to the over 1 million tourists driving through Yellowstone each year.  Along with them playing Christian music in the stores, they also serve the tourists by driving visitors who have been kicked out the park (drugs, alcohol, etc.) back to their vehicles/hotels/airport.  This gives them the opportunity to share the gospel.  The stories that they experienced in the park were truly inspirational.

We returned with good pictures and even better memories.

- David

Yellowstone's Grand Canyon - the picture doesn't truly capture all of the beautiful colors

Los boys with the waterfall as a backdrop.  Had to fight through many tourists to get this shot

Pete, Dave, and H.B. staring death in the face, as well as a beautiful landscape

Yellowstone Lake, covered in ice still and framed by snow capped mountains

Another groupie, taken by a kind lady from Texas

Ye Ole Faithful - no choice but to make this a stop

Tam and Evan trying to get the best possible view...

...over this crowd of people

Boom goes the dynamite 

Bison that we saw hanging out in a parking lot on our way out of the park.  

Day 4

We woke up in the Bozeman cabin at 9 AM! While you might think this was a reward after a long trip getting here, it was almost torture for some.  The car pulled in at 4 AM the night before and so between unpacking and getting ready for bed, Jake, Tam and Evan, our wonderful drivers for whom we are thankful, slept for about 4 hours after a long and trying day. Pulling in at this unholy hour was not a concern as soon as we saw the cabin and the location.  There are snow-capped mountains around the perimeter of the property, rock formations and only two neighbors in sight.  Waking up to sunshine and incredible view of the mountains and coffee made us all feel like the dream was accomplished.  After months of planning and imagining what the cabin and the trip would be like, this morning far exceeded our dreams and raised spirits. The reason for our “early” wakeup was to reach our friend Josh Morken in Yellowstone in the early afternoon. Yes, our trip is at a nonstop pace. Morken, as we call him, is a friend from Grove City College and currently lives in Utah.

After unpacking the chaos and repacking the car once more (but with much less luggage than our initial trip to Bozeman), we hit the road South East to Yellowstone. Arriving around 3 PM at Eagle Creek campground, a camp on the outskirts of Yellowstone, we saw Morken and he gave us a hearty welcome to the location he had chosen.  Eagle Creek Campsite was at the top of a small mountain, surrounded by more mountains, and with wild bison on the other side of a brook. Needless to say, like most everything out here, it was beautiful.  After catching up with Morken for some time, we knew daylight was wasting away and the beauty of Yellowstone was waiting, so we loaded up the car and made our way through the enormous arch that marks the entrance of Yellowstone. Our first stop was at a “Furmohole” I believe it is called, which is a hot spring with microorganisms in it called thermophiles that can live in a harsh environment such as a sulfur laden, boiling pool. These organisms are bleach white and make interesting formations together and are unlike anything seen out on the East Coast. 

Next we continued to drive through Yellowstone Park with our jaws dropped at the sight of mountains reflected off lakes, wild deer and bison grazing beside our moving car and raging rivers at the bottom of sharp cliffs.  We exited our car along one pull-off to simply run up the side of a mountain.  There was no trail and for that matter it was incredibly difficult with the incline of the hill and the elevation. At the top of the hillside we could see God’s beautiful creation in all directions. The descent was treacherous as well, with sliding rocks, sappy pines and fallen logs every which way.  At the bottom of the hill, Jake had the brilliant idea to use some of the fallen logs as some firewood for our campsite.  We pulled out our Zippo hatchet-saw combo tool and went to work.  While this may be illegal in the eyes of some, others may argue that it’s perfectly permissible because we, as taxpayers, are in essence part owners of National parks.  Therefore, it is our property too, right?

Our last stop in Yellowstone for the day was in a collection of hot springs and geysers. Some smelled, some were bubbly, others were steamy. Some were dangerous and dormant and some were peaceful.  Morken put his hand in one of these peaceful ones however, and actually burned himself! The landscapes here were strange and full of odd colors like white, light blue and vivid green. Steam was coming from every direction and again we felt as if we were on another planet.

Hopping back in the car, we headed back to Eagle Creek campsite to spend the night. Our return trip was just like the way in, very scenic and our eyes were still glued to our car windows. Back at the top of our campsite the sun began to set as we collected more firewood and cooked weenies. As we were swapping more stories, the clouds began to roll in and we it looked like a long night of rain, but surprisingly, the storm passed and was broken up by the mountains. Dave, Morken and Evan all decided sleep outside under the stars.  It was a frigid night and we hunkered down in our sleeping bags after a wonderful day.

- Peter 

Morken

Our camp site at Eagle Creek

Mammoth Hot Springs

Our side hike up the mountain side

Beautiful mountain landscapes

More mountains

Furmohole

Our campfire right outside Yellowstone

Day 3

Our plan for this morning was to get up at 5:00 and watch the sunrise.  This was great in theory, difficult in practice.  Surprisingly, four of us did manage to get up at 5:00 for the sunrise; the only problem was that the sun had already risen at that point.  It’s crazy to think that the sun rises at 4:45 in the morning in some places in the world.  Anyways, we were already up, so we decided to do some exploring.  This led to an absolutely amazing morning hike.  The terrain literally looked like something from Mars, and as the sun continued to rise it created beautiful contrasts on the rock formations.  We went off of the trail a little bit and actually saw some Big Horned Sheep, which there are only 100 of total in the 240,000 acre park.  Not being Big Horned Sheep ourselves made it hard to climb back up to the established trail, but we were able to make it back to the camp unscathed.  After packing up the car, we went on a hike as an entire group, which brought us to a view overlooking a massive, glacier formed valley.  Despite seeing several signs warning hikers of rattlesnakes, we saw none.  Most of the team rejoiced in this, others did not. 

After leaving Badlands, we headed out towards Mt. Rushmore, which was only about 45 minutes west of the park.  On the way, we stopped at a town so small that Main St. consisted solely of a Post office and a general store called The Caputa Store.  But after going into the general store for lunch, we soon became aware that stopping at this particular store may have been the best decision we made all day.  Apart from having great burgers, and even better chili, the owner of the store was one of the most interesting people we have met so far on the trip.  Ryan Olson is a rancher, who owns 4,600 acres, and has recently purchased the general store.  He told us about how the property has been in his family for well over a hundred years, how the movie Dances with Wolves was filmed on his property, and how the snow storm from last October killed $350,000 worth of his cattle.  Learning about his drive and determination through the stories he told was truly inspiring and gave us some legitimate insights on what it takes to own your own business, especially in the West.   After sending us on our way with full stomachs and a new understanding of western living, we set out for Mt. Rushmore.  Let’s just say, that the mountain is something everyone should see once, but nobody should have to see again.  This most exciting part of the visit was H.B. saying he had heard that there may be a small conference room in the eye of George Washington. Needless to say, we paid our respects and then quickly went on our way. 

Next we took a brief detour to Devil’s Tower, which is a huge piec\e of granite stone ascending straight up in the air with no support on any side.  It was incredibly impressive to look at, but wasn’t worth the 10 bucks we would have needed to give in order to actually enter the monument.  That being said, we turned around and are now on our way to Bozeman.  Tam and Nedley are behind the wheel tonight and we should be pulling into Bozeman at around 3:00 AM.  We are all looking forward to sleeping in a real bed tonight.  Tomorrow is Yellowstone, so it is important for us to get some good sleep!  Tomorrow will bring another update!    

- Evan 

Sunrise over Badlands

Sunrise on rock formations

End of trail sign that we ignored on our morning hike

Looking at the Big Horned Sheep

....The Big Horned Sheep

Peter modeling

The gang with George, Tom, Theo, and Abe

Devil's Tower

The General Store in South Dakota 

Day 2

Today we woke up at about 6:30 in the morning in order to get an early start on the day’s travels.  We have yet to streamline the process of packing up and moving out, so we didn't end up hitting the road until about 8:30.  This time included a breakfast consisting of scrambled eggs cooked over the campfire, doughnuts, and coffee, as well as showers and a vast reorganizing of the car.  The concept of entropy, the tendency of things moving towards a state of chaos, has really evidenced itself on this journey.  By the end of each segment of the trip, our car is in shambles.  After finally getting on the road, we set out for what would be roughly a 10 hour trip from last night’s camp site to Badlands, South Dakota.  We have quite the system down for driver schedules, with each person having a consistent partner.  Each pair rotates from driver, to middle seats, to the back, and then back to driver.  Everyone drives and nobody drives alone, which has allowed us to drive for long distances at a time, stopping only to switch pairs.  One such stop was at a McDonalds in Sioux Falls, SD, where we asked the manager if there was anything interesting to do in town and he responded with, “No.  Keep on driving.”  So that we did!  And by around 8:00 PM that evening we found ourselves in Badlands.  This was by far the most amazing part of our trip so far.  The scenery was absolutely spectacular, like something out of a photo shopped movie.  We were there right around sunset, which was draping the already striking buttes in radiant orange and red hues.  We closed the night out by sitting behind our tents, looking at the brilliant stars, and singing along to Dave playing the guitar.  Cliché?  Yes.  But clichés are clichés for a reason, and that will easily be one of the most memorable nights of our journey. 

- Evan

Making breakfast

Repacking the car

Sunset in Badlands

Beautiful landscapes

Group photo

Our camp site

Tent assembly 

Day 1

Day 1

Day 0 transitioned into Day 1 as we pulled into Chicago at about 8:30 AM on Wednesday.  This was one of the benefits of leaving as early as we did, the fact that we were able to spend a solid 6 hours in the beautiful city of Chicago.  We spent almost 45 minutes just trying to find a place to park, because although the Suburban was surprising easy to handle in the city, it is still huge.  The parking we did manage to find was only 2 hour parking, so our initial exploring had to be brief before having to move the car again.  We checked out The Bean, The Navy Pier, and then just walked around the city enjoying the beautiful day.  After moving the car to a new location, we hit up the famous Giordano’s for some Chicago deep dish pizza.  It is the only time we have ever seen H.B. leave food uneaten on the table.  We were stuffed.  After that, we walked back towards the car along the Miracle Mile, including a stop in the Ralph Lauren store (mansion).  This was quite a sight in and of itself, as a bunch of smelly guys in ratty hiking clothes were causing a scene in a store where a men’s bag costs more than a month’s rent.  This is a prime example of the underlying theme of this trip and ultimately our friendship, is that we enjoy what we do, because we enjoy who we do it with.  No matter where we are or what the situation is, we can make the most of it.  After the Polo store, we headed back along Lake Michigan towards the car, pausing for half an hour to sit on the beach and take in one last view of Chi-town. 

After piling back into the car, we headed off for Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa.  What we did not anticipate, however, was traffic.  Rush hour, which apparently starts at about 2 o’clock these days, was in full force.  Evan was behind the wheel for this portion of the trip, and had to quickly learn that being generous and courteous on the road will leave you sitting at a merge point for days.  But even with adapting on the fly to the Chicago style of driving, we still sat in parking lot traffic for roughly 2 hours.  This set us back to arriving at the park at about 9:00 PM, which gave us enough time to set up camp, cook some food, and get a much needed night’s rest.  At this point, it has been a long and eventful day.  The real journey begins tomorrow, as we head into the West with Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and Bozeman on the literal horizon.  We can’t wait.

Ev

Day 0

Day 0

The trip really started before the trip even started.  We all met at Peter’s house on Tuesday night and were planning on heading out Wednesday morning after spending the night at Pete’s.  Per the usual, however, we got impatient and called a last second audible, deciding to take a brief nap and then hit the road at about 1:00 AM.  This is where Day 0 originated, because the trip started a full 8 hours before we had planned.  The benefits of this decision were clear: more time in Chicago on Wednesday, more night driving, and ultimately more adventure.  The negatives we didn’t figure out till later: dealing with car trouble in the pitch dark and being crammed in a car with 6 irritable and incredibly tired dudes.  But what’s done is done, and apart from losing some bungee cords for the cartop carrier (the above mentioned car trouble), we were able to successfully get the trip underway.

Ev