△ Wilderness Voices △

We left Moab with not much of a plan. We were going to drive up to Salt Lake City. Maybe stay in Salt Lake City. Maybe just keep on driving. We ended up planting in a Starbucks just outside of Salt Lake for an hour and trying to figure out what we really wanted to do. We left that Starbucks hopped up on caffeine with not much of a plan.

And so we just drove on into the night. Driving up into Wyoming proved to be an interesting experience. It was incredibly dark, and people seem to default to high beams. There were many signs warning of wildlife in the road, and more than a few blood stains on the road. We drove by a car going slowly, hazards flashing, front end all smashed up. My guess is that it had hit an animal.

After a couple hours of driving nervously in the dark, we started looking for someplace to stay. There was a motel about an hour away, the Hideout Motel in Cokeville, WY. It sounded like a winner, so we set our sights there and hoped for the best.

We got to the Hideout Motel and were greeted with a No Vacancy sign. Our spirits were crushed. We went into the front office anyway to double check, and we were hoping maybe the person inside could direct us somewhere else.

We ended up speaking to the owner inside, and he was incredibly nice. He confirmed the No Vacancy sign was in fact accurate. And that the nearest motel was about an hour up the road in Afton. He must have sensed our dissapointment, he asked if it was just the two of us and then he mentioned that if we had sleeping bags, there was a teepee outside that he would let us sleep in for twenty bucks. He had some extra blankets as well.

We briefly debated sleeping in the teepee, it was pretty cold out, but neither of us had another hour of driving in us. And then Ashley mentioned that we had a bed in the back of the van, and asked if we could just sleep parked next to the teepee. I don’t think he thought twice about it, and we had a deal. We didn’t have any cash on us, so he told us not to worry about paying, seeing as we weren’t using the teepee. We were stoked.

The owner saves some space in the back of the motel for RVs coming through, and so there was a separate bathroom and shower outside that we were able to use. It was quite perfect and we slept pretty well for being in the parking lot of a strange motel.

We woke up early and shuffled to the bathroom to brush our teeth. The owner of the motel was up bright and early, looking sharp in a full suit, heading off to church. We drove up the road a bit to find an ATM, then returned to slip a thank-you note and a twenty under the door.

We spent three nights in Moab. It was supposed to be four, but the desert is hot, and unforgiving.

We got into town late in the afternoon, after a long drive from the Four Corners. A quick stop at the grocery store to re-up on food stuffs, and a quick stop at the Moab Brewery to get some “full-strength” beer, we set off to find a place to camp. We had decided we liked the sound of Dead Horse Point State Park, so we rolled the dice and tried our luck there. And as luck would have it, a construction crew had vacated early and we were able to grab a site.

Dead Horse Point State Park ended up being amazing. The park is huge, high desert nestled on a point between two canyons. The ending scene of Thelma and Louise, where they drive off a cliff together, was filmed there. It’s about fifteen minutes from Canyonlands National Park and about fourty-five minutes from Arches National Park.

The next day we hit Canyonlands, with a plan to do two hikes. We had heard that you don’t really want to be doing much in the desert in August between ten and three, so we got to the park early. We stopped at the visitor center to ask about the False Kiva hike, which we learned about from a roadside jerky man in Colorado. The hike is not on any offical maps, and the ranger we asked pulled out a laminated binder with photos of the trail.

We didn’t make it to the kiva that day. The desert got us. We got one of our two hikes in, then got side-tracked by a different hike, and then we were toast. So we went back to the campsite for a siesta to re-charge. We tried to get back to the park later on, but it was getting late, and it was starting to look like rain, so instead we headed to Dead Horse Point. We were greeted with spectacular views and then a pretty serious rain storm. It was all quite beautiful.

The following day we hit Arches, again on the early side, this time to beat the heat and the crowds. Arches gets many more daily visitors than Canyonlands. The only thing we had planned going in was the “March to the Arch” to visit the Delicate Arch. And quite a march it was – not too long, but no shade, and a large portion of it was right up a slab of red rock. We spent the rest of the day checking out the park, hiking pretty deep into the desert to look at arches until Ashley started to feel sick. So we went and took a dip in a canyon creek just outside of Moab, and then grabbed dinner in town.

At dinner we decided that it was time to get out of the desert. But we still had one last thing we wanted to do. So the next day we got up early and headed for the False Kiva. It was a fantastic hike right into a hidden alcove on the side of the canyon. The view from the kiva was gorgeous, and the solitude was stunning.

And then we headed north, for the mountains.

We had a nice time driving from Rocky Mountain NP toward Mesa Verde NP. We stopped in Leadville, CO to get coffee and walk around. It was a really cool little town with awesome views of the mountains. We popped into Melanzana, which was a hiking clothes store. All of the clothes were made right in the store! We spent a rainy night at West Fork Campground in the San Juan National Forest.

In the morning, we continued on to Durango. We’d been looking forward to Durango for some time. Eddie had ordered new glasses and sunglasses right before we left Somerville. Note the right before we left part… the sunglasses weren’t going to be ready for about a week after we’d already left for the trip. So, we looked into mail holding via the Post Office. Durango would be the biggest city we’d be passing through where the timing worked out for a shipment to be waiting for us. It worked out beautifully. We were also going to ship home some items that we haven’t yet used, but couldn’t part with them just yet. We’ll use those yoga mats and skateboard yet! After walking around, grabbing lunch at a brewery, and promising to be back someday, we headed onward to Mesa Verde.

Mesa Verde was included in the first list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1978. There are over 600 Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings in the park boundary. We had the opportunity to explore two of these – Cliff Palace and Balcony House. It was amazing to walk through something built so long ago. The ranger who gave the balcony house tour was very interesting. You could tell he is very much into Native American culture and history, and his energy really drove home the fact that this is a really special place rooted in a history that unfortunately not a lot of us know. We also hiked to some petroglyphs, which were also just as special and interesting to view.

 

One of the things I find most appealing about mountains is their ability to make you feel small. The Rocky Mountains do this tremendously. We spent a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park, bopping between campgrounds and sneaking hikes in in-between the rain, sometimes getting caught in the rain. We hiked to some of the park’s many lakes, each one just as spectacular as the last. We hiked up the Colorado river to an old abandoned mining town. We saw marmots, mule deer, and elk as we hiked. The park is one of America’s most visited, and it feels it, but it is still god-damn gorgeous.

After leaving Badlands, we headed into Wall, SD for an oil change. The mechanic happened to be a short walk from Wall Drug, which is a massive store/tourist attraction selling western wear, sunglasses, cosmetics, camping gear, gemstones… basically anything you could want. There were roadside advertisements beginning about 330 miles away! They grew in frequency exponentially as you got closer to Wall and were interesting to read on an otherwise uninteresting drive. After exploring Wall Drug and picking up the car, we mapped our plan for the day over breakfast.

We headed to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, which was only a small detour out of our way. It was certainly worth it! Eddie kept talking about Close Encounters. We got back on our route, and headed toward Deadwood, SD (spoiler: “historic downtown” does not look like the show! One or both of us might have been disappointed about that).

We drove onward to Mount Rushmore, which was really cool to see in person!

We then drove a little further to Horsethief Lake State Park to camp for the night. The camp host was this 65-70 year old spritely woman who frequently zipped around the campground on an ATV to make sure all was in order.

In the morning, we headed to Wind Cave National Park. The park is one of the longest caves in the world and can only be explored via a ranger led tour. We opted for the longer tour and it was well worth it. We got to see box work, cave popcorn, and frost work, which are all natural formations. At one point, the ranger turned the lights off  and lit a candle to show us what it would like if you were exploring when the cave was first explored about 100 years ago. He then blew the candle out and you could not see your hand in front of your face. It was pretty cool! The pictures we took did not come out very well due to the low lighting, and did not do the experience any justice.

Who knew South Dakota had so much to offer! Thanks, Black Hills… now, on to Colorado!