Day Ten
Wednesday, June 27, 2018
Rifle Gap State Park
Our night in the mountains was uneventful. I woke up just in time for a beautiful sunrise. Birdies were chirping, which is a sound that we hadn’t heard in days in the desert. There were no pooping geese, we still had our keys, the tent wasn’t billowing and swaying in the wind, and most importantly, there was no pitter patter of sand on the rainfly. The tent was gritty and smelled like dust, but at least it wasn’t raining sand. The view of the lake with the mountains behind it was pretty awesome in the morning light. Not that it wasn’t awesome the night before, but there were bugs and that whole envelope fiasco, so we hadn’t spent much time admiring our view.
By this point in the trip, we had packing up down to a science. Megan photographed minifigures and Joey pulled up the tent stakes while I unclipped the tent from the poles. We popped the poles out and the tent dropped down. I stepped in the middle of the tent with no shoes on and helped guide the long poles out of the sleeves. Joey broke them down and put them in their bag. Then we folded the tent across a couple times and rolled it up, adding the rainfly, poles, and stakes. I stuffed it in the tent bag while Joey held it open. While I packed the tent in it’s spot in the truck, Joey and Megan folded up the tarp and put it in its’ bag. The kids looked over the area to check for anything we may have left behind, while I situated everything in the back of the truck. I handed out breakfast and we were ready to get back on the road by 7am.
I love that we can work as a team to get going in the morning, especially on the mornings of a long driving day or a day when we want to be somewhere early. We still do pretty much this routine on all our trips. This morning was the start of a long driving day. The plan was to get to Elk Mountain Campground at Wind Cave National Park, 500+ miles away…before dark…hopefully.
Hanging Lake
Along the way, I wanted to stop at Hanging Lake for a hike. I had been there in 1995, before it was so popular, and it was gorgeous. The internet has made some of these hidden gems not so hidden anymore, and from what I had read, Hanging Lake was almost impossible to visit if you did not arrive early. There were reports of cars lined up all the way to the interstate, just to get into the parking lot, so I hoped we would avoid that situation.
The exit for Hanging Lake, coming from the west, was well marked and mentioned that you would not be able to get back on eastbound I70 from there. Once you take the exit, you are directed down a road that takes you another mile or so east to the parking lot. We arrived in time for a parking spot in the shade and there were several other spots left.
Nothing about the trailhead to Hanging Lake looked familiar to me, so I have no idea how it was back in 1995. The information sign said that it would be a two to four hour hike. Why do I not remember that? We decided to walk down the paved part of the trail to see what we could see. Where the pavement ended, there was a pretty little waterfall…right next to a trail that went just about straight up a boulder field.
It may sound like we got a little lazy by the end of our trip, but an uphill climb that would take two to four hours was not going to work if we wanted to make it to Wind Cave before dark. I know I visited this place in the past because I have pictures of my coworkers and I in front of the lake, but I have no idea why I do not remember a substantial hike to see it. I suppose back in the days of film photos, one did not take a bazillion photos along the trail. The photos I do have were just from Hanging Lake and nothing along the way. That’s probably why I could’ve swore it was not far from the road, but clearly, it was nowhere near a road.
I’d love to try this trail again someday, but they added a permit requirement since our visit, which may have helped with the parking and overcrowding issues, but it also complicates spontaneous stops by road trip enthusiasts like us. I’m not sure how far in advance one would need to reserve a permit to do the hike. They also added a $12 per person fee, which for the three of us, is almost half the cost of an annual national park pass that gives us access to many, many other trails for a whole year, rather than one trail for a single day. A part of me wishes we had just hiked the trail when we were right there in front of it, but we would’ve needed a different camping plan for that night, plus, I was ready to not sleep in our gritty tent. It just wasn’t meant to be on this trip.
Colorado I70
The drive on I70 heading east moves quickly but takes forever. Does that make sense? I find it hard to drive. Where I come from, the two interstates in the state are both long, straight roads. I70, on the other hand, is curvy and has mountain grades and the speed limit is 65 or 75, but everyone drives about 80. I’d feel comfortable at about 55, but I’d be run over doing that, so I try to keep up with the flow. Perhaps the best way to describe that drive is “stressful.”
Even though I don’t enjoy the driving in this area, I find it amazing how the interstate is stacked through Glenwood Canyon. I remember going that way when I was a kid and they were working on it.
Eisenhower Tunnel
I probably would not have taken I70 if it hadn’t been for the fact that I wanted to show the kids the engineering feat that is the Eisenhower Tunnel. The tunnel is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the US Interstate Highway System. I’ve been through it many times through the years, but the kids hadn’t seen it. I don’t know why I find it fascinating, but I always have. Somehow, though, it wasn’t nearly as fascinating to drive through a one and a half mile tunnel as an adult, but I was able to check that off the list of things I wanted to show the kids someday. Now they can say they’ve been there. (They’ve actually been through it twice now and I can definitely say I don’t want to do it again! That’s a story for another day…subscribe!)
We stopped at a rest area to have a break from the crazy drivers and again at a gas station to get gas and a snack. It was downhill into Denver after that. We made it out of the mountain driving and scooted right into big city driving. Fun! Actually, it wasn’t bad in the middle of the day. We zipped around and out of Denver in no time. I decided lunch for the day would be DQ blizzards, which we found in Fort Morgan, Colorado.
Since my goal for the day was Wind Cave and we had plenty of afternoon left, we decided to take highway 71 north to Scotts Bluff National Monument. I love driving in the Nebraska sand hills more than the Wyoming grasslands. Oddly enough, they are different. Eastern Nebraska is pretty…in its’ own way. The route must be popular with the truckers because we saw many semis along the way.
Scotts Bluff National Monument
We made it to Scotts Bluff National Monument around 4:30pm. This was a quiet park the last time I had visited, but the parking lot was full and people were standing around outside. When I rolled up to the fee booth, I asked the ranger what was going on and she said the Pony Express would be there any minute for a re-enactment. How exciting!
We parked and joined the crowd and sure enough, within minutes, a rider on horseback galloped in and hopped off. The helpers took off a pack and put a new one on the horse. A new rider hopped on and took off as fast as the other one rode in. The pilot truck for the rider took off after her and off they went. It happened so fast that had we dilly-dallied a few more minutes along the way, we would’ve missed it entirely. What an interesting experience! I could not have timed our arrival better if I had tried!
The rest of our visit to Scotts Bluff National Monument was not nearly as exciting as the Pony Express happening before our eyes, just minutes after arriving. We did the usual park things and the kids earned their junior ranger badges. The scenic drive closed before we could take the drive, which was probably just as well since we still needed to get to Wind Cave, another 3 hours away.
We took advantage of our time in Nebraska to stop for Runza sandwiches to go and got back on the road. I wish I had a picture of one of these. A Runza is a mixture of beef, cabbage, and cheese fully enclosed in bread, like a Hot Pocket, but way, way better! It’s definitely worth stopping for this Nebraska delicacy!
Elk Mountain Campground
We arrived at Elk Mountain Campground with just enough light left to see the campsites. We took site A4, a tent-only site, just around the corner from the campground host. No stealth setup was required since many people were still out sitting around their campfires. We were not particularly excited about crawling into our gritty tent, so we delayed the inevitable by taking a walk around the campground before turning in for the night.
Day Eleven
Thursday, June 28, 2018
I remembered why I love desert camping as we dropped our dew-covered tent to the ground. Nothing like working up a sweat in the humidity while folding up a dripping wet tent first thing in the morning. We all wished we could go back to the desert! Somehow, sand was still better than humidity.
Wind Cave National Park
Before heading for home, we stopped at the Wind Cave Visitor Center for the apparently elusive Wind Cave Junior Ranger badges the kids were missing. We had visited twice before, and the kids had even completed the books the first time we went, but that time we were on the last tour of the day, and the ranger who guided the tour claimed she couldn’t go into the visitor center for the badges. This stop was not on our radar when we left home, so the kids worked on new books while we explored the visitor center.
We thought about doing a tour, but the walk-up tour was the one we had done before. Their visitor center was worth exploring though, and we spent an hour looking around. They had a USA map with all of the caves lit up, which I thought was interesting since we’ve toured a lot of caves. I had not realized that we had so many more caves to go!
We chatted with the ranger and the kids finally earned their Wind Cave Junior Ranger badges.
For whatever reason, I decided to take highway 44 to Scenic, SD and then drive into the Badlands. It took a little longer than the interstate, but it was a prettier drive. We stopped for a bathroom break at the visitor center, but the whole place was swarming with people, so we did not stick around long. I remembered again why I enjoy the Badlands in the evening. On the other hand, it was really nice to be back home at a respectable 8pm.
Road Trip Wrap-Up
This trip was one of my favorites, despite all of the mishaps and mayhem that happened throughout the entire trip. What’s a camping road trip without a few memorable stories to tell?
If I were to hand this itinerary to someone else, though, I think I’d pencil in an extra day before the Grand Canyon to visit the rest of the Petrified Forest National Park, plus all of the national monuments we missed that were along this route. Ideally, another day at the Grand Canyon South Rim would’ve been great, too. I can’t say that I would’ve left off Zion, but it might have been better to arrive there early enough in the afternoon to enjoy the canyon in the evening when the day trip visitors have left, and then move on the next morning. I definitely would not camp at Kodachrome Basin and commute to Bryce Canyon National Park again. There’s only 22 miles between the two, but it’s a long drive at the end of the day. I’d probably skip I70, if at all possible, but I’m not sure what I’d recommend instead.
We saw everything we planned to see, plus we hiked way more than we ever planned to hike. This road trip covered a lot of territory in just eleven days! I’ve included some stats from the trip, as well as links to each day.
Itinerary
Day 1: Crane Trust Visitor Center, Drive to Kansas, Lake Scott State Park Campground
Day 2: Monument Rocks, Mid-America Air Museum, Capulin Volcano, Santa Fe
Day 3: Kasha-Katue Tent Rocks, Route 66, Singing Highway, Painted Desert
Day 4: Homolovi State Park, Trading Post Shopping, Winslow, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon
Day 5: Sunrise at Mather Point, Bright Angel Trail, Sunset at Zion National Park
Day 6: Zion National Park, Rock Shopping, Bryce Canyon, IDK Barbeque
Day 7: Bryce Canyon Traverse, Tent Trouble at Kodachrome Basin State Park
Day 8: Scenic Byway 12, Singing Canyon, Capitol Reef National Park, Goblin Valley
Day 9: Little Wild Horse Canyon, Colorado National Monument, Rifle Gap State Park
Day 10: Drive across Colorado, Scotts Bluff National Monument