Idaho and Montana (August 27 - September 5)

As large storm clouds settled over Yellowstone we decided to give the tenting a break and instead headed to Macks Inn; a gorgeous village of log cabins nestled into the wilderness, located in Idaho about 30 minutes from West Yellowstone.
Here we stayed with Hayden (Cam's friend from university) and his wife Alicia in their family cabin. After several cold and damp nights we were grateful to stay in this gorgeous warm log cabin complete with fireplace, hot tub and kittens.
Cam and I spent the first couple of days adjusting to the altitude; feeling light headed and a little nauseas we took most of the weekend fairly easy. On Sunday we woke to a lovely Fall (autumn) day and enjoyed a delicious brunch (cooked by the boys) on the dock in the sunshine.

We then got a tad adventurous and hit the motorbike (or snow mobile in Winter) trails for a couple of hours. Expertly lead through the maze of tracks by Hayden, we arrived home safely for a spot of baking and relaxation.

During this time we were visited by two large male moose who casually wandered past the cabin, stopping to eat the grass and weed in the river. These animals are amazing; very large when you are standing only several metres away and even better when they just choose to cruise past at their leisure.

We also had a hawk hanging around very close by, who kept an eye on Tucker the dog. Such amazing wildlife that people pay to see and we had it on our own back door, literally.

The weather forecast looked dicey on Monday so we left the Cabin and headed 3 hours west to Challis, where Alicia’s family ranch is based. We spent several enjoyable days on the ranch taking in the incredible scenery by horseback and on the ATVs.


We also did a hike to some nearby hot springs located on the mountain side. Armed with chocolate, jerky and bear spray we headed for the hills in the cold mist and were rewarded with gorgeous warm pools and incredible views over the valley.


We managed to squeeze in a night out in Challis; (population approximately 1,000) enjoying enough pizza to feed 10 people and several games of shuffle board at the local pub. Cam and I felt extremely spoilt during our time at the ranch; a few special days of great food, accommodation, and company. Thank you so much to Steve and Lyndalla for their generous hospitality.
Leaving Challis on Thursday we headed back to the cabin for the night. Again making the most of a stunning Fall afternoon we took the ATVs up a mountain side which provided spectacular views of all three states; Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. That evening we enjoyed yet another incredible dinner with Alicia’s extended family and watched some college football on TV. Gradually we are growing to enjoy (and beginning to understand) this game!

The next morning we all packed up and headed north to Big Sky, Montana where Mr Willie Nelson himself was playing for the evening. The concert was fantastic; with cowboys and cowgirls galore we got amongst and enjoyed the stunning mountain surroundings. This guy is old - 77 in fact, so we should not have been too surprised when he did not sing but merely talked the words to his many songs we had come to know and love...it was hilarious!



Saturday morning arrived and we were hurting slightly. After a week of complete indulgence of both food (including; elk, trout, buffalo and halibut), and beverages (including samples of local beers, wine and whiskey), we were well ready to raise the heart rate and get a sweat on.
A 6 mile hike to a nearby lake at the base of a mountain soon cured that. We all slept very soundly that evening, especially after another lovely home cooked meal of steak and potatoes. Thanks Bob and Nancy for your hospitality in Big Sky, we had a great time!

As our adventure must continue, we left Mojo, Alicia and Tucker early Sunday morning. After an incredible week with these guys and their family we found the goodbye rather tough. Thank you so much for the incredible time, we are looking forward to seeing you all in NZ sometime soon!
Next stop the Redwood Forest on the West Coast.

Yellowstone National Park (August 26 - August 27)

Having covered the miles easily over the previous few days we had estimated an easy 3 or 4 hour trip to Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately it took us the whole day to get there due to the winding hills and steep gradient of the roads. But it wasn’t all that bad; the scenery was just stunning and the best we had seen yet. The lush crops turned into barren fields and then complete desert with table-top rocky mountains formed billions of years ago. The drive into Yellowstone itself was magical, crisp blue lakes and sheer cliffs covered in Ponderosa Pine. This is the scenery we had imagined and we were rewarded on a very pleasant 35 degree day.
Yellowstone National Park; established in 1872 and the world’s first national park, covers an area of around 9000 km2 (over 2 million acres). It is located mainly in the state of Wyoming, but also extends to Montana and Idaho.
We settled into our camp ground on the east side of the Park and were provided with a list of very strict instructions about food handling and storage in order to prevent attracting bears. Oh so tempting to leave the roast chicken out for the night just to get a glance at a grizzly, but of course we didn’t. After dinner we set off on another evening drive to see what wildlife we could spot. It is easy to tell where the action is at, as cars are pulled to the side of the road and people are scrambling to get that perfect photo.
Within a minute of driving we came across some female elk with their young crossing the road. These are far bigger than any deer we see at home and were rather beautiful. We also spotted some males enjoying the last of the evening sun.


As we continued driving we soon spotted three coyote in the distance playing in the long grass, along with more bison, elk, and a rattle snake.



But the highlight of the evening (or perhaps the entire trip thus far!) was a grizzly bear playing with her three young cubs in the evening light. We could easily see them from the road with the naked eye. It was just magic and we were buzzing for some time. Talking to other people we realised how fortunate we had been to see this much wildlife in one evening.


Waking early the next morning to a very refreshing 6 degrees, we packed up and headed to the Old Faithful Geyser. Spurting boiling water 50 metres into the air - the geyser wasn’t as impressive as we had expected but we are spoilt with similar attractions in NZ.

What was more impressive was the accuracy for which her eruptions can be predicted; plus or minus ten minutes, hence the name. We then enjoyed a coffee on the balcony of the beautiful Old Faithful Inn; opened in 1904 this beautiful hotel is one of the largest log buildings in the world.

We then headed north in the Park and checked out some thermal pools and more geyser action on the way to the Mammoth Hot Springs. These colourful calcium carbonate terraces were quite pretty and the smell was incredibly Rotorua-like.

Our trip to Yellowstone had definitely been jammed packed. Although we could have had more time in the Park, we felt we covered off most of the key attractions, leaving the canyon and falls to see some other time. As the temperatures began to drop and the thunder clouds rolled in we headed to a small town located west of West Yellowstone to visit our friends Mojo and Alicia.

Wind Cave National Park, Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore (August 23 – August 26)

Leaving early Monday morning we left Dallas heading northwards through Oklahoma and on through Kansas. We then headed East toward, Colorado. The roads were far quieter than what we had experienced the previous week and we made excellent time. The scenery was mainly vast areas of farm land with small towns between. Having covered 700 miles (1,120 km) for the day we pulled into a camping ground just east of the Colorado border for the night.
Day two we decided to take some back roads to get off the main interstate on our journey north through Nebraska to South Dakota. We had changed our plans slightly and were heading to Mount Rushmore before Yellowstone National Park. We were rewarded on our chosen route with continuous scenery of vast farmland. With fields far as the eye can see, practically no animals in sight, the biggest irrigators and the coolest John Deere machinery Cam has ever seen - this was nothing like home! Many farms were making hundreds of hay bales on the flats in preparation for a cold and snow-covered winter.
We pulled into Wind Cave National Park for the night, which is located in western South Dakota. After pitching our tent in the Park’s campground we then attended a tour of the Wind Cave. This cave is the fourth longest cave in the world covering 132 miles of passages with more being discovered on a regular basis. It is famous for its’ elaborate calcite boxwork formations and the wind that is produced at the Cave’s entrance.


After dinner that evening as the sun was setting we took a short drive up the road for a bit of wild life spotting. We quickly stumbled across a herd of Bison (Buffalo) grazing the road side so we pulled up and watched these magnificent beasts feast and play. They were happy to ignore us so we stayed put in our car and felt very privileged to get such a close-up view.


That evening we also attended a wildlife seminar by the Park Ranger; learning about the history of the Park and its’ wildlife.
Rising early the next morning we set off north driving the scenic route through Custer State Park. This drive provided us with more excellent views of vast plains with grazing bison, steep pine covered mountain ridges and stony bridges. During our drive we saw prairie dogs and white-tailed deer, and also came across a traffic jam involving a herd of approximately 50 bison that had decided to chill out in the middle of the road.

Unfortunately our car did not handle the stopping and starting, and began to overheat. With the needle fast encroaching into the red we began a u-turn in the road but decided this wasn’t a good idea when two male bison had locked heads in front of our car (it is currently mating season). Thank goodness they decided to clear in the nick of time and we were able to speed off to cool our engine. Phew.



Our next stop was the Crazy Horse Memorial. Neither Cam nor myself had heard of this monument prior to our visit to the States, but it is the largest monument in the world and has been a work in progress since 1948. Work originally begun by sculpture Korczak Ziolkowski, where he began to blast out the image of the Sioux leader (Crazy Horse) astride his horse pointing into the distance. The chiselling, sculpting and blasting of granite continues today by Ziolkowski’s family who purposefully receive no assistance from the government, it is uncertain when it will be completed. We were able to see what the monument will look like by a replica placed in the visitors centre. It will be absolutely astounding once complete, but something even our grandchildren may not likely see completed.


We then visited the very famous Mt Rushmore. This definitely did not seem as impressive after seeing Crazy Horse, (the area of Mt Rushmore can fit inside the head of Crazy Horse) but all the same it was fantastic to get right under the nostrils of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

From here we hit the road again heading west to get some miles under our belt for our journey to Yellowstone the next morning. Late that evening we pulled into a rather average campground located next to a construction site in the small town of Gillette, although it did have showers. We hit the hay early in anticipation of more wildlife spotting at Yellowstone National Park the next day.

Dallas Weekend (August 21 - August 22)

On Friday night we hit up Forth Worth with Courtney and David, for some rodeo and real-life cowboy action. Yee haw!
Forth Worth located near Dallas, is a city famous for cattle drives which passed through the middle of the city during the 1800s, heading North to the market. With a history of boom and bust, the town eventually grew steadily with the construction of a railway, this promoted a flourishing cattle trade industry. The infamous Forth Worth Stockyards were then created and operated until the 1960s. The stockyards are the last standing in the USA, part are left as they were with the other part turned into shops and restaurants.

We had dinner at Joe T Garcias; a huge restaurant seating 1500 people, and serving only fajitas, enchiladas and margaritas. Our type of place for sure! After downing a huge feast we headed downtown to the rodeo.
Located next to the Stockyards in a large indoor arena, we could smell it from the street. The rodeo is held every Friday and Saturday nights, where competitors come from far and wide to compete and display their talents at the seated arena. Feeling slightly out of place without our Western get-up we were treated to a couple of hours of great entertainment.

We watched calf wrangling, barrel racing, and bull riding. All of which was very impressive; these stockmen and stockwomen of all ages are hugely talented. But perhaps our unexpected highlight was the half time entertainment known as a ‘scramble’ for those under-7 years old. As kids and toddlers ran out into the arena we expected lollies to be thrown by the clowns, instead a large rampaging ram was released and the kids had to ‘scramble’ to catch it. These children had no fear, and provided very hilarious entertainment. Only in Texas.







On Saturday night we headed out to dinner with friends of Courtney and David. Having a break from Mexican, we had a delicious Asian fusion meal. We then headed to the Goo Goo Dolls concert. This was excellent; playing a mixture of their classic hits with some music from their new album due out next month.


Sunday was spent planning and preparing for our trip north toward Yellowstone National Park. We cleaned and prepared the car, now known as Daisy after our wee pet friend.

Courtney cooked us a lovely dinner on Sunday evening. Our last night together until we return to Dallas around mid October. We plan to hit the road well before sun-rise to get some of the boring driving hours behind us and to soon see some of the scenery that we have heard so much about.