change of plans

Change of Plans

/ L. Ryan Storms / Leave a comment

Day 17: 6/18/24
From: Yellowstone National Park, WY (Grant Village Campground)
To: We’ll know when we get there (Sheridan, WY by way of the Bighorn Scenic Byway, by way of Cody, WY by way of Cooke City, MT
Distance: 316 miles

There’s an inch of snow on the ground when we wake up. The sleeping bags were warm enough with the extra blankets, but no one really wants to get out. We do anyway. But with the roads the way they are, we’re reluctant to take the drive over the continental divide again.

So we decide we’re not going to camp another night here since it’s supposed to be another 5-10 degrees colder tonight. Last night was doable. But not really a whole lot of fun. We eat breakfast, pack up camp, and check out by 8:45. We’ll still drive the park today since the weather is better (still 35 degrees!) but we’re not camping.

What will we do? <shrug> We don’t know. We’ll figure it out when we’re done sightseeing at the park and have reception again. We’ll probably drive halfway to the Badlands (which is our destination tomorrow) and book a hotel somewhere along the way. This is where being flexible pays off. 

The kids? Have been real troopers. They have been so good at rolling with the punches. The kind of camping we just did with the supplies we (didn’t) have is not for the faint of heart. Still, there was laughter and joking and conversation. We had a snowball fight this morning, and I even built a little snowman. On June 18th.

We check out early and head towards Grand Prismatic Spring to see it in the daylight hours. It’s a half-hour wait just to get into the parking lot, but it’s beautiful in the sun! Then it’s off through the rest of the park via the middle of the figure 8 of the Yellowstone roads and up through the northeast side and into the Lamar Valley.

Along the way, we see bison, elk, pronghorn, mountain goats, and 4 black bears before we leave the park from the northeast entrance. We intend to follow the road into Montana and back to Wyoming again, but we’re in for a shock. As we exit the park, a sign reads “Beartooth Highway Closed.”

The map says that the Beartooth Highway is closed from October – late May for snow, but now??! Oh right, we just had snow. Panicked, we pop into the post office at Cooke City (which is adorable and probably a great place to vacation, by the way) to ask if someone can point us in the right direction since we are without cell reception and won’t have it for most of today’s drive. The postal worker at the desk is a wonderful human who helps us first with his knowledge that we still should be able to get where we want to go, and next by printing out Google Map directions for us like it’s 1998. I hug the paper to my chest and relish having real directions. And we owe this man. Because this route is way more scenic than what we might otherwise have seen.

The drive is amazing. The scenery is incredible. Had we not decided to leave Yellowstone early, we never would have seen any of this. Sometimes things that go wrong are really just things going right. We drive through Chief Joseph Scenic Byway, which is a series of hairpin turns (no, not as bad as Independence Pass in Colorado, and this time there are guard rails), but the views are simply incredible. We can see the snow coming down on mountain peaks around us and the rolling hillside around us makes it seem almost like we’re in another country.

When we get to Cody, we’ve got cell reception again, so I pull up the a hotel in Sheridan, WY and book it. We are ready for hot showers and warm beds. We just have to drive 3 more hours to get there. But we’re unprepared for the continued gorgeousness of the scenery. I mean, we were just in Yellowstone, right? How could it get better? Well, I’m pretty sure Wyoming cornered the market when it comes to scenic vistas. We take the Bighorn Scenic Byway through Bighorn National Park and while we don’t see any of the famous sheep, we do see a total of 4 moose along the way, as well as numerous elk, deer, and pronghorn. The landscape is ever changing and along the way, different rock walls are marked with what period they’re from, which was super cool as we were driving past, but obviously nothing I actually retained since I can’t remember any of it now as I type. Cambrian, Pennsylvanian, and some other time periods from a really long time ago. What I do know is that the rock changes drastically in shape and color and size. But also, the landscape itself changes.

We have seen rolling meadows, green hillsides, rocky crags, and a panoramic landscape that makes us feel like we’re literally on top of the world. We stop at one scenic overlook to take photos and Husband creates a small army of chipmunks (and one golden mantled ground squirrel twice their size — he must be the general). I laugh and photograph him taking video of them. Then I decide I might have to call him Cinderella.

When we reach our hotel in Sheridan, we’re excited to find it’s a suite with a kitchenette and a free laundry room I will definitely utilize. Hot showers, fresh pizza from Powder River Pizza & Pub, and television tonight.

While doing laundry, I meet a retired woman from Florida who’s traveling with her husband across the country and visiting national parks, much like us. We also end up talking with a man from North Carolina who’s traveling cross-country on his motorcycle and who just came from Devil’s Tower earlier in the day. The three of us have conversations about the parks and the best places to visit and the best times to visit them. The laundry room is an oasis of kindred spirits tonight. It makes folding clothes so much more enjoyable.

Then bed. We pass out quickly, our many snores filling the room. Tomorrow, we head for the Badlands, and because of today, it’s half the drive it would have been. Win!

Pivot

/ L. Ryan Storms / Leave a comment

Day 12: 6/13/24
From: Sequoia National Park (Potwisha Campground)
To: Golden Gate National Recreation Area (Bicentennial Campground Holiday Inn Express)
Distance: 294 miles

I am up at 5. Again. The variety of birds in the California wilderness is astounding and I have the Merlin bird app open to pass an hour before I even think about waking the kids. The California Towhee and the Acorn Woodpecker are fighting to see who can be the better alarm clock, I think.

At least the night eventually cooled down. We kept the rain fly off the tent and the windows unzipped, so the tent is comfortably cool this morning. I have no idea how long it took to get that way, but at some point in the night, as the temp fell, we all found our way inside sleeping bags.

When I get out of the tent, I notice a small shiny spring in the middle of our campsite. Husband thinks it must have come off of something we own, but I prefer to think a raven left us a gift sometime during the night since we’ve been befriending them everywhere we go. I’m going to miss the ravens when we head home.

We leave the campsite by 7:30 and hit up the visitor center for stickers by 8. Along the way, we encounter a black-tailed deer and two social ravens. See? The ravens have become our friends! Down the last stretch of the General’s Highway and back onto the main highways that will take us northwest to San Francisco we go.

We cross the Golden Gate Bridge, shrouded in fog and get a glimpse of Alcatraz. It’s 2 pm by the time we arrive at the campsite and when we pull up, we all stare in dread for a moment. Sun? No, there’s no sun here. It’s foggy, misty, windy, and 54 degrees midday. And our campsite has a 1/4 mile walk-in down a steep hill. Older child takes a spill on the gravel and scrapes up an ankle, a thigh, and both palms. To add insult to injury, at the bottom of the hill is a clearing where there is only a port-a-potty for our bathroom needs. The kids revolt.

And I don’t blame them.

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge is spectacular, but even that’s not enough for me to want to stay. It’s time to pivot. I use that wonderful cell reception to find a hotel less than a mile away. Now both kids feel bad and say they could just suck it up, but guess what? *I* don’t want to be freezing in a tent all night, have no running water, and have to use a port-a-potty. We’ve done pit toilets a few times on this trip, but this is a new low. So yeah, I look forward to the hotel, too.

From there, we head over to Muir Woods, (Which requires a parking reservation — beware! We managed to book one before heading over.) and take in the Redwoods over the course of 3 miles of trails. We stick mostly to the flat boardwalk and paved trails, which is better for my joints. 

The trees are beautiful and so very different from the sequoia we saw yesterday. Walking amidst so many at one time is magical. And I love that the path is handicap accessible. It’s heartening to see. (In fact, I was impressed just a few days ago when we saw the National Park Service laying concrete on some paths at Bryce Canyon.) It’s encouraging to know that people with disabilities aren’t being left out of seeing and appreciating the natural wonders of our world. And…Husband finds a beautiful ring that fits my finger while looking at the giant clover for a four-leaf. No four-leaf, but I’ll take the ring, thanks!

After Muir, we check into our hotel and virtually collapse. We’ll need to figure out where to order food as we won’t be making any camp meals tonight, but the warmth of a room and the promise of a bed is simply heavenly and we’re soaking in the atmosphere. The wind outside is relentless and we can hear the incessant chiming of the flagpole. Still, no one will complain as we’re just thrilled to be inside. Unfortunately, my hip subluxed getting out of the car today, so that may be my body’s sign to slow my roll a bit. I wonder if it’s due to the extreme changes in temperature. It’s not every day you go from a high of 111 degrees to 53. And colder temps are coming.

Dinner from Floodwater, the restaurant directly next to the hotel, is divine. Pizza, burgers, pork rolls, they have a bit of everything you could want. We’d hoped to play a game of Oregon Trail cards, but everyone is too tired, so we end up asleep just after 9:30 — so tired that no one even cares about the snoring. A plus.

19 States in 22 Days

/ L. Ryan Storms / 1 Comment

Original Post: July 17, 2015

The original plan was 22 states in 22 days, but who’s counting?  

I have wanted to travel cross-country for almost as long as I can remember.  I began formulating an actual “road plan” when I was 18 and had I done it the summer I turned 19 as I’d originally planned, gas would have been a mere $0.88 a gallon instead of the $2.70 – $4.20 a gallon it was this summer.  But hindsight is always 20/20.  On the upside,  digital photography didn’t exist back then which means — I would have spent more money on film in 1998 than I spent on fuel a few weeks ago.  I guess it all has a way of evening out.

Part of the reason for my longing to embark on this crazy road trip had to do with my love of photography.  I love just about all photography, but there’s a special place in my heart for landscape photography.  Though there is an art to nature that cannot possibly be experienced aside from being immersed directly within it, good landscape photography is a close second.  Where else can you experience the immensity of the El Capitan or appreciate the subtly changing light as the sun rises over the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon?

Not a day goes by where I don’t view a scene on my way to or from work and frame it out exactly as I’d shoot it in the camera of my mind.  Rarely do I have an actual camera in hand.  So to plan a trip that was entirely based on my desire to photograph the country was akin to planning a trip to heaven.

“Are you insane?” I heard numerous times from different friends and family members.  “Do you know how many hours you’ll be sitting in a car…just…driving??”

Yes, in fact.  I did.  135 according to my Excel spreadsheet.  (Yes, Excel.  You didn’t think you could plan a trip like this in three weeks time without a little bit of planning, did you?) 

Generally speaking, people had one of two reactions when I showed them my spreadsheet.  I either got a breathless “Wow! I’m so impressed,” or the dubious eyebrow raise with a “Better you than me.”  

I realize it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.  In fact, even my husband doubted the wisdom of so much driving in so little time. When would we have time to do anything or see anything?  Would we hate each other after so many hours with no other company?  I was convinced we’d either end up spiritually bonded on a new level…or divorced.  Only time would tell.  “Plus,” I’d told him, “the entire schedule is able to be changed at any time.  It’s OUR time and we can do whatever we want with it!  If we decide to scrap a campground and lose $20, it’s not the end of the world.”  Little did I know how soon I’d have to eat my words.

So when the big day was just about here, I was more than a little crushed when the remnants of a hurricane were moving through Texas and into the midwest, scheduled to hit Lexington, Kentucky, just as we were supposed to be setting up our first campsite.  This was NOT the way things were supposed to go.  I wasn’t supposed to have to change plans on the very first night!  When I drew up the schedule, I figured we’d probably end up sleeping in our car at least one night.  I just never bet on it being the very first one.

“We can’t very well set up a tent in an already flooded campground,” I told Nate the day before we were to leave.  I sighed and resigned myself to the fact that whether I liked it or not, my very outlook on the trip was being challenged by forces greater than I.  

At 10 pm the night before we would leave, we scrapped Kentucky and made plans to head to Ohio, staying well north of the majority of the storm, and visiting Nate’s family on our way westward.  Despite the visit, I wanted to pout.  It didn’t feel like day one of a monumental vacation.  It felt like we were going where we’d already gone a dozen times before.  For this day at least, I felt like a nine year old who wanted nothing more than to sulk at the fact that’d I’be been served pistachio ice cream when I’d ordered mint chocolate chip.  Still green?  Yes.  But not the same.

But, like all things, this too shall pass.  And it did.  I could live with the fact that we wouldn’t be visiting Maryland (been there), West Virginia (seen it), or Kentucky (haven’t seen it, but I’ve done Tennessee and isn’t that close enough?).  By day two, we were ready to catch up and get back on schedule.  But that’s a post for another day!

Yep, that’s a year’s worth of planning.  If anyone knew how many hours in the car I was going to sit, it was me.