snow in June

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!

In Spite of the Weather

/ L. Ryan Storms / Leave a comment

Day 16: 6/17/24
From: Grand Teton National Park, WY (Colter Bay Campground)
To: Yellowstone National Park, WY (Grant Village Campground)
Distance: 33 miles (+ many miles of mindless park driving)

It’s cold. But nowhere near as cold as it will be tonight. At least we were toasty warm in our sleeping bags and blankets last night. And our dude-bro friends are up at 8, which means we get music again. No singing yet, but I don’t want to hear this, so I am in favor of leaving ASAP.

We’re on the road by 9:30 and at Yellowstone by 10:30. But now there’s a steady cold rain. Check-in isn’t until 1, so we decide we’re going to drive to see some of the sights. Bad idea.

We drive three extra hours to try to see sites around the park, but the traffic is awful and all we manage to see is a bunch of steam from hot springs beyond our sight (there’s no parking to be had) and the occasional bison. The parking lots for Old Faithful and for the Grand Prismatic Spring are packed. It’s a zoo.

So we drive back and set up the tent at 2 in cold wind. At least the rain stops for 15 minutes so we can set up. Then we climb in, huddle beneath blankets and in sleeping bags and take a much-needed 3-hour nap.

When we wake, we are reluctant to get out of sleeping bags, but we do and we head to the gift shop/grocery store/grill to get dinner. It’s an hour before closing and they are out of almost everything. No fries, no cheese, no creamer for coffee, and a whole list of other things I didn’t listen to. Sandwiches and drinks are all we need anyway! We watch the snow falling outside and then shop for an hour to stock up on anything we might need for the cold, cold night ahead. A hat for Husband, gloves for me and Younger Child, a couple of extra sweatshirts, and we’re set.

When we get outside again, the snow has stopped. We debate going back to Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic again since no one seems to be on the roads, and as we’re debating, we see an doe elk and her suckling calf. Now we have to take a drive. Even if it *is* 8 pm. (We all just had a lengthy nap after all…) So we brave the impending night and weather and trek out into the falling snow (again) and across the continental divide (again) and head to Old Faithful with just enough time to walk from the empty parking lot, wait 5 minutes, and watch it spout high into the air. Amidst the falling snow. How magical! There’s hardly anyone here at all and this feels like an incredible gift. 

Leaving the geyser, we spot a gorgeous bull elk grazing in the pasture. Do we risk driving a little farther to see if we can catch Grand Prismatic Spring before complete darkness? We do. And we get there after dusk. It’s a long walk on a boardwalk that’s mostly frozen from the steam of the hot springs and the currently 30 degree temps. There’s not much color to see at this point, but with no one here, it’s hauntingly beautiful. (Literally, almost no one. There’s one person here – a girl from Chicago who caught up to us mostly because she didn’t want to be walking it alone, but wanted to see it before she leaves the park.) By the time we return to the car, it’s completely dark and both kids are convinced they’re somehow going to die. And of course…husband finds a ring on the ground in the parking lot, in the dark. Who needs a metal detector? (All these plummeting temps must be making those rings just slide off cold fingers.)

We have an hour drive back through dark and snow to get to our side of the park. It’s a little harrowing, but we make it back to the camp by 11, brush teeth, and hop into freezing sleeping bags that take some time to warm.

And in the middle of the night, Younger Child and Husband heard elk bugling to each other somewhere near the campground. I pretend not to be jealous, but—OH!—*these* are the sounds I want to hear in nature!

Oregon – the Land of Many Climates

/ L. Ryan Storms / Leave a comment

Day 14: 6/15/24
From: Crater Lake, OR
To: Boise, ID
Distance: 418 miles (+ some)

Um, it’s snowing. In mid-June. We’re out the door by 8 am and the cloud cover above us is thick. But snow? I guess it *is* 32 degrees, so it’s not unprecedented. But also not exactly expected either. We’re east-coasters. June means warmth.

After a small snafu where we leave the park in the wrong direction thanks to zero reception, we head north through the Umpqua National Forest and Fremont-Winema National Forest where we continue to be snowed on for the next hour. This is surreal. When we have reception again, the Maps app turns us around again and we’ve basically taken a very roundabout way to get out of the park, but we didn’t add any time to today’s drive. Thankfully. 7 hours is 7 hours.

One thing I notice about Oregon is the purple wildflowers along the roadside. Some are close to the ground, and some grow a foot high or more. But purple seems to be the color here. As opposed to the white, pink, and red flower bushes (roses?) growing along California roads.

The surroundings quickly change as we drive back into the desert — still Oregon, but no longer woodsy and pine-filled. Sun, scrub brush, and dry hills. But it’s not hot here! It may look a bit like Arizona, but it’s definitely not. Still only 54 degrees at 11 am.

In this strange terrain we see two antelope — the first of the trip! And they dart when they see us, leaping across the desert scrub, their fluffy white butts to us.

After some time, Husband grows bored of this drive and begins to make up his own song. 

“There’s nothing out here
Nothing at all
I can’t even
Make a call

I’m just driving
In my car
I can see
So damn far”

I take over driving for the last two hours or so and we get stuck behind an enormous line of traffic for miles upon miles because of an oversized load that refuses to pull off the highway to let the mile backup pass him… Does Oregon not believe in 4-lane highways? What’s with all the secondary highways? I guess not enough people live here to make it worth it? Still, it was maddening to drive 35-45 miles an hour in a 65 mph zone for a good 15-20 minutes. 

We arrive at our hotel in Boise at 5 pm, sad because we’re officially back on Mountain Time and out of Pacific, officially on our return trip. Husband and Older Child go out for dinner while Younger Child and I stay in and catch a nap. I tweaked something in my neck today (yay), so I’m trying to give it a little bit of a rest. And a rest usually ends up meaning sleep, so… Husband comes back at 9:30 with dinner for me and Younger Child — the problem with going for dinner late on a Saturday evening is anything brought back will be brought back even later.

I  check the weather forecast for the next few days and am a bit gutted to find it’s going to be very, very cold at night for the next few nights. And we’re in a tent. So while most of my friends back home are headed into a dangerous heat wave, I hope they all think of us, shivering in our tent over the next few days.

Do I place an order for blankets at a Target in Jackson, Wyoming so we can pick them up tomorrow on our way to our next campground? Yes, I do. Because modern problems call for modern solutions and the internet is our friend.