We now continue our travails in SD. If you remember we had left off in the
earlier page after we entered Custer, SD. We visited the wood carving museum
in Custer. It had some great pieces of which we liked the following the best.
One of the best examples of wood carving at the musem in Custer,
SD. A dentist of old times is at work !
In the evenig we rambled around in Custer state park. Its a nice 100 mile
loop for wild life seeing and sight seeing. Bisons, Elks and similar animals
roam this country side.
One of n beautiful spots in Custer State Park, SD
A bison looks on at us photographers. You got to be ready
to get into your car and run if one of these guys charge at you :-)
Moon rises in the beautiful Black Hills region in SD
Our last sights in SD was the famous Mount Rushmore, that has the four
US presidents carved on it.
The amazing moutain carvings at Mount Rushmore. Each of the faces
are more than forty feet high !
In this picture you see the entire mountain in comparision
to us
Wyoming
West west wild wild west where are you ? Its right here in Wyoming !
This state calls itself Like no place on Earth and sure it is. The
rough praries from South Dakota lead you into the rougher rocky mountains.
And then there is Yellowstone park. All that is coming as you scroll
down. We first start with the Devil's tower situated on the border
with SD.
The unnatural formation of Devil's tower (WY) looms over the
local vegetation. This tower is really high 867ft !
Praire dogs have made a huge town at the base of Devils
tower. This ones pretty close for a view.
The interstate cuts across the prarie in this parts of the
country, WY. The mountains are seen in a distance in the background.
Soon we were climbing the rockies. One of best things in these
mountains is the sparkling rivulets that you find at every place. Some
of the best places we found felt like they were untouched and fresh.
The picnic area at Burgess, WY
As Deepa here attests, every thing has a fresh new look in
these mountains. The water sparkles, the weeds look greener and we are
happier !! in Wyoming
We then visited a spot that is sacred to many Native American Indians
(or if you prefer Red Indians). This spot was called as Medicine
Wheel. It was a nice hike of three miles. Here is a picture of the
arrangement of the stones that form a wheel on the ground.
The Medicine Wheel in the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming
Next we take a scenic route that winds through Montana and then into
the northern parts of Yellowstone NP. So we go to Montana and come
back to WY
Montana
Montana simply says Travel Montana and does not claim to be
any kind of state. We felt like it says Travel Montana and you will
understand. Unfortunately we did not travel much in this state -
one of the reasons being that this summer saw a lot of forest fires in
here. Lots of roads were closed and all that. In whatever little we
travelled, we liked it. Its very rugged country with hills and plains.
If we are right Jack Hanna (of tom and jerry cartoon fame) hails from
Montana. Anyway here are a couple of pics.
Pic here shows a whole mountain side that was burnt down by
a wild forest fire. Lots of Montana was under ashes this summer.
Montana is the start for the scenic Bear Tooth highway seen
here. It starts in Red Lodge, MT
Another view of the Bear Tooth highway
With that brief tour of MT we now head back to Wyoming...
Wyoming (cont'd)
The Bear Tooth pass continues its rambles through the scenic rockies
at times going above 10,000 feet above sea level.
The Bear Tooth highway as it winds into Wyoming
We were lucky to catch a lot of Fall Colours in and around
the Rocky mountains. Some vibrant aspen trees here
An authentic western cowboy herds his cattle in the
backdrop of Wyoming Rockies
After the ramble on Bear Tooth pass the highway turns into Yellowstone
NP. Whatever amount of words spoken, whatever number of pictures
taken, cannot describe Yellostone in any way. However here are some
pics for you to enjoy. Some of the scenery here is marred too, because
of wild fires, but still its beautiful.
The chief architect of the Yellostone area is the
Yellostone river snaking in the above picture. The name comes from the
fact that this river flows through sulphur laden yellow coloured
mountains
This is a place of amazing natural phenomenon. Here you see
us. In the background there are mud pots and volcanos spewing out
steam and hot air !
This is the upper falls of the two falls that the
Yellowstone river goes through.
The unnatural phenomenon (or rather we should call them the VERY
natural phenomenon !) here include boiling mud pots, boiling water
springs, hot water geysers and a host of other hissing gurgling things
:-). We have tried to put here the most important ones from the ones
we saw...
A hot boiling water spring here at Yellowstone NP, WY
Because the mineral laden water keeps getting more stuff
from the earths' interiors, it keeps building layered structures such
as these. Calcite springs, Yellowstone WY
The grand daddy of all hot water springs: The Grand
Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone, WY. This spring is more than 50 feet
wide and much deeper. One of the best sites to see, but of course not
to touch :-).
Finally the popular water geyser: Old Faithful,
Yellowstone, WY. This geyser erupts approximately every 80 minutes. An
aweinspiring sight to behold
So that was some of the best things we saw at Yellowstone. We now head
further south to Utah through the Grand Tetons.
We drove through the Grand Tetons NP next. However most of the Teton
range is not very accesible by road, you will need to hike. So what we
got to see was what we saw from the road - here is one pic that we
liked.
A small set of ranges at the base of the Teton Range.
A horse ranch at WY is a common site. Here is one with its
fantastic grounds, fences and all !
There we end an exotic place called Wyoming ! But hold on we will be
entering another exotic place called Utah next. So hang on...
