After a long silence, I’m headed back west!
- Monday 4/29: Independence, KY -> Yellow River State Forest, IA
- Tuesday 4/30: Yellow River State Forest, IA -> Smoky Hills, MN
- Wednesday 5/01: Smoky Hills, MN -> Theodore Roosevelt NP
- Thursday 5/02: Theodore Roosevelt NP -> Hot Springs, SD
- Friday 5/03: Hot Springs, SD -> Bozeman, MT
- Saturday 5/04: Bozeman, MT -> Missoula, MT
- Sunday 5/05: Missoula, MT -> North Bend, WA!
Monday 4/29: Independence, KY -> Yellow River State Forest, IA
Welcome back to my blog! It’s been a while since I’ve updated it. I’ve been busy all semester in Robinson Forest having classes in the woods! You can read all about it here – there’s even a post from me on there.
It’s that time of year again for me to head back to Washington, and I have a great road trip planned. Sadly, it will be without Johnna this time around because she is off on her own adventure doing Peace Corps in Georgia! Today was the longest amount of driving I think I’ve ever done – I drove 10 hours from Independence, KY to Effigy Mounds National Monument in Northern Iowa.
Not much of note happened today since I was driving for so long, but I did get to go through a lot of cool paces that I have never been to before. Tomorrow will be my day of sightseeing around the area.
I saw lots of corn fields, dairy cows, and straight roads, but I also saw some really interesting towns going through Wisconsin and Iowa. I even saw a church that was inspired by Spanish designs, but I didn’t get to stop in time to get a photo of it.
The place I’m camping for the night is Yellow River State Forest. It’s run by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and has the only fire tower in the state. I also like it because it’s located in the driftless area, the same geologic area that Devils Lake that I went to last year is in. There’s lots of neat geology here!
Tuesday 4/30: Yellow River State Forest, IA -> Smoky Hills, MN
It was cold last night, but it was nice to basically have the campground to myself. All I could really hear was the turkeys gobbling, which was relaxing in a strange way!
I got up early to see the only fire tower in the state of Iowa, which I read about in a Yellow River State Forest pamphlet. It was a short drive up and, importantly, on the way to Effigy Mounds, which is why I really was staying here.
The fire tower was cool, but you couldn’t climb up it since it hasn’t been maintained in a long time. I tried to get a better view of the Mississippi river when it was still foggy in the sunrise, but I couldn’t get to a good vantage point. From what I saw through the trees, though, it was spectacular! In my quest to find a good view I ended up on “ridge view road” which seemed promising and like it would yield good results. However, it only provided a view of one particular ridge that, while cool, was not my main target. It also was closed due to active logging, which I happened to stumble onto!
I was the first person to arrive at effigy mounds for the day, even beating some of the employees. There aren’t a lot of trails at the park, so it didn’t take me long to do a good chunk of them and call it for the day. The interesting thing about effigy mounds is that, as the name suggests, they have a lot of indigenous mounds that are still preserved and used to this day. The section I did had bear mounds and circular mounds, but other sections of the park had bird-shaped mounds. This park has a lot of very interesting history, which I will not do justice talking about myself. So you can read all about it here!
After the mounds I drove to Minneapolis to see the Museum of Russian Art and the Central Library. Johnna last year highly recommended the art museum, so I took her up on her recommendation and checked it out. They had four exhibits including one permanent exhibit. There were a lot of pieces that were anti-war in the museum, and they even had a Ukrainian flag painted on the side of the building to show their support for Ukraine. The main collection featured a lot of soviet realist artists, as well as those anti-war pieces. The second exhibition was of a Slavic woodworker in Minneapolis who had art all over the city. His pieces were all very naturally inspired, and I liked how they looked. Then the third exhibition featured some surrealist paintings, which were very cool. I’m not exactly sure what the artist was trying to say with those pieces, but they definitely looked the part and were visually interesting at least. Finally, there was an exhibition of portraits that were done by a soviet artist(?) during WWII. These were extremely interesting and beautiful. I loved how he was able to capture so much emotion in the portraits even though they were very simply done.
I went to the library to get some wifi and to see what the city of Minneapolis had to offer in its central branch, and I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw. There were 4 floors and an atrium with multi-use rooms and catalogs of all kinds. They even still had their card catalog! The special collections room had a very interesting archway carved out of wood, and I wish I could have gone in there to see the exhibits. My favorite thing I saw was the photo catalog, which was thousands of photos arranged by category alphabetically. I saw some really interesting ones, and you could get basically whatever you wanted there from Buddhism to smoking rooms. They also had a vinyl listening room on the same floor and a cool painting of Minneapolis from above in the early 20th century.
I then said goodbye to Minneapolis and drove to Smoky Hills state forest where I car camped for the night because of the rain. It was a long drive to get there, but it was nice to stop and sleep even if it was in my drivers seat.
Wednesday 5/01: Smoky Hills, MN -> Theodore Roosevelt NP
I was pleasantly surprised to have survived the night in Minnesota camping in my car, and got up early to head to Fargo and then to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
The drive to Fargo, comparatively, was fairly easy and just a straight shot west. I parked downtown and walked around for a bit, checking out some of the murals I saw last year. Then I decided to see the Hjemkomst Center, which featured some pretty wacky things and proof that, if given enough time and dedication, men in retirement can accomplish basically anything they want – up to and including sailing in international waters in a handmade boat. Hjemkomst means homecoming in Norwegian, which is significant because there are a lot of people of Norwegian heritage in the upper Midwest. Two such individuals were heavily featured here.
The first being Robert Asp who built the ship called Hjemkomst, which actually sailed to Norway from the Great Lakes in the 1980s. It took him decades to complete, and he unfortunately didn’t get to see his dream through because he passed away due to cancer when the ship finished crossing the Great Lakes. The museum detailed a lot of the effort that went into building the ship and executing the idea at all stages. When they finally made it to Norway, the crew got to have dinner with the King of Norway! The part that stood out to me the most was that this was just a retired guy’s passion project, and he was actually able to get it done because he had the resources to do it. I can only imagine what other people would do in their retirement given similar resources. They had a really interesting PBS documentary playing throughout the exhibit, which you can watch here!
The second being Guy Paulson who built an exact replica of a Norwegian stave church in Norway during his retirement. It took him 5 years in the 90s, and multiple trips to Norway to get the dimensions right. This was another example of a retired guy who was able to get his passion project done with the right resources available to him. I was the only person on the tour they give every hour, and it was cool to have the church to myself along with the tour guide. She explained that Guy Paulson did all of the wood carving himself, along with everything in the church, and seeing it in person helped me understand the scope of what he was able to get done. Here is another short documentary you can watch about that!
I knew I couldn’t top that adventure, so I hit the road to drive across the great state of North Dakota and to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. I got there early in the evening, and setup to sleep in my car again, but this time in the back seat where hopefully it will be significantly more comfortable because I can lay down. I talked with my parents and with some friends on the phone as well, since I had service here, and then I made dinner and went to sleep!
Thursday 5/02: Theodore Roosevelt NP -> Hot Springs, SD
Another long day of driving in the books! I woke up early from Teddy Roosevelt National Park to drive to the Black Hills. I went to Devils Tower and Jewel Cave National Monuments before ending the day in Hot Springs, SD at an Airbnb.
Sleeping in the new configuration in my car was actually fairly comfortable! Or at least much more comfortable than sleeping in the driver’s seat. I think with less stuff in my car I could actually make it work for multiple nights and be able to get a good night’s sleep.
The drive to Devils Tower was pretty interesting and it took me through the backroads of Eastern Montana. I got to see Medicine Rocks state park, which I had never heard of before, but it’s just a bunch of sandstone pillars left over from about 60 million years ago. I wish I had more time to check those out, but I had a cave tour appointment I had to get to at Jewel Cave!
First, though, I stopped at Devils Tower and walked around for a bit. I’m not sure where I first heard about it, but I know it’s a very popular stop along the way to Yellowstone going west, and I had never been there before! It was very strange seeing the tower popping out of the landscape. It just appears out of nowhere kind of like Mount Rainier in Washington, or the Big Blue Building in Lexington.
They have multiple trails that traverse the area of Devils Tower, but I did the main, paved one that circled the tower itself due to time. To give the Park Service credit, that trail felt like it took up the perfect amount of time and it gave me the perfect views of the tower. The only thing I’d want to come back for would be to see the tower at night because there is very low light pollution in the area and they advertise it as being a great spot for stargazing. Maybe some day in the future! It was also very interesting to see the climbers going up the tower. The record is 18 minutes, but they said it can take as long as 16 hours to summit.
After checking out the tower, I got some photos from farther away with my telephoto lens, then hit the road towards jewel cave. While I was getting those photos I saw a bald eagle terrorizing a prairie dog town, and I was only able to get one good photo from it as it was flying away.
It’s about 2 hours from Devil’s Tower to Jewel Cave, and the drive is gorgeous going through the heart of Black Hills. I was surprised to have gotten some flurries at certain elevations. When I got to Jewel Cave, it was extremely windy and I was thankful that I was doing something sheltered from the weather. The tour was very interesting and I learned that the major difference between Mammoth Cave and Jewel Cave is that in Jewel Cave there are calcite deposits all across the walls, which have this beautiful glittering effect. They say that there is enough airflow for Jewel Cave to be larger than Mammoth Cave, and they’re finding more and more miles of cave each year. I will stand up for my Kentucky pride though and come out and say that Jewel Cave will never beat out Mammoth Cave! They’re going to have to pry the title of world’s longest cave from our cold, limestone hands. Our tour guide was really amazing, and I learned that she’s currently in high school! I didn’t realize that the parks hired people that young. She was telling us about the development of Jewel Cave and how it’s one of the few caves that doesn’t have any indigenous activity. It was discovered when two prospectors found a small hole in a hillside and blasted it open with dynamite in the early 1900s, and they have been finding more and more miles of cave ever since. Right now it’s up to 220 miles and counting.
We ended up being the last tour of the day before the visitor center closed. As I was driving out I got to go through Wind Cave National Park on my way to Hot Springs, SD to see my Airbnb host, Jeff. Wind Cave was very nice to drive through, and I wish I had had enough time to see both caves. There were plenty of bison out, which was great to see!
I was worn out by the time I got to Jeff’s house, but he greeted me as soon as I pulled up. He shook my hand and said “Erin, I have one rule around here: no pussy-footin’ around! Treat this house like it’s yours – and I mean it!” And that was the start of a great evening. I put all my stuff in my room for the night and had dinner with him. We talked for a few hours about life and camping. He even gave me some tips for camping in Kansas! He said he’s been all over the country and apparently he used to work for IBM back in the day. I, of course, reminded him about the former IBM facility in Lexington and he said he had been there for work before! It really is a small world.
With everything I did today, I am going to bed early so I can get an early start tomorrow on my 8 hour drive to Bozeman, MT!
Friday 5/03: Hot Springs, SD -> Bozeman, MT
I slept very well, which was important because today was a big travel day for me. I started driving at 7:30 in South Dakota and stopped at 4:30 when I arrived in Bozeman. I made a few stops along the way, but it was mostly for gas. The way west was a lot more interesting this time going on I-90 westbound towards Bozeman instead of taking the US highway that Johnna and I were on last year. It was really cool getting to see the Rocky Mountains get closer and closer, and even cooler to see the snow-capped peaks still present this time of year. On my way out of Hot Springs, SD, there was a TON of snow hitting the black hills, which was really interesting to see. I wasn’t worried about traction because the snow wasn’t sticking to the roads – just to the trees. As I was getting farther away, the snow stopped, and when I reached the interstate, it was all gone, and the sun was out!
I have been listening to the Grapes of Wrath this whole trip, and I think today alone I put 5 or 6 hours of listening time into it. It’s been very good so far! I wish I could be reading a physical copy, but I do like the audio book a lot.
Tonight, I am staying at the Treasure State Hostel. I wish I had known about this place last year, but it’s pretty affordable and right on main street in town. For a single bed it’s only $40/night, which is the price of some campsites I’ve been to in the past…
I met some very interesting people there – one of whom had an ancestor on the original Yellowstone expedition and had a peak named after him. The guy I was talking to said he came to visit the peak and pay his respects, and also train some for running. This guy had run all over the country it seemed, and he pretty much told me the story of his whole life, which was actually pretty interesting. I met another guy who worked in aerospace from Seattle, and he apparently was working one day and decided he had enough and has spend the last two weeks at this hostel hiking and trying to figure things out about this life. He seemed really nice but in a tough spot.
I walked around downtown Bozeman along main street during the evening before dinner. I was considering going out to a restaurant but I figured I’d save my money. I ended up going into a book store and got a copy of Gravity’s Rainbow, which I may end up reading one day. In Lexington I was involved in a Thomas Pynchon book club for a while, and I read Crying of Lot 49 and Inherent Vice with them and liked both! I tried to find some specific CDs for my trip, but they unfortunately didn’t have them.
I’m going to bed fairly early again so that I can get to Missoula at a reasonable time. I’m going to see some cool things tomorrow, which you’ll read about in the next section!
Saturday 5/04: Bozeman, MT -> Missoula, MT
Compared to yesterday, the drive was significantly easier to get to Missoula! It was only 3 hours plus some extra time to get to my main attraction for the day.
The hostel stay last night went very well. I wish I had stayed long enough to enjoy the free breakfast, but I wanted to get on the road with enough time to walk around Missoula and see the Garden of 1000 Buddhas that I found Atlas Obscura.
The Garden of 1000 Buddhas is located about 30 minutes outside of Missoula and really does have 1000 buddha statues! Construction began in 2000 and it was finally finished in 2015. Admission is free, but they have a suggested donation of $5-$10, and you’re also welcome to leave small coins as offerings.
It was very surreal going to the garden because of the location it’s in. It feels like it’s in the middle of the Eurasian steppe and I can see why a Tibetan Buddhist school setup a monument like this here. The 1000 buddha statues are arranged in a wheel with spokes in the shape of the Dharma wheel, and each statue is identical. They also have statues of other buddhas that have been around since the main buddha, bringing the total to more like 1008 buddhas, but the marketing sounds better with 1000. In addition to the buddha statues, they have a fountain, two mandalas, and a hill with a bunch of prayer flags in a tent! You can walk up the hill and check it out. It’s pretty interesting to go up there and get a top-down perspective on the whole garden.
I spent longer than I had anticipated at the garden, but for good reason because there was a lot more that you could do than I thought! I drove back to Missoula and went to the art museum to see what exhibits they had this year. I really liked what they had last year, but I think I prefer what they had last year. The pieces they had up this year were still really good, but there was something about the pieces last year that appealed to me a bit more. This time around, they had some local artists and more indigenous artists, which I really appreciated. There was a whole exhibit on missing and killed indigenous people, which is seldom talked about and even ignored in Montana and states with reservations. Some of the art used in the exhibition was also used on a billboard campaign throughout the state, which I had seen on my drive in.
There was also an exhibition based around found trash. The artist made weathered tiles and other pieces from it, which was interesting! I had seen some similar pieces like that before, but never in this specific way.
After the art museum, I walked around town and wandered into this shop simply called the Import Market. I was drawn in by the Fiestaware and Futon neon signs in the windows (although the futon was referring to a couch futon, not a Japanese shiki-futon). That place was full of plates, posters, and even had a whole room full of lawn ornaments. I wandered around back and found that it was connected to a bar by one single door. Very interesting building!
I decided that I wanted to walk to the Clark Fork River and get a photo of the mountains, so I walked over and discovered that there was a beer festival happening simultaneously with the Saturday farmers market! There were bluegrass bands playing and people dancing around. There were also people trying to get me to register to vote, but I had to tell them that I don’t live in Missoula.
I couldn’t really get good photos of the mountains, but I got to do some great people watching, and I’m always happy to do that. When I felt like I had seen enough, I went to see my friend (and former boss from last year) Tim, who was having a housewarming party with his girlfriend! Tim and Andrea’s friends came over and brought food and merriment, and it was a great time. I stayed the night in their spare bedroom and slept the best I had all trip!
This is Frank! He’s a HUGE cat that Tim and Andrea think used to come up to the old tenants and get fed. He’s very friendly!
Sunday 5/05: Missoula, MT -> North Bend, WA!
Finally, it’s the last day of me traveling.
I drove longer than I had originally planned because Tim suggested that I take the scenic route through Montana, avoiding the interstate. It was definitely a scenic drive! I enjoyed getting to see many different peaks and alpine lakes. It was getting me excited for Washington!
I left later than I had planned because Tim and I were playing Go in the morning and we had a late breakfast, which was very delicious. I said my goodbyes and hit the road around noon, and kept driving until I hit North Bend at 8pm pacific time. The sights were great up until I got to Washington, then I ran into fog around Spokane. It wasn’t until I got to George, WA that I stopped to take in the scenery of the Columbia River.
I was greeted, however, by some seriously strong winds that nearly blew me over at the rest stop I got out at. I had to get on my knees to avoid getting hurt. Sand and gravel were getting blown in my face, and I even think I saw a few tumbleweeds going across the interstate!
My car was not happy about the wind, but I was able to make it through, and got to North Bend after 3000 miles and 7 days of traveling…
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! I will update soon about my first week of work. It has been crazy already!
Mushrooms and Arches 
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