My 2009 Road Trip to South Dakota – Wyoming – Montana – Utah – Arizona – New Mexico – Colorado Part 1

 

What’s next on “The Bucket List?” Joan and I asked each other at the start of spring, 2009. Our 2008 trip which took us north to Niagara Falls, a small section of southern Ontario province in Canada, Mackinaw Island, Chicago, and Colorado had been such a great adventure, that we could not resist doing something similar again. We eventually decided that the main destinations would be Yellowstone National Park, Jackson Hole, Mount Rushmore, and Salt Lake City. Our first move was to pay a visit to the AAA Travel Shop in Morrow, a small town about fifteen miles from Peachtree City. There a helpful assistant gave us the Tour Books for the states we would be visiting. These books had been of immeasurable value during our last trip that I would not contemplate any trip in the USA without one for the area I plan to visit.

 
What I was planning was a flight to either Denver, Colorado, or Rapid City, South Dakota, picking up a rental car, driving to all the places we wanted to see and then dropping off the car in Aspen. This would allow Joan to fly back to Atlanta, and I would spend some time with my younger daughter and her family in El Jebel, before flying back to Atlanta.

 Next I needed to put the plan into action by finding the most cost effective flights, car rental rates, and suitable dates.  The various combinations of rental companies, the available discounts, and pick up points and drop off points are mind-boggling. I had a few discount cards, such as AAA, Airtran, and AARP. Thank goodness for the wireless internet at home. It enabled me to spend many hours going through the various possibilities. I also had to liaise with Joan regarding the dates she would be available for the trip, and to have her concur with my suggestions. We reached agreement and our decision was to fly to Denver on the 8:30 am  Airtran flight on 17^th May, rent a car from Budget, and do the six hour drive to South Dakota. Budget Car Rental had the best rates and did not charge extra for dropping off the car at Aspen Airport. My daughter Deidre agreed to drive us to the Atlanta airport (Hartsfield-Jackson International) at 6:30 am for the 8:30 am flight.

 

The three-hour flight from Atlanta ensured that we arrived at Denver at 9:30 am, taking into account the two-hour time difference. After collecting our baggage and taking the Budget shuttle bus to the office, Joan signed the documents and paid with her credit card. We had decided that Joan would be the only driver because in the USA one does not have to pay extra for insurance if one has insurance on one’s own private vehicle.  We passed a few pleasantries with the man dealing with the paper work, and mentioned the places we intended visiting. We did not give him any indication on how much mileage we planned to cover, but we did mention the Grand Canyon as a possibility. He did blanch a little when we mentioned that it was our second trip and that we considered ourselves an older version of “Thelma and Louise”, With a disconcerted expression on his face he managed to utter the request “Please bring our car back to us!”

 

The directions we were given to find the vehicle, a Hyundai Accent, were not clear, and we spent some time walking up and down the lanes in the parking area trying to find the black car. Eventually the luggage was stowed into the trunk (or boot as I still referred to it; I am still adjusting from South African to American vocabulary). The bag holding the AAA Tour Books and the Yahoo maps and directions that I thought would be useful and had printed at home, was placed behind my seat, It was the same bag we had used on the 2008 trip, and it was lucky for us that Joan’s cabin luggage in which the books were packed, was not weighed at check-in, as I am sure it weighed more than her suitcase in the hold. No wonder the gallant man who helped her stow her bag into the overhead locker had difficulty making it look easy. As before, because I was planning on spending time with the family in Colorado, I had more luggage, and it was just within limits.
 

Although I have been to Denver and Colorado many times, I always headed west to Glenwood Springs and Aspen. This time, after eventually leaving the airport at 10:30 am, we headed north towards Fort Collins and the Wyoming border.  My first look at the map of Wyoming and reading the bold print place names took me back to the cowboy movies I had watched in my youth - Cheyenne, Laramie, Mule Creek... . I was told by a friend in Peachtree City who had been raised in Wyoming, that the wind never stops blowing there, and she claims that she always thought that the wind blows all the time everywhere else in America; so she was most surprised to eventually learn that it did not!

 

We had planned to spend our first night in South Dakota, close to Rapid City, which is the city nearest Mount Rushmore.  Wyoming is a fairly square-shaped state so on the eastern border Nebraska borders the lower half and South Dakota borders the upper half. On the southern border, Colorado borders about three quarters of the eastern section, and Utah borders the remaining quarter.  The northern border is shared with Montana, and the western border is shared with Idaho. The north-western corner of Wyoming is where the Yellowstone National Park is situated. The picturesque Black Hills are situated on the western border of South Dakota, so we were in for a real treat when it came to scenery.

 

The stretch of road between Denver and Fort Collins was the only stretch where we had to pay tolls, a total of $5. We stopped at the “Welcome to Wyoming” centre, on the outskirts of Cheyenne. According to the AAA Tour Book, Cheyenne was named for the tribe of Indians that once roamed southeastern Wyoming, and the Union Pacific Railroad decided to build a depot there as it was originally a site situated at the junction of several roads leading to military camps. Before the track reached the town, it was overrun by gamblers, cowboys, speculators, shopkeepers and real estate salesmen, and “Hell on Wheels” became its nickname.

As we proceeded north on the I25 I noticed a signpost indicating a turnoff to a place called Chugwater. I had no idea that Chugwater was on this route, and I asked Joan to take the turnoff. A few years ago while tuned in to the National Public Radio (NPR) I heard a presenter interview someone from that town. The Chugwater authorities wanted to increase the population of the town and were offering homes at a very good price. But the intriguing part of the interview was how the town got its name. In years gone by the Indians in the area used to hunt bison, but some of them got lazy and they stampeded the bison on the flat-topped hills in that area, and when the animals reached the edge of the  steep sided hills they fell over the cliffs. So Chugwater was named by the Indians for the sound the bison made falling over the cliffs, and into the nearby stream. The story made a deep impression on me, but I never thought I would ever visit the place. 

Cliffs at Chugwater

As it turns out, for Census 2000, Chugwater had a population of 244 with 120 housing units, a water area of 0 sq. miles; and a population density of 80.01 people per sq. mile. According to the owner of the Chugwater Soda Fountain the population has dropped to even less than that. The Soda Fountain also happens to be the oldest antique soda fountain in Wyoming. It is no longer a drug store, but some of the old fittings as well as the “Prescriptions” sign are still on display

.

Joan ordered some of the Chugwater Chili, a house specialty, for lunch, while a special order of eggs on toast was prepared for me. Joan claimed it was the best chili she had ever tasted, and to prove it she ordered a second bowl. Replete, we drove off on the last stage of the day’s journey.

While perusing the Tour Book I read an interesting story about another town in Wyoming, called Douglas. It was known as Tent Town in 1886 at its founding. One of its rowdiest characters was George Pike, and I quote “a cowhand whose rustling habits were so well-known that the cattle companies decided to hire him so he would at least benefit his current employer. One company thought so highly of him that at his death they erected an expensive tombstone with the following inscription:

Underneath this stone in eternal rest,

Sleeps the wildest one of the wayward west.

He was a gambler and sport and cowboy too,

and he led the pace in an outlaw crew.

He was sure on the trigger and staid to the end,

But was never known to quit on a friend.

In the relations of death all mankind’s alike,

 But in life there was only one George Pike.”

 

Eco-friendly toilet at Rest Stop

Rest Stop near Edgemont

We had left a town called Mule Creek and from there it was forty-five miles to the next town, Edgerton in South Dakota. The area was fairly remote and we were happy to view the lovely country scenery. I had no idea how far we had travelled when I asked Joan how we were doing for gas. I also had no idea how big the fuel tank was and had relied on her as the driver to keep an eye on the fuel gauge. When she said that the gauge was well below the quarter mark, panic set in, as I had not made a note of the mileage on the clock when we had left Denver. It did not occur to us to take a look at the rental papers which no doubt showed the mileage at the departure point!  Never have two people been so tense as Joan and I were right then. We held our breath every time we rounded a bend or crested a hill. Were we relieved to see a gas station appear as we entered Edgemont, particularly one that was not closed. As it turned out we had travelled 332 miles from Denver. We never did determine the capacity of the tank, but we vowed to never let the gauge go below one quarter full!

 

From Edgemont to Hot Springs was another forty miles, and we decided to spend the night there. I had read about the Mammoth Site, a famous tourist attraction located there, and I was keen to pay it a visit. We decided to stay at the Holiday Inn Express and before we checked in we took a drive to find the Mammoth Site, which, when we found it, was still open for another hour. So we paid our entrance fee and took the tour. A brief story behind the Mammoth Site (copied from http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/student/kuss5/mammoth.htm) is as follows:

 

“Over 26,000 years ago, large Columbian and woolly mammoths were trapped and died in a spring-fed pond near what is now the southwest edge of Hot Springs, South Dakota. The pond was formed from a sixty-foot deep sinkhole that filled with warm artesian spring water. As animals came to drink, they could not escape from the steep-sided watering hole, and for over 700

years their remains collected with layer upon layer of preserving silt and sediments. In 1974, during the excavation for a housing development, bones were unearthed. Luckily, these remains were recognized by the construction crew as unique, and experts were contacted for further examination. These events are nicely animated at the following website; Mammoth Trap: The Motion Picture.

Now, the Mammoth Site is the world's largest Columbian mammoth exhibit and research center for Pleistocene studies. Dr. Larry Agenbroad was elected as the Mammoth Site Principal Investigator, and the site achieved nonprofit corporate status. One of the most unique characteristics of this site is that it is the only place that woolly mammoth and Columbian mammoth remains have been found together. The Columbian variety is believed to have roamed what is now the United States from around 130,000 to 11,000 years ago, weighed as much as eight tons and stood twelve feet tall at the shoulders. All the remains at the site are believed to be males, most less than middle age.”



Inside the Mammoth Site

 

The whole site is enclosed and covered, so one is able to view the ongoing work at the site. It is astounding to look at those bones that are lying exactly where the creatures died 26 000 years ago. It makes one marvel at how in a relatively very brief period of time mankind is fast ruining the same planet!

 

This is a picture of a replica “Bone House” made from mammoth bones and bison hides, which man lived in about 27 000 years ago. These structures are known to have been built throughout Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Poland) between about 27,000 and 12,000 years ago, with a concentration found in the Dneiper River valley of Russia and Ukraine dated about 15,000 years ago.