Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Badlands

We visited the sights of western South Dakota today. The sculptures at Mt. Rushmore are truly impressive. It's amazing how rock at that scale can be carved mostly by using dynamite. We also visited the ongoing super-giant sculpture of Crazy Horse being carved out of a mountain of granite only 17 miles from Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills. The finished sculpture will consist of the torso of the native Amrerican chief Crazy Horse mounted on his horse. At this time only the face has been finished. We had to see this one from pretty far away because we didn't have time to take the bus that takes you to the base of the mountain. But we enjoyed visiting the exhibits in the museum of Native American culture. We rounded up the day by visiting Badlands National Park. Before going in, Stephanie thought they were called Badlands because they were boring, but she changed here mind when she saw them. They are called Badlands because they were extremely difficult to traverse by the early French explorers and besides, they could not be used to produce anything. They are an eerie landscape of eroded formations: buttes, canyons, cliffs, etc. with beautiful earth tones.
Ixchel has been holding up pretty well, but we can tell we're reaching the end of her tolerance for riding in a car. Now she says she wants to walk everywhere instead of going by car. Fortunately, we only have a couple of days left before we get to Illinois where will take an 11-day break.

Mt. Rushmore!

Home loan blues

After spending some time in the am running around copying and faxing some additional docs that we just found out are needed for our home loan, we had a long day of driving. Alex is exhausted which is why I’m the blogger, for better or worse. We drove through the Big Horn Cloud Forest – wow! I recommend that area to anyone going through eastern Wyoming. It’s very popular with bicyclists; we saw hundreds (really) and let me tell you, they are big mountains. Beautiful forest, incredible rock formations, etc. They even identify the period of the rock formations (how many millions of years old). We arrived, worn out, in Rapid City. BTW, we can get zero phone reception on our cell phones (seems that Cingular is not a known entity in this part of the country), so hope you haven’t called us.

Carseat rash

We finished up our stay in Yellowstone with a trip to Mammoth Springs were sulfur and other mineral deposits have formed all sorts of funky formations, orange and white, and there is often steaming water flowing over them, creating these amazing little waterfalls. Alex looked desperately for grizzlies as we left the park (they were only bushes and more bison) and made me grow cross-eyed looking at everything through the binoculars, but to no avail. As we drove across Wyoming, I must say that it was much more memorable than southern Idaho (Alex said that northern Idaho is more impressive). We drove through mountain ranges and exposed red rock and mesas (somewhat like Utah, but bigger) after leaving Yellowstone on our way to Cody, WY, home of Buffalo Bill. Ixchel was clamoring for a swimming pool and her daily ice cream, and we stayed at a great little hotel where the owner has miniature (as well as regular) horses. Ixchel kissed one of the horses and fed them all hay. She still has a little bit of a runny nose at this point but she’s better. You’re probably thinking maybe she shouldn’t be swimming and eating ice cream, but it’s very hard to deny her these pleasures after so many hours in the car. She actually has a rash on her little behind from sitting so much!

Are we there yet?! ¿Ya llegamos?

 

Mammoth springs

 

Yellowstone day 2

The moment had arrived for us to make one of the most popular tourist treks of the U.S.: Old Faithful. Alex was lucky enough to see the geyser Beehive erupt, which actually was bigger and longer than Old Faithful (it only goes off 1 – 4x/day and is unpredictable). Ixchel and I (as usual) were in the bathroom. Old Faithful was true to the prediction and we saw the geyser go 2x, always w/in one minute of the prediction. It’s quite a sight, and we were among hundreds there to see it. From OF, we went south to the Grand Teton National Park. As we drove through the southern end of the park, it became clear that Yellowstone is very popular because you can see the gorgeous attributes of the park (lakes, waterfalls, geysers, etc.) often without leaving your car and, at most, after a 20-minute walk. It’s sort of strange that natural wonders can so easily be served up on a platter. The same goes for the wildlife! We ran into two traffic jams: one which was following a bison cruising down the road and another of people stopped to take photos of an elk. Mind you, we were right in the mix, with Alex out of the car, jogging down the road with his camera in hand. Luckily he wasn’t gored by bison. The grizzly bears were not so compliant and we didn’t see any. The Grand Tetons are impressive peaks and the forest in that park is much older forest, so it seems the fires didn’t go that far.

Watch out for the bisons!

Yellowstone

We arrived in Yellowstone in the pm and had a great camp site that Alex had managed to book online that am. Ixchel is getting good at setting up camp; she’s an actual help, especially with the tent. She runs around saying, “Con que puedo ayudar?” I was thrilled to be staying in the same place for two whole nights. We took a nice hike through the boiling mudpots and steaming fumaroles that afternoon. Ixchel stopped frequently to play in the dirt to make “pasteles” (cakes) for everyone. On the way back to camp, we visited a lake where Ixchel’s fear of bugs turned into panic at the sight of flies the size of my thumb. We were sprinkled upon briefly that evening, just enough to cool us off. Alex is most impressed to see the devastation caused by the 1988 wildfires that spread through Yellowstone, after which the Forest Service revised its policies on total suppression of forest fires in the park. We saw very little old growth forest in Yellowstone, as the 1988 fires burnt most of it. Of course there is regeneration, but it’s a slow process.

Across Idaho on 84

We decided to let Ixchel sleep in, so we didn’t get out till noon (the hotel’s checkout time). She seemed to be doing well and did not complain about her ear anymore. Because of the late start we were only able to reach Idaho Falls as we crossed the state from west to east. Because of time constraints we were not able to see some of the sights in Idaho such as the Bitteroot wilderness, the largest roadless area in the lower 48, and had to content ourselves with watching farmland and scrub from highway 84.

Boise and Ixchel's ear

We finally started heading east into eastern Oregon. This part of the state is very dry and covered mainly with sparse scrub vegetation though on hillsides you see junipers. Ixchel is a very good traveler though at the end of this long trip that ended in Boise, Idaho she said “me duelen las pompis y la espalda (my butt and my back hurts).” She was very happy that we checked in into a hotel with a swimming pool. It was a very hot day and even at 7:30 pm the temperature hovered in the mid 90s. We keep Ixchel entertained by playing her CDs though she only a likes a few songs and never gets tired of them so we have heard “los tres cochinitos (the three little pigs)” about a thousand times now. We’ve begun negotiating with her so that for every time she listens to a couple of her songs we can hear one of ours. She doesn’t like that. Ixchel is still sick (a runny nose and cough) and tonight she started saying that her ear hurt. We got concerned suspecting an ear infection because of all the mucus she’s been producing. But being Saturday evening we couldn’t take her to a doctor and we didn’t want to risk letting an ear infection go without treatment. So, we got ready to take her to the emergency room of the local hospital. As we got in the car all ready to go Ixchel said her ear didn’t hurt anymore. Her pain had magically disappeared and she was in very good spirits. So, we decided to wait. I called my doctor brother (Felix) and he said he didn’t think she had an infection. He prescribed some drugs and said we should keep an eye on her.

Crater Lake NP

We left Klamath Falls at 10:30 am after stopping by Safeway to buy food. I’d like to get an earlier start, but it’s difficult with Ixchel especially since she’s still sick (cough and runny nose), we let her sleep all she wants. We wish she would sleep more in the car but she only takes a nap about an hour long. Soon after we left, of course, Ixchel had to go “poofy.” But with no bathroom in sight we had to stop by the side of the road and take her behind some bushes. We have to make frequent stops with Ixchel either to do “poofy” or “pichy” or because she’s just tired of being in the car and needs a break. After about an hour we reached Crater Lake National Park. We were first welcomed by the sight of a deep canyon (Alice canyon) with a river running down the middle. But the main attraction is the huge deep blue lake in the middle of an extinct crater. It’s truly an incredible sight, to stand at the rim of a huge volcano and to see a caldera filled with water and an island in the middle. After a pic-nic lunch with a view of the lake and a bit of hiking, we said goodbye to Crater Lake and headed north. We wanted to camp, but it being Friday and close to six pm we were not sure if we could find a spot. We pulled into La Pines camprogund just south of Bend, Ore. We were behind a truck and hoping they wouldn’t take the last stop. As we had feared, the camp was full but the people in the truck we following were there to cancel their reservations, so we were able and lucky to take their spot. The campsite was nice and it even had an electric outlet where I was able to recharge some of the many batteries I have (camera, camcorder, laptop, cell phone). Before going to bed we went to see a talk on star gazing led by park staff. We learned that central and eastern Oregon have very little light pollution (very dark skies) because the big population centers in the state are located more towards the coast. Ixchel was one of the most enthusiastic attendees, jumping up and down and exclaiming “wow!” at the slides of planets, comets, etc. from the nearby observatory. At one slide (a crater on Mars), Stephanie commented to Ixchel, “That one looks like a big eye.” Ixchel responded, “That’s not a big eye. That’s a volcano that exploded and left a big hole.” She got her volcano geology down at Crater Lake and Mount Lassen obviously (in spite of the fact that Mr. Physical Geography – her father – responded to her question of why the volcano exploded with “because it got angry”).

Ixchel and Crater Lake / Ixchelita y el lago

 

Lassen and the baby volcanoes

Lassen is located over a hot spot and it’s famous for its geological activity. Ixchel was introduced to sulphur-smelling mudpots that spewed gray mud. We told her they were baby volcanoes and she asked where their mommy and poppy were. The drive across the park is filled with awe-inspiring views, especially that of Mt. Lassen itself, a sleeping giant. We had lunch next to Manzanita lake where Ixchel went for a skinny dip along with Stephanie (who kept her clothes on). As we left Lassen behind we took a route that took us across Modoc County in California’s northeastern corner. I had always wondered what this remote section of the state looked like. We went through high elevation conifer forests, brushland and agriculture. It was much greener than I had imagined. Due to a train derailment we took an unexpected detour that took us through some backcountry unpaved roads. I became a bit worried because with all the weight our clearance is pretty low, but fortunately though unpaved, the road was even and we got to enjoy views of rustic farmland. After crossing the Oregon border we finally reached our destination of Klamath Falls where we spent the night at the Maverick motel where we had a chance to shower and organize ourselves and I used the wireless connection to post to our blog.

El parque Lassen se encuentra sobre una zona geologica muy activa. Ixchel quedó muy impresionada de ver un “volcancito” que escupía lodo con olor a azufre. La carretera que cruza el parque sube hasta una altura de 8000 pies (2450 m) donde disfrutamos vistas panorámicas de un denso bosque en el valle y de la imponente montaña Lassen que es un volcán dormido. Antes de salir de Lassen almorzamos al lado del lago Manzanita donde observamos a pescadores en busca de truchas. Ixchel y Estefany decidieron darse un chapuzón. Metí los pies pero el agua estaba tan helada que hasta dolía. Seguimos nuestra aventura en el condado de Modoc en el extremo noreste de California. Cruzamos bosques en zonas de alturra y agricultura en los valles. Después de un rato finalmente llegamos a la frontera y entramos al estado de Oregón. Esa noche nos hospedamos en el pequeño pueblo de Klamath Falls. El pueblo tiene un bonito centro histórico donde cenamos en un restaurante italiano.

Snow! ¡Qué frío!

Camping in Lassen Volcanic NP

We made our first big outing to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We left Sacramento by 10:30 am and made it to Lassen by 4:30 pm. In the process we crossed the 39^th and 40^th parallels. Lassen VNP is surrounded by Lassen National Forest, so pretty much as soon as we got off the 5 Fwy we started enjoying a beautiful landscape of open dry forest and meadows. Then as we gained elevation, it became a denser pine/fir forest. We thought summer was in full swing but apparently it’s still early in the season since only three out of six campgrounds were open due to snow conditions. We decided to stay in the first campground since Ixchel was by this time pretty tired of being in the car (and she has a way of showing it!). From the campground we had wonderful views of the surrounding peaks. While Stephanie took a nap in the tent, Ixchel and I went for a short hike to a snow patch and to a stream. Later we roasted marshmallows. I ate mine with “smores” but Ixchel and Stephanie like them alone. Ixchel has been having a persistent cough. Besides her usual nighttime “kickboxing” (Stephanie calls her “squiggly-wiggly) she woke us up coughing. We’ve been giving her cough medicine to help her (and us sleep). Anyway, we’re off to an exciting start of our cross-country road trip.

Hicimos nuestra primera gran salida al parque nacional Lassen. Este parque queda como a 200 millas (320 km) al norte de Sacramento. Para llegar ahí tomamos la autopista 5 que corre en dirección norte y sigue el valle central, o sea que en el camino se ve mucha agricultura, pero al salir del 5 y encaminarse hacia el este ya se comienzan a ver bosques y llanos porque uno pronto entra en el Bosque Nacional Lassen. Luego se va aumentado de altura hasta llegar a la entrada del parque. Acampamos como a 6300 pies de altura (1900 m) así que comenzó a hacer frío en cuanto se puso el sol. Hicimos una fogata para calentarnos y rostizar malvabiscos. Ya en la tienda, Estefanía arropó muy bien (quizás demasiado bien pues creo que le dió calor) a Ixchel pues ha estado con una tos persistente la cual al principio creíamos que se debía a una alergía pero ahora no estamos seguros. Además de la tos su comportamiento es normal aunque hoy tenía una leve calentura. De todos modos Ixchel la pasó muy contenta en una pequeña caminata que tomamos donde jugamos en la nieve y visitamos un arroyuelo. A Ixchel le encanta acampar pues le gusta estar afuera y correr libremente. El primer día de nuestro viaje através de los EEUU fue divertido y prometedor.

Baby volcano

Un volcancito bebé en el parque nacional Lassen. A baby volcano in Lassen National Park. 

Sacramento

We made it Sacramento to our friend’s Bruce and Nancy’s house. Bruce teaches Geography at Sacramento State and Nancy is a speech pathologist. They have two-year old Catherine and a one-year old Natalie. Ixchel and Catherine had a blast playing together. I brought Bruce some pine cores I collected in Honduras as we’re thinking about putting a research proposal together.

Llegamos a Sacramento donde nuestros amigos Bruce y Nancy. Catherine tiene dos años y la pasaron muy bien con Ixchel jugando en la piscinita y en los columpios. Con Bruce esperamos colaborar en un proyecto en el cual buscariamos los árboles más viejos de Honduras para ver si podemos reconstruir el clima de los últimos 300 o 400 años usando dendrocronología (anillos en la madera).

First Day

After three hectic days of packing and cleaning, we're tired but happy to start a new phase of our lives. The moving truck came today and took all our stuff away. We packed camping gear in our new carrier on top of our car and set off to see the country. However, it being almost 9:00 pm, we only got half a mile away, and decided to spend the night at our friend Elisa's apartment. Stephanie who had been in high gear all day promptly crashed along with Ixchel who'd been impatiently waiting to see Catherine, our friends Bruce and Nancy's little daughter in Sacramento.

Finalmente terminamos de empacar (o de hacer cajas como dicen nuestros amigos españoles Isabel y Javier). Cansados pero contentos, nos embarcamos una vez más en otra etapa de nuestra vida. Luego de cargar el carro salimos hacia nuestra primera parada la cual resultó estar a menos de un kilómetro, pues cansados y siendo tarde decidimos pasar la noche en la casa que nuestra amiga Elisa tan gentilmente nos ofreció.