Month: May 2016

Bring On The Badlands!

Hello there! I’m here today to help you plan your next trip. For quality purposes, we just tried it out for you, and we can say with confidence that you are going to LOVE it.

It’s a week-long stay in Badlands National Park!

Ok, you don’t have to go, but it’s absolutely our favorite place so far, and I highly recommend it! 🙂 Neither of us had ever been, and we both had no idea what to expect. We were completely floored by how beautiful this park is. We often weren’t even able to come up with words for it; we just kept laughing out loud with happiness and complete awe!

We drove into the park from Scenic, SD on Sage Creek Road to Sage Creek Campground. It’s a free primitive campground (that’s the term, though I figure if it has toilets and garbage cans, it’s pretty fancy) and it’s outside the portion of the park with all the iconic formations. It really doesn’t get super Badlands-y until the point where Hwy 240 drops into the park.

There are lots of spots to park and set up tents, and though the days were quiet, every evening it was full and bustling, with people playing frisbee, hiking the hills and picnicking. We kept wondering when Dave Matthews was going to show up and start the show.

We decided to stay at the site for four days, as we got a strong enough wifi signal through our hot spot for Andy to log into work. What an office, huh?

If you do end up with extra time in Badlands, this is a great spot! Ok, here’s what you can do, if you want to take me up on my offer to be your trip planner. There are trails in every direction with magnificent views at the top of every hill. Hike as many as you can.

You can add your own cairn to the collection at the top of the nearest hill. . .

And sit at the top of the world and enjoy the view.

You will likely get a taste of the powerful evening weather the Badlands can conjure up! While it’s sunny and hot all day (in May, anyway), towards the end of the day, it gets wild.

Oh, and you will definitely see bison. They graze right through the camp for hours every day!

At one point, we heard a shriek, and our neighbor came racing back to her boyfriend at top speed, breathlessly giggling about the buffalo standing right outside the bathroom door as she exited. They’re not worried about us (humans) one bit.

All of our neighbors were great while we stayed at Sage Creek! Maybe you will be lucky enough to camp next to a fun outgoing couple who is on a long trek in the US before moving back to Holland. Maybe they will also gift you a map to scratch off the states you travel through. So nice of them.

These scratched off areas are limited to where the Turtle has been, of course. We’re excited to scratch off more! But our goal is to take our time and really experience the places we stay. Which was really easy this week. We knew we loved Badlands already, but then we drove to the Pinnacles Overlook.

Oh, wait! We didn’t do that yet. We were planning to drive there, but the Rim Road access was closed. So we diverted up to Wall to check out the famous Wall Drug. And holy cow! I’ll let Bill Bryson sum it up for me. “It’s an awful place, one of the world’s tackiest tourist traps, but I loved it and I won’t have a word said against it.” Yep!

I loved every weird minute we were there. They allow RV’s to park in the lot down the hill for free, so we did that, and then drove back into the park the next day via the Pinnacles Overlook entrance.

Again, holy cow.

There are loads of hikes you can take in the park, each with a very different landscape to explore.

We started with Window Trail, a super-short walk to a stunning viewpoint:

Then we played on the giant playground next to the parking lot.

And then we hiked Door Trail. This one is also fairly short, but can take as long as you want it to take, since it’s a wide open expanse of peaks and valleys to climb around on. We liked it so much we came back on our last day to sit at the end of the hike and have a picnic, sketch and read books.

After leaving Door Trail, we hiked up Notch Trail. This one has an incredible view of the geologic slump and the Cedar Pass campground, and the hike itself feels like a Star Trek set!

We stayed a few nights at the Cedar Pass Campground, which is a pay site, but totally worth every penny! It’s bordered by the peaks, which are so beautiful to see in both the morning and evening sun.

The next day, we hiked up Saddle Pass (steep and slippery!) to Medicine Root Trail and then back on a portion of Castle Trail. It’s about 4 miles of flat, picturesque views and takes you through the prairie and through some of the crazy formations.

We were so happy during our entire time in Badlands! It’s other-worldly, and so very relaxing.

Scout liked it quite a bit too! But if he was your travel planner, he’d encourage you to take a driving tour of Badlands, see the sights, and then leave the park to stay somewhere that dogs can be off leash and play frisbee!

We’ve compromised with him, and after our glorious, sunny, and exhilarating week in Badlands, we’ve moved along to Angostura Reservoir. He gets his own waterfront frisbee spot, so his week of leashed walks will soon be forgiven.

I hope you enjoy your stay at Badlands as much we did! If you follow the travel plan I’ve laid out for you, I don’t see how you can go wrong. 🙂

The Black Hills of South Dakota: Actually Quite Green

We left Spearfish last Friday feeling excited to explore the Black Hills, our list of recommended hikes in hand and a warm and sunny weekend weather forecast displayed on our phones. On our way out of town we stopped for lunch at Barbacoa’s, a tasty Mexican spot downtown. It’s set up like a Qdoba or Taco Del Mar, with a build-your-own style ingredients bar, but it’s way, way better. Super fresh ingredients, good daily specials, and the staff there is so legitimately friendly and helpful that we talk about it during our meal every time we go there!

As we sat on the patio eating our steak tacos, the clouds started rolling in.

We commented on how dense and beautiful the clouds are in South Dakota, then loaded up and headed into the Black Hills.

The drive is stunning, with tall, dramatic rock walls and lush green trees. And if Scout is to be believed, the smells are worth trampling your mother in order to get your face one inch farther out the window.

We decided to start with a hike to Devil’s Bathtub. It isn’t marked, so you just turn off onto Cleopatra Pl. just south of Bridal Veil Falls. From the small parking area, you cross the bridge and then follow the trails directly on the other side. There are a number of trails, but we found that you can take whichever you prefer; they all lead to Devil’s Bathtub. We were told that much of the hike traverses the stream, so we strapped on our Chacos and looked forward to a nice cool hike on a sunny day!

I think the earlier mention of the clouds was sufficient foreshadowing to give away what happened next. As we started into the woods, it started raining!

And it rained the whole hike through, with continuous thunder and off-and-on hailstorms. Not a big deal, but pretty funny considering how perfect the hike is for hot days! Luckily, it was still warm and the hike is easy, so it didn’t interfere with our plans at all. It actually made for a very “enchanted forest” ambiance, which I enjoyed very much.

As you near the little falls, you come to a beautiful corridor with layered limestone walls. If it had been a warmer day, we could have spent a fair amount of time right there, wading around and enjoying the view.

By the time we reached Devil’s Bathtub, we were soaked through! There’s a little overhang next to the waterfall that we stood under to take pictures, then we waded out into the shallow water and splashed around with Scout.

It’s a wonderful hike that I highly recommend to anyone traveling through the Black Hills! Next time, we’ll pack a lunch and spend the day there, weather permitting.

By the time we returned to the Turtle all three of us were drenched, and after drying off and wringing out the dog, we decided to skip the other hikes on our list as the thunderstorm was still booming along. We drove into Lead just as another impressive hailstorm was wrapping up.

Our cancelled hiking plans left us with some extra time to kill, so we stopped into Dakota Shivers Brewing for a beer. What a cozy little spot in a cozy little town! While it continued to rain, we chatted with a local who had identified us as the occupants of the crazy blue Turtle parked out front. She was charming and fun to talk to, and gave us lots of great travel destinations for our next trip through the Black Hills. So nice!

That night, we parked at a quiet secluded spot on a Forest Service road. Hooray for free camping! As we made our coffee the next morning, Scout and Gracie ran around outside and surveyed our spot.

It was decided by the committee that we could happily stay in that very spot for the allowed 14-day maximum. But we had to remind ourselves that we generally feel that way about our camping spots, and that our plan to make it to the Badlands by Sunday would make leaving worthwhile.

So off we drove toward Badlands National Park!

Our Last Few Days In Spearfish

All good things must come to an end, and this includes our sunny, relaxing, and super-fun time with family in Spearfish. One of the primary reasons we decided to move into a Turtle in the first place was to be able to spend more time with our family and friends! We’re lucky to have so many people we care about, but unfortunately they all didn’t want to move to Portland so we could all see each other all the time. (This was not without a fair amount of recruiting on my part.)

Who wouldn’t want to live near these two adorable buddies?

Because we’re all so spread out, when it comes time to allocate a week or two of vacation every year, choosing to visit one person’s hometown is always at the expense of another’s. As we floated down the river two summers ago concocting this absurd idea about living in a Turtle, we mentioned how cool it would be to visit our friends and spend more than a few rushed days with them. To not have the looming feeling that we need to pack all the fun in right now before it’s all over. To be able to see them in their natural habitat, living their life, and we just happen to be neighbors and can go to lunch, or take a hike together, sit around drinking coffee, whatever!

So we’re just loving that this quality time we dreamed about is really happening! While we were in Spearfish, we got to attend Andy’s niece and nephew’s band and choir recitals, soccer games, First Communion, and both of their birthdays. (We timed the trip just right to ensure we’d get lots of cake.) We got to make meals with his mom and sister, drive through Needles Highway, listen to lots of the Hamilton soundtrack, do art projects, play board games, have a few beers on the patio at Crow Peak, eat ice cream at Leone’s Creamery (YUM!) and work on home projects together. Everyday things that make for great bonding and fun memories.

These memories include:

Amazing South Dakota sunsets. Amazing.

Lots and lots of freedom to explore and climb trees!

An unending frisbee course.

Free time and clear weather for Turtle projects.

A special “Cat Tea” that Andy’s niece invented and brewed up for Gracie. A zesty blend of catnip and warm water. 🙂

A birthday party at the Spearfish Gymnastics Academy, where we got to jump on trampolines into a pool of foam cubes! And then the kids buried Andy.

More sunsets and exploring.

Lots of time together outside.

More frisbee! We played a lot of frisbee.

Andy’s absolutely to-die-for salmon recipe! Thanks to Roger and Mary for sending the salmon with us! It was very well-received by all. The most moist and flavorful smoky salmon you can imagine.

It was a such great time together! Happily, now that we live in the Turtle, we don’t have to wait another year or more to do it again! 🙂

Needles Scenic Highway: Take Me Back!

A few years ago, Andy and I visited South Dakota for Christmas, and I arrived excited to see Mount Rushmore, which is the only part of the state I knew anything about. Little did I know how much more there is to do and see here! During that trip, we also went to:

Wind Caves National Park
Jewel Cave
The Mammoth Site
Deadwood
The 1880 Train in Hill City
Loads of other things I’m sure I’m forgetting

Now that we’re back in South Dakota, we realize that the list of things we missed exceeds the original list of things we did! And this past weekend, we went to one of my new favorite spots:

Needles Scenic Highway. I loved every moment.

Andy, Will, Ellie, Scout and I hiked up into the needles and admired them close-up. They’re made up of granite, and most of them are studded with flashing, shiny hunks of mica and huge quartz crystals. As we walked through the towering pillars, every surface sparked and glittered in the sun. It was magical! Remember that movie Legend? Yeah, it was like that. Magical.

Finally I was told I couldn’t stay there for the rest of the day, so we drove on through Needles, and Maggie suggested that on the drive into Rapid City, we take Iron Mountain Road. It was beautiful, and we saw all kinds of wildlife. Scout even saw a buffalo!

We had plans to see The Producers in Rapid City that evening (yay!), so we weren’t able to see more of the area that day, but we’ll be back to check out neighboring Custer State Park. I’ll post photos when we do!

For now, though, here are some pictures of Gracie brushing her hair. Just because.

Scout and Gracie Take On South Dakota (Also, Amy and Andy go to Devils Tower)

Well here we are in South Dakota! We spent a week in Billings with some friends, Blake and Martha, and had a month’s worth of fun in that one week!

We met little Harper for the first time, climbed up the Rims, had relaxing chats in Blake and Martha’s sunny back yard, took some nostalgic drives around town, the boys almost watched Blake’s dog get smashed, Martha and I snuck out to watch some bluegrass, and Andy and I were taken to many of the tasty new spots that have sprouted up in Billings since I grew up there. (The last time I was in Billings, the exciting action in the restaurant scene was the second Chinese spot to arrive in town. Yikes.)

New and delicious places of note: Cafe Zydeco for Cajun food, Carters for a very cramped but cozy Missoula-esque brewery experience, Angry Hanks for a more modern and airy brewery experience. . . and while we’re on the subject, let’s never forget Great Harvest for a killer sandwich on freshly baked bread, and of course the best sweet in history, Caramel Cookie Waffle. Okay, so next time you’re in Billings, if you go hungry, you can’t blame me!

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Image Sources

On our way out of Billings and into South Dakota, we went just a little out of our way to go see the first National Monument, Devils Tower.

Fun fact for us nerds: Originally the spelling was Devil’s Tower, with an apostrophe, but while signing the documents to make it a National Monument, Teddy Roosevelt accidentally omitted the apostrophe. Nobody ever corrected it, so the official spelling is now Devils Tower. The more you know!

It’s a really amazing natural formation with a few theories regarding how exactly it was formed. There is a 1.3 mile walking path around the monument, and with us taking our very sweet time, stopping to watch the squirrels and climb around on the boulders, it only took us about an hour. It’s really neat to see how different the formations are on all sides.

There are a number of Native American tribes living near the tower, and it’s considered a sacred site where they worship and perform dance rituals. I loved seeing all the prayer bundles hanging from the trees.

In the photo below, if you look closely on the tipped-over column, you can see some teeny-tiny people making their way up the side of the formation. Devils Tower is a popular spot for climbers. Crazy!

Not to be outdone, Andy also found a miniature Devils Tower and climbed it.

Ok, enough about Devils Tower. On to South Dakota!

We are presently staying at Andy’s sister Maggie’s house outside of Spearfish, and our new backyard is surrounded by trees, spring flowers, and deer families. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Plus we’ve had lots of sunshine and barefoot days!

If you’ve been following along with us on our adventures, you can probably guess who’s having the best time in our new spot:

Yes, Scout and Gracie are absolutely loving life out here. These kids have the run of the place!

Gracie climbs trees and tags along with us on walks through the hills.

And Scout has two best buddies, Will and Ellie, who love to throw his frisbee and play with him all day long. He’s going to leave here spoiled!

Then again, so are we! We’ve been having so much fun with everyone here. But there’s so much to cover, we’ll just have to save that for the next post. . .

(Oh, and if you want to stay apprised of what we’re up to in this crazy Blue Turtle, don’t forget to click the “Follow” button on our page, and you’ll be notified every time we post! We like to have our friends all accounted for.) 🙂

Family Fun in Bozeman, MT

The continuing adventures of the Blue Turtle now bring us from Craters of the Moon into Montana! My sister Kari was having a baby, so all the sisters descended upon Bozeman, and the Summers brand of fun and hilarious chaos commenced.

As anyone from a large family knows, it’s impossible to quantify the specific goings on of family time together. It’s just a continuously-morphing cloud of gabbing, laughing, playing outside, putting out the occasional fires, more gabbing, eating meals, more fires, board games, staying up too late, and—if there’s any remaining time—cleaning up.

With that in mind, this post will simply be a massive photo gallery. Because all I can say for sure is that we parked in Mom’s driveway, we were there for somewhere around three weeks, and in the meantime, this happened:

Thank you, tiny Elora, for being born and giving us all an excuse to get together and play! I missed capturing a lot of the action when the phone wasn’t available—if you can believe it—but there you have the general bullet points.

So with that we say goodbye to Bozeman! We were sad to leave, but adventure calls. . .

Craters of the Moon ROCKS!

Pardon the pun, but seriously. What a cool landscape!

We drove into the park and were disappointed to find that the road was closed to vehicles in the snowy season. Luckily the sun was shining and, even with the impressive wind, the hike down the road was completely comfortable and the dramatic scenery felt all the more magical considering we were the only people in sight.

We came across a nice rocky rise that we thought looked like it would be a fun climb. And yes it was! Although the next time Andy asks me as we leave the Turtle if I think I’ll want my gloves, I’ll likely say that I do. Climbing through snow and icy volcanic rock—brrr! Once we got to the top, the already-vigorous wind really picked up force. I had to press myself against the side of the rock to prevent myself from actually blowing right off the side of the cliff!

After we hiked down, Andy showed us what he’s really made of. Pure muscle.

Ok, it’s volcanic rock. But impressive all the same!

I said as we drove past all the crazy cool rock formations, “Wow, it’s like an alien landscape or something. . .” to which Andy replied, “Yeah, like the moon?” Ahhhh, riiiiight. Aptly named, sirs!

And with that, we drove on down the road toward Bozeman, MT.

Breezy Twin Falls, ID

Hello everyone!

We’ve had our hands so full the last few weeks with family fun and Turtle projects that there was just no extra time to place them on a keyboard. So let’s get updated!

We left Bend on Friday (in March—yikes, it’s been a while!) and headed to Boise to visit Cord, an old friend of Andy’s, and his family. We had some pizza, a rousing Pokemon demonstration, and a jaw-dropping sunset. Unfortunately, I’d still been taking my time getting a new phone at the time, so my photos for this portion of the trip are lacking. They pick up down the road, I promise!

The next day, we landed in Kimberly, Idaho to spend a few days with some longtime family friends of Andy’s family, Roger and Mary. Although Andy had to work the whole time we were there, they were such generous hosts and we had an amazing time visiting with them and seeing the highlights of the Twin Falls area. Meanwhile, Gracie was having the time of her life watching the chickens run around outside the Turtle while Scout had staring contests with the cats and won. Every time.

Did you know that just off I90 at Twin Falls is the Snake River Canyon? I didn’t!

Roger, Mary, Scout and I took a walk along the edge of the canyon while they filled me in on the history and geology of the area. The view is simply stunning, and they showed me the ramp where Evel Knievel attempted a jump there in the 70’s. Apparently loads of people base jump off the Perrine Bridge year-round, and on the west side of the bridge there’s a golf course in the base of the canyon that you can drive down to, if you’re into that kind of thing. I just liked the look of it from up top!

We also took a lunch break trip down to the Herrett Center at the College of Southern Idaho to check out their awesome mammoth skeleton replica, a photography exhibit, as well as bunches of other interesting things that we had to just quickly glance at due to our short time frame. The Herrett Center a great spot to go spend some time if you’re ever in the area!

Speaking of great spots, Roger and Mary’s was a haven on the crazily windy Idaho plains. Between the delicious meals they cooked up for us, the thoughtful and interesting tours, the one accidental super-late night gabbing, and a sound cribbage victory for the ladies, the entire stay was relaxing and lots of fun! Thanks so much for the wonderful hospitality Roger and Mary! 🙂

After we left their house, we stopped by Shoshone Falls on our way to Montana. I got a little dizzy on the grated viewpoint, and the blasting wind didn’t help things in that department, but the view was worth it.

The main takeaway for me is that before we come back to Idaho, I’ll have to hone my cribbage skills so Mary won’t have to pull the weight for the team, and I won’t have to rely so much on beginners luck. . .

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