valley of the gods and environs

We got a rainy day today, but that didn't stop us. After breakfast at a restaurant perched precariously between a cliff face and the San Juan River, we set out to explore the Valley of the Gods, which thankfully is very close to Mexican Hat. Gardens, valleys -- these gods have it all, right?

Of course, what we didn't take into account is that exploring the Valley of the Gods meant driving 17 miles along a dirt road that wound through the huge rock formations. Seriously, the people mover has been a real champ on this trip!

We really liked this area. Everywhere we looked there was some new and beautiful rock to gaze upon, and the dreary weather kept most of the other people away. Luckily, it wasn't raining so hard that the road turned from dirt to mud, because then we really would have been in trouble.

After our tour of Valley of the Gods, we got back on the highway and headed north, but again we found a challenge: the Moki Dugway, 3.1 miles of dirt road switchbacks at a 10 percent grade basically just hanging on to the edge of the mountain. That was a very exciting 8 minutes, which I am sure you appreciate that I captured on video for you.



Our next stop was Natural Bridges National Monument, where we got to see ... you guessed it ... cool rock formations. The first two, we just viewed from the platforms, but the third one, we hiked down to the underside to do a little exploring.

I should mention that all of the areas that we visited today are part of the recently created Bears Ears National Monument, the newest of our national monuments. President Obama named Bears Ears a national monument last year, a decision that was not without controversy, and there have been rumblings from the current administration about undoing that action, so we wanted to visit it before that happened. I don't pretend to fully understand the politics of land management in the West; I just know that we wanted to see this really fascinating place while we could.

Bears Ears in the clouds

south dakota hither and yon

After our morning at Wind Cave, we headed to nearby Custer State Park to do some exploring. We had a very close encounter with some bison who came out of nowhere to CHARGE down the road at us. There were cars coming on the other side of the road, so we couldn't just drive around them. Nobody was behind us, though, so Mike decided to try to back up enough so we could get to a pull-off area a ways behind us. Friends, it was chaos! The boys were screaming and offering "helpful" suggestions, everyone was wide-eyed, and I might have been laughing a little hysterically at the unreality of the whole thing. Meanwhile, poor Mike was just trying to get us out of the way before we got overrun by charging bison, so finally he snapped and yelled "SHUT UP" at everyone (totally justified). Once we got backed up, the bison ran right past our car, and a direct impact was avoided. It was a pretty exciting game of chicken ... even though we were definitely the chickens.

You'll blink first. I guarantee it.

After that excitement, we proceeded along Iron Mountain Road, a very windy road with tunnels and switchbacks ... basically everything we look for in our minivan vacation stunt drives (see also Moki Dugway). These tunnels were something special, though: two of the three of them offered perfectly framed views of Mount Rushmore.

We started in Custer State Park, then we passed into the Black Hills National Forest. Along the way we found a little rest area with picnic tables, so we decided to stop for lunch. For once, we didn't fall into our classic vacation trap of not planning for lunch, getting totally involved in what we're exploring, and then suddenly realizing it's mid-afternoon and we haven't eaten and have no idea where we can obtain food. Nope, this time we made trays of little sandwiches using Hawaiian bread. We had chips and fruit and even some treats for dessert. And so we sat in this beautiful rocky woods and had a picnic. It was really lovely, and now we have a newfound commitment to actually plan ahead and not always fly by the seat of our pants.

After lunch, we made our way to Mount Rushmore. We paid to park in the ginormous parking structure, hiked up to the wide promenade leading to the presidential faces ... and immediately got claustrophobic and overwhelmed by the writhing mass of people. We stepped into the gift shop, discovered that it was even more wall-to-wall crowded than the outdoors, and immediately retreated. After some quick recalibration, we came up with a new plan: take some pictures, get some of the much-vaunted Thomas Jefferson original recipe ice cream, and get the hell out. And that's exactly what we did. We took our very expensive ice cream to go and ate it in the car. (Verdict: TJ's recipe was fine but left a weird coating in our mouths.)

Much people. No space.

Thomas Jefferson's best idea

That was our second and final escape of the day. We left Mount Rushmore and took the Needles Highway, another scenic drive with very narrow tunnels, to the Sylvan Lake Lodge, our destination for the night. I regret to report that none of us have much enjoyed the Sylvan Lake Lodge. The internet is pretty much nonexistent, which wouldn't be a big deal except that I needed to do some work and then be able to turn that work in. I sat in the lobby, as close to the router/modem as I could get, and still couldn't access the files I needed to meet my deadline. Eventually, Liam and Max ended up setting up a wireless hotspot using my phone, but it was a huge hassle. One of the beds was broken (as in, it was basically a platform teeter totter) so we ended up having to switch rooms. They have wood burning in a massive fireplace in the main lodge area, which is great for that old-timey feeling but hell on allergies, which four of the five of us have. You get the idea. But it's only one night, and then we'll be off to pastures with more modern amenities. Onward!

Needles