SNOW!

This has been an incredibly long and exciting day. If I had any sense, I would probably head on to bed and get some rest, but I can’t let the day come to a close without sharing some of our wild adventures.

We had a great night at Sylvan Lake outside of Hill City, SD. We had everyone and everything loaded around 8:30am and started our trek to Cody, WY. As we left Sylvan Lake, it started to sprinkle, and we had light rain with us most of the way today. From Sylvan lake, we drove about an hour to Deadwood, SD. Deadwood is a lot like Gatlinburg – with a casino on every corner… In Deadwood, we made a stop at the Mt. Moriah Cemetery to see the graves of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. If you watched the Deadwood series on HBO (Steph and I were big fans), you’ll remember that the cemetery was up on a hillside overlooking Deadwood. You literally have to drive several blocks up the side of a small mountain to get to the cemetery – you feel almost like you’re driving straight up a wall. The cemetery was nice and provided a great view of downtown Deadwood.

From Deadwood, we decided to skip our side trip to Sturgis. The weather wasn’t cooperating and the kids were a bit crabby, so we headed on the Spearfish instead. We took a detour down main street in Spearfish, originally thinking we would stop for an early lunch. We drove by the local chamber of commerce, so Steph ran in to get a recommendation for lunch. In addition to recommendations for lunch, the lady working the counter gave Steph a free tote bag with a logo for the SD state program to quit smoking, as well as a free sample of Degree deodorant for men. Stephanie swears she didn’t tell the lady she had a smelly, chain smoking spouse in the car, but we’ll never know the truth… I ended up being the only one who really wanted lunch, so I grabbed a quick sandwich and we were back on the road.

Early afternoon we made it into Wyoming and arrived at Devil’s Tower National Monument. Devil’s Tower is truly in the middle of nowhere. Kind of like Rushmore, it’s truly awe inspiring the first time you turn a corner and catch a glimpse of it. We spent an hour or so at Devil’s Tower. We enjoyed a ranger program and the kids completed their requirements for another Junior Ranger badge. We stopped by the Devil’s Tower Post Office to mail a few post cards. We hung out for a while waiting for the mother ship to come down and beam us up, but it never happened, so on with the journey...

From Devil’s Tower we continued our trek across Wyoming to Cody. We headed through Gillette and Sheridan, before leaving the comfort of the interstate to cross the Big Horn Mountains. In Sheridan we stopped for gas and made a run through McDonalds for some grub. We’re been trying to avoid fast food on the trip, and have done pretty well so far. But oh, those McDonald’s fries are just so good and really hit the spot late in the afternoon. Nothing like a little grease and salt to get you going late in the day…

About 20 miles into our journey through the Big Horn Mountains, we started seeing snow near the road – everyone got excited. We reached the Burgess Junction Visitor Center (about 8,000 ft) late afternoon, and there was snow EVERYWHERE. We stopped to poke around in the snow and have a little fun, then were on our way. Little did we know how much snow we would see along the way. As we continued up and through the mountains, we passed a frozen lake, then a snowplow, and soon had snow piled on either side of the road in drifts higher than the van. Then the temp began to drop, and the rain that had followed us all day turned to blinding snow. We had about 15 minutes of driving in as near to a total whiteout as I have ever experienced. In the back of my mind, I began to wonder just how long we would sit buried in a snow bank before someone found us the in the following days or weeks if we were to run off the road. Truly hard to believe for the 4th of June… Once we reached the peak, the snow began to subside and the temp gradually rose from 32 degrees up to 60 degrees as we worked out way down the mountain.

We continued to work our way towards Cody, and finally pulled into our hotel around 9pm local time. Everyone is enjoying a little personal space (as much as you can get in a hotel room) before showers and bed.

Tomorrow we’re off to explore Cody.

Today’s pictures are on the web - http://picasaweb.google.com/MarionGrayCPA/YellowstoneDay7

I’ve also added some more pics to the album for Day 6.

That’s all for now. Thanks for following a long on our little adventure.

The Grays.