Headed East

Originally written July 2, 2010

Hello, friends!  It's Day 18 on our trip, and unfortunately, we had to leave Yellowstone to set out for home.  Our route for today was a beast:

Day 18: From Yellowstone, WY to Spearfish, SD through the Bighorn National Forest
Map courtesy of maps.google.com

We left Yellowstone through the East Entrance and caught a few more images on the way out of the park:

Above: Images take while leaving Yellowstone via the East Gate

We also ran into a SERIOUS buffalo jam. It was amusing to me, but I'm sure the people headed in the opposite direction weren't pleased:

Above: A silly buffalo leading a parade of cars (30+) down the road!  NOTE:  The bottom photo was taken from the backseat of our car. NO ZOOM!  He was seriously that close to us!

I was sad to leave the park, but I'm sure I'll be back sooner rather than later!

Originally, we had planned to leave from the North Entrance, but when we discovered how much longer our trip would be, we opted for a shorter route, which took us east on US 14 toward Spearfish, SD.  This little change of plan ended up being the best thing to happen to us in a long time!  You see, we had no idea that we'd be going through Bighorn National Forest or that our route would be fantastically scenic!   It was quite a surprise, indeed!  I'll take you through the drastic change of scenery below:

We started out traveling through the rolling hillside. Nothing too exciting.

 Above:  The rolling hills of the Wyoming Countryside (what I was expecting to sit through for the entire trip)

And then, WHAM! We were in a canyon with steep red and yellow cliffs on either side of the car!

Above:  The Shell Canyon in Bighorn National Forest.  Within the blink of an eye, our scenery changed from rolling hills to steep cliffs and rocky terrain.

After a while, we stopped to visit the Shell Falls, which seemed to go on forever!  It looked like a giant water slide (only nobody in their right mind would want to ride it).

Above:  Shell Falls in the Bighorn National Forest

Before I knew it, we started to climb and climb and climb and climb up the Bighorn Mountains.  I felt like we'd never get to the top, but just when I had given up hope, I looked out and saw this: 

Above: Atop of a mountain in Bighorn National Forest looking out toward the end of the Earth! 

Needless to say, we enjoyed our trip through Bighorn! It was a pleasant little surprise.  Thanks, Wyoming! 

With Bighorn behind us, we headed east to meet up with I 90.  I thought I'd never say this but... THANK GOD FOR INTERSTATES!  I was ready to for flat roads and 75 mph speed limits! Shortly after meeting up with I 90, we took quick detour to see Devils Tower National Monument, which you may remember from Close Encounters of the Third Kind:

Above: Devils Tower, WY 

Pretty neat, huh?  I really enjoyed it! You can climb the boulders at the bottom of the tower, but I didn't have time to try.  Next time!  I've been saying that a lot lately, haven't I?  Ah, oh well.

We rolled into Spearfish, SD at 9:00pm Mountain Time.  As you can imagine, we were exhausted beyond belief!  A crumby motel bed never looked so good...