Claire and Josh's Road Trip Across the USA: Days 12-15

Please excuse any grammatical, spelling or structural mistakes! All of the posts so far have been written late at night!

Day 12- Milwaukee to Mitchell, South Dakota
This day was mainly filled with 9 hours of driving, with stops to eat and fill up on petrol every now and then. I knew the midwest would be farm country, but I did find it very upsetting to see two visible factory farms from the highway and see cattle trucks driving full in one direction and empty in the other. Anyway, we stopped at this random diner in the middle of nowhere, where we were the only customers. Josh had a battered country deep-fried steak, which he said made him feel his arteries as though his arteries were clogging, and I had surprisingly delicious french toast (allegedly made with free range ingredients). We did pass over the Mississippi River, which was really neat. The areas we passed were very rural and there were times when we drove 100 miles and then 150 miles without having to brake. We eventually made it to Mitchell and set up our tent. Unfortunately, we only managed to last in the tent until around 3am, when it became very windy with distant lightening, so we had to move to the car.... again.

Day 13- Mitchell to Badlands National Park
We left Mitchell early and made our way to Badlands, stopping at The Corn Palace along the way so Josh could take pictures. We also took a detour to see the historic Minute-man site, which had ICBMs and could view one in a remote farm field. The one open to the public was decommissioned in 1992. As we made our way into Badlands, we were in awe of the spectacular landscape. Pictures will never do it justice, I highly recommend it as a National Park to visit! We set up our tent and then went to explore. Starting at a window like opening over the formations, we worked our way through numerous stops trying to take in all of the park's beauty and see as many types of animals as possible. Unfortunately, the first day didn't yield too many animals, only adorable prairie dogs, numerous types of birds, and bats. There was a evening program put on by a park ranger at our campsite and she taught us all about the animals living in park and what has played a part in the shaping of the rocks/mud. Our last stop before calling it a night was to go star gazing down a path near a canyon. There was no human light or sounds and the sky was completely clear. The stars were breath-taking and and all we could hear were the crickets.

Day 14- Badlands to Devils Tower
We woke up early to make the most of our time before leaving Badlands. We drove down a road known to have bison present nearby. The first bison we saw was behind a fence, however, the fence soon ended and we found ourselves in the middle if a herd! It was amazing. They are incredible animals and because of this I saw way too many people getting out of their cars to get close enough (at times less than 10ft) to take pictures , basically just asking to be gored by an animal that weighs over ton. By the way bison can run up to 40 mph so no human standing that close would stand a chance if one felt threatened. On our way out of the park a group of female big horned sheep came out onto the road and and walked on either side of the car. Then just a few feet beyond the next bend in the road we spotted another sheep with her lamb up on a cliff edge. They are so agile!
Once we left the park we made pit stops at Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Monument, and the Jewel Caves. Mount Rushmore is fantastic and much better looking in person than in any photo of it I have seen. The Crazy Horse Monument is not due to be finished for another 50 years, so only the face of the man had been completed. I guess we will just have to go back in 50 years to see the finished product! Disappointingly, we arrived too late for the jewel cave tours, but were did go on a short scenic walk in the area.
During the last leg of the drive to Devils Tower, I began to realize how remote some areas in the US can really be. All that could be seen were fields and cows. We even got lost on a dirt road that was sign posted to lead to a campsite, but never did. We must have been driving for about 45 mins on this creepy road with small and somewhat rundown looking homes every few miles. We finally reached the end of this one car road and were able to turn around in a random ranch. Its not a real road trip unless you get lost on a dirt road at least once right? The Garmin tried its best to help us, but kept telling us to turn onto roads that no longer existed. After we made it off that dirt road, we finally stumbled upon a KOA campsite; I don't think I have ever been so happy to see a camp grounds. It was actually in a fantastic location, right at the bottom of Devils Tower (just so you know its not my terrible grammar, for some reason the "Devils" does not actually have an apostrophe). For the Native Americans of the area, this is a sacred place. They believe the tower is a tree stump from a tree that was knocked over by a giant bear. They story is awesome, but science has sadly proven that it is actually igneous rock that was originally hot magma. I personally prefer the bear theory. The campsite actually showed "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" where aliens land near Devils Tower. After watching the film Josh and I decided to drive up to see a night view. On the way up there was an adorable porcipine walking along the side of the road. I made sure to steer it into the grass from a safe distance so it wouldn't be hit by the other night visitors. The tower looked great against the night sky, lit by the moon and starts. While up there we heard elk off in the distance with their distinct vocals. We then made our way down to the campsite and were able to fall asleep quickly after such a busy day. At about 4am we were woken up by lightening and insanely strong winds that bent the tent inwards!

Day 15- Devils Tower to Yellowstone National Park
We woke up early to do the 1.3 mile walk around the base of Devils Tower. It was really crowded, but still enjoyable. Although the Native Americans asked for people not to rock climb up Devils Tower during the month of June (it is their most holy month), we did see a number of climbers making their way up to the top. The view from the top must be spectacular! We then started to make our way to Yellowstone, having to pass through two mountain ranges that are both apart of the Rockies. The drive was beautiful! We eventually arrived at the East entrance of Yellowstone, where the temperature was drastically different to the Devils Tower that morning.... it was snowing and about 30 degrees. The snow on the mountains was fun at first, until we realized the campsite was the same temp. We set up the tent to claim our spot in the camp grounds (grizzlies had been seen wandering around there the past two days) but had decided it was too cold and would sleep in the car. Before it got dark we went to see some of the geysers and hot springs close to the campgrounds. We got back after it had gotten dark and set ourselves up to sleep in the car... little did we know how cold the car would also get. I woke up after a few hours and could not feel me feet at all, even though I was sleeping in a sleeping bag. I tried to warm them with my hands, but they were just too cold. I had to turn the car on to blast warm air to slowly thaw my toes. That was one of the most miserable nights sleep we both had ever had.... but little did we know that the next night would be worse.