Stuck in the Sand

Burke Lake turned out to be beautiful, as we discovered in the morning. We hiked a trail that took us to a great view of the Great Plains – endless rolling yellow grass. We left early, however, as we knew we had a lot of driving ahead of us. We faced a problem – we had planned to camp at Badlands National Park, which was only a three hour drive away, but would then be faced with a 9 hour drive to Grand Teton National Park the next day. Not wanting to be encumbered with so much driving, we decided to make stops at Badlands and Mount Rushmore, but find a campsite somewhat closer to Grand Teton.

We arrived quickly at Badlands National Park, which, we discovered, was breathtaking. Stuart and I had never seen anything like Badlands – incredible rock formations atop lush green valleys. We took a few hikes around the rocks and then took a scenic drive around the park, hoping to spot bison. On the drive we pulled into a turnout and were surprised by two old bison who had been lying down – our first sighting. Another car was also parked in the turnout observing the bison. I was driving, and had my window rolled down when I suddenly heard from the other car, “Hey! Do you guys have weed?” We were sorry to say no, as the hippie girl with dreadlocks who asked was very attractive, but they were nice nonetheless, and told us they were on a road trip headed to Wisconsin. We said goodbye and got on our way, only to be unexpectedly delayed. I was driving on a dirt road and there was a truck right on my tail, so I decided to pull to the side of the road and let the truck pass. After pulling off the road however, we encountered a problem – we couldn’t move. The truck had become stuck in the sand. We had no cell phone service and were stuck in the middle of the park with nobody in sight, so we became slightly worried but after several ingenious manoeuvres we became unstuck and got on our way. We ate big cheeseburgers at a town just outside the park and then set off for Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore was very impressive but we both decided that it was only worth seeing once. Stuart received some retribution for the ribbing I gave him about his “roadrunner” when I mistakenly identified a flag as being that of the European Union – it was really Alaskan. Stuart enjoyed making fun of me, but at least I owned up to my mistake (eventually). After Mount Rushmore, we faced a decision – how far we should drive before calling it a night. Stuart’s grandparents had told him that the drive from Dubois, Wyoming to Grand Teton National Park was a must, so we set our course for Dubois, nine hours away. We didn’t expect to make it to Dubois, but along the drive we were feeling good and decided to give it a shot. We switched off driving every couple hours, allowing us each to nap while we weren’t driving, and by midnight we were still on the road, albeit close to Dubois. Tired, we decided to stop at the next campsite we could find. We made what turned out to be an ill-fated decision. Taking a dirt road that purported to lead to a campsite, we drove for what seemed an eternity on a road in bad condition. Not finding a campsite and dead tired, we decided to pull of the road and sleep in the truck.