We have journeyed to Southern Utah near the Arizona border and we are enjoying the beautiful weather. Enjoying Fika with our old friends at River Rock Roasting in La Verkin. Camping in the Dixie NF under breathtaking night sky. Phenomenal scenery, hiking and scrambling! Not sure what else to say…..life is good. 0065,0066,0067,0068,0069
Red Cliff Recreation Area
Dixie NF, Silver Reef, Utah
Fish Lake NF, Kanosh, UT
Best of Salt Lake City and Ogden
Unlike rural Utah, SLC boasts a number of very fine coffee roasters and shops. On this visit we visited the following shops: Blue Copper Coffee Room, Publick Coffee Roasters, Wasatch Coffee Roasters, Millcreek Coffee Roasters. Publick is an old favorite but the remaining shops were first time visits for us. All of the shops provided first rate coffee and tea products in nice Fika settings.
We were able to meet and chat with Darren Blackford who co-owns Wasatch with his wife. They are coffee lovers who started roasting in their garage and about two years ago moved into their current location. He and his wife are currently building a production roastery nearby but will maintain the roastery at the cafe in order to provide local customers with freshly roasted small batch beans. A nice story and really good beans.
Hill Aerospace Museum, Hill Air Force Base
As one of us continues to be an aviation geek we spent an afternoon at the air museum at Hill AFB outside of Ogden, Utah. A terrific collection of over 70 aircraft from WW2 vintage right up to aircraft currently in service today.
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
The museum is affiliated with the University of Utah and the located on the campus in SLC. Although the museum is relatively small it is comprehensive in scope and worth a visit. The two paintings below dated 2016 are by staff at UU.
The featured image above at the top of this post and the three directly below are part of a series of 14 surviving linoleum prints done by Elizabeth Catlett in 1946-1947 depiciting the oppression of African-American women. The works were produced in Mexico and were intended to support political agitation for civil rights. The artist orignally named the collection The Negro Woman but renamed the collection The Black Woman in 1989 to reflect more contemporary terminology.
Enjoying great weather as we journey west towards Yellowstone National Park. We spent a couple of days in Sheridan. This is truely cowboy country. Saloons abound along Main Street along with sellers and manufacturers of everything related to horses – saddles, bridles, bits, blankets, etc. This is ranch, horse and rodeo country.
We were fortunate to be able to stay at the Sheridan Inn while in Sheridan. The Inn first opened in 1893 and was home to Buffalo Bill Cody for a number of years. Cody would audition potential new acts for his wild west show on the large expanse of front lawn at the inn.
Western towns typically have alleys and narrow lanes running behind store fronts. We have learned to wander around in these spaces as they often are art spaces and living spaces. Sheridan proved productive in that regard. 0050,0051
Dahl Art Center
Dahl Art Center is a small art museum located in downtown Rapid Center. We were fortunate that one of the current exhibits at the center is the photography of Chuck Kimmerle. This exhibit consists entirely of black and white photographs which are all depictions of the prairies and and grasslands of the west. His work creates stark images of landscapes which lack notable features. The second exhibit was a water color exhibit featuring notable regional artists.
South Dakota Air & Space Museum
Yes one of us is an airplane geek! Nice collection of Air Force aircraft predominately consisting of bombers. The museum is adjacent to Ellsworth AFB which is the home of the B1 Lancer long range bomber.
Fika & Wine
Rapid City played well with three local roasters producing quality beans delivered well in their own cafe, I highly reecommend you visit The Essence of Coffee, Harriet & Oaks and Pure Bean on your next trip to Rapid City. In the event you wil not be in the vicinity any time soon you can order their beans online.
We also had a fun time at the Firehouse Winery. There reserve cabernet is made using 100% Napa cab sav grapes and proved to be worthy of the purchase of several bottles to support the next segment of our journey as we prepare to push west into Wyoming cowboy country.
Iron Mountain Road and Mount Rushmore
Route 16A , also known as Iron Mountain Road, is a very exciting drive on a narrow winding road which climbs through and over Iron Mountain. The drive presents distant views of Mt Rushmore as you exit tunnels and from overlooks along the way.
Iron Mountain Road is only 17 miles long but has 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, three pigtails and three tunnels (pigtails pictured below).
Seeing this monument is far more impressive in person than the photos you have seen all your life. The history is just as fascinating as the entire genesis was to boost an ailing economy by creating a tourist attraction. During the 1920s the mining based economy in the area was ailing. Initially this effort was completely a private endeavor until President Coolidge became a supporter and pushed funding through Congress. Today the monument draws three million people annually so I would have to say that it was a heck of an idea. Fourteen years in the making and not a single worker fatality (obviously a former insurance underwriter)! 0040
Custer State Park
CSP is the largest state park in the United States and would stack up well against many national parks in regard to scenic beauty, wildlife and opportunities for recreation (hiking, biking, horseriding, kayaking, canoeing and ohv). 0038,0039
Mickelson Trail
This 109 mile trail runs through the heart of the Black Hills NF. The trail is the former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad which came about as the result of the gold rush which started in the 1870s. This particular line was abandoned in 1983.
We biked several sections of the trail and were treated to many spectacular views and the opportunity to bike through rock tunnels and across numerous trestles. 0037
We were able to camp on the banks of the Little Missouri River while visiting Theodore Roosevelt NP. We camped and hiked in both the north and south unit. The south unit is in Medora which is about 70 miles due south of the north unit. Both units abound with wildlife. We saw prairie dogs, bison, feral horses, deer, pronghorn antelope and turkey as we hiked. The south unit is in the heart of the badlands of North Dakota and our hikes presented tremendous panoramic vistas. We also hiked through a petrified forest area in the south unit that has a significant concentration of petrified wood that is estimated to be 225 million years old. The petrified wood now rests on the surface as layers of stone, clay and coal have been washed away over many millions of years.
Good coffee in short supply here (along with connectivity) but nonetheless a worthwhile segment of our first road trip.
Next stop is Custer Gallatin NF before traveling to South Dakota. 0033,0034,0035,0036
After four days of camping, hiking and dusty back road driving we rolled into Bismarck for a couple of days of hotel living. In addition to attending the International United Tribes Pow Wow, we were hoping for the opportunity to practice yoga, and enjoy a couple of excellent dinners, great coffee and tea. We are happy to report that Bismarck excelled on all fronts. Butterhorn provided a great dinner while Terra Nomad won the cappuccino and chocolate chip cookie portion of the program.
Additionally, we spent several hours at the North Dakota Heritage Center and Museum which had a remarkable special exibit, “The Horse in North Dakota”. The museum traces the history of the area now known as North Dakota from pre-historic time through to North Dakota today through a series of chronologically ordered galleries. As such, the also museum provides a rich history of the native american nations that once claimed North Dakota as their own prior to the arrival of Euro-Americans.
The pow wow was a new and fascinating experience for us. The pow wow runs for three days. Much of the pow wow is in the form of contests relating to various dance forms such as traditional, fancy and grass dancing. The music is provided by 16 drum bands. The costumes are a beautiful and incredibly colorful.
We continue to meet many friendly and interesting people along the way. More on that in future editions. 0030,0031
We enjoyed a relaxing stay in Fargo after leaving the deep forests of central Minnesota. An old fashioned downtown with plenty of vitality especially on “Broadway” the main street through downtown. Plenty of excellent coffee and tea to keep us fueled while poking around the shops and museums. We were also able to align our stay with several classes at Downtown Yoga and get in some much needed studio practice.
P.S. While very tempting we successfully resisted the the urge to have our picture taken beside the infamous “woodchipper” used in the movie “Fargo”.
Finishing our time in the Great Lakes region with a couple day stay in Duluth. Perhaps because we are easteners we never comprehended the magnitude of the maritime traditions and sheer volume of commerce that has been enabled by these massive inland seas. Below you will see photos of one of the hundreds of “Lakers” that ply the Great Lakes carrying iron ore, copper, coal and grain. Some of the Lakers are as long as 1000 feet. We also were surprised to find that there is some pretty good surfing on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
While in Duluth we enjoyed several great meals and some very scenic biking along the Lake Superior shore line. Heading west through Minnesota for some camping and hiking in the Chippewa NF and then on to North Dakota.
The “Beast” continues to garner a lot of attention everywhere we go. We have the talk track and tour down pretty well at this point.
From Traverse City we traveled north on M31 and over the Mackinac Bridge onto the Upper Peninsula. Several coffe recommendations from Erik at Planetary Coffee paid off handsomely. Dripworks in Petoskey and Veladrome in Marquette featured below were outstanding! We also stopped in at Superior Coffee Roasters in Sault Ste. Marie while in town to watch lake freighters move through the locks.
We have been able to take full advantage of the Hiawatha NF camping along small lakes each night.
Additional highlights on the UP included visiting the Whitefish Point Light on Lake Suprior, a 4WD drive out to the beach at Vermillion Point and hiking to the falls at Tahqueamenon Falls.
ON THE ROAD with Maria + Stephen 