TrekPass – Travel Blog

     We left at 7am to Gardiner, a one hour drive to the north entrance of the Yellowstone National Park. The park is famous for its various geysers, hot springs and volcano and is home to grizzly bears, wolves, bison and elk. Due to weather conditions, only the north side of the park was open for public. We first went to the Mammoth Hot Springs which is an old hot spring formation. We then kept on driving on the most overwhelming and scenic road to Cook City. We again were stopped by a heard of bison that were crossing the road. However, this time it took forever until they let us through!

We then observed pronghorns, bison and deer on the way, it was fascinating. Since the rest of the Yellowstone National Park roads were closed due to winter conditions, we had to take a 4 hour detour to Idaho Falls.

 

    After finding out that most of the Yellowstone National Park entrances were closed due to weather conditions, we had to come up with plan B. We first left Rapid City in South Dakota at around 8 am this morning heading to Devils Tower National Monument, a volcanic neck which rises 1267 feet (386m) above the surrounding terrain. After a short break, we kept on driving north to I-90 for 488 miles until we got to Livingston. This is the starting point to get into the north entrance of the Yellowstone National Park.

We started early in the morning (since we are now in Mountain Time Zone, we were gaining one hour!). The first landmark we visited was Mount Rushmore, a monumental granite sculpture with 60-foot (18m) sculptures of the heads of former U.S.Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It is stunning and overwhelming when you stand in front of the monument (it looks much smaller on the pictures). The four sculptures were finished within 14 years (1927-1941) with the help of Gutzon Borrglum, the sculptor and leader, and 400 workers.

We then moved on to the next monument, Crazy Horse Memorial, a stunning monument carved into a mountain. However, so far only the head is visible, when completed, the monument will be 641 feet (195 meters) wide and 563 feet (172 meters) high.

Our last landmark that we wanted to see for today was the Custer State Park. Arriving at the park we had the opportunity to drive on the Wildlife Loop (18miles) where we captured deer and bison on camera. It was quiet fascinating since we were pretty much the only visitors in the park, when we passed hundreds of bison. There was one incident when about 10 bison faced us on the street, we were hesitant to keep on driving, but then figured that they weren’t interested in us, instead, they were passing us only inches away from the car. What a nerve racking but fun experience!!!

Today we had a pretty early start; we left the hotel at 7 am while temperatures showed 7 degrees, brrrr! We had 774 miles in front of us (from Madison, Wisconsin to Rapid City, South Dakota).

During the first few hours we experienced bad weather condition: fog, strong wind gusts, and we spotted several cars that stranded on the snow covered sidewalk and had to be pulled out by tow trucks. Gladly, the scenery changed in the afternoon, while entering South Dakota the temperature soon began to rise to 59 degrees (what a big change!), the road began to get curvy and we soon realized that we approached the mountains. After driving for 12 hours, our mission was accomplished .

     Today we drove 90 miles to Milwaukee which is the largest city of Wisconsin. Milwaukee is also known for “The City of Festivals” because of its great number of ethnic and musical festivals, the largest of which is the Summerfest (which is comparable to the Oktoberfest in Munich). Since Milwaukee is also called the “Brew City”, we stopped at the Miller Brewing Company at around 12pm. The tour was excellent and very informative. At the end of the tour we were taken to the Miller Inn, which was a great replication of a real pub. As many Brewing Companies offer you small samplers at the end of the tour, we were surprised when the waitress gave us the first half liter of Miller Lite to try. 15 minutes later, she came with another round of beer, this time the Miller High Life, and again half a liter. Everyone was in a pretty good mood, especially when they served us the third round of Miller Special Light. How can you act responsibly (Millers’ slogan: Live responsibly) when they fill you up with so much beer .

Well, it was definitely a special experience at the Miller Brewing Company!

After we spend some time driving through the city of Milwaukee and checking out the German neighborhood with German shops and restaurants, we were ready to drive on to Madison where we arrived at around 4pm.

Pictures were taken at the Miller Brewing Company and the City of Milwaukee.