Day 70 - Wind Cave and Jewel Cave

Caves!!! After visiting the wonder of the world Carlsbad Caverns one month ago, I had high expectations for Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument.

Wind Cave is named for the howling wind that sometimes exits out of its small natural entrance and is famous for its boxwork, a unique fancy calcite formation. The highlight of this tour was actually the tour guide-- man was he good. Ranger Sam grew up at Wind Cave and his seventy year old father was still a tour guide here. He started the tour with a story about a bison pushing a white pickup truck back ten feet after the pickup truck bumped the bison at a road crossing, told stories about his family and about the families that started wind cave, and also stories about bikers on the cave tours. He was hilarious and a masterful storyteller-- and the boxwork was beautiful.

The next cave, 45 minutes away and possibly connected to wind cave, is the third longest in the world and famous for its crystals. This tour was more geology focused and seemed to cover more distance. You walked through the cave along metal walkways that were sometimes suspended twenty feet above the rock floor (former rock climbers designed the tour route) Pics.

I had originally signed up to do a wild caving, four-hour tour at Jewel Cave two days from now, but they needed another person to sign up and I didn't want to wait two days, so I drove four hours west back to Central Wyoming. Most of Wyoming is a giant oil field so finding a camping spot was hard, but I stumbled upon the Goldeneye Wildlife and Recreation Area about a half hour west of Casper and drove in. A mile-long dirt road led to lovely lake with rundown picnic tables and lots of birds. I decided to camp here as it was BLM land and nicey secluded. The sunset was wonderful.

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Day 57 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Ever since I decided to go west for my big trip, I had dreamed of high mountain lakes with snowy peaks arching in every direction, with chilly air making every moment crisp, and with clear skies bringing all into perfect focus-- pure bliss. Today was the first of many great mountain lake days to come. Hiking here was far easier here than in the San Juans because the snow was packed down on the trail, but I brought my mini crampons for the downhill. I made it safely past a narrow ridge with narly black peaks across the gorge (pic 1), then up to Mills Lake (pic 2) then Jewel Lake then the Loch (pic 3) then down before the afternoon rain started falling. I hiked around some lower, more accessible lakes but the sky was now overcast and pictures no good. I drove up the open portion of the Ridge road amid a very light dusting of snow before heading back to camp for dinner and bedtime. I did manage to capture some fine Elk grazing in a meadows on the return trip and a g...

Day 43 - Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef, a national park centered around a 90 mile ancient seabed reef was next on my list. A sensationally scenic three hour drive from Bryce, back through Escalante, and then through a national forest led me to the park. A stop by the visitor center to get the lay of the land and insider info on local free BLM campsites complete, I set out on Chimney Rock trail up the the top of the first reef to get a view. Yes sir!! The weather was ideal for hiking and the views completely blissful, but I was frankly tired today. I set out along the scenic road down the west side of the reef and remember wanting to take a nap-- but still having a sense of urgency to complete the desert portion of my trip-- I pushed on and set out to hike down the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash canyons. The Capitol Gorge had a "Pioneer Wall" with inscriptions from the early 1900s and the Grand Wash had a nice narrow section with towering canyon cliffs all around. I took a photo of the surrounding reef...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

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