US trip (part 4): Montana ghost towns

After leaving Yellowstone we drove up into the hills in Montana.

First point of interest that we came across was Quake Lake. In 1959 there was a huge earthquake here causing part of the mountain to slide down. The landslide blocked the river near Hebgen dam, thus causing it to back up and create the lake. Some of the houses that were destroyed have been left as a memorial, and there's also a state park Visitors centre which is worth stopping at. (For some reason it wasn't mentioned in our guidebook but you can't miss it if you're going along Highway US287



Our next destination was Nevada City, a reconstructed ghost town about 5 minutes drive from Virginia City. There used to be a city here by that name, back during the goldrush at Alder Gulch nearby. However it mostly got destroyed over time, so this reconstruction has old buildings brought from all over Montana for preservation. As well as the old town, there's a museum of music hall instruments that was quite fun.



After Nevada City we backtracked to Virginia City, where we were spending the night. This short movie will give you a flavour of what it was like. It was quite odd - half ghost town, half tourist trap.



The next day we drove further west, saving the best till last. Bannack State Park is a ghost town and one of the few I've been to that actually had the right atmosphere. It was so refreshing that they'd left it alone, in a gentle state of decay, without fancy signs or "living history" re-enactments. You could just wander at your own pace, open doors and walk through houses with the plaster falling off, etc. It just felt very real and I loved it. I hope this movie gives you a flavour, but if you ever get a chance I recommend visiting in person.

US trip (part 3): Yellowstone

After a day in Cody we headed on to Yellowstone.

Rather than go the most direct route, we went along the famous scenic highways - first the Chief Joseph, then a slight backtrack to go along part of the Beartooth. We did a u-turn at the 'Top of the World' store and headed to Yellowstone via Cooke City. On the way we stopped at the Clay Butte fire lookout that had great views. It was a lovely drive, photos don't do it justice but hopefully this will give you at least a smidgeon of an idea what it was like.



Yellowstone surpassed my expectations, not least by not being overly crowded! I'd heard nightmares about 5 mile long tailbacks, but turned out that early August was a great week to go - still summer, but the week before school went back so very few families. We were amazed by the geysers and other geothermal features, but also just the scale of everything.



But of course we didn't just go to Yellowstone for scenery, the main attraction was the animals...

US trip (part 2): Across Wyoming to Cody

After our little foray into South Dakota, we spent nearly a week in Wyoming.

We left Mt Rushmore early morning and drove virtually without stopping down to Denver Colorado to rescue our suitcases (don't ask) and then back again all the way up to Douglas Wyoming.

The best bit of the drive were the backroads - stark but beautiful:



Next morning we left early to drive to Cody. This had been planned just as a stopping over point enroute to Yellowstone but it turned out to be great. There's 5 parts to this video: 1) Downtown Cody 2) Cody gunfighters 3) Cody trolley tour (seriously, this was one of the best of its kind I've been on, really fun & interesting) 4) Buffalo Bill museum and historical centre (ditto) 5) Cody nite rodeo (we nearly didn't go, thank goodness we did as it was the highlight of our visit!)

US trip (part 1): South Dakota

In summer 2007 Dave and I took off on a nearly month long roadtrip in the US. We were supposed to start out in Denver but due to Air Canada's ineptitude we ended up only making it as far as Sioux Falls before giving up and hiring a car from there.

We drove pretty much all the way across South Dakota in an afternoon:



We would have loved to stop along the way but we'd committed to be at Mount Rushmore by that evening, and would have lost our hotel reservations had we not made it. Mount Rushmore was smaller than I'd imagined but still impressive and something I'd always wanted to see:



What was even more impressive though was Crazy Horse, which we went to the following morning enroute to Denver (to collect our bags which somehow Air Canada managed to send there even though they couldn't swing it for their owners!)