The Good views of the bad lands, the devil and the rush!

We flew down to Denver and rented an RV from Cruise America. Due to lack of sufficient communications, we had to wait till the evening for our RV and so, had to make adjustment to our last destination where we would camp for the night. We wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible and as we drove through Nebraska, we stopped briefly to checkout the Chimney Rock, just because it was not a detour.

It was going to be our first night in RV and we spent it closer to some remote community, right next to a corn crop field, eating whatever leftovers we had from the afternoon (bit of miscalculation about our noon hunger!)

With a briefing from our chotu on our next destination, we got excited. There was this small place called Car Henge(yes, similar to Stone Henge), which was a pretty small museum and a good place for some photography. Learned that people take some of the cars from here to the Burning Man  Festival

We then headed to the bluffs and the badlands, which spread over a wide area. When I was taking a look at these places, I was wondering why anyone would call this place as "Badlands" (unless the human greed to occupy the place was not achieved, as the story goes!)

Many of the ranges had deposits of multiple colors and did remind me of the painted hills, which was on our list to visit during our last year's travel to Oregon, which we could not make it to. There are many small trails to take the view and I would say, pick anything!

We loved this one place, for when I saw it from an angle, it looked like pyramids stacked! Here is a pic I took!

We briefly stopped for the mandatory lovely chai which was needed and why not have a tea with a view!

With the tea session complete and invigorated with new found energy, we set off to Mount Rushmore. Our hope was to reach in time to see the sculpture just in time to park in a campground and then start to next location the next morning. The back up plan was to wake up and see this first thing in the morning - we did not need the backup plan as our driver made sure we were just in time for the viewing and then the show at 8:30. I was amazed at the vision of the artist to have thought about having sculptures in these Black Hills. I mean, who would have the conviction of something like this in the mountains, confidence to ask for funds and to deliver such an amazing end result!

What was more amazing to me was to know about the history of how these 4 Presidents were chosen. At the end of the show, all of the veterans were invited over to the stage and thanked, which filled my heart  and what an amazing way to recognize and thank - not just on the Veteran's Day or the Memorial Day! Every soldier deserves that respect from their fellow citizens!

It was full moon and was brimming with the blood red color as we hurried in search of our camp ground and we were pleased at the location, the calmness. Moon was our only source of light for a while when we decided to take in the beauty of that night, before we slid into the comfort of sleep. Woke up to see that a small stream was peacefully flowing right next to our RV while two deers were crossing over!

Our list had this place called Devil's Tower, which was also the picture on the back of our RV and we went up that place for a hike around this rock tower, which had nice myth about how it grew so big. Except for this huge tower and our chit chats on the rocks, coming up with our own versions of story on the rock as we hiked, there was not too much to take in as a view. However, what was interesting is that, the Native Americans held a spiritual value to this place and was sacred to them. We could see some ceremonial threads and clothes tied around some of the trees, closer to the stone. When I read a bit more about this, learned that a kid as yound as 6 years and grand pas as old as 87 years have made a climb to the top of the tower!!

If you are one of those rock/cliff climbers, make sure to check out on the festival dates as you won't be let near the sacred rock for ceremonial purposes.

Read all about our Cowboy Country Trip

A twist to my long weekend travel plan - Cowboy Country!

So,  it happens that my husband hardly gets time off from his work and we try to club the long weekends and wander off to some new location. As it was time for labor day weekend, my initial plan was to plan on flying somewhere close to Yellowstone and have that national park covered this time. While I was in discussion with a friend at work, she spoke highly of some smaller villages around Grand Teton and when I looked up the images of this place, my heart wanted to skip anything else and go straight up to this place, so was wondering how to fit everything in one long weekend. Fast forward to few days, my husband smiles and says, we are going to do a bigger trip around this place for 2 weeks!! The surprise doesn't end there - he says "we are going to be in an RV with Tarun and Ananya (our friends who apparently were also planning trip towards these locations but a longer one)

Let me tell you, I had never been in an RV (recreational vehicle - for my Indian friends, it is the Caravan which Shah Rukh Khan travels in Swades movie :) ), kind of never been on a 2 week vacation roaming around different places in a stretch and etc etc.... I was honestly not sure what to expect and in times like that, I keep my expectations very very, very low - which has always worked well for me!

Our friend had some RV experience and was not a novice in long hikes and all. He shared the entire plan of what all will be covered each day, what food we plan on consuming, how much clothes to carry and how to be prepared for the RV stay. Usually in our family, I get to plan vacations and here, I kind of was relieved that I had to do nothing! Also, this particular plan looked no less than a project plan. Being agile, I knew and anticipated, it would get changes once we started! (Ok, I will not get into the work lingo anymore!)


So, here is the map of what we intended to cover in our 2 week trip:

Since this involved so many beautiful places, it would be unfair to put everything in one single blog. So, I plan to break it up into multiple of them and share with you all:

PC: our phones and Tarun(aka Chotu's Camera :) )


Continue the journey  to 

The Good views of the bad lands, the devil and the rush!