Dream Trip To Yukon and Alaska By Road, To Anywhere Else By Any Means At All

Sept 6-9, 2006...the road home:
...Wyoming, South Dakota,
...and Points East

September 9, 2006

Hi everyone!

It's Saturday morning, in Washington DC.

I arrived early this morning, all in good order, after a two day marathon drive from Wyoming. I'll have more to share in due time, but for now, this one thought:

Thank you all for the really nice thoughts and encouragement you shared with ME during my travels. It meant a whole lot.

Cliff

Author’s Note:

Even though I sent only that short email at the end of my journey, the last three days of my trip were uniquely rewarding. I've summed it all up right beneath the maps below.

On Sept 6, my route home took me on the Wyoming section of US Route 212, another “Top of the World” highway, and hearty cousin to the Top of the World Highway in the Yukon.

Climbing east out of Cooke City, Wyoming, US 212 skirts the Wyoming-Montana border, steeply rising to over 11,000 feet before a most dramatic descent into XX.

The pictures here do little justice to the drama and sheer excitement of this wonderful road. Rated consistently as one of America’s top ten scenic roads, US 212 is a must-see for anyone who likes to travel by car over America’s byways.

From US 212, my route took me to an overnight stay in Gillette, Wyoming, and then, on September 7, to the unique Devils Tower National Monument.

On this, my sixth visit to Devils Tower, I take all the time that I wanted, but so much more than I planned, to walk slowly, listen to the ranger guides, and stare, stare, stare at this most magical of volcanic rock formations.

Hopefully you will see from the pictures how magical it is to rock climbers as well.

To the naked eye, they are but specks clinging to almost vertical walls, as they inch their way up.

After spending 5 hours at the Tower, I had lunch at one of my most favorite restaurants in America: Higbees Cafe, in Sundance, Wyoming.

Yes, Sundance is the place where the Sundance Kid (Harry Longbaugh) got his moniker, having been sentenced to 18 months in the Sundance jail in 1898 for stealing a horse.

But he was released only a few months later, when the governor pardoned him. You can still visit the one-room jail in the center of town that played host to the Kid in 1898.

My trip home from Sundance was a direct, all-interstate route, taking Interstate 90 all the way to Chicago, and then the Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Turnpikes to I-70, which brought me back to Washington DC. I stopped once for a good night's sleep along the way.

One last mention, of a special place in this country and in my heart … where I-90 crosses the Missouri River in South Dakota.

As I-90 carries you across the endless prairies of western South Dakota, you suddenly see, where the road crosses the Missouri at Chamberlain, how the American frontier looked 150 years ago.

For, as you face west at the Chamberlain overlook, you see the fundamental change in the terrain, from neat farmed land – behind you to the east – to the almost untamable and sternly rugged prairies west of the Missouri.

The transformation is sudden, complete, and overwhelming, a sight to be seen and pondered, never to be missed!