Author: Mike Pekrul

We’re visiting Badlands National Park this weekend, in South Dakota. Mile after mile of eroded gully, rocks, and dried mud. And prairie. Acres and acres of prairie. The idiots in Washington still can’t figure out how to do their jobs, so the park is “closed”, but all that really means is that it’s free to…

Is it my destiny to turn into my father?? 😯 When my sisters and I were younger, having learned to drive, dad used to send us to town with some money and tell us to get a part or a thing or whatever he needed. “It’ll be like two bucks maybe. Bring me my change.”…

It was a short trip today since the morons in Washington can’t get their jobs done properly. 😡 We visited Mt Rushmore National Memorial today, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The parking deck and gift shop are still open because they are run by an independent concessionaire but the museum and visitor center…

We are in the Black Hills of South Dakota this week. Saturday was a rainy day but we can’t really complain about it since we’ve had so few of them. We hung out at camp for a while, Susy went to some rock shops, then we rode into Rapid City to have lunch and see…

Today we’re visiting Devil’s Tower National Monument. As I said in my latest rant, we did not have to go online and pay a fee to get in. I’ll never understand the rationale of the federal government if I live to be a hundred. The tower stands almost 1000 feet from its base to summit,…

We spent our last day in YNP exploring, just like the ones before. This time, Norris Geyser Basin. Mostly more of what we’d already seen, the general theme of hot water, steam, boiling mud, and streams of colored algae, just arranged a little differently. And to finish off the day, we visited Grand Prismatic Spring,…

We’re visiting a National Monument right now, I’ll show pics and details when my blog catches up to today, but for now, I will rant. We walked into the park yesterday, and there was a sign on the entry kiosk telling where to go online to pay your entry fee. All automated. No staff necessary.…

Friday we started out by hiking along the Firehole Lake road. Hiking, not driving the road because it is closed. Some less-than-intelligent individual ignored the signs saying NO RV’S and went down it anyway and broke the bridge. 🤬 Anyway, it still makes for a pretty walk. We then moved on to a hiking trail…

My sister sent us some more of the pictures of my great aunt’s visit to Yellowstone in 1916. I thought it was great that some of mine look just like hers, only in color.

Thursday started out as a visit to West Thumb Geyser Basin. Yellowstone Lake is the largest lake in YNP, and the largest body of freshwater in the US above 7000 ft. The lake is shaped roughly like a hand, and West Thumb is, well, the thumb. It’s also a very active thermal feature in YNP,…