The great road trip across America

Locations:

• Drive through 
• Flooded lands of the middle of the country
• Badlands
• Mt.Rushmore
• Black hills
• Crazy Horse
• Custer state park
• Bighorn National Forest, Canyon, Desert
• Yellowstone
• Teton Mountains
• Glacier National Park
• Salt Lake & Salt Lake city
• Moab Utah
• Slick Rock
• Arches

States visited : 

• Colorado
• Tennessee
• Georgia
• Kansas
• Missouri
• Kentucky
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Nebraska
• Montana
• South Dakota
• Utah
• Wyoming
• Idaho

View all Photos here : https://photos.app.goo.gl/3pJs3RNdq6nhWJLTA

Day 1

Friday July 12, 2019

The people that came on the road trip were Me, Dad, and Carson. The first day we left College-dale TN area around 6:30 - 7 PM heading toward St.Louis but we stopped in Clarkville TN

Day 2

Saturday July 13, 2019

Daily Travel Map :

Miles : 1,082

Hours : 16

We basically drove all day long.

States Visited :

• Tennessee
• Kentucky
• Missouri
• Iowa
• South Dakota

Major Destinations :

• St. Louis
• Kansas City
• Sioux Falls
• Murdo, SD

We left Clarkville around 7:30 - 8 AM. As we hopped on the interstate we all said "in 8 hours from now we will be doing the exact same thing". 8 hours from then, we were right. Actually we said "8 hours ago we said that 8 hours from now we will be doing the exact same thing. And here we are doing the exact same thing".

We drove through St. Louis and headed to Kansas city.

There is a lot of farm land in Iowa

St. Louis Arch, Gateway to the west

Country side of Illinois before
St. Louis

The next location was heading up to Sioux Falls.

Smoke rising on a farm on the way to
Sioux Falls

Huge farms in Iowa

Type of train passing through.
 The land is still flooded.

Flood waters from earlier this year.
 Still here

From Sioux Falls we headed west toward the little town of Murdo where we stayed for the night.

Best Western Parking lot

Car we took in front of the room

Day 3

Sunday July, 14 2019

Locations :
Badlands state park
Mount Rushmore
Crazy horse
Black Hills national forest
Cody, Wyoming
Custer State park
Gillette, Wyoming

The first place we went to was the bad lands. It was very unique. The entire state of South Dakota is flat, except this little area is very different. It was formed this way because erosion has been occurring to the hills around for years.

The formations reminded me when I went to Israel and Jordan. They look similar, but have green grass all over.

Entrance sign

Looking down at the formations

Considered one of the best places
right when you walk into the park

From then on we headed to rapid city, which is where Mt. Rushmore is and checked out the area around there. there were so many people ever where. The temp was in the 80's and low humidity so it was good weather. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant called "QDOBA Mexican". To get to Mt. Rushmore we had to travel through the black hills, which were absolutely beautiful and breath taking.

First view from the road

Mt. Rushmore it self was truly magnificent. It was truly amazing to think about how they took the mountain and turned it into a huge national monument. It brought back memories from the 2017 trip to Israel and Jordan when we took the weekend to go to Petra, Jordan.

Next spot was at Crazy Horse memorial. It is a statue that is still in construction and will probably be in the next 200 years or so. All they have done is the head and the end of the arm. The plans are to basically turn the entire mountain into a monument.

After Mt.Rushmore we went to a small little town called Custer, Wyoming and got ice cream from what used to be a bank from the 1800's.

Native American Carpet. Photo of sign Below about the carpet

Custer State park

Miniature replica of what it will look like

Most Beautiful location for a Taco Bell

Monday July 15, 2019

On Monday we left from Gillette Wyoming and traveled across the state headed toward the cabin we stayed the night in for the next three days at Cody, WY.

Map :

Locations:
Dayton Wy
Bog Horn state park
Lovell Wyoming
Big Horn Canyon
Cody, Wyoming

Very first view of the Rocky Mountains

First location was Driving rough Big horn state park. It was extremely beautiful.

Little Monuments of Rocks with snow behind it

Looking down on the desert of Wyoming

First view from Big Horn state park

Big Horn state Park

Looking down on the desert of Wyoming

The next location after Big horn was driving through a desert. It was amazing how the landscape went from lush green to dry desert within a few miles. I don't think I have ever seen land change so quickly before. This is because the mountains have an effect on the rain clouds. 

We went to a little town called Lovell and stopped to eat lunch before heading on toward Devil's Canyon in the Bighorn Canyon Nation park. I have never seen anything like Devil's Canyon before. It was truly beautiful to see the Canyon with the rain storm passing through. I have never been to the Grand Canyon but it reminded me of images of it. It was truly fascinating to see the beautiful spot.

What we had for Lunch. Grilled cheese.

Restaurant we ate at

Carson standing in front of Devil's Canyon with a rain storm coming

Devil's Canyon out in the middle of the desert.

Wildlife at the Canyon

After Bighorn area the next location was our cabin that we rented for a few nights.

Here is some photos of the cabin and view that we had.

Rainbow viewing off the pourch

View of the Canyon with the Cabin in front

July 16, Tuesday

On Tuesday was the first visit to Yellowstone for the very first time. It's quite a fantastic park and one of the most beautiful places in the world.

The thing is with Yellowstone it's one of the most unique places in the world. That's what gives it it's beauty. You have everything from valleys, the Rocky mountains, rivers, vast herds of bison and elk, hot springs, Old faithful, burned forest, and the list goes on. There is probably no place more unique than Yellowstone. 

Locations/Events in Yellowstone : 

Geyser (Old faithful)

Upper Yellowstone falls

Mammoth

Hot springs

Bison by I think hot water. Did not want to test it.

Some Hot springs

Boiling mud-pit that like a few hundred degrees

Upper Yellowstone falls from the view point

Yellowstone is littered with tons of petrified trees.
this is a tree that has been turned to stone

Mammoth
This is minerals

Wednesday July 17, 2019

On this day we did the second visit to Yellowstone. The park is so big that there is no way you can cover it all in one area. Actually it's so big that there are a bunch of state parks because it's basically to big for one. They divided it up between Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, which we visited that day as well. There is probably a ton of other parks around that are breath taking but we did not have enough time to do it all. Actually we barley had enough time to do the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. 

At the Tetons we went for a hike up to some falls. We did not bring enough water, but survived. 

At the Old faithful part, it erupts about once an hour or so. I googled time clocks and used web apps to determine about what time we should sit and wait for it to go off. It was amazing to witness it go off. I have always read about these places or watched things about them but it's truly amazing and different to experience it in real life. Don't settle for what the adventurous people tell you. Go your self and see and experience the world and become adventurous yourself. When Old Faithful erupted, when it first comes out of the ground it is 400 deg F. But the steam blew our direction in about 5 seconds and cooled down to feel like cold rainwater (and it stunk because of all the volcanic sulfur in the water).

The Grand Tetons Mountain range

Female moose we saw on the hike

Hot spring that is like 400 deg F

Old Faithful erupting

Thursday July 18, 2019

This day we moved out of the cabin and started making our way to Glacier National Park. Nothing really happened that day. We just drove from Cody to the glacier area. The city we stopped in was Missoula, MT. 

Locations : 

Missoula, MT

Country side of Wyoming

Missoula town party

Friday July 19

This day was the first visit to Glacier National Park. 

Glacier was unreal in beauty. There is no words to describe how beautiful it was. in that park. 

Mostly what we did is go on a 10 mile long hike that took all day. This is probably the most beautiful hike I have ever been on ever. The hike was through a valley, forest, mountains, rivers, glaciers, and etc. On the hike it started sleeting, on and off. The mountain evidently makes its own local weather. That chased off a lot of people I think but we kept on going and it was worth it. We hiked up above the tree line along huge massive mountains. Here in Georgia and Tennessee we don't have anything like this. On the mountains the wind was blowing about 60 - 70 miles an hour, so it was pretty cold up on the glacier. Coming down we ran into a Grizzly bear. We had bear spray, but we did not have it ready. Dad yelled at us to stop and when we got a clear view of the bear we almost panicked. But did not run. Instead silently retreated and got ready to fight with bear spray. The kind of package the spray was in was those really thick hard plastic containers that take like 5 minutes to get off. We got that off in two seconds somehow. Not sure how but we did. Returning to our spot along the path we heard him running off, but did not see him (with exception of seeing him move in the background in the video I took). So if you go here bring bear spray.

The entrance to Glacier National Park

Saturday July 20, 2019

This is the day we met up with Nick Clark, and met his little kid for the first time, and went to some beautiful falls. The hike was called Avalanche falls. It was beautiful up there. On the hike it seemed like Nick's entire church was on the trail because he knew everyone out that day.

Nick and his family

Avalanche Lake 

Sunday July 21, 2019

That is the day we started the long journey home. Carson left on Saturday at 6 AM and few out but me and dad drove back. 

We took a different way back and went down through Utah and Salt Lake City. I got a chance to see all the Mormon holy sites and stuff like the temple and churches. Also got a chance to see the Great Salt Lake. If you swim in it you actually float, like in the dead sea. It brought back memories of the Dead sea and Israel. Actually the whole area looked like Israel. 

The salt lake

Mormon temple

Monday July 22, 2019

Locations :
Moab Utah,
Echo Canyon
Arches National park

We drove through Moab Utah and found a place that I remember since I was 4 years old. We found it by memory only which is amazing. It was a canyon that had a double echo when you yelled into it. When I was 4 I remember yelling "Canyon"  and it would respond twice.

After fining this place we rushed through Arches quickly and from then on went home. This was the last stop before just driving. 

Random place along the side of the road

Dad at Echo canyon

One of the arches

Tuesday July 23, 2019

Just drove all day long

Mountains at the place we left from

Wednesday 24, 2019

Technically the last stop was at Montgomery, TN. We stopped to view an old medieval looking church, and it looked medieval for sure. But this is in the Chattanooga area. And so here ends the trip.