Hart Ranch Resort & Shopping in Rapid City

We spent yesterday working at the RV and catching up on some things.

We spent today shopping and running errands. We stopped first at Flying J to get gas in the Vue ($3.629 gal after our $.02 discount).

We stopped at a Scheel's sporting goods store to look around. We don't have them in the East and it reminded us of the Cabela's stores. I did buy a nice pair of winter gloves there.

We stopped for lunch at an Olive Garden and had their never-ending pasta bowl special for lunch. I had seen a commercial on TV yesterday that said the special would be ending shortly and we wanted to have it at least one more time.

Our next stop was at Bed Bath & Beyond to get a coffee pod holder for our Keurig coffee and we found some tall coffee cups that would hold the larger brew size that our Keurig makes.

Our final stop was at the Wal-Mart Supercenter for some groceries before returning to the RV.

Mike took some photos of the campground after we got back from our shopping trip.

From Hart Ranch Resort, Rapid City, SD

From Hart Ranch Resort, Rapid City, SD

We had talked about going to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial while we are here, but we decided to save it for another trip.

Driving from Gillette, WY to Rapid City, SD

We left the Wal-Mart in Gillette at 9:00 and headed east on I-90. We hadn't driven very long when we saw this antelope standing near the interstate.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We were about 37 miles east of Gillette when I realized that we could see Devils Tower which was around 25 miles north of I-90. We pulled over and stopped on the shoulder long enough to take some photos; this is the only one that was a "keeper".

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We saw more trees that were getting their fall colors

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

and saw these red buttes at the Wyoming and South Dakota state lines. We entered South Dakota a little before 11:00.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We arrived in Rapid City just before noon.

We took Exit 61 south on US-61 and passed by this Mobil station and saw these sculptures.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We then drove south on SR-79 to Upper Spring Creek Road and then west until we reached the entrance to Hart Ranch Resort around 12:30.

From Driving from Gillette to Rapid City

We are in site #316, a back-in, with full hookups (50 amp elec) and free wi-fi and we are just a few steps away from one of the laundromats here. We are staying here with our Coast to Coast membership. We did have to pay a $23.21 resort fee for the 4 days that we will be here.

We had a short driving day today - only 154 miles. After we leveled the RV, put our slides out and hooked up to the electric, we stopped to eat lunch before we finished setting up the RV. Mike set up our portable satellite dish because it's quite windy here and our rooftop dish flops and looses the signal.

Later this afternoon we called American Home Base in Pensacola and told them to send our mail to General Delivery in Forest City, IA.

We were so busy settling in here, that we forgot to take photos of the campground. We'll put it on our to do list for tomorrow.

Visit at Buffalo Bill Historical Center on the way to Gillette, WY

We got up at 7:00 (early for us) this morning and saw a beautiful sunrise over the desert. Mike went out and took photos of the campground since we didn't take any yesterday and got some of the sunrise.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We left Yellowstone Valley RV Park at 8:30 and headed east on US-14 to Cody. We passed Old Trail Town where several historic buildings from around the west can be visited. It will have to wait for another time, since we only have time today to stop at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We stopped to get gas in the RV at a Shell station on the west side of Cody (37.5 gallons at $3.839 gal). We passed by several sculptures on the way to the museum including this one of a cowboy lassoing a deer.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We arrived at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center a little after 9:00 and parked the RV in the RV parking lot. We saw several more sculptures on our walk to the museum entrance.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

The admission for seniors is $16 each and is good for 2 consecutive day's visits. There are 5 galleries in the Center - Buffalo Bill, Cody Firearms, Greater Yellowstone Natural History, Whitney Museum of Western Art, and Plains Indians. We only had a few hours to visit there, so we didn't get to see all of the museums (that's a good reason to come back another time).

We started first with the Buffalo Bill Museum. We saw exhibits depicting life in the old west,

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

exhibits about Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show,

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

household items belonging to William F. and Louisa Cody.

Our next stop was at the Natural History Museum where we saw wildlife exhibits

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

and this sculpture depicting a buffalo jump.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

Our next stop was at the Cody Firearms Museum which has 1,500 firearms on display.

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

We first saw displays of firearms from 50's and 60's western TV shows such as Gunsmoke,

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

Annie Oakley, and Bonanza (just to name a few).

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

We saw firearms dating from Colonial times up to the present time. The Cody Firearms Museum has the most comprehensive collection of American firearms in the world. We saw displays of Winchesters, Colts, Rugers and Smith & Wessons just to name a few.

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

From Cody Firearms Museum at Buffalo Bill Historical Center 9/26/11

Our last stop was at the Western Art Museum where we saw art by early western and modern artists.

From Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

We stopped at the Gift Shop to purchase a few souvenirs, before leaving the museum. Since it was now 11:30 we decided to fix lunch while we were parked at the museum.

When we left the museum parking lot, we passed the Foundation for Wild Sheep and I saw this deer standing near these Big Horn Sheep sculptures.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

After leaving Cody we headed east on US-14 and passed by the Museum of Flight & Aerial Firefighting​ near Greybull.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

This part of US-14 is the Big Horn Scenic Byway and we drove through the Big Horn Mountains

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

and the Big Horn National Forest where the aspens were getting their fall colors.

From Driving from Cody to Gillette

We connected with I-90 at Ranchester, WY and took it east to Gillette. We stopped for gas at the Flying J (41.8 gal at $3.549 gal after our $.02 a gallon discount). We were only a couple of blocks away from the Wal-Mart Supercenter where we're spending the night.

We arrived here at the Supercenter about 5:30 after driving 274 miles from Cody. After discussing what we wanted to have for dinner, I suggested that we walk over to the Perkins Restaurant near us since Mike had been wanting to eat pancakes. Mike had pancakes, eggs, hash browns, sausage and toast. I ordered the French Dip sandwich. After the long day we had had sightseeing and then traveling, it was nice to have someone else cook dinner, serve it and then clean up!

After dinner and before returning to the RV, we went shopping in Wal-Mart to get a few things we needed. Tomorrow we'll be heading to Rapid City where we're going to stay for 4 days.

Driving through Yellowstone National Park on the way to Cody, WY

We left the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Idaho Falls this morning around 9:00 and drove north on US-20 and entered the Targhee National Forest where the trees are beginning to get their fall colors.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We entered Montana about 11:30 and drove through the town of West Yellowstone about 10 minutes later. West Yellowstone began as a terminus for the Union Pacific Railroad line built in the early 1900's to bring tourists to Yellowstone National Park.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

Right after leaving West Yellowstone we crossed entered Yellowstone National Park at 11:45. The entrance fee for Yellowstone is $25, but since we have a Senior Pass we didn't have to pay the entrance fee.

About 10 minutes after entering Yellowstone National Park, we found a parking area alongside the Madison River where we stopped to have lunch. While I fixed our sandwiches, Mike got our folding chairs out and we carried them down to the river bank. We set up our chairs and ate our lunch sitting by the Madison River.

From Yellowstone National Park

After lunch we continued east on Riverside Drive (US-191) and then north on Grand Loop Road (US-89). Because of our travel schedule, we only had time to drive through Yellowstone National Park. We did see Beryl Spring (one of the many hot springs)

From Yellowstone National Park

and then we turned east on Norris Canyon Road which took us through the Central Plateau and then we connected back up with the Grand Loop Road. Shortly after crossing the Yellowstone River, we saw a herd of bison in the distance. We stopped long enough to take a few photos.

From Yellowstone National Park

We saw these 2 RVs from Germany that had stopped to take photos of the bison. We have seen a few of these RVs in our travels,

From Yellowstone National Park

but we haven't seen one of these before.

From Yellowstone National Park

A little farther on we had to stop because of the cars ahead of us that had stopped to take photos of the bison that were alongside the road. Tinker could smell the bison and he stood up so he could look out Mike's window and bark at the bison.

From Yellowstone National Park

From Yellowstone National Park

I even got a movie of one bison crossing the road in front of the RV. We crossed over the Yellowstone River again and saw more bison before we drove around Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone Lake (elevation 7,733 ft) is the second largest fresh water lake in the world that is above 7,000 ft.

From Yellowstone National Park

We passed by a section of the road that had been washed out.

From Yellowstone National Park

Shortly after that we drove through Sylvan Pass (elevation 8,350 ft) and there were sections where I wished the guard rail/wall was taller - especially where there was a sheer drop down to the floor of the canyon.

From Yellowstone National Park

We left Yellowstone through the East Entrance at little before 3:00.

From Yellowstone National Park

We drove east on US-14 through the Shoshone National Forest and the Absaroka Mountain Range with great rugged mountain views.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We now started to see more ranches and houses

From Idaho Falls to Cody

and then we passed by this HUGE pile of antlers.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We arrived here at Yellowstone Valley Inn & RV Park at 4:00. We are in site #3 and have full hook-ups (50 amp elec) and free wifi. This is a Good Sam Park and with our discount, we paid $27 for tonight. The sites here are gravel and fairly level and we do have a partial view of the Shoshone River.

From Idaho Falls to Cody

We didn't take any photos of the campground today, we'll have to get some in the morning.

We enjoyed our drive through Yellowstone National Park today and look forward to coming back and having more time to visit and explore the park.

Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We've had a great time visiting with Merilee and Matt, but it's time for us to leave and head east. We said goodbye to Merilee and Matt this morning and thanked them again for their hospitality and told them what a great time we had visiting with them.

We headed south to I-84 and then east on the interstate until we reached the town of Bliss. Matt had told us about the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway (US-30), so we left I-84 at Bliss and drove south on US-30. We stopped at a rest area near Hagerman where there is a large fossil bed.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

A portion of US-30 follows alongside the Snake River and we had great views of numerous waterfalls.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We stopped at the visitor center in Twin Falls to look at the Snake River Canyon

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

and there is a monument for Evel Knievel's attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon. We didn't get to see the actual location of his jump attempt since is was about 2 miles east of the visitor center.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We got back on to I-84 at Twin Falls and headed east until we got to I-86 and took it north.

We stopped at a rest area at Coldwater Hill and walked over to see the historic marker for the California and Oregon Trails that came up the bluff.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

Tinker was so happy to see the grass at the rest area, he had to roll around on it.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

Then 6 miles east of the rest area we saw signs for Register Rock. We decided to detour off the interstate to see Register Rock. We had to backtrack west about 2 miles to get to Register Rock. Register Rock is surrounded by a high fence and is under a covered shelter.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We were able to make out signatures dating from 1849 up to the 1880's.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

After leaving Register Rock we got back on I-86 and drove east until we connected with I-15 and took it north to Idaho Falls.

From Thousand Springs Scenic Byway & Register Rock

We exited I-15 at exit 118 and stopped at an Exxon station to fill the RV's tank ($3.779 a gal) before driving to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Idaho Falls where we're spending tonight.

Oh yes - I forgot to mention that today is my 65th birthday - I not only now have Medicare, but qualify for the "over 65 senior discounts"!!