Wyoming
I left Custer state park, SD, for Devil's Tower national monument. It was HUGE. People CLIMB that thing. I have an excess of pictures of it, here are a few:
There's a path all the way around it, it was a nice walk. On one side it was pretty surreal and relaxing, and on the other side it was just brutally windy. Oh well. That's what happens with a giant rock that big sticking up in the middle of nowhere.
One really cool thing about getting to Devil's tower – the roads have no speed limits until you reach the park that the monument is in. I'm pretty sure it's on an Indian reservation, but I can't imagine the reservation was encompassing the entire area where I saw no speed limit signs. My GPS didn't give me anything for a speed limit, either. Kinda neat. I kept it at 80, because I didn't want to get pulled over by some crazy tribal police or something.
Anyways, that was a nice break on my way to... Gilette? Okay. Gillette, WY, was boring. I went to a place for a quite delicious buffalo chicken sandwich and a couple beers. Their beers were 25 oz! Sweet deal. It was called Humphrey's. I'd recommend it, I'm sure there are some other places in Gillette worth mentioning, but overall it was a pretty boring city. I didn't do much here but eat, drink, and sleep.
The beer I had at Humphrey's was from a brewery not too far out of my way, called Blacktooth. Their IPA was great, but everyone's got a great IPA nowadays. The rest of their beers kinda sucked. The porter was rich and malty, but the pale ale and amber were weak. Get it on draft somewhere, don't bother going to the brewery.
Blacktooth was in Sheridan, WY, which required about an hour of backtracking to get to U.S. Rte 16. I took 16 southwestish to U.S. Rte 20, to U.S. Rte 26 west. It was so goddamn amazing. First there was nothing, and then a big ole mountain just popped up outta nowhere
Slowly the pine trees grew evermore snowcovered
until I reach the peak of Cloud Peak at almost 10,000 ft!
I then descended the mountain through rigorous switchbacks that you'd see sports cars driving on Top Gear. They were crazy.
As the descent continued I broke onto what I though was an even ground, a plain.
Nope. It was the top of more, smaller mountains, and in between them there was a canyon with a big river in it. It was beautiful
The canyon ended with a dam, and three rock tunnels on my side, one on the other side (for a train! Trains run here! Wild.)
Followed by a lake.
The sun started to set, which is a bummer, because the next stretch of road was even more badass than what I got pictures of. Maybe it was the fact that I saw two moose hanging out with two pronghorns, maybe it was the fact that I saw a bear, maybe it was the fact that it was a frequently unpaved mountain pass during snow and freezing rain, but that drive was INSANE. I kept thinking “man I was I have a rally car,” and then I realized “oh, wait, I sort of do.” Well, not really. A Subaru Outback is barely a rally car, but whatever, my point is I would have probably hit a moose, gotten mauled by a bear, and bled to death by my firey wreck of a vehicle in a snowstorm if it weren't for AWD, snow tires, and 5 years experience with snow/mountain driving in Vermont.
Anyways, after the craziness ended, I arrived at the junction right between Tetons nation park and Yellowstone. I went to Tetons, stayed at Signal Mountain. It was fantastic. It was cloudy most of the time, but here's some of the views from the area:
It was gorgeous.
I spent two nights here. I drank at the Lodge's bar and met a guy named Joe from Kansas City, MO. Nice guy, drank with him at the bar both nights I was there. Hope the drive home went well, Joe! The bar had some good beers. The Zonker Stout, and the Pako Eye-P-A, both from Snake River Brewing Company, were amazing. The other Zonker, I forget, maybe an amber? It wasn't very memorable, clearly. It wasn't that great. Get the stout, or Pako's Eye-P-A. The Pako Eye-P-A won best IPA in the U.S., someone told me. I'm not sure if it's true, but I could see it. It was damn good.
Signal Mountain Lodge was amazing, and I'll certainly return at some point in my life. Hopefully sooner than later.
While in the area, I went to Jackson Hole a couple times. I went to a breakfast place called Shade's. It was sweet. A little housey nook, they serve coffee and breakfast foods. I got a breakfast burrito with potatoes and I was full all night. It was incredible.
Jackson is a cool town. The people I met there reminded me of Burlington people. No surprise, a happening town in a ski area is a happening town in a ski area, I guess. Anyways, spotted some Vermonters there:
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| 802 represent! Who am I kidding, I have a Boston area code... |
So Jackson, if you don't know, is a very prized ski area in the U.S., and the town sits right at the foot of it. It's pretty awesome. Here's a view from Jackson:
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| From the edge of town |
The back is a crazy, crazy ride. Look up some pictures on the internet. I didn't go and take any.
Now, before I set out on this journey of mine, I had become a bit of a beer fanatic (can you tell? I've been to like 40 breweries on this trip.) I got a beer from The Rare Beer Club (an awesome Christmas present from my family,) call Sheepeater, a 2 year old scotch ale from a brewery called Grand Teton Brewing Company. I was determined to go to the brewery, and did. The drive was on one of the sickest moutain passes ever. Drive from Jackson, WY, to Victor, ID sometime. I didn't have my camera, or my guitars. Would have LOVED to do a shred vid here. Especially since my weather ever since has been pretty bad. I have no vids since CO. Bummer. Oh well, sweet drive over the mountain there, into Victor, ID. I stopped at a gas station really close to the brewery and saw this gem:
Oh, Idaho.
Anyways, I went to the brewery, met one of the brewers, he was a cool guy. Knew his shit.
The woman serving me, I really hope I remember her name right because I gave her the address to this blog, Katie, was from Essex, VT! Crazy small world. We talked for a bit, then her boyfriend, also hope I remembered this right, Tucker, came in, and we all hung out until the brewery closed. It was cool. They were awesome people, had a great time hanging out. I tried their Pursuit of Hoppiness imperial red ale. It was fantastic. Very balanced hop profile, nice smooth body. Didn't taste as boozy as it was. I then moved on to the Wake Up Call, imperial coffee porter, which was very tasty. Very roasty malty delicious. Lastly I had the Black Cauldron Imperial stout, which was also phenomenal. This placed killed it. They also had a cask conditioned version of their stout which I got a sample of. Fantastic. This brewery is probably has the best beers out of everyplace I've visited so far. If they made food at all, and it was as good as Bobcat's in Bristol, VT, Bobcat would be in jeopardy in its position as my number one brewery.
I crossed back over the beautiful mountain pass, did I mention it was like 16 miles of 10% grades, both ways? It was silly. Lots of fun though.
I stopped in Jackson and grabbed dinner at Thai Me Up, a thai restaurant that was also a brewery. I can't find their menu online, so I can't remember the name of the thai dish I ate was, but it was great. Coconut based curry with a bit of kick to it, with chicken, broccoli, and rice. It was really good. On the beverage hand, however, I have found their menu. I drank the Gnucastle 2.0, a heavy brown ale carbonated with nitrogen. It was awesome. Future beer is great, go nitro. I also got a sample of the Hopium, a double IPA that I would compare to Bobcat's Brickwall. Well done, guys.
Aside from all that, I hiked some of signal mountain, there was a trail right by the place I was sleeping. I went with my camera, but the battery and SPARE battery were super dead. Damn. It was a good hike, but it was cloudy out, the pictures would have sucked anyways.
Finally, after two days in Tetons/Jackson, I went north for Montana, through Yellowstone.
Yellowstone was a bit underwhelming. I say that, because it's nothing compared to what it must have been 50 years ago. Forest fires, and those crazy invasive japanese beetles have really fucked up a good chunk of yellowstones greenery. After Tetons? It just wasn't that “pretty,” it was pretty surreal and beautiful in a different way, though. Here's a pretty overlook I found, with not that many dead pines:
Old faithful isn't all that faithful anymore. It was cold out, and it's a hot spring, so it was basically a steam explosion. It wasn't all that huge, either. Here's the shitty pictures I got:
Sweet, right? Yeah, not really. I'm sure on the right day, if you get the right gysersplosion, it's really cool... but that just makes it not “old faithful,” you know? Whatever. The other hot springs nearby were WAY cooler, here's some of the sweet pictures I got (note super deadness in background) :
That steam was like a sauna. It was cool. The water was really blue, too.
and that was pretty much the coolest stuff I found in Yellowstone. I kept headed north and eventually emptied out in West Yellowstone, MT. Montana's next!
See you on the road,
Skwar
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