Well....Jim & John's Junket has to pause for a while...
Here's a summary of our adventures for the past two months!
It has been a real blessing to experience some of America's great parks.  We encourage you to explore YOUR National Parks, Monuments, Historic Sites and more.  Thanks for letting us share our first RV travels with you...Happy Trails!
National Parks:              

1. Arches, UT
2. Canyonlands: (Island in the Sky/Needles), UT
3. Great Basin: (Lehman Cave), NV
4. Capitol Reef, UT
5. Bryce Canyon, UT
6. North Rim of the Grand Canyon, AZ
7. Zion, UT
8. Sequoia, CA
9. Kings Canyon, CA
10. Yosemite, CA
11. Lassen Volcanic, CA
12. Redwoods, CA
13. Crater Lake, OR
14. Olympic, WA
15. Northern Cascade, WA
16. Mt. Rainier, WA
17. Glacier, MT
18. Yellowstone, WY
19. Grand Teton, WY
20. Rocky Mountain, CO
21. Wind Cave, SD
22. Badlands, SD

National Monuments:

1. Jefferson Gateway, MO
2. Colorado, CO
3. Grand Staircase Escalante, UT
4. Cedar Breaks, UT
5. Pipe Springs AZ
6. Devils Postpile, CA
7. Craters of the Moon, ID
8. Timpanagos Cave, UT
9. Dinosaur, CO/UT
10. Scotts Bluff, NE
11. Agate Fossil Beds, NE
12. Jewel Cave, SD
13. Devils Tower, WY

National Historic Park:

1. Lewis & Clark NHP at Ft. Clatsop, OR
2. Golden Spike NHS at Promitory Summit, UT
3. Ft. Laramie NHS, WY
4. Chimney Rock NHS, NE

Presidential:

1. Truman, Independence, MO
2. Eisenhower, Abilene, KS

National Preserve:

1. Tall Grass Prairie, KS

National Historic Landmark

1. Oregon Trail Ruts at Guernsey, WY

Forest Service:

1. Dixie NF, Red Canyon, UT
2. Shasta-Trinity NF, CA
3. Rogue River NF, Prospect, OR
4. Tillamook NF, 8 miles east of Tillamook, OR
5. Buffalo Gap National Grassland, SD

National Scenic Area:

1. Columbia River Gorge Historic U.S. Highway 30

National Scenic Byway:

1. Pacific Coast Highway 101, CA, OR, WA
2. Needles Highway, SD

National Recreatioon Area:

1. WhiskeyTown, CA
2. Smith River, Crescent City, CA
3. Flaming Gorge, UT

National Wildlife Area:

1. Lewis & Clark Wildlife Refuge, OR

Other Interesting Sites:

1. Lake Mead, AZ
2. Mono Lake, CA
3. Columbia River, OR.WA
4. Bingham Open Pit Copper Mine, UT
5. The Great Salt Lake, UT
6. Custer State Park, SD

I-9-

Today was a truckiing and traveling day, as we headed east on I-90.  We did make one brief stop at a South Dakota landmark...The Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota.  Here's some history for you:
The original Mitchell Corn Palace (known as "The Corn Belt Exposition") was built in 1892 to showcase the rich soil of South Dakota and encourage people to settle in the area. It was a wooden castle structure on Mitchell's Main Street.. In 1921 the Corn Palace was rebuilt once again, with a design by the architectural firm Rapp and Rapp of Chicago. Moorish domes and minarets were added in 1937, giving the Palace the distinctive appearance that it has today. It costs $130,000 annually to decorate the Palace.
The exterior corn murals are replaced and redesigned each year with a new theme. The designs are created by local artists. No new mural was created in 2006 due to an extreme drought.
Besides being a tourist attraction, the Corn Palace also serves the local community as a venue for concerts, sports events, exhibits and other community events. Each year, the Corn Palace is celebrated with a citywide festival, the Corn Palace Festival.. It is also home to the Dakota Wesleyan University Tigers and the Mitchell High School Kernels basketball teams.

This year's theme has been "Saluting Youth Activities."  Here are some of the scenes from the Corn Palace today...

This is the final panel to be completed before this year's Corn Festival,
which is held the last week of August!

 

Today was a great sightseeing day and probably our last National Park visit for this junket. We started with a visit to the Buffalo Gap Grass Preserve. We learned that this is the ONLY visitor center for all 20 of America's grassland preserves, which are under the care of the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. We watched an interesting movie that explained the history and importance of the need to preserve these grassland areas. Next we headed to Badlands National Park, near Wall, South Dakota for an eye-opening excursion into the world of erosion!! The Badlands is really a 100 mile long wall with canyons, pinacles, arroya that wagon trains of our pioneers could not penetrate. We'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story, but suffice it to say the rock in the Badlands region is very soft sandstone. Enjoy!

Meadowlark singing to us in the Badlands

Meadowlark is the state bird of South Dakota

The southern portion of the Badlands is an untouched area,
watched over by the Lakota Indians.

Today, August 16th, was a double sightseeing day  We have now  been on this junket eactly two (2) full months and traveled combined mileage (RV & auto) of 14,695 miles!  Today we first headed to Jewel Cave National Monument and the cave tour tickets were sold out.  So after a trip to the visitor center and the displays, we jumped into Magellan II and headed for Devils Tower, Wyoming.  We arrived there and took the 1.3 mile base of the tower hike around the tower.  We both felt that we had accomplished a great feat, but our backsides were dragging.

The only photo we can show you from Jewel Cave....Just know that
it is the 2nd longest cave in the WORLD!!

Our first sight of Devils Tower

Devils Tower National Monument from the Visitor Center

Headed toward hiking trail, from southwest

Devils Tower is 837 feet tall & 1,000 feet in diameter (at the base).

Weathering taking place at the top

The area at the top is 1.5 acres

Prairie Dog Town, from the base at the south end

Souteast side

Over 5,000 crazy people climb to the top each year...here's one from today!

Here are two more crazy climbers

Eastside view

Northeast side....about half way around the base trail

North side of Devils Tower

Northwest side of Devils Tower

West side view of Devils Tower

Back to the start!

There are many Indian legends telling how Devils Tower came to be....
This painting depicts the legend Judy & John shared with their students each year.
7 sisters were playing near a tree stump with their brother...when suddenly brother turned into a bear
and tried to catch the 7 sisters.  They climbed on top of the stump & it grew up into the air.
The Bear clawed at the sides, but couldn't reach the girls....The7  girls went up into the
heavens and became the Little Dipper!

Prairie Dogs in Prairie Dog Town at the foot of Devils Tower

One little Prairie Dog sat up to tell us goodby!