Old Fashioned Road Trip

This month my mom came to visit us in Colorado.  I always try to balance her visits with some down time to visit around the house along with some sort of trip to experience something new together.  Grammy had mentioned she only had one state left to say she had been to all fifty.  Any guess which state was left?  No- not Hawaii...North Dakota!  I checked google maps and saw it was less than ten hours to ND.  But I did not want to simply drive to the border and turn around.  We had to DO something there.  I googled and read up on the state and decided a very fitting finale for Grammy's 50th state would be a stay at an Abby.  So we had a destination for our mini-roadtrip:  Assumption Abby in Richardton, ND.  We broke up the drive by staying in Cluster, SD  both on the way there and the way home.

We really enjoyed seeing Custer State Park and all the buffalo on the Wilderness Loop, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

As we drove to North Dakota I thought at first I had missed the "real" highway but turns out the two lane road in the middle of cow pastures really was the main way.  After we crossed into ND we took a slightly more scenic northern route on the Enchanted Highway, a road that also had large sculptures every few miles.

When we arrived at the Abby we followed the directions to locate our room.  I really did not know what to expect since I have never been to an Abby before but what a wonderful surprise.  We had two nice rooms at the end of the hall.  We went to morning prayer and ate the silent (and delicious) breakfast with the monks.  Then we walked around to enjoy the gardens and the prarie.  We visited with some of the monks and I really enjoyed their hospitality, friendliness and openness.  We also bought some soap made at the abby in the gift shop.  I went back for the prayer service before lunch.  Then we all gathered in the dining hall to say grace before a tasty lunch with quiche, salads and a ginger square dessert.  We would have liked to stay at the Abby the additional night as we had planned.  But after the drive up, I realized it was not realistic to drive straight home so we left after lunch so we could get to Custer and sleep before driving home the next morning.

Notice the nice t-shirts in the pictures?  Laurel designed them to commemorate the big day.  The front said "Grammy's 50th State" and the back had her photo inside an outline of North Dakota and it said "North Dakota or Bust!".

I continue to enjoy a good road trip- fun company, music, a cooler full of cold cuts and seltzer and the spirit to love whatever comes around the corner- be it a buffalo, a narrow bridge or a giant tin family.

We live in an amazing country and if you have not gotten out to enjoy it lately fill up the tank and get driving!

The Grand Traverse

Justin and I have been enjoying many hikes in RMNP this year.  Many of these hikes were in training for a longer three day hike that looped clockwise from Bear Lake, up Flattop Mountain to Grand Lake and up to Haynach Lake and then back to Flattop Mountain, finishing in Bear Lake.
Here is a map with the loop:

We awoke at 4AM and left home at 4:30.  This got us on the trail at 5:45.  Even though we delayed our trip by one day because of poor weather, things still started out a little shaky.  We were not sure if we would have enough visibility to see from cairn to cairn.  Here are some photos from the start of the hike.

Once we got over the continental divide the weather improved.  At about 3:00 pm and 18.5 miles later we left the trailhead and walked into Grand Lake to sleep at the Rapids Lodge.  Surprisingly we felt pretty good and enjoyed a nice dinner with friends at the Sagebrush Restaurant.  The next morning we got back on the trail at the same spot, this time taking the Tonahutu Trail to our backcountry site, Haynach Lake.  As the first photo demonstrates- the previous rainy days made for a muddy hike but at least we had mostly sunny skies.

Our backcountry site was spectacular.  It was looking over a nice creek and meadow and was about a mile from Haynach Lakes which were beautiful and we enjoyed them all to ourselves since they are a bit off the main trail.

The third morning we awoke early to get on the trail by seven.  (The reason we cut the second half of the hike into two parts was because it would be hard to be below treelike before afternoon if we did it all at once and there are just too many lightening strikes in the afternoon.  So we hiked to right below tree line, enjoyed the sights and the backcountry for a night and then began the upward climb early in the morning.)  Below are some photos of the tundra with panoramic views.  The final two photos show where our loop began right after Flattop Mountain and where we ended.

This hike was a wonderful three day trek and training for it was also fun.  I am grateful to Justin for coming up with this idea and carrying more than his share of the backpacking load!