Collecting Our Money from the Medians

For most of my life, I can honestly say I can’t recall ever hearing anything controversial about any Arizona sheriff. By the time I made it to Arizona as part of the trip, there were two controversies involving Arizona sheriffs that had been heavily reported.

Joe Arpaio was the sheriff for Maricopa County who had been outspoken against illegal immigration and eventually was accused of illegal tactics used on detainees. Arpaio was defeated in the sheriff’s race in 2016 and then in the U.S. Senate primary in 2018. His radical stances clearly weren’t resonating with the majority of voters in his state.

Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb was already a rising star as a recurring visitor to Live PD and then joined a new spinoff called Wanted. Those shows were cancelled shortly after protests and riots that took place to put an end to the attacks by law enforcement against innocent black men. While Lamb’s 15 minutes of fame was a casualty not of his doing, he ended up getting COVID-19 shortly after being among those who claimed it was no big deal. Now, he is currently being investigated for financial issues related to a charity he created. Needless to say, 2020 has not been Lamb’s best year.

I mention these two law enforcement officers not just because they were prominent in the news - my memories of Arizona in 2020 outside of the Grand Canyon will be the massive police presence in just the northern parts of the state I traveled.

Entering the state from Utah, I saw several police cars just sitting together near the border. That alone had me driving exactly the speed limit the entire time I was in Arizona. However, as I continued to drive, I was seeing more police cars than I had seen during the entirety of my trip up until then. Once I drove through Flagstaff and began to make my way toward the Grand Canyon, I was seeing a cop at least every mile - mostly sitting in the medians but sometimes on patrol. As I got closer to the national wonder, they seemed to thin out but the message had been received.

I had hoped to be able to camp out at the canyon, but everything was booked. Fortunately, a couple of days before I started the trip, I was able to find a campsite in Kaibab National Forest just a few miles south of the South Rim area. I stayed the night and woke up extremely early to get the day started.

This was my second trip to the Grand Canyon, having visited before when I was 11. I don’t recall much from that vacation and I probably didn’t spend enough time on this trip to allow myself long-term memories. However, the views were incredible and I bemoaned the thought that I didn’t leave myself enough time to hike down into the canyon. But likely I was better off anyway given how out-of-shape I was going into the trip.

I was gone from the canyon by mid-morning and planned to get lunch in Tuba City and then visit the Four Corners Monument before making my way to New Mexico. I should have gone with my initial instincts to go through Winslow for a stop at the corner (channeling The Eagles, for those of you who know the reference) and then head straight to Albuquerque. Only fast food restaurants were open for business as I traveled through north central Arizona and the Four Corners Monument was suddenly closed. Guess I should have been checking daily for whether it was still open or not - I took one pic of the closed sign and then headed to Albuquerque.

Lots of driving and very little to show for it - on a positive note, however, there were very few cops around during the eastern half of the Arizona journey and New Mexico was a drive that seemed much more like what we are all used to.

Nature Over Amusement in Utah

One of the more significant issues that came about with the pandemic in 2020 was how the economy was affected. Early on, there was resistance at all levels to shut down business at any level because even the threat of an economic collapse wasn’t good for anyone.

For me in a government job in which I tend to be one of only a handful of people trained to do specific elements of my daily work, I felt relatively safe for the short term. However, in the first few months of the pandemic, my promotional company that tends to be my money source for vacations lost two events in 2020. And I noticed other events and daily businesses that relied on crowds were having to shut down at least temporarily to help slow the spread of the CoronaVirus.

As I left Idaho and began my southward journey into Utah, I noticed an amusement park in or near Ogdon that was open for business. As I later learned, Lagoon Amusement Park is one of the only family-owned amusement parks in the country and has over 60 thrilling rides, 40 challenges games and the largest “kiddie land” of any amusement park in the U.S.

And it was also amidst a controversy given it’s up-and-down policy changes and how it reacted to the spread of the virus. The park initially opened to limited crowds and then made adjustments to attempt to limit access to certain rides while also doing what it could to keep the money coming in. One of those “policies” was to not discourage those with pre-purchased tickets from coming anyway, even when they were diagnosed with COVID-19.

Fortunately for me, amusement parks weren’t on my radar for this trip. Instead, I saw Utah as a wonder of nature with three national parks that were on my list of places I had always wanted to see. I was so excited to check out Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park that I barely paid attention to the Great Salt Lake to the west of my drive into Salt Lake City. I paid little attention to the long stretches of mountains on both sides of my drive south into Utah’s capital city and my first overnight stay in a state I had only previously viewed from an airplane.

Getting up early and getting packed up, I was out of Salt Lake City just hours after arriving. I drove a mountainous trip eastward to Arches National Park and saw some incredible views that were made most impressive by arched rock formations throughout the park. Other formations included rocks upon rocks and what appeared to be cave openings that were definitely beyond where I was willing to hike.

The disappointment with Arches was mostly in how many people showed up on what was a bit of a chilly day, but I journeyed on to my next destination after a few hours. After stopping for lunch in Green River (nope, not that Green River), I took myself on a southwestern drive across the state to get to Bryce Canyon. I had originally planned on camping out there but the cold front that had rolled through a couple of days before led to me booking a room at a lodge outside the park. It turned out to be a great decision as this turned out to be my favorite overnight stay of the trip and I had a few hours to just relax and get rested up for the home stretch of the vacation.

Well rested, I woke up early the next day and headed to the park as the sun was just starting to peek its head over the horizon. Knowing that Bryce Canyon had spots known for producing great sunrise photos, I managed to beat the crowds and get some great shots of the mountainous terrain with the sun glaring in the background. I didn’t spend much time here but I did enjoy the views and was ready to head to the final leg in Utah - Zion National Park.

After getting a great natural arch tunnel shot at Red Rock State Park just outside of Bryce Canyon, I navigated through some annoying construction detours to make my way to Zion. The highway delays had me running slightly behind so I rushed through Zion quicker than intended, but I was able to get through the entire park or at least the parts that were open. And yes, COVID-19 was contributing to certain areas prone to crowds being shut down.

With the sights of Utah now a part of the past, I got back on the road and prepared for my next state - Arizona. And if you are going to be in northern Arizona in search of amazing views, I’m sure you already know where I was going to be headed.

"Fall"ing into the Idaho Portion of the Trip

Following my unforgettable time spent in Yellowstone, I moved on to the westernmost part of my trip into Idaho. For me, what stood out about Idaho - other than the surprising difficulties I had with getting phone service during the several hours I spent in the state - were the number of cities I noticed with “Falls” as part of the name.

As it turns out, that number was significantly lower than I had expected. While I was there I would have put that at maybe 10 to a dozen minimum, but there are actually only four cities that have “Falls” in the name - Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Post Falls, and American Falls.

My drive through Idaho started out near Ashton where I had lunch and then took me southwest to Idaho Falls and then westward to Twin Falls, which was the westernmost point of my trip. I stopped at Twin Falls just long enough to get some photos at Shoshone Falls and then I was back on the road to Salt Lake City and a place to rest for the night.

The other major waterfall in Twin Falls is Perrine Coulee Falls but the city didn’t get its name from the two falls. In fact, there used to be twin waterfalls leading from the Snake River until the creation of the Twin Falls Dam cut the twin falls in half.

Shoshone Falls was the only waterfall I visited in Idaho despite the existence of 63 of them throughout the state. I had originally planned on visiting Mesa Falls outside of Ashton, but I was already running behind on time as I exited Yellowstone that morning and decided that one waterfall destination would be enough for Idaho.

In addition to the waterfalls and knowing that potatoes are a major crop in Idaho, I noticed an unusual number of industrial sprinklers on pretty much every tract of land. Having grown up in Oklahoma and having already driven through numerous rural states on just this trip, you can get the idea as to how many of those sprinkler systems I must have seen for it to register that there were a lot. I’m sure they were needed but I’m glad the water bill isn’t mine to pay.

Idaho wasn’t much but I can now say I’ve been there. And the thing is, I’ve always heard how beautiful Boise is and I didn’t make it that far northwest. Although a mere two hours from Twin Falls, it was the opposite direction and I just couldn’t get it added to the itinerary. Maybe another time.

That said, what did get added were three incredible national parks in a state that was far more mountainous than I had ever known. But first - a stop in Salt Lake City for some much needed rest.

Yellowstone National Park, Part 2

For those who know me, one of the best parts of taking trips is the planning part. I had typically found that half the fun for me is in the planning and half the fun is the trip itself. While it has its pros and cons and while allowing myself some flexibility when setting up my vacations, I am generally always booking my rooms or campsites ahead of time so that I don’t have to spend any of the actual vacation time looking at hotels or other places to stay.

Given the late nature of getting to schedule this particular vacation (I was approved to take the trip two days prior to leaving and immediately began booking my overnight stays), I left after work on Thursday knowing I had three nights with nowhere specific to stay. All three nights were planned as camping out nights, but I was finding out that all of the campsites were either sold out or non-reservable. 

The first one of those three nights came on Friday night at Badlands National Park and was pleasantly surprised to find they had at least a dozen spots remaining to camp out. The weather was nice at night and I was excited that the rest of the trip would work out just great. But while I was sitting back enjoying nature that night and looking to see what the temperature was at that moment, I noticed it was going to be up to 103 degrees on Saturday in western South Dakota and was going to drop to the low 20’s with snow in northwestern Wyoming by Monday.

I immediately realized I was willing to sleep indoors rather than my tent that night and since I hadn’t booked anything, I immediately took some time to find a place. I booked what I thought was a room at a lodge or maybe even a small cabin and I continued my trip without a second thought about it.

Fast forward to the afternoon of Labor Day when the snow began to set in and I trekked south and then slightly east to Moran, where it was raining more than snowing and was getting progressively colder. And when I got there, I discovered I was going to be staying in a covered wagon for the night. The upside, however, is that I was going to have four heaters in the wagon. The downside turned out to be that the door wouldn’t zip up all the way and the window next to the bed wouldn’t zip up at all.

I put on all the long-sleeve shirts I brought with me, put on two pairs of pajama pants and my lone pair of sweatpants and then added a jacket and every blanket I could find (and the sleeping bag I had brought). I shivered my way to sleep and eventually woke up around 4ish that morning with no intention of sticking around. While struggling in a “room” that had a temperature in the 20s to get my belongings packed and into the rental car, I took a couple of pics of my surroundings and headed off to Grand Teton National Park and a final journey through a section of Yellowstone National Park to get to the next destination.

While most of my snow day pics were attributed to Yellowstone National Park, many of them were actually taken in Grand Teton. I arrived prior to the actual opening of the park (gates are always open apparently), and I discovered early and often that snow pics are the best pics. And on top of the incredible views I was able to experience, I even had an opportunity to see a bear on the road pick up a pylon and throw it down. When I drove past (no stopping!), I saw there were a couple of other bears a few feet into the woods.

Once through Grand Teton and with snow still on the ground, I continued north to Yellowstone and revisited a couple of places I had seen the day before when I didn’t have a winter background for my pics. I was definitely grateful for the scenery and especially the timing that allowed me to experience autumn and winter in a few hours in one of the most amazing natural places I have ever visited.

Yellowstone National Park, Day 1

When COVID-19 hit as a nationwide pandemic back around mid-March (maybe earlier for others), I had not yet planned on what I would do for a vacation for 2020. The year before, I had taken my dream trip traveling through a dozen states in two weeks and I knew that level of trip wasn’t likely to be replicated.

As the weeks of being quarantined and having to live much more isolated than I was used to, I decided to work on planning a trip to places that wouldn’t be shut down due to crowd concerns and would allow me to stay socially distanced from people while seeing some new places. Having already camped out a couple of times and finding a low number of people at those locations, I felt good about putting together a trip that would take me to several national parks and monuments in the western part of the U.S. - with Yellowstone National Park as the ultimate destination.

As I mentioned before, the year before I had taken a dream trip and visited places I had always wanted to see at some point in my life - the Gateway Arch, Wrigley Field, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Graceland were just some of those places I was able to see. By the time I left Yellowstone, however, I realized this was a place that have always been a centerpiece of must-see places on my “bucket list.”

On the fourth full day of the trip (which just happened to be Labor Day), I came in from the north via Montana, arriving at the north entrance. With snow in the forecast for that afternoon, I was in a bit of a rush but I also had numerous spots I wanted to see while I was there. And despite lots of research and planning ahead of time, I was not prepared for just how large the park was and how long it would take to get through the entire park. My advice for anything looking to plan a trip there in the future - make sure you give yourself at least two days and try for more if you have the time.

The first area I was able to check out was Mammoth Springs, which was a mixture of hot and cold and a great way to start out. I maneuvered my way south, checking out a series of geysers, creeks and falls along the west side of the park. Each stop brought a unique nature formation and was something I had never experienced prior to that moment.

As if the natural formations weren’t cool enough in the morning, seeing Fountain Paint Pot and Grand Prismatic around lunchtime was really impressive. The various colors emanating from the ground created scenery that my camera phone could only begin to show. And as exciting as it had been up until then, I knew I needed to keep moving so I could get to what is the most popular site at Yellowstone.

I arrived at Old Faithful relatively early in the afternoon and apparently arrived just minutes after it had performed a show for the crowd. The great thing about Old Faithful and a big reason it has that name is that it reliably spews hot water out of the ground numerous times a day and it was predicted that it would do so again within 90 minutes of my arrival. True to form, Old Faithful provided to be just that and did provide a brief show (somewhere around five minutes of actual water spewing routinely in the air) for the hundreds of us who sat around the fenced off area.

The cold that preceded the predicted snow was setting in and, of course, I had left my jacket in the rental car so I was eager to get moving after the geyser went back to being dormant. I hurried back to the vehicle (a small SUV for the mountainous drive), warmed up and got back on the road.

As it was mid-afternoon and I was only about halfway through the park, I knew I had a challenge ahead of me to get through the rest of Yellowstone. Unfortunately, I only made it another hour and had made it through the Yellowstone Lake section of the lake when the snow began to fall. So, I worked on making my way out of the south entrance to the park and focused on getting somewhere warm and getting back to the park the next day.

The Father of National Parks

Theodore Roosevelt is one of more interesting presidents in U.S. history. A Republican who took over for William McKinley after he was assassinated in 1901, Roosevelt came in as a war hero who was somewhat controversial in that he was considered conservative on some issues and liberal on others. For someone like myself, however, he will forever be known as the president who advanced the concept of national parks.

Prior to Roosevelt, there were only four national parks and they were all west of the Mississippi. However, Roosevelt placed an emphasis on conservation so it was only natural that an expansion of nationally-protected land would take place during his administration. During his administration, he established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, five national parks and 18 national monuments on over 230 million acres of public land.

Roosevelt was such a strong advocate of national parks, he was known to visit them frequently during his time as president. And in 1978, Theodore Roosevelt National Park was opened in North Dakota in his honor. Roosevelt was also honored as part of Mount Rushmore, which I was able to see during the South Dakota part of my trip.

This national park was just one of the stops I made during my trip and the middle part of my trip the day I left South Dakota. My trek through Wyoming took me through Sundance - known for its now-famous film festival - before I turned north to view a sight that can't be missed in this part of the country.

The first major stop of the day was Devil’s Tower National Monument, which is located in northeast Wyoming. A protruding mass of rock standing out among the plains, Devil’s Tower has a history of being sacred among the tribal nations in the area and is a popular location for hiking and climbing. For me, it was a great opportunity for some photos and views of nature, and then on to the next stop. 

After going north through Wyoming and into Montana, I cut through to North Dakota before heading back through Montana to check out Pompey’s Pillar just east of Billings. Located near the Yellowstone River, this rock formation was part of the path taken by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The name “Pompey” actually stemmed from the son of famed native American guide Sacagawea - who was nicknamed Pompy. Unfortunately, the park was one of two destinations on this trip closed presumably due to COVID-19, but I was still able to get a couple of photos of the pillar from the entrance.

With Montana expected to be in the rear view the next morning, I eagerly anticipated the reason for the trip - Yellowstone National Park. 

Driving the Dumb in America

What do you think about when you hear South Dakota? If you’ve watched Fargo, maybe it will take you to the motel shootout scene in season two. Or maybe you’ll remember that the governor of South Dakota gained some temporary popularity in 2020 for refusing to protect her citizens from the virus. But, at least for me, I think of a state with an extensive tribal history and also Mount Rushmore.

While South Dakota has some level of popularity for all of the reasons listed above, one of the things that stood out to me while in The Mount Rushmore State (did you know it was officially The Sunshine State until 1992?) was noticing a few pop-up stores with the name “The Trump Shop.” Yes, I also assumed it was a place for Trump supporters to pick up their porn and animal sex toys, but as it turns out it is a fanatical front for consumers who don’t want to fly all the way to China to get all of their pro-Trump campaign items.

I immediately appreciated that Oklahoma was not the home to any of these shops (I think I may have seen three of them during my 40ish hours in South Dakota) but it seemed like a quick money grab idea that reminded me of the clean air pop-up stands I used to see in Las Vegas in the early 2000’s. But after spending some time in South Dakota during my trip, I realized this is exactly the part of America that is driving the craziness that makes Donald Trump popular among very limited circles.

For the most part, the tourists were respecting social distancing protocols and walked around wearing masks at my stops in South Dakota, which included Badlands National Park, Wall Drug Store, Mount Rushmore (of course!), Crazy Horse National Monument, The Mammoth Site and Deadwood. However, the more of South Dakota I took in, the more I realized that 100 percent of those wearing a red MAGA hat or wearing some sort of pro-Trump clothing also were maskless and more than eager to get close to any one of us wearing a mask.

Now, I can see why in March and April they might have been instructed to believe the CoronaVirus was a hoax or at least wasn’t as bad as we know it is now. And honestly, even in May, June and July, there was a feeling that it might get better even if the data wasn’t telling us that it was. But as we got into August, September (which was when I was on my trip) and now October, it is obvious that the Covidiots and Freedumb Fighters are exactly what is making America the laughing stock of the world.

And South Dakota was the one state that seemed to be on the extreme side of that.

I felt out of my element while in South Dakota but especially so while at Mount Rushmore and during my overnight stay in Deadwood. It just seemed like I was surrounded by COVID-19 or at least the threat of it. As it turns out, I wasn’t wrong. Upon returning home a week later, I read that South Dakota was among the leading states when it came to surges in reported cases. And my guess is this was just the number of people who were being tested in South Dakota.

As far as I know, I left the state virus-free but I could have easily been asymptomatic and passed it along to anyone around me who chose to go maskless. As we have determined through the pandemic, masks are great at slowing the spread but aren’t 100 percent at stopping it anymore than a bullet-proof vest will stop all bullets every single time. There are risks with everything and safety measures to limit exposure to the CoronaVirus is no different - there is always some level of risk.

The South Dakota portion of my trip was enjoyable despite the constant exposure to Trump fandom and a lack of respect for a virus that currently has touched 8 million Americans while killing 220,000 of them. The Badlands was a great place to camp out and I enjoyed seeing a lot of the small towns in the Black Hills that were destinations for lots of tourists and bikers (Keystone, Custer, Deadwood, Sturgis). And the Wall Drug Store was a cool place that had good donuts (but not the best).

Leaving South Dakota on I-90 while going a legal 80-miles-per-hour put some positive memories and great views in my rear view mirror but that day’s itinerary had eastern Wyoming, southwestern North Dakota and the southern part of Montana so my focus was on the drive ahead.