Summer road trip August 2013

August 6th: Washington, Idaho and Montana

I was home from Laos only 5 days and off I go again, heading to Minnesota to watch my son Natan in a national Ultimate Frisbee tournament. I have never watched Natan play at a major tournament, and I am really looking forward to this (plus, I love driving trips).

I decided I want to go all the way to Minnesota without going on a major road. It will take more time, but it will also be more interesting. I started driving at 3 am. By the time I stopped, I covered 720 miles (1,200 kilometers), and drove through the states of Washington and Idaho, and about a third of the way through Montana on Highway 2, which heads east from the north end of Seattle, and follows the Canadian border. 

Washington 

just after sun rise in eastern Washington

 Montana

Wheat fields in the flat-lands of Eastern Montana (though Western Montana is very mountainous, central Montana gets very flat)

August 7th: Montana and North Dakota
Day two - another long but great day: 640 miles (a little over 1000 kilometers).

huge wheat rolls and cattails

I couldn't decide which photo I liked better, so I included boh

North Dakota

Little House on the North Dakota Prairie

I have never been to North Dakota. I drove south, near the western border. I had no idea that North Dakota was so beautiful.

August 8th: South Dakota - Mount Rushmore and The Badlands
Each day I have covered less miles - only 550 miles today (about 900 kilometers).

South Dakota

South Dakota just before sunrise

Mount Rushmore 

Mount Rushmore was very impressive. It is difficult to tell from a photograph how massive the carved faces are. It would be fun to have a person scaling George Washington's nose for a frame of reference (the nose is 20 feet long (almost 7 meters).

I have wanted to go to the Badlands for a while now. I had heard that they are spectacular. I ended up taking the wrong road and skirted around the Badlands to the south. I thought I was in them and thought it was beautiful.

The Badlands

And then I entered the Badlands National Park, and was blown away. Photos can not do this area justice, for they can only take sliced images of immense panoramas.

After leaving the badlands and heading east, South Dakota became lush and flat farmland.

big roll of wheat and huge field of sunflowers