travel sketches, crossing the country in a few lines a day, part 2
Preparing for the coming summer's travel always spurs me to look back on our past trips. In such a mood I recently read my travel journals from the last two summers. For the most part my daily entries were brief and sketchy, written at night after the kids were asleep or scrolled in shaky pen, an attempt to get down a few lines during our days drive. I recall that many of these entries felt too simple at the time of their writing and likely of little future interest. But I wrote them anyway. And as I read them more than a year later I discovered that recollections in any form have the power to transport. Many passages were more eloquent than I had thought them to be; and those that were simple were poignant too because of their honesty and immediacy. Eloquent or slight - all of them meaningful because of the memories they conjured. Below are a few lines from each day of our travels during the summer of 2017: the lines that speak to me now because of or despite their eloquence.
Summer 2017
June 17, 2017 (Poplar
Grove, Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa)
Today is the day we
head west again. This is the day I wait
for, plan for – breathe a sigh of relief
for.
June 18, 2017 (Des
Moines to Eugene T. Mahoney State Park, Omaha, Nebraska)
It is our first
night in the pop-up – it feels so comfortable, like an old shirt. Everyone is tucked in and sleeping as I sit
up and write. It is wonderful when
newness and familiarity merge. It is a
wonderful kind of homecoming, like a surprise in your own living room.
June 19, 2017
(Omaha to FT. Kearney State Recreation Area, Kearney, Nebraska)
In Fort Kearney,
Nebraska we visited the 1840s fort, the first built along the route of the
Oregon Trail and was later the headquarters for the Pony Express. Everything on the grounds is a
reconstruction, a simple representation that clearly communicates what was once
there. The kids raced each other to the
corners of the fort – this is history with children.
June 20, 2017 (Fort
Kearney to Scottsbluff National Monument, Nebraska)
Our drive today was
through prairie land that gradually faded into an undulating landscape
reminiscent of last year’s passage though South Dakota and Wyoming. We arrived at Scottsbluff National Monument
at around 2:30 in the afternoon. The air
was hot and dry. We took the last
shuttle of the day to the top of the Bluff on the 1930s CCC road and enjoyed
our own ranger lead tour up the half-mile trail to the lookout point.
June 21, 2017
(Scotts Bluff, Nebraska to Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado)
Today we reached the
mountains. Always, tears come to my eyes
when I first enter the steep slopes. Always
they come again when I take in the smell of pine for the first time - wet crisp pine or warm dry pine, they are
equally distinct and equally they flush me with emotion.
Tonight I sit up, as
I often do, the only one awake taking in myself along with the rest of the
day. The wind, though it has calmed
significantly, still blows against the soft sides of our camper, gently rocking
and sometimes forcing the canvass inward. Inside I hear only the sounds of breath heavy with sleep, and from
the outside an occasional voice and a low and constant hum: a jet passes miles
above us.
June 22, 2017 (Rock
Mountain National Park)
Our first morning in
Rocky Mountain National Park found us on a ranger led nature walk in Moraine
Park. Afterward we stopped at a wayside
on the Colorado River for a picnic lunch.
In the late afternoon we drove to Bear Lake. We walked the mile long path around its shore
and the kids delighted to run and climb and touch snow in June and throw bits
of it into the lake.
June 23, 2017 (Rocky
Mountain National Park)
We spent today in
Estes Park. Coffee, candy, a playground
at the edge of the river: there is nothing like the sound of rushing water, it
flows directly through me.
June 24, 2017 (Rocky
Mountain National Park)
Today we hiked
Alberta Falls.
June 25, 2017
(Rocky Mountain National Park)
Today is Sunday and
we spent our afternoon in Estes Park again.
I sat for an hour on a bolder at the edge of a playground: the jagged
mountains before me, the rushing water behind me, my children playing in
between. This place feels comfortable,
as if it is exactly as it should be, as if it invites us to be exactly as we
should be. These mountains are not a
spectacle, they are their own wild place.
June 26, 2017 (Rocky
Mountain National Park)
Today we drove Trail Ridge
Road. At an elevation of 12,000 feet it climbs to be the highest road in the
United States. We spent three hours on
the road, including our time at the visitor center and on the overlook trail. The vistas are so broad and immense it is hard
to comprehend them. It is almost
impossible to take in their distances and understand their vastness. In the late afternoon Grace and I hiked the
switchback trail to Bierstadt Lake. This
place was a serene and fulfilling as the road was raw and intimidating. It was
a full day – as days should be, full to the limits of what we could do and take
in – this is the reason for the experience, to fill us with understanding and
wonder.
June 27, 2017 (Rocky
Mountain National Park)
Today is our last
day in Rocky Mountain National Park. Our
seven days here have been wonderful, full of beauty and challenge and new
experience. Most of all they have
brought us to the mountains.
June 28, 2017 (Rocky
Mountain National Park to Lander, Wyoming)
We pulled out of
Glacier Basin campground at about ten o’clock this morning. Our destination, one night in Lander, Wyoming
on our way to Grand Teton National Park.
Crossing into Wyoming we entered Oregon Trail territory again. As we drove I read aloud from the auto tour
book. We stopped at Split Rock and Ice
Slew, both landmarks on the trail. We
parted from the trail just after Sweet Water Station and just to its north,
entered an otherworldly expanse of geologic formations.
June 29, 2017
(Lander to Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming)
We enjoyed our drive
this morning. We were out early, which
is unusual for us. But we reveled in the
perfect morning encountering few others.
We drove through a landscape that surprised at every turn, constantly
changing and yet consistent in its ability to awe. We arrived at Grand Teton just before 10:00
am and achieved our goal of securing a first come first serve campsite inside
the park.
June 30, 2017 (Grand
Teton National Park)
In mid afternoon we
ventured to Jenny Lake and chose to walk the trail that leads past Moose Ponds. To our delight we saw a Moose, our first in
two years visiting this region. He
looked just as you would expect a moose to look, dark with a regal
profile. We watched him at a distance
for sometime dipping his head in to graze in the water. He was oblivious to us;
expect occasionally when he raised his head in clear recognition of some
unknown sound. And then he would go
back, head to the water, raising and lowering, lowering and raising again,
shifting slightly, but not stepping too far in any direction.
July 1, 2017(Grand
Teton National Park)
We hiked to
Inspiration Point: Jeffrey wants to move fast, Grace just wants to climb and
Michael notices everything. Dinner of
sandwiches from the camp store and an early evening driving tour of the pull offs
best known for wildlife viewing.
July 2, 2017 (Grand
Teton National Park)
Chapel of the
Transfiguration
My pilgrimage was
returning to the place where she had been.
For hundreds of
miles it was on my mind and occasionally on my lips.
For more than a year
it followed me:
since I first learned of it, since I first
visited.
Today I went for
communion.
Today I went to join
this place alive with human presence.
Today I carried raw
anticipation in my heart.
Today I was
overcome.
July 3, 2017 (Grand
Teton National Park)
Jeff caught six
trout in Jackson Lake. We grilled three
of them whole for dinner, drizzled with oil and draped and stuffed with lemon,
they were beautiful. But it was strange
for the kids to see the whole fish dead and ready for eating. It was interesting like that for me too, to
consider my appreciation for a life that will feed my own.
July 4, 2017 (Grand
Teton National Park)
Today is our last
day in Grand Teton National Park. The
atmosphere is not festive as one would expect on this national holiday, but
soft, almost quiet, they way I have wished the park would have been during the
rest of our visit.
July 5, 2017 (Grand
Teton National Park to Casper, Wyoming)
For the first time
in nearly three weeks we turned east.
July 6, 2017 (Casper to Hot Springs South Dakota)
We headed back
toward the highway at just about six o’clock to be met by a dark storm on the
horizon. We caught up with each other, us and the storm, a few hours later and
what was planned as our first night in Custer State Park, South Dakota became the only night
we have spent in a hotel in two years on the road.
July 7, 2017 (Hot Springs to Custer State Park, Custer, South Dakota)
Prairie dog towns
are abundant along the roadway that leads from Custer to Wind Cave National
Park. If you stop to near, the prairie dogs will
call out in unison to pass along the signal of looming danger. My son, the one who notices everything, loves
them.
July 8, 2017 (Custer
State Park)
In the afternoon we
visited the cabin home of Badger Clark, onetime South Dakota poet laurite. And we hiked about two miles round trip on
the South Dakota Centennial Trail that passes just outside its doorway.
July 9, 2017 (Custer
State Park)
I got up early this
morning to prepare the last camp breakfast of our trip. Camp breakfast is my favorite.
July 10, 2017
(Custer State Park to Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
Officially on our
way home: today was a driving day and we took our time. We were through Rapid
City by 3:00 and into the open plains.
The landscape had faded gradually from pine forested mountains to gentile
hills to the bare rolling vistas of the badlands region. I always feel a strong sense of remorse when
the mountains have finally faded from our rearview. And always I take in a deep breath of comfort as I
realize I am fully surrounded by the plains once more.
July 11, 2017 (Sioux
Falls, South Dakota to home)
496 miles.
With gratitude,
Joanna
Travel sketches part 1, here
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