Utah Salt Flats

One last update before Road Trip USA is over...

We drove from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City on Friday afternoon (last week), admiring the potato fields and mountains, and set off Saturday across the lonely stretches of Utah and Nevada. Utah in particular was surprisingly fascinating, thanks to the Bonneville Salt Flats. They look, more or less, like this-
The reason this was exciting was because of the reflection you can see there. For a long while we weren't certain what the reflection was, exactly, but soon enough we realized it was a thin layer of water a few inches thick. Naturally we had to pull over and check it out...

For those who are wondering, the water was pretty warm and we washed our feet off afterwards as the water was really, really salty upon taste sampling. Oh, and the place we're standing is a few miles in front of the track where they set the world speed records every year. The water evaporates evenly, meaning the remaining salt is perfectly smooth for miles and miles around.
Another shot of the salt flat lakes. Really lovely.
As a last photo, here is a very odd sculpture spotted on the side of the road in the middle of the salt flats. Internet searching revealed it to be called Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, and is primarily interesting to me because it's the only landmark in the miles and miles of desolation.

After the Salt Flats there was nothing much except Nevada, which is more remoteness and not particularly exciting. We spent the night in Reno, Nevada, which is depressing in itself because I have had statistics drilled into me enough to find casinos silly and the people who throw away their money tragic...

Anyway, I've been on my SETI job for a few days now but have been super-duper busy so I'm behind. Don't worry, I'll catch up soon enough, but the long and short of it is this is the last post of Road Trip USA. And I must say, it really is fun to drive across America and see what it's like. This country varies an incredible amount, meaning there's always something new to see, and my family gets along pretty well so the company was good too!

Alrighty, it's getting late even here on the West Coast so I'll write about California later. Cheers!

Yellowstone Wildlife

My absolute favorite thing about visiting Yellowstone is, hands down, the wildlife. First of all, it's so abundant- you can hardly go a few miles without seeing something you'd pay good money at a zoo to see- and second of all it's really exciting, and third of all it's just cool. If you don't think so, you're just jealous because you haven't gotten to the point in your life yet where you think "oh, another buffalo herd, not worth stopping for..."
First of all, a buffalo. The most prevalent in the park. I really like them because it's difficult to think of an animal more iconic of the American West than a buffalo, and they're everywhere, so this made me happy.
A baby buffalo, also affectionately known as a "red dog." These guys are born weighing 70-80 pounds, which sounds like a lot until you realize their dads weigh about one ton...
An elk. Also everywhere, particularly around Mammoth lodge where they're smart enough to graze on the well-mown grass. We also saw one with a beautiful set of horns, but no picture I'm afraid.
A white-tailed deer spotted on our hike. Now listen, I know these guys aren't too exotic- they've been tearing up my mom's garden longer than I can remember- but I'm keeping track of wildlife species seen alright? Alright.
A moose, cooling down in the water.
A beautiful shot of a butterfly who obligingly posed on our hike.
And last but not least, a black bear! Spotting these guys is a big deal in the park and we did it twice- once when he was waaaaay off in the distance so that you'd never notice if there wasn't a ranger and a crowd of people around to point out the black speck on the nearby hillside to you, and once when the cars slowed down on the side of the road and we discovered he was only a few yards away. (A sure hint of good wildlife in Yellowstone is an unexpected traffic jam.) This guy was pretty little and he was foraging on the side of the road, wondering what all the huge commotion was about but not at all deterred by it-
I loved him, not only because he was cute but because, well... ok, he was really cute. I'd so want one, if I didn't know they can kill people and all those messy details.

Also seen but not shown here, due to either lack of photograph or my ability-
~ ground squirrel
~ jackrabbit
~ bighorn sheep
~ lots and lots of birds
~ grizzly bear (Ok, this one is very suspect. However, the first afternoon we were in the park there were a bunch of cars parked with telescopes looking in a direction, and for a second while I looked in that direction it looked exactly like a grizzly bear. No one else saw this though, and I don't fully trust it myself, but still it would be cool to say I saw one!)

Yellowstone: Day 3

What is wrong with this picture? If you responded "it is June 6th and it is friggin' snowing!!!" then you are absolutely correct. We woke up this morning to discover fresh snow on the ground (not to be confused with the piles of snow left over from prior falls that just hadn't melted) and more of the white stuff coming down fast. It turns out this is rare even for Yellowstone- it hasn't snowed here in June in six years- but it was nonetheless great. The only problem is I kept feeling like we were about to go skiing like my family is apt to do when traveling out West, except I kept recalling with disappointment that we wouldn't be doing that for a few months yet.

I will say though, the snow was a nice touch to the scenery. It saves me the trouble of coming back in wintertime to see what the park looks like then!

This is a shot of what most of the park looks like by the way. If you're old enough, remember the Yellowstone Fires of 1988? If not, it turns out over 60% of the park's forest was devastated that summer by wildfire, and in most places it shows. The forest is busy growing back, but the charred remains of the old trees still poke up to remind you of this chapter of history.
This odd scene was shot at Midway Geyser Basin, which is famous for the surreal hues the water and surrounding region get from the thermal vents (aka lots of minerals and extremeophile bacteria make the pretty colors). There are a few famous shots of this but alas that wasn't meant for me and my camera- too much steam!
My obligatory shot of Old Faithful, the world's most famous geyser. I'll come right out with it: Old Faithful is pretty overblown in the "famous tourist attractions" scene of things, particularly when you realize just how much other incredible stuff there is to see in the park. Don't get me wrong, it's kind of cool to see a bunch of water shooting up, but it looks suspiciously similar to any large public fountain you've seen in your lifetime. Yawn.

Ok, to make up for this, I'll do one more cool Yellowstone post before going to bed. Because it turns out what lives in Yellowstone, not what's at it, is the most exciting part of all...

Yellowstone: Day 2

Yellowstone is, as my mom observed at one point, a true American park. The reason is there are roads in the park going to all the "major" attractions, so it really seems like most tourists just drive around, waddle a few hundred yards to see said attraction, then go back and drive on. We obviously couldn't be typical Americans, so chose a nice, long hike on Thursday to enjoy a bit of the park most people never see.

And trust me, it was great. We did a trail called the Beaver Ponds Loop which was, obviously, a several-mile loop around old beaver ponds. Except since this is Yellowstone, we kept running into views like this-

Ah, so lovely! (That's the "town" in Yellowstone called Mammoth in the valley.) Soon enough the trail started winding through a bunch of aspen groves, which were framed by the background views quite beautifully-
Another pretty shot, towards Mammoth Terraces-
Overall, I'd say that what was most surprising about the trail to me was how, well, Swiss the whole thing felt. I went to Switzerland once, when I was about eight years old, and what little I remember of hiking around there was strikingly similar to this corner of Yellowstone. No cows like there are everywhere in Switzerland, of course, but these comparisons only go so far...
Another pretty shot of the trail...
A shot of the old Gardiner trail, which is the old wagon trail used over a century ago when the park was first founded. It still winds all over the park, and it's frankly amazing to see some of the steep slopes the old wagons went over because they're so incredibly steep.
An obligatory beaver pond picture, as I said this was a trail to go past them at some point.
An obligatory wildflower picture. Why do I say obligatory? Because my mom loves flowers, so we stopped at every single new type of flower on the trail we saw to admire it. By my guesses there were ~15 types of wildflower (pretty impressive seeing as it was the equivalent of early spring at this altitude) including some lovely ones like lupines, columbines, and shooting stars... These ones here are balsamroots, pictured here because they are by far the most common wildflowers in Wyoming at this time of year and are quite lovely.
As a final bonus of the trek, after our hike we detoured to see the Mammoth Terraces in Yellowstone, formed by limestone deposits from the hotsprings. Apparently these change very rapidly in nature, meaning if you visit in a few years you will not find anything that looks like this picture, and I think that's kind of neat.

After this, of course, we were all sufficiently dead tired from all the walking. We had our best wildlife sightings of the entire trip afterwards, though, which I will detail later...

Yellowstone: Day 1

Yellowstone National Park is one of those places where, upon reaching it, you immediately feel bad for having spent all those years of your life without visiting it earlier. It really is a wonderful place- sort of like New Zealand but with scenery a bit more large and wild, and buffalo wandering around instead of sheep. In short, totally awesome.

We spent most of Tuesday driving through Bighorn National Forest (which was stunning, but my camera was out of juice so it's for our memories alone) to Cody, Wyoming where we spent the night. I have visited Wyoming once before when we skied in Jackson Hole when I was in 9th grade or so, and always insisted Wyoming was my favorite skiing locale since and was happy to see the rest of the state lived up to it. Wyoming is just so lovely, so wild...

Anyway, before I wax poetic I will get to the pictures because I'm sure that's why most of you are here, so these are all from Wednesday-

This is the view over Yellowstone Lake from Steamboat Point, which is the highest altitude large lake in the USA. There are two things striking here to the average person- the steam rising up from a vent, and the ice on the lake in early June- but Yellowstone is an incredible sort of place whereby within a few days both of these seems totally normal. You'll see what I mean...
Patrick posing in front of the old-school tourist bus from the 1930s. You can actually do tours on these, which we did for a few hours the first afternoon to get our bearings, and they're pretty cute if I may say so.
A mud volcano. Apparently it irregularly explodes on occasion, which would be alarming until you realize Yellowstone is the world's largest caldera and might be overdue for an eruption that would throw ash over much of the American West, so it's all relative right?
The Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It's twice as tall as Niagara, impressively enough, but it's all the more impressive when you take a look at the rest of the canyon-
The view of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone in the other direction. The rocks are particularly incredible here: there is red from the rust, of course, but also yellow from all the wonderful-smelling sulfur from all the thermal activity in the park. All in all, a stunning sight!

Anyway, that night we had an interesting bit of adventure actually. It was the last (*sob*) night of the Stanley Cup finals which we obviously had to go watch because of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but televisions are understandably a bit difficult to come by. We ended up asking around (which was a touch embarrassing- "hi, we're amidst all this splendor, but can you tell us where we can find a TV?") and learned the one television in the park was in a place called Mammoth, an hours drive away. So we drove there for dinner, naturally, only to learn that they didn't get NBC in the Park (what?) but a helpful guy at the bar told us and the other Pittsburghers who had shown up by this point to head over to nearby Gardner, Montana just outside the park.

So let the record show, Montana is my 30th state or so, and my experience with the state consists of going to a lovely cowboy saloon called The Rusty Rail to watch a hockey game. It was nice, though, because even though the Penguins didn't do too well all the locals were incredibly cheering for our team, and there are good microbreweries in Montana, so I view the state with favorable light!

Mount Rushmore

Visiting Mount Rushmore has got to be one of the most stereotypical American touristic things to do. I mention this because it's a bit of a drive to get to from, well, anywhere, but is nonetheless incredibly iconic. As once you're in Rapid City, South Dakota it makes sense to see if Mount Rushmore lives up to the hype, we drove out on a drizzly Tuesday morn to check it out for ourselves.

My impression: Mount Rushmore, unlike perhaps a few other stereotypical tourist haunts, is really kind of cool. First of all the sculptures are huge, and second of all the detail is done wonderfully (right down to the glint in the eyes), so it's very easy to admire for the work of art it is.
Here's a view from the loop trail because it's an angle of Mount Rushmore you usually don't see. The huge stone pile below the sculptures is actually from the extensive amount of blasting done to create the sculpture, which was done for the 150th anniversary of the United States (do the math!). About 90% of the work was done via blasting, incredibly enough, and the overall work was supposed to be much larger but the Feds cut the funds so we were left with what we see today. It happens...

Of course, Mount Rushmore was also noteworthy on this trip because it was here where our largest amount of drama occurred. After contemplatively admiring the mountainside, doing the little loop trail, and checking out the CNN cameras on site (this was the day of the South Dakota primary- aka the last Democratic primary, and my 4th state I've visited in recent months to have a primary!) my dad realized the keys to the car were no longer in his pocket. What?! There is a certain amount of anxiety that results when you realize you have lost the keys to the car somewhere within Mount Rushmore National Park, particularly when you are a bit stranded and it's an isolated spot to boot, so there was an understandable amount of worrying for a few minutes. Luckily however some Good Samaritan spotted the keys on the loop trail and turned them in to the Ranger Station after a few minutes so we were free to head on to Wyoming, forever doomed to make jokes about the car keys for the duration of the trip.

And this is good, by the way, because I think Wyoming is one of my favorite States in the Union. But I get ahead of myself...

Greetings From South Dakota!

Today was a long driving day- over 700 miles- and most was not particularly photogenic so here are a few notes for the first bits:

Wisconsin- Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. It actually got kinda nice-looking by the end with little hills and pine forests and a sprinkling of obligatory cows.

Minnesota- Drived through nonstop with an exception to buy gas, and pretty much only farmland except for the brief excitement of the bluffs surrounding the Mississippi River right at the border with Wisconsin. This continued on for several hundred miles, with the farmland punctuated by trees only around houses and other buildings. It should also be noted that Minnesota has the most cruddy roads of any state thus far, perhaps giving Pennsylvania a run for its money...

South Dakota- It was rather interesting to cross the border into here because firstly the speed limit is an excitingly speedy 75mph and secondly a huge crop of billboards sprung up on the roadside to mix things up a bit (I suppose the law is different here). The billboards would advertise attractions several hundred miles away (~400 in the case of Wall Drug) and were the only thing left once SD turned from the polite farms/ some trees of Minnesota to arid grassland. What started off as novel became annoying rather quickly, so around mile 400 I would've refused to stop in Wall on principle for all those stupid signs. Take that, persuasive advertising!

But anyway, there were two interesting things in South Dakota, and the first happened at a gas station. I looked into the neighboring field (bordered by the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site for an odd bit of historical perspective) and what should be there but a prairie dog colony-
They were rather cute, but ducked under the second you got close, with the exception of one who would keep watch and yell at you until you left. This culminated about two minutes after the gas station, however, because of a roadside attraction we just had to have a picture with-
You're just jealous because you never got to pose with a giant prairie dog in the Middle of Nowhere, South Dakota. And because your Facebook profile picture is nowhere near as cool as mine now...

Also, if you squint, the thing between me and Patrick on the ground is Wally the (stuffed animal) Wombat. I'm not sure if I can completely explain his presence on this trip except to say he's Patrick's and is our unofficial mascot of the trip.

Anyway, just a few miles down the road the land abruptly shifted and we found ourselves inside Badlands National Park!
This was just a quick drive-through of the park, which was unfortunate as it is a spectacular spot. The Badlands started forming half a million years ago or so when the prairie rock started eroding from the river, and the formations still erode an inch a year on average. I realized one problem I had with the Badlands pretty quickly though- I happened to choose a brown shirt to wear today, making me naturally camouflaged and not at my photogenic best.
More Badlands, this view from Pinnacles Overlook. So lovely...
These are bighorn sheep, and there are ~100 of them in the park. They were also nice enough to graze at one of the roadside overlooks and later scurried over the peaks very deftly, which was neat to watch.
So here's my last South Dakota story for the day as once we got into Rapid City we sat down to watch the awesome Pens-Red Wings game of course... It turned out the last leg of our drive took us through the edge of some very dark, threatening clouds that were incredibly low- the sort which you instinctively scan the sky for tornadoes for even if you've never seen one. I still haven't (alas?), but per the local news I happened to catch a twister was spotted in western South Dakota. Scanning the skies for tornadoes was not one aspect of prairie life I was planning on experiencing on this trip, but there you are.

Alright that's it for now- tomorrow we will see Mount Rushmore, then head west until Cody, Wyoming deep in cowboy country. Talk to you all later.

Go Cubs Go!

When it was decided that our first stop on our roadtrip was going to be Chicago, Patrick immediately suggested we attend a game at Wrigley Field. For the non-baseball people out there, Wrigley Field is home of the Chicago Cubs and was first opened in 1914. So we went to the Sunday afternoon game against the Colorado Rockies, and I'm honestly glad we did because it was a cool place.
This was the view from our nosebleed seats, which I actually enjoyed a lot because you could see the whole park. Unlike in Pittsburgh, where the poor Pirates really aren't good enough to have people pay much attention, the venue was sold out and filled with rabid Cubs fans. It was great. The fact that the Cubs won 5-3 didn't hurt either.

Here's another view of the field, from a sunnier spot since it was actually a little chilly at times in the shade-
Really, a great field. I got a total kick out of the scoreboard too-
Now the reason I liked the scoreboard so much, see, is because it's obviously an old-fashioned one, and this means someone physically has to change the numbers to update the standings. This means there's a guy who lives in the scoreboard during the game, looking out through a little window at the action, and updates as needed.

So I suppose it's not as much the scoreboard I like as much as the guy who lives inside the scoreboard. He fascinates me. If were a huge Cubs fan I am certain it would be my life's goal to have his job.
As a last shot, this is my favorite thing about the venue, though it's not part of the stadium itself- the rooftop seating! Wrigley Field is so small and old that the surrounding houses can see in, meaning the local establishments put in more bleachers. They're so neat. Next time I am in town and want to go to a game I definitely want a spot across the street.

Ok, that's it for now because it is late and tomorrow we must continue driving across the rest of Wisconsin, all of Minnesota, and most of South Dakota to boot (the middle's boring). Cheers!

Stop 1: Chicago

Greetings from, hmmm where are we... Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. There's really nothing much here beyond the place we're spending the night, so how about I talk about our two days in Chicago instead-

We got into Chicago Friday evening, just enough time to grab some food and wander around, and then Saturday morn our first stop was the Chicago Institute of Art (aka the world-famous art museum). When I was in Chicago a few weeks ago the line for the art museum stretched around the block so I didn't get to go inside, but this weekend that wasn't a problem so we got to admire the artwork-
This is, I swear, the only Ferris Bueller picture that will be displayed here, though not for lack of any other homages we did to the movie. Anyway...
So one of the things I was looking forward to most in Chicago was meeting up for a few hours with my friend Lauren. Lauren is my alter ego in many ways- we're both physics majors and history minors, for example- and we've known each other for several years. The trick here, though, is we still talk to each other several times a week online despite the fact that we have always lived several hundred miles apart and have only met a small handful of times in the flesh (the first of these was during astronomy camp), but we still manage to meet up for a few hours every few years just to sort of prove something or another. Lauren (and her boyfriend Lane) happens to be working at Argonne National Labs this summer so we hung out for the afternoon for the first time in three years, and it was good.

This picture shows, from right to left, me, my brother Patrick, Lauren, and Lane, standing in front of "The Bean" at Millenium Park. The Bean is a large reflective metal surface that is surprisingly impressive really, particularly if you stand under it-
The view from under The Bean. If you zoom in, can you find the image of the person holding the camera straight up? (Honestly, I haven't tried to find myself yet, so if you do let me know.)
The apartment building near Millennium Park which, if you ask geeky enough people, looks like a computer chip.
The concert venue at the Park, which I was very impressed with as the entire top is covered with a speaker system. It goes without saying that the thing was designed by Frank Gehry, of course.

Anyway, after Lar and I caught up for a few hours and bid goodbye for another few years (really, we have a wonderful but odd friendship), my family headed to the top of the Hancock Tower for dinner. I'd been to the top of the Hancock Tower before, when my friends and I snuck up there for a free view, but going on a trip with your parents has the advantage of a nice dinners-
Plus unlike before I could enjoy the view at leisure, which I was all too happy to do of course...
See, I have decided that when it's all said and done and we look at what the United States has given the rest of the world, skyscrapers will make that list (after the idea of democracy, but before how it often works in practice). And if you want to study skyscrapers, Chicago has got to be the best place I've ever been to do it because there are so many in such variety and- here's something you don't see in a place like New York City- they all stand well by themselves and you can look at each individually. It really is wonderful.
Another shot from the Hancock Tower, except I rather like this one because of that teeny tiny tower you can barely make out on the bottom. That is the Chicago Water Tower from ~350m up, which was the tallest building in the city after the Great Chicago Fire that burned down most of the city in 1871. So odd to put things in that perspective...
The Water Tower from below, as it really is a lovely building.

Anyway, after dinner we did such important things like watch the Pittsburgh Penguins lose Game 4 in the Stanley Cup (not looking good for us, unfortunately...) and the morning after was spent at the Field Museum, which will be skipped in the interest of time and the fact that I've already covered it extensively once. Plus honestly, the highlight of today was what happened in the afternoon at the ballgame...