The last time I was in South Dakota was in college when Grant and I weaseled our way into my grandparents trip to Yellowstone and the Black Hills. The four of us took their RV, staying in random small campgrounds along the way where we’d eat Granny’s home cooking and play cards every night. We saw a lot of sights, however most of the time was spent just enjoying each others company as we drifted across 3,000 miles of America’s interstate highway system. Over the course of those 8 days we saw mountains, geysers, and every waterfall between here and Idaho. It was one of the best weeks of my life.

So now here I am preparing for my first family road trip of my own. Needless to say, I am very excited and ready to hit the open road!

Steph loading Emma into the stroller.

The waterfall from the bottom of the trail.

The three of us squeezing into a pic.

Em running from Steph across the bridge.

Me and the Lady.

Me and the Little Lady.

It was a great day and I particularly enjoyed the waterfall trail. If you want to check it out for yourself, the park is located in Oklahoma just off hwy 412 a few miles west of Siloam Springs.

Oklahoma’s state parks are operated in the same fashion as their highways, so be prepared to pay a toll to view the waterfall. Also from the few I have visited, Oklahoma state parks seem to be geared more towards recreation, with a dash of conservation, where Missouri parks are more about nature and conservation with a little bit of recreation. Having said that, Oklahoma does have some real gems as far as natural areas go.

It’s a lot larger than it looks in the photo.

Note how small Matt is in this photo.

We stopped for a sack lunch inside the cave. Again, this photo makes it look deceptively small.

Here is the elk river wind farm between Joplin and Wichita. I think some of our electricity comes from here.

The first night I met Ian in Salina. Driving north from Wichita on 135 I saw this cool storm. I pulled over on the side of the highway to try and snap a couple pics.

Thursday morning we loaded up into Ian’s mini cooper and took off across the plains!

Normally this is the point where you can first see the outline of the mountains in the distance. But not today. I guess it was hazy or something?

We made a quick stop at the garden of the gods in Manitou Springs. We did some climbing around on the rocks and followed around some hot russian chicks.

Here we are heading down about to cross a really big, empty valley. It seemed like we were headed deep into a part of Colorado that is less visited than the areas right along the front range.

Here is the team ready to head out in the wee hours.

Mt. Yale is obscured by another smaller mountain. This one is Mt. Princeton which is one foot taller.

The sun is just about to come up over the mountains.

Ian checked out the postings on all the various ways we could die or animals that could eat us.

This is me feeling like I’m in heaven.

We followed this small stream for roughly the first mile and a half or so, crossing it several times.

Here we are beginning the steepest part of the climb, right about 13,000 feet.

This was one of the scarier spots along the trail because it was right along a drop off. It wasn’t straight down but it still made me a bit dizzy looking down.

Finally, the summit is within view. At this point we have about 100′ to go! There was no trail at this point… you just had to scramble over the rocks. It was probably my favorite part of the climb. To get the scale, look for the small people near the top.

Almost there! You can see the trail we came up in the distance below me.

Here is the team proudly proclaiming another victory!

Here is the evidence that I have made it up my first 14′er. According to Mr. Garmin we were at 14.2k feet. Unfortunately my model abbreviates once you get above 10,000 feet.

Eventually we started making our way back down. Which for me at least turned out to be much worse than coming up.

Saturday we stopped for lunch in Gunnison and I thought this was funny because I like to call sandwiches “samiches”. The waitress seemed to think I was weird for taking a photo of the menu.

Just a random mountain shot out the car window.

We also stopped at Royal Gorge. Royal Gorge is super cool but annoying because it’s privately owned and they have turned a natural wonder into an amusement park, so it’s $24/person to get in and the canyon rim is lined not with trails and informational displays, but carnival rides, restaurants, a huge sky trapeze thing, and trinket shops. For some reason I have just never been a fan of privately owned tourist attractions. I guess that makes me a socialist.

Ian rode the sky tram thing across the canyon. I was suffering from vertigo and acrophobia so I just took pictures from the edge.

Yeah… long way down. Note the tiny cable car in the upper corner of the photo. This photo really does no justice to the perspective and depth of the situation here.

And finally we start trekking back across the plains… good trip indeed!

One item of particular excitement for me was seeing a beaver swimming in the river right beneath us. I tried to take a pic but wasn’t quick enough. All in all it was a really great float and a very pretty river. The only issue was that the water was extremely low in some areas, but that was somewhat expected considering it’s the middle of summer, and a dry summer at that.

PS you can click on any of the images for larger versions.

Here is the rustic store at Camp Tilden where we setup tent.

Crossing over a small bridge on the way to the drop off point. I think this spot may have been where we started on the second day.

We put in below a really pretty bluff area. McDonald county is generally very scenic and rural with a lot of winding dirt roads.

Here is the first day’s group getting ready to set out!

Me playing around with a new waterproof digital camera… and almost running into a tree branch.

Poco and Jimmy borrowed mom and dad’s canoe. I really dig Missouri’s über-clear rivers.

A cool bird that flew alongside us for a bit. Made it easy to get a good pic.

Here is poco trying to reach for a rope swing. Not sure what she was going to do if she reached it. Probably get her paddle stuck and then end up tipping the canoe.

Here is the group… just rollin down the river.

Grant fishing and Matt swimming.

Notice all the small fish swimming around Grant’s lure.

Here is a cool view under the water, showing all the little fish swimming around. Kind of looked like an aquarium. I never could get any pics of video of bigger fish!

Grant caught a fish and tossed it in Poco and Jimmy’s canoe. Then Jimmy pretended to eat the fish. Then he tossed it back in the river.

Here I am with my cool straw hat and green kayak. This river had very few rapids, though it might have more if the water level was higher?

Jimmy posing on a rock as a mer-man. Hawt!

The second day Mom and Dad came and joined us. I like dragging my parents along on things like this. Their canoeing skillz were a bit rusty and they tipped numerous times but still had fun. I’m really glad they came!

A really awesome jumping rock. The second day was sunnier and much hotter.

Here is a crawdad grant caught. Looks like a small lobster to me.

Enjoying a nice lunch under a grove of willow trees.

What a great way to spend a weekend!

Anyways… so if you have seen the movie Transformers and are wondering where it was filmed, then here are some pics from that very spot. It was a very isolated part of the ‘city’, a lone structure called the Monastery, which we had to hike up a mountain to get to. You can click the images for larger versions.

So here is the monastery. It’s a long, hot hike up to it but well worth it. This photo makes the structure appear deceptively small. In hindsight we probably should have paid the 2JD for a camel ride up and back, but that is neither here nor there.

Here I am illustrating the scale a bit better. I appreciated the line in the movie about how huge the doorway was because that’s kind of what I was thinking as we were taking these pics. Since most people are afraid to travel to Jordan there were hardly any tourist crowds to speak of even though it’s cool enough to be at the top of any world traveler’s list of places to go.

In the movie there were some things hidden behind this wall. The film makers had put up some sort of mural in this archway… i guess they didn’t think the graffiti was interesting enough?

About the time dessert was served it finally hit me… maybe this was the view that I randomly stopped and photographed along the highway when I was moving to California. Just the thought that it was the same spot was almost unfathomable because it was just a random mountain along the highway. I took a photo of the photo on the wall and when I returned home I dug out the photo in question to compared them.

Sure enough, it was the exact same spot. I framed the mountains slightly different and of course I was using black and white film, but it is definitely the same spot along I-70. Although to this day I have no idea where it was exactly.

Friday was mainly spent flying, beaching, and sitting in traffic. Then in the evening we met up with a few of my old friends from film school who are still out there working their way into the ‘business’. Saturday was spent hiking in the mountains at a place called Devils Punchbowl near the town of Pearblossom, CA. We finished off the trip with a nice evening outing to the California Pizza Kitchen.

Strangely enough, other than the afternoon we arrived, it really wasn’t very sunny most of the time we were there. If you want to see the photos from the trip… click here!

I like the Mark Twain Natl Forest for several reasons. You generally don’t see many, if any other people because nothing is really marked or promoted…it’s basically just land and it’s up to you to find your way to the cool features that exist out there. Another reason I like it is that it’s full of groves of shortleaf pine. Since most of the trees in Missouri are hardwoods, the pines provide some nice greenery in the winter when everything else is brown and grey. I like hiking among the pines because it reminds me of the mountains, both in appearance, smell, and the sound the wind makes blowing through the needles.

And I guess since we never actually found the natural bridge, it just gives us an excuse to go back sometime.