Friday the 13th. what a dreadful day. no, it didn’t have anything to do w/ Jason Vorhees or Camp Crystal Lake, but it was the day I had my blasted Econs Statistics finals. and as usual, the minute I read some of the multiple choice questions I knew I was screwed. ahhh...to hell w/ it. by noon, I was glad the torture was finally over. the guys and I got ourselves busy packing our stuff and getting ready for the Friday prayers. we were going on a road trip that day. 9 days on the road doing nothing but camp and travel around. it was exactly what I needed. a time to forget abt studying and all of that statistical bullshit which are still causing me nightmares to this day...
it was already close to midnight when we finally finished loading all of our bags and various camping equipment. we were supposed to leave earlier, but apparently there were complications while acquiring our transportations. there were 10 us, with the 4 girls taking a car and 6 of us guys in a van and our first destination was the Colorado Rocky Mountains. it was a 17 hr + drive and we were hoping that we’d arrive there late afternoon. leaving Bloomington, we drove towards Illinois for abt 4 hours, stopping for awhile for a late supper at a gas station (fried rice at 3 am anyone?) before continuing our drive towards Missouri. reaching Kansas around 9 am, we stopped for gas and a short breakfast at McDonald’s. as we resumed our journey through the Sunflower State, I remember Lamp telling us abt how he was swindled at this roadside attraction in Kansas. he said the pamphlet and flyers spoke of “the world’s largest prairie dog” that weighed 8000 lbs, so he actually paid abt 7 or 8 bucks to go inside and see this so-called furry mammal of gigantic proportions. to his dismay, what he found inside was actually a giant stone statue of a prairie dog. talk abt a major let down. if I were him, I’d seriously consider filing a lawsuit for the false advertising.
we arrived at Estes Park later that day sometime around dusk, hours way off from what we had expected. by the time we reached the Rocky Mountain National Park, we found out that all of the camp sites were full and it wasn’t possible for us to camp for the night over there. we decided to try our luck at the various motels and RV sites so we drove around a bit, only to be disappointed because they too were fully booked. it seemed that we had arrived a little too late to find any place to spend for the night. tired and frustrated, we decided to sleep through the night in our van and car while having them parked at the visitor’s center. nevertheless, finding a place for dinner was still a problem because we couldn’t find any place to set up a temporary campfire to cook our food. fortunately, after driving around some more we found a picnic area close to the lake. it was already 10 pm then and since we were too hungry and shivering from the chillingly cold night breeze, we abandoned the idea of barbecuing the marinated chicken we brought and opted to fry ‘em instead so we could have our dinner earlier. after that, we immediately headed towards the visitor’s center to call it day...
we woke up quite early the next day, around 7 am. my back was somewhat sore after sleeping in a really cramped position in the van. to my surprise, I found out that Jimmy and Lamp had spent the night outside in their sleeping bags because they couldn’t stand the “unintentional” farts coming from Ajeep and myself while we were sleeping (heh heh heh). Jimmy even told us at one point that night, he actually dreamt a bear was trying to grab him from outside the van when in fact it was actually Bepa who was trying to get out to go for a leak. it was a slightly cold morning that day. still pissed abt having to sleep uncomfortably last night, I lighted up a cigarette a started puffing to calm myself w/ the relaxing taste of burnt tobacco......okay, okay I lied abt that last part. anyway, after freshening ourselves up at the restroom, we decided to head towards the National Park to find a picnic area to cook breakfast. although we originally wanted to go to Bear Lake for our morning meal but since there was a heavy road construction going on at that time, we had to go Sprague Lake instead.
meet the sinister six; from left to right: pitek, jimmy, ajeep, lamp, bepa and myself
later when we were done, we decided to drive all the way towards Grand Lake which was located abt 4 hrs (more or less) from the park’s entrance. along the way, we snapped some pictures of the many beautiful views and even got the opportunity to watch some of the mountain forest’s denizens that were popping up every now and then by the roadside (most of the time we only saw elks and deers but there was this one time when we did catch a glimpse of a grayish-brown coyote climbing up the grassy hills nearby). we arrived at our destination sometime late afternoon. while the guys and I took out our rods (not that kind of “rod” you sick bastard) to do some fishing, the girls were busy doing all of the kitchen work to prepare our lunch (just as God had intended. ha, ha). it was disappointing that we didn’t get any fish but we did manage to enjoy relaxing ourselves under the shade of the trees after basking under the sun all day long taking photos and walking around. though we initially planned to spend another night over there, Pitek suggested that we leave that evening and head towards Wyoming so that we could arrive at Grand Teton early in the morning and avoid any more trouble of not getting a camp site.
the journey that night was very long indeed. the pitch black skies seemed to go on for an eternity, with the occasional stars sparking brightly to lighten up the mood. but the hardest challenge was driving through the plains of the Cowboy State. there were deers and pronghorns everywhere along the side of the road!!! they just stood there, poking their heads very close to us, some lazily grazing the grass and others playfully prancing abt, with their eyes forever blinking at the headlights of the only two vehicles on the road that morning. it was déjà vu all over again for Ajeep who instantly remembered the nightmare he endured a few years ago when a stag suddenly appeared on the road and crashed into the car he rented. needless to say, we had no choice but to drive slowly and carefully to avoid any attempts by the wildlife to decorate our van and car with antlers. one hare was not so fortunate as it was instantly squashed by the van while trying to cross the road. there were two others too but Pitek said he managed to avoid them (or so he claims).
like a predator stalking its prey, ajeep stares at the horned bastards viciously, waiting for a chance to exact revenge for what had happened to him
reaching Grand Teton on Monday morning, we quickly began unpacking our stuff and setting up the tent and then I helped the girls prepare breakfast. during our meal, we noticed there were signs everywhere that warned us abt the dangers of bears which are easily attracted to food odors. not wanting to invite Teddy Ruxpin to come over foraging for a snack at our place, we were forced to pack all of our cooking utensils inside the van. leaving the campsite, we went for a much needed hot shower at Colter Bay Village (cost us a freakin’ 3.50 per person) before going out to do some sight seeing. the guys and I were dying to find a decent spot to do some fishing, so after touring around we decided to head towards the Jackson Lake Reservoir which was not that far from our camping grounds. after lunch at nearby picnic area, we wasted no time getting our fishing equipment ready and immediately headed towards the river. unfortunately, the torrential waters coming from the dam were rushing rapidly, making the river’s current way too fast and drifting our lines far from our casting positions. it took me several tries, but after a while my line suddenly snagged something. at first I thought that maybe my hook got stuck under some rocks or algae but that was not the case. it felt like a yanking, a sure sign of struggle. this was it!! reeling the line slowly, I paused several times to tire the little critter and then when it came close enough, I finally jerked the line and caught it w/ my hands. holy shit-hole!! it was a trout!!! a freakin’ trout goddamnit!!!! woohoo!! yeah baby!! prolly the best catch in my entire life!!
now that's what I call catch of the day!!
by the end of the day, we already had 6 fishes (1 caught by Pitek, which was a large “dog fish”, 1 by Hana, 2 by Ajeep and 2 by me, with the other one being a white mountain fish) and if it weren’t for the fact that it had started to rain, we might’ve continued casting our lines. we returned to our campsite and started a campfire to prepare our dinner. coating the fish w/ black pepper + lemon, we grilled all of them that night and had an incredible feast. I swear the trout somehow tasted like chicken sausage!! anyway, later after that, we got out some marshmallows and started roasting them while sharing some stories. while the girls then went to their tents to call it a night, the guys and I decided to play a game of Black Jack until we could no longer keep our eyelids open…
the next day, we woke up early, had breakfast and started to pack all our stuff to get ready for our next destination: the famous Yellowstone National Park. upon leaving the entrance of the camping grounds, we suddenly noticed there was a small crowd gathering near some bushes not far from where we had camped. curious (and just like any other M’sian) we stopped by the roadside to see what was going on. holy crap!! it was a bear!! albeit a small one that is, but a bear nonetheless. standing/sitting (or whatever position it was in) abt 15 meters or so in the bushes, apparently it was just minding its own business, probably looking for breakfast or a place to shit when more and more ppl started appearing and began gawking and taking pictures of it. pissed off w/ the appearance of the crowd (or maybe it was just camera shy) the fuzzy freak of nature quickly left the area, much to our disappointment (click here to watch a pic of the bear).
the journey to Yellowstone wasn’t that long. we managed to arrive at the Grant Campground around noon and later, when we were done setting up our tents and having lunch, we decided to head directly towards the park’s main attraction: Old Faithful. upon arrival, the geyser was already spewing streams of hot water, somewhat in a similar fashion to a whale spurting through its blowhole. it was magnificent. definitely an inspiration for all married or sexually active men. by the time Pitek got ready w/ the camera, it was all over and we had no choice but to wait for abt an hour and a half for the next eruption. in the mean time, we thought we’d pass some time by going to some of the shops available and the famous Old Faithful Inn. we also walked around a bit to see the other geysers/springs/holes with bubbly hot water dotted around in the area. as the time for the next eruption got nearer and nearer, the skies grew darker and thunder could heard, signaling the coming of rain. we were a bit dismayed but decided to hang out w/ the huge crowd anyways to wait for the damned geezer...I mean geyser. a little rain shouldn’t be much of a problem right? turns out it wasn’t just any rain. it was hail!!! shit!!! everyone started to panic when they realized that chunks of ice were falling down on them instead of raindrops and in a few minutes, the whole crowd cleared the area to find some shelter. great, just great... with everybody now gathered at the visitor’s center which was in front of the geyser, it was even harder for me to see the eruption. irritated, I left the porch and went inside to find some food. as I got out my wallet to pay for my frozen raspberry yogurt, that’s when it happened. it was Old Faithful and the streams of hot water that were seen from afar earlier were gushing out again. since everyone was watching it outside, I had no problem watching through the glass window next to the counter and I had to admit, it was beautiful. hell, if that thing was a guy, I bet he was having an incredible orgasm at that very moment. after Old Faithful, we got around to see several other hot springs before heading back to the campsite to call it a day...
we started off Wednesday early, with the intention of visiting almost every major attraction the park has got to offer. we spent the entire day taking lotsa pics of the many waterfalls around the park. we even stopped by near a roadside ridge for a breathtaking view of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which was awesome. more springs and puddles of boiling were seen and by then, we were already getting sick of the “rotten egg smell” of the sulphuric gases (they smell like a continuous stream of farts). we even got to see a bison herd on some grassy plains not far from the road. as evening approached, I suggested to the guys that we head towards the Tower-Roosevelt Area because the cashier at Old Faithful yesterday told me that around 7 pm, bears can be seen looking for berries at that time. if we were lucky, we might even get to see wolves on the prowl too. we stopped by at the Petrified Tree along the way, which turned out to be nothing a but a really large tree stump that was covered in volcanic ash a millennia ago. reaching our destination around 7.15 pm, I was utterly disappointed because it was not exactly what I had expected. I was hoping for a tower or some kind of spot to easily view the animals but turns out you actually have to look for the animals yourselves and if, and only if you were lucky enough, only then you’d get to see them. man...I sure felt like shooting that cashier in the face at point blank range. we asked the locals for any tips on how to find bears or the wolves but they told us it was kinda late already and even if we did manage to spot one, it’d be too dark to see it. we left and headed straight back to our campsite, obviously disappointed (at least I was). the journey was quite long since the Tower-Roosevelt Area was quite far from the Grant Campground. suddenly, just as Pitek was abt to turn the van around a corner, we saw a car right in the middle of the road. hitting the brakes, we stopped by to see what was going on. holy incompatibility!! it was bear!! a black bear cub in fact!!! just less than 10 meters from us!! it looked like a walking version of a teddy bear. staring us w/ its innocent eyes for awhile, it then tried to climb a steep granite hill to escape, prolly scared by the appearance of our group. unfortunately, either it was too fat or it didn’t have the skills, it clumsily rolled back to the ground. sitting there like a baby, it turned its head and looked at us again, still w/ those puppy-eyes and confused expression, not understanding what was going on. a woman from the car in front of us then got closer and took a snapshot of the tiny bear and the flash immediately startled it. oh crap. we scared the shit out of little teddy. fortunately, mama bear was not around to maul us for screwing around w/ her cub. after it ran away to some bushes nearby (prolly to complain to its parents abt us and how a girl w/ golden hair was sleeping in their beds and ate their porridges and broke their chairs) we resumed our journey back to the campsite…
the little baby bear trying to run away from us
the next day, we decided to visit the Mud Volcano and perhaps find a nice picnic spot for lunch before leaving Yellowstone and Wyoming altogether and head east, towards South Dakota. along the way, we passed through Hayden Valley which is known as the best place to view the park’s many bison herds. and make no mistake, the lazy-ass brown buggers were everywhere, literally!! the road traffic was really slow because the herds were moving across the road back and forth every now and then. by the time we reached the park’s exit, we still couldn’t find a suitable picnic area and the skies have already grown dark, indicating another rain. as we left Yellowstone, I noticed a signboard across the road w/ the huge letters: DO NOT FEED OR MOLEST THE ANIMALS. now I don’t know abt you, but something abt that last part of the signboard really bothered me. still hungry, we drove for a few hours to find the closest town for a place to have dinner. we reached Cody abt 6 pm and decided to have our much needed meal at this Chinese buffet restaurant. once we were done stuffing ourselves to full, we went to Wal-Mart to stock up on some supplies. that was when the most horrible thing that occurred throughout the whole trip happened. someone had farted and it wasn’t me. I had a mild flu then, so my nose was kinda blocked but I could still smell a faint smell that was somewhat stinging my nostrils. the van had only two windows that could be opened, so the rest of us in the middle and the back were really screwed. the climax was when Jimmy couldn’t take it any longer and actually puked 3 times in a row (a good thing he was able to get out of the van in time). all of that food eaten half an hour earlier came out. God, it was a depressing sight alright, but we sure had a good laugh abt it (esp the culprit, who is still joking abt it to this day).
we stopped by at Denny’s for breakfast in South Dakota at 5 am. the plan was to go to Mt. Rushmore which was a few hours drive later that morning. we reached at the mountain w/ four faces around 9 am and at first, I was kinda surprised that the thing didn’t seem that big from afar. we took some pictures and then toured the museums and information centers, and after abt 2 hrs, we were already bored so we decided to go to the nearby town of Keystone for awhile. while shopping around, we found out abt the annual Sturgis Rally that was held recently, which prolly explained the many bikers that can be seen wandering everywhere and the biker t-shirts sold at some of the shops. satisfied looking around for abt an hour, we decided to leave and head towards our next destination; the Badlands. located in the southwestern part of South Dakota, “the Badlands consists of 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest, protected mixed grass prairie in the United States”(quoted from the official site). in other words, it’s like a desert except there are rocks and clay instead of sand.
the place itself wasn’t as bad as we had imagined. sure, it’s incredibly dry and the chilling winds seem unforgiving even during the day, but I’ve been in worse places/conditions. after setting up our camp and having lunch, while some of the guys opted to just sleep for the rest of the day, we decided to go to the fossil-trail exhibit which was a few miles from our campsite. all I cay say abt the exhibit is that it was nothing but a sham. the brochure showed us a pic of a neat-looking fossil of a turtle shell and spoke of a wide variety of displays available (one of them being the skeleton of an ancient boar), but when we got there, we only found cases containing “replicas of the fossils” that were even barely recognizable. pissed off, we headed farther towards another known attraction, the Prairie Dog Town. it was a considerably long drive but at least it was kinda worth it. the prairie dogs could be seen everywhere, popping up from their holes, with the occasional “yip! yip!” every now and then and darting from one hole to another. one particular rodent was happy enough to pose several pics w/ us (maybe it was just being lazy and couldn’t be bothered to go inside one of the tunnels to escape from us) until Hana inadvertently scared it away. as evening approached, we thought we’d better leave the area immediately to avoid any unwanted contact w/ the prairie rattlesnakes that are known to hunt for food during those hours. arriving at the campsite, we cooked dinner and played another game of cards before calling it a night...
how fitting...a badass in blue in the badlands...
it was Saturday and it was the last day of our road trip. we left the Badlands sometime in the afternoon and headed straight towards our last stop at Sioux Falls. we arrived around 4 pm, tired and hungry from all of that driving. it was kinda weird, because we were in the middle of a big town and we were actually looking for a waterfall. while having lunch, Pitek asked some of the locals abt directions, and soon after that, we arrived at what appears to be the city’s park. still confused, I asked some ppl near the parking lot and there was this guy who confirmed us that the waterfall was actually in the middle of the park. hmmm...somehow I knew sth didn’t seem quite right there...anyway, we got out and went to see it for ourselves and there it was. the biggest disappointment of our entire trip. it was a waterfall alright, but the waters were brown and murky and the whole river reeked of waste and garbage. it was like being put in a headlock under the sweaty armpit of a buffalo that had just rolled itself in pig’s shit recently. apparently, many years ago the river had been used as a hydroelectric plant and granary, and it was only when the locals realized they had turned the whole stream into a flowing sewage site did they decide to make it a park and preserve what remains of the once prolly beautiful river. still, we took some pics and went to the visitor’s center for awhile before heading back to the car and van and finally go home.
we arrived Bloomington around 9 am, obviously exhausted from all of that traveling. 9 days, 3 states, 4 national parks, 1 national monument and 1 waterfall within a park. not bad eh?? sure we had to face some problems, braving against the ever-raining forests, the cold hail at Old Faithful, the strong winds of the Badlands and the dangers of colliding w/ wildlife in Wyoming, and even though there were several disappointments (the smelly Sioux Falls waterfall, the Tower-Roosevelt area and the Petrified Tree) but it was a great trip nonetheless. in fact, the guys and I were so excited abt the journey we had, we decided that maybe we’d go to Arizona, all the way through Vegas, California, Seattle and then maybe a flight to Alaska to do some ice fishing next summer. yep, it was a memorable trip for us alright. a memorable summer indeed…
