step 14 - yellowstone's hot springs

The western portion of the park has some incredibly unique features...see for yourself.


Mammoth Hot Springs at the northwest corner


one of the hot springs near the southwest corner


more pretty colors... I should point out that these things are incredibly hot...thus the steam


and some more awesome springs


the only thing bad about hot springs is that they smell like rotten eggs

step 13 - yellowstone wildlife

one of the most amazing things about Yellowstone National Park is the abundance of wildlife. The buffalo are everywhere... coyotes roam in heavily trafficed areas, even Grizzley bears and wolves run wild here... just take a look



this sign should be taken seriously


I didn't take the sign seriously


a bison in the mist


this coyote ran right along side of my Jeep


This was my first ever Yellowstone picture which was taken within the first 5 minutes in the park. My dad and I noticed this animal drinking out of the lake. At first we thought it was a coyote, however, when we got a bit closer, we noticed that it was way too big to be a coyote... we were looking at a wolf... holy shit! To me this was a big deal, as I have spoken with many people that have visited Yellowstone and/or lived in Alaska that have yet to see a wolf in the wild.


as if seeing a wolf wasn't enough... I also was lucky enough to see a Grizzley bear... this guy was probably 100-150 yards away and was still really freakin loud and HUGE... props to Field for having a camera with a nice zoom

step 12 - yellowstone

so... after all the mountain driving of Wyoming, yellowstone awaits... this place is just amazing, enjoy the pics


Yellowstone lake from the east side


a very picturesque view of the Yellowstone River


Yellowstone's canyon from the park lookout


Lower Falls on the Yellowstone river

step 11 - crossing into wyoming

I have finally hit about the half way mark across country... only 1400 more miles to go. Whew! I've done a lot of driving in about a three day period. I have a lot more to go. Seven states down, four more to go. One thing that I always silently laughed about to myself was the shear size of the west coast. At my half way point I only have four states remaining to cross, one of which is only the 50ish mile panhandle of Idaho. That means that I am going to cover nearly 1400 miles in only three states.


Back east, every 5 miles there was another town... filled with people that were teeming with pride about seemingly silly things (like 'comets' that really look like oversized meatballs). Out hear, space conquers. Once you get west of Chicago, solace takes on a whole new meaning. Travel distances and times are no longer measured in miles or minutes but rather 100's of miles and many hours. For example, it took me 90 minutes to make it though Illinois, which was a bit over 70 miles. It took me 10 hours to make it through Montana which was almost 700 miles.


The other size difference between the west coast and east coast comes from vertical prowess. At first glance, the mountains really don't seem that big. But then you realize that you have been driving towards them for an hour and they haven't changed size. When you get about 40 miles away from them, they start to grow. And grow. And grow some more. Then all of a sudden you are in the middle of them, cliffs on either side, instantaneous snow storms, wind gaps, loose rocks everywhere, waterfalls left and right, and the somewhere along the way all the trees disappear. Awesome! Nothing like the mountains of Pennsylvania or New York.

Enjoy the Big Horn mountain range, courtesy of Wyoming.

step 10 - devils tower

The day following all the South Dakota toursim traps was anything but a disapointment. Devils Tower, the big horn mountain range, and the town of Cody were soon to be visited, photographed and missed. The Devils tower was first on the list of the Wyoming attractions.


Once you get near the National Park entrance, prairie dogs and marmots are everywhere.


A look at the tower's south face.


I tried being artistic... you decide


The tower is a huge climbing attraction, as there are many many many ways to summit.

step 9 - south dakota sunset

As if my time in south dakota hasn't been good enough already, the sun has yet to set.

step 8 - airplanes

No cross country trip with the purpose of going to work for an aerospace company would be complete without mentioning at least one airplane. I am going to show you two.

While driving back to the hotel from Rushmore and Crazy Horse, I happened to notice a crazy looking bird in the distance. I actually thought it was a bird soaring, not a plane. While trying to figure out what it was, it dawned on me that the main B2 air force base (McEllis i think) is somewhere near Rapid City. Sure enough, a B2 flies right over the front of my car. Amazing. Unfortunately, no one else noticed this until too late, as this thing was really tough to find in the sky. I also had the only camera out, Combined with the fact that I was the only one with a camera, was the only one that could find the plane in the sky, and I was driving the car (how I noticed it in the first place still amazes me), my pictures are a bit lacking. The one 'good' one I got of the B2 in flight is below.


Its a bird, its a plane, its... no actually, it really is a plane.

As if that wasn't enough, when we pulled into the hotel parking lot, we heard the spooling of a low-bypass engine (hello fighter jet). Instead of a fighter, a B1 takes off right across the road from us, circles over head, then lands. Quite the expirence. This day was awesome...the Badlands, Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and two rarely seen bombers.


The B1 flying overhead.


The B1 on its final approach.

stop 7 - crazy horse

Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in while driving from Rushmore to Crazy Horse. The picture backdrops are a bit lacking, but the features of this mountain side are still quite apparent. If I remember correctly, Washington's entire head from Rushmore fits inside of the nose of Crazy Horse, if that gives you some perspective. I know that three generations have been working on Crazy Horse, while only one generation completely completed Mt. Rushmore. The real difference was budget, as the United States government will not give this effort and federal funding, thus the progress of the sculpture comes from the funding generated by tourist admission. Enjoy the pictures.


Crazy Horse as of 2007


What it will look like when completed


What field thinks it should look like when completed.

stop 6 - mt rushmore

Mt. Rushmore... what more can I really say. Actually, it was kinda disappointing. It appears to be HUGE in pictures, but is actually really small. Crazy-horse is much better and it is only partially started and not a National Monument.


There it is... this is the angle of Mt. Rushmore that is first visible from the road.


Shot from inside the National Monument gates.


Lynn and Lindsay with a presidential backdrop.


Fielding picking the nose of the sculpture of the sculptor of Mt Rushmore... try saying that five times fast


Wait... there are two Abe Lincoln's

stop 5 - the badlands

One of the single most interesting and visually stimulating places I have ever visited has to be the Badlands National Park outside of Rapid City, South Dakota. The hills and cliffs are a mixture of red and tan sandstone that form very unique structures that blend right into the countryside. Most people go driving right by this park, never even aware of its existence. I was lucky enough to stop and drive through the park.


This was at the look out at our first stop in the park. I was quite skeptical about seeing snake this close to the parking lot, as people were all everywhere. However, when I mentioned to my dad that there was a pretty obvious warning for snakes, he calmly replied "Yeah, I know... I just about stepped on one." The snake ended up slithering off of a cliff, as my dad really startled it.


This may be one of my favorite pictures.


You can see the red and tan sandstone layering.


A look across the plain.


This scenery here is awesome.


This was taken on the eastbound trip in 2006... the balanced rock was not there in 2007.


A quick group photo of the 2007 westbound crew.


Field being Field.


The eastbound 2007 crew on top a short ridge.

step 4 - do automobiles really need gas?

This is the story of the first 'setback' during the trip across country... running out of gas in the middle of South Dakota.

It was a beautiful mid-summers morning while traveling through the wonder that is South Dakota. Shawn Russel and I were in my car. Aaron Nash was in tow directly behind us in his car. About 2 hours after departing the hotel, I happened to notice a 'No Services for 83 miles' or something to that effect. I had filled up for gas when I first started for the morning, so in my mind there was no reason to stop until lunchtime. Okay, maybe a quick piss stop, but thats no big deal. Journey on! The sun was shining, I had some rockin tunes playing and I was rambling right along. Aaron and I were playing follow the leader via car tag... life was good. Was.

Then, the dreaded BEEEEEP.

I was afraid to look, as I had just bought this car in February and had yet to have ANY problems with it. It was now June and this was the first true road trip with this car. I was really really hoping that it was something small such as the washer fluid, as there are a ton of bugs when you drive 700+ miles a day. You can only imagine how often the windshield would require cleaning. But alas, its the gas light. I had a small sigh of relief, at least my car wasn't overheating or something worse (that had happened with my Jeep the previous summer). The relief passed almost as quickly as it rose, as it hit me like a ton of bricks that there were no services for god knows how long.


Yup... that's the gas light, notice the gas gauge is soon to be buried at E

As if things weren't already bad enough, I have no cell reception. I am now actually starting to panic. I rarely panic... but I also rarely am faced with running out of gas in the middle of a desert with no cell reception and nothing to speak of for miles. But wait, I have a saviour in the form of the buddy system. Aaron is right behind me... worst case, he goes and finds gas for me. But how do I tell him my situation without cell service.

Then I realize that Aaron has a talk-about radio in his car... guess who also has one. Shawn. We radio back to Nash our predicament. Shawn starts looking at a map to figure out where we are and how far it is to the next town. I convince Nash to get ahead of me, slow down to 50ish, and let me ride his bumper. He complies and I start drafting him... literally inches from his bumper. Normally, I would have taken a picture of this for documentation, but I was driving and actually having to legitimately pay attention. Shawn was freaking out cause the cars were so close, plus when he wasn't looking ahead, he was checking and re-checking our position on the map.

Shawn determines that we are about 20 miles from the next town. Aaron quickly radios back that this is true, as a sign just came into view that confirms Shawn's suspicion. Finally, good news. The problem is that I had been going now with the light on for probably 5-10 minutes (it felt like an eternity). I figured that I had about 30 miles out of my tank after the beep went off. I am going to be cutting this really close. Too close. Crap.

I draft Nash for some time and we finally get to the exit. New problem...there is NOTHING there. The exit ramp drops off of the highway and turns immediatly into a dirt road. There is no gas, no store, no civilization. Nothing. I radio to Aaron that we are just going to keep going, don't even waste the gas by slowing down to exit (and re-accelerate).


I am freaking out

The lump in my stomach just grew... exponentially. The next exit is 6 miles, the one after that is an additional 7. It appears that there is some more of nothing at the closest exit. But there is a sliver of hope at the exit 13 miles from me. There is an actual road that the interstate exits to. There is no road name or number, but at least there is a line on the map. That's a big deal for this area. We trudge on. I have no idea how long I have gone since the light turned on. I am waiting for everything in my car to just shut down.

We blow by the first exit, another dirt road. After what feels like a week, we finally see the signs to the next exit... the one with the actual road. Even better...I CAN SEE A GAS STATION. I am ecstatic. I almost rear end Nash, as my foot slammed on the gas in a spasm of joy at this discovery. Keep in mind that I have been drafting him this whole time as best I could. I make it off the entrance ramp, roll through the stop sign at about 30, pull into the nearest pump and shut the car down. I pop the gas tank switch, get out my credit card and meander to the pump. I actually pulled this one off, I have no idea how.

Just when I thought I was out of the clear, there is yet another problem. Oh my goodness, I just want this ordeal to be over. The gas pump is out of order. Okay, no big deal, I will just pull to the next one. Thankfully, it was working, as Nash was filling up. Almost in the clear. He finishes pumping (a thank you) and I go to turn my car on to pull ahead. No dice...my car won't start. It is completely out of gas.

Wow...I got lucky.

I finally fill the tank up, reset my trip meter and pull away. I also notice that the car took 15 gallons. That seemed really high, I had never put more than 12 in before this instance. I ask Shawn to check the owner's manual to see the size of my tank. We determine that my tank is only 14 gallons in size. Awesome!

Wow... I got lucky.


Hurrayyyy!!! A full tank.