South Dakota

Turning into winter

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Today was a morning to pull out my warm winter coat, hat, and gloves for my daily walk. With a cold start to the dawn at 18 degrees, I was treated to tiny and intricate bits of frost decorating the fallen leaves. I marveled at our passing into yet another season, and couldn’t help but think back to warmer temperatures and a now-distant summer.

At the end of August we set out on a three-week camping trip. We left northwest Wisconsin and traveled through Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming – admiring the landscape changes and the beauty that’s found in every state. We drove through prairies, sunflower fields, and canyons. We enjoyed sunsets and moon rises. We camped with family while in Utah, where I was fortunate to catch my first trout!

We took in the majesty of the relatively-snow-less Teton Mountain Range and we stood in awe of the immensity of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

We journeyed back through the big-sky state of Montana and finished our trip in the badlands of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, with the fall colors beginning to appear alongside the Little Missouri River valley.

So on these clear cold days leading further into winter, I especially enjoy the chance to revisit and appreciate the warmth and expansiveness, as well as the beauty and the variety of landscapes that we enjoyed a mere two months ago as we journeyed west.

A road trip through wide open spaces

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We took a road trip from Minnesota to Utah a few weeks ago — a journey filled with adventures, family, and changing scenery and weather.  We  went from the agriculture of southern Minnesota to the Black Hills of South Dakota, to the Sandhills of Nebraska, to the open ranches of Wyoming, to the snow capped mountains of Utah.  The variety of landscapes always amazes me, especially when you condense the journey over a few days.  Many of the areas were unusually green because of the higher amounts of rain that have fallen.  Fields and hills were looking quite lush, except for those areas (especially in Nebraska) that are still trying to recover from flooding earlier this year.  Surprisingly we encountered little rain during our trip, but we did endure 40-45 mph winds across Wyoming, and we slept a few times with the furnace on and a couple of times with the air conditioner on.  A quick trip such as this makes me appreciate the beauty and diversity of our country; how fortunate to be able to take it all in!

Perspective from a road trip

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We just returned from a road trip to Salt Lake City and back, something we haven’t done in a long while.  And one of the things I loved was watching the change of landscape and scenery as the miles went by.  We began in agriculture land with acres of corn and soybeans, and some sunflowers thrown in too.  That landscape changed to rolling hills, then to the badlands of South Dakota.  Into Wyoming we saw pasture lands with cattle and sheep, along with antelope, deer, and coyote.  And then we were in the mountains of Utah, mostly shrouded from the smoke of the nearby forest fires.

During both directions of our trip we got to watch the development of weather fronts.  When the landscape stretches out before you, behind you, and around you it gives you a chance to see the blue (or hazy) skies change to white clouds to billowing thunderstorms to darkness and rain, and then back to clearing skies.  I’ll gladly take a road trip any day over a plane flight that picks you up from one landscape and drops you into another without the benefit of all the miles and scenery in between.