OGDEN RAPTORS VS OREM OWLS

The Ogden Raptors bat
against the Orem Owlz

For the final night of our trip, we found ourselves in Ogden, Utah to see the Ogden Raptors host the Orem Owlz. This completed our circuit of the Pioneer League. It was our only opportunity to see the Raptors play while it was our fourth time seeing the Owlz.

Ogden is the biggest draw in the league having led the Pioneer League in attendance since they moved into Lindquist Field in 1997. It offers views of downtown Ogden and panoramic vistas of the Wasatch Mountains even nicer than those in Orem. One of the teams co-owners is also the P.A. announcer at the ballpark.

IDAHO-UTAH STATE LINE

The Supreme Commander
Returns to the State of Utah

We left West Yellowstone, Montana this morning and passed through Idaho as we returned to Utah for tonight's ballgame in Ogden. We pulled over for a few quick photos as we entered Utah from Idaho, the last of our state crossings on land. (Our first was in the opposite direction, passing from Utah to Idaho.)

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - DAY 2

Today we drove Yellowstone's "Grand Loop" which is a road that allows us tourists to pass by all the major attractions within the park. While on our loop tour we saw some elk, bears, bison, and a little fella I couldn't identify who popped up while we were photographing an elk. Perhaps he was a chipmunk. If you can tell from the photo, please let me know. We saw the Norris Geyser Basin, Lake Yellowstone, as well as several other lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and hot springs throughout the park

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

The Supreme Commander waits for the
 old man to pack up and get moving

We packed our bags again and left Jackson Hole for a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park. The plan for the first day was to see Old Faithful and then the Midway Geyser Basin featuring the Excelsior Geyser Crater and the Grand Prismatic Spring. We also stopped to have a look at some bison we spotted along the highway. When the day was done, we drove across the state line to West Yellowstone, Montana where the hotel rates are much lower than in the park.

JACKSON HOLE, WY

Swinging in Jackson, WY

We spent the day hanging out in Jackson. We walked around town in the morning then watched the 4th of July parade. In the afternoon, actors put on an old west style shootout in the town square. Shortly after sundown, we came out to watch the fireworks show.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

A pit stop in the mountains on our way to Jackson Hole, WY.

We left Casper this morning with a destination of Jackson, Wyoming. The name of the town is actually Jackson but it's commonly known as Jackson Hole because it seems to be down in a hole surrounded by a range of gigantic mountains. We passed through Grand Teton National Park on our way to Jackson.

CASPER GHOSTS VS. OREM OWLZ

Mike Lansing Field in Casper, WY

This was a rematch of the first game on our trip in Orem, Utah but this time it's being played at Mike Lansing Field, in Casper, Wyoming. The ballpark sits next to the North Platte River which runs just beyond the rightfield fence.

Mike Lansing is a Wyoming native who was raised in Casper and played for the Montreal Expos and Colorado Rockies. (He was also named in the Mitchell Report as a player who used illegal performance enhancing drugs but the locals appear to have forgiven him.)

SOUTH DAKOTA-WYOMING STATE LINE

After our long day culminating in a visit to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, we stayed overnight in Keystone, a town about three miles down the hill. This morning we hit the road for Wyoming and as is our custom, we pulled to the shoulder for some photos when we reached the state line.

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, SOUTH DAKOTA

The Mount Rushmore Memorial

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial was an incredible sight. I feared it might not be as impressive in person as it seemed in photos and on TV but seeing it was a marvelous experience. Sculpting on a human scale is difficult enough but to sculpt 60 foot tall heads of four U.S. presidents into the top of a mountain with early 20th century tools requires skill I can't begin to comprehend. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was a controversial figure, as were the men whose likenesses he carved into the mountain and the memorial itself. Still, there's no doubt Borglum was an artist of immense vision and talent.

STURGIS, SD

Sturgis is a sort of Motorcycle Mecca. An annual convention for bikers, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, has been held here dating back to 1938. It draws over 500,000 to a town of only 5,000. Some of the motorcycle shops and tattoo parlors in town allegedly earn 75 to 90 percent of their annual income during the week-long rally. There is also a Motorcycle Hall of Fame and Museum in Sturgis.  Luckily for us, the annual rally is still about a month away (held in the first full week of August) so we were able to look around Main Street and not be blocked by half a million bikers and their bikes.

DEADWOOD, SD

The Bullock Hotel on Main St

Deadwood bears very little resemblance to the old black and white photos from the gold rush days and just as little resemblance to the thoroughfare seen in HBO's TV series, Deadwood. The wooden buildings built during the 19th century were wiped out by a string of fires and floods. They were replaced by brick & mortar structures. The rebuilt Deadwood's fortunes dried up with the gold mines only to be revived with legalized gambling in the 1980s. Unfortunately, almost no effort was made to rebuild Deadwood in the image of its glory days such as you would see at Old Sacramento State Historic Park.

BELLE FOURCHE, SD



The locals pronounce it Bel-FOOSH and it's the town closest to our country's geographic center. Belle Fourche is a farming and ranching town of a little over 5,000 residents. If you're a fan of the TV series Deadwood, you might be interested to know that Seth Bullock and Sol Star played a pivotal role in the founding of Belle Fourche. I wasn't able to take many photos around town because we were met by a huge rainstorm when we arrived. We stopped for a brief visit at the Tri-State Museum in Belle Fourche before getting back on the road to Deadwood,

NORTH DAKOTA-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE LINE

The Supreme Commander enters South Dakota

We left Dickinson in the morning and headed for South Dakota. We crossed from North Dakota to South Dakota on US-HWY 85. Before reaching the state line, we stopped in Bowman, ND to fill up the tank at a convenience store with a name even better than the "Town Pump." I'm so easily amused.