hiking – RVing With a Purpose

2025 Spring Road Trip – Olympic National Park

Wednesday, May 28, 22025

Yesterday afternoon we drove up to Port Angeles, WA, in the far northern area of Washington. We have had wonderful weather since coming out west and our time in Olympic National Park was no different. Really nice. Olympic NP is actually three separate areas of Washington, all in the northern part of the state. We visited the Hurricane Ridge portion of the park on Wednesday morning May 22. We first visited the visitors center (of course). We got our maps and stamps before heading up the Ridge. The drive up the mountain was beautiful. It was short-sleeved weather at the bottom but at the top of Hurricane Ridge it was cold and quite windy. There was still snow on the ground and we were asked to walk only on asphalt or snow but, not to walk in the meadows where the snow had melted. That would cause damage to the fragile plants trying to peek their heads out for the summer. Beautiful scenery. Beautiful mountain view. Unfortunately, there were no hikes open unless you had the recommended snowshoes, which of course we did not. We wandered around on top for a while walking in the snow and then headed back down.

On top of Hurricane Ridge. That snow pole tells us we don’t need to be anywhere around here in the winter.

From Hurricane Ridge we headed to Rialto Beach (also part of Olympic NP) on the recommendation of a volunteer at the visitor center. It is a pebble and rock beach, with a coastal forest and lots of driftwood. Rialto Beach is known for its sea stacks, rock formations and pounding waves. No swimming though. The rocks make for some difficult walking.

Some of the large driftwood on the beach

We had planned to walk along the beach to these sea stacks, but we came to a large creek across the beach and weren’t prepared for a water crossing.

The next day, May 23, we visited the third section of Olympic, the Hoh Rain Forest. Nice for us, it was not raining in the rainforest the day we visited but there was a lot of moisture. The yearly average rainfall in the Hoh is 140 inches. This results in lush green canopy of various trees. Ferns and mosses are everywhere. It is just an enchanting place. We were told that the Hoh Rain Forest is one of the finest remaining examples of temperate rainforest in the USA and is one of Olympic’s most popular destinations. It was definitely our favorite part of the park. We were able to hike two wonderful trails, enjoy all the lush greenery and the peaceful setting and see some large elk along the way. Great park. Would highly recommend. After our morning in the park, we turned BB to the south and drove through some additional beautiful areas of Washington.

We stood and watched the elk for quite a while …

… but didn’t seem to be the least bit bothered.

The Spruce Trail leads down by the Hoh River.

Both trails were beautiful, and we were there early enough that neither was crowded.

Don’t know why people say Bigfoot is hard to find. We see him everywhere we go in this area.

2025 Spring Road Trip – Custer, SD

Saturday, May 24, 2025

After a stormy night of sleep on Wednesday night, Thursday night May 15th we all slept well and awoke ready to move on down the road to Custer, SD. Our campground, Big Pine, was just a short distance away from Custer State Park. After we got both RVs set up, we went to a recommended Mexican Restaurant in town, for a late lunch, early dinner. By then the sun had finally come out and it was a beautiful afternoon so we decided to do a trip around the Custer wildlife loop before dark. Max and Anne had been looking forward to this park since the visit in 2014 was so good. We began this trip by seeing lots of prairie dogs that we had not been able to see at Roosevelt due to the rain. Custer just does not disappoint. If you are ever anywhere in the area it is definitely worth your time. The badger we saw this trip was just icing on the cake.

We finally got to see prairie dogs in the wild.

The wild burros are sometimes called the “begging burros” because if you let them they will come right up to your window and ask for food. We didn’t let them.

When this one wasn’t eating, it was rolling in the grass.

In addition to the prairie dogs and wild burros, we saw more bison …

The abundance of wildlife is what draws most people, but the park also has beautiful scenery.

Saturday we first went to breakfast at a local diner and bakery. We had eaten their sticky buns in 2014 and knew we had to visit them again. Next, we had to do some of the mundane stuff you do when you travel in an RV. Anne and Debra did laundry while Max and Randy looked for some parts needed for a repair on Lizzy, Randy and Debra’s travel trailer. Now for more fun, we went to Mt Rushmore to take in the sculptures on the mountain and do some hiking around the park. Mt Rushmore was still on shoulder season schedule so there were no Rangers to give talks or share their knowledge of the park. We had to walk around and read the various informational boards. That’s one of the drawbacks of the shoulder season but the advantage is that we didn’t have near the crowds that will be there after Memorial Day. We all made a trip back to Rapid City to get the last needed part for Lizzy later in the day. It was a good visit to the Custer area.

Memories of these took us back to Baker’s Cafe.

The Presidential Trail is 0.6 miles long and has 425 stairs.

2025 Spring Road Trip – Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Friday, May 23, 2025

Wednesday morning May 14, we packed up and headed the RVs to Medora, ND. Almost immediately the winds whipped up to 30 mph with gusts higher. We also had intermittent rain. It was going to be a hard 328 mile day. Max and Randy were our drivers and did an excellent job handling the wind. We broke things up a bit with a stop in Jamestown, ND to see the “World’s Largest Buffalo” known as Dakota Thunder. Dakota is a concrete sculpture of an American bison that is 26 feet tall, 14 feet wide, and 46 feet long. He weighs approximately 60 tons and is visible from I-94. Dakota gets over 100,000 visitors each year.

An hour or two later we took another break to visit Salem Sue, also just off I-94 and visible for five miles. Salem Sue is a giant fiberglass Holstein cow sculpture in New Salem, ND. She was built in 1974 for approximately $40,000.00. Her dimensions are: 50 feet long x 38 feet high and she weighs 6 tons. Sue was sponsored by the New Salem Lions Club to honor the local dairymen in the area.

It’s hard for a picture to show how big she really is.

Next stop was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Painted Canyon Visitors Center just outside of Medora. Max and Anne had fond memories of this stop from 2014 when they were on the way home from Alaska. It’s the first great look at the Bad Lands and makes such an impression. Beautiful scenery.

Painted Canyon panarama

Finally, we drove on to Medora, ND where the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located. We arrived at our campground just after it began raining again. We were able to get set up before the storm really kicked in. It was a long sleepless night for us all between thunder, lightning, and wind shaking the RVs.

Thursday morning, May 15, we slept in a little after the hard travel day and little sleep. However, there was lots to see so we began our visit to the national park about 9:00. We drove the wildlife loops, first in the south unit and then after lunch, the north unit. The scenery and wildlife were great. We were concerned the rain would keep the animals in, but the only shy ones were the prairie dogs. Otherwise, the two drives were a wonderful way to spend a gloomy, rainy day.