Thirty-nine Road Runners were reminded of our proud USA history as we traveled throughout four national and state parks of the West. We made our way from Rapid City, South Dakota to Salt Lake City, Utah via Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
The Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Teton National Park all came alive as we experienced many sights most of us had only seen in pictures.
How long has it been since any of us has been able to buy a cup of coffee for 5 cents? Well, one of our stops was the well-known Wall Drug complex where we were able to purchase just about anything one could think of, along with a great lunch and that 5-cent coffee.
We toured The Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and the Wild West town of Deadwood. We stayed in a rustic lodge in Spearfish Canyon where they filmed Dances With Wolves. Crazy Horse Memorial, honoring the fearless Sioux warrior who became famous from the Battle of Little Bighorn, was an unbelievable sight. A buffalo (bison) safari in open air jeeps brought us within eight to 10 feet of the bison herds roaming the open country.
Then it was on to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone where we saw the upper and lower grand falls and geothermal sites including the famous Old Faithful. Some of us could see the geyser from our hotel room windows.
We toured Buffalo Bill’s Wild West town of Cody, Wyoming where 16 of our travelers decided to dust off their horseback riding skills at the U-Cross Ranch.
Our motor coach made its way into the Big Horn Mountains; then on to Jackson (Hole) Wyoming for a rafting adventure on the Snake River. While rafting we saw seven great bald eagles! One courageous RR member decided to live more dangerously than we rafters and went white water rafting.
Our trip was concluded in The Great Salt Lake Basin where we cruised along Bear Lake, went through the Wasatch Mountains and finally came into the beautiful downtown of Salt Lake City where we toured the Mormon Tabernacle, the Joseph Smith Building, the Mormon Temple and the absolutely gorgeous gardens surrounding all this.
There were just too many adventures and too much fun to convey in an article about this trip, but it truly was one of the most outstanding trips of our lives.
If you haven’t signed up yet for our fall events, there is still time to be included in both the “Arkansas Art Getaway” (October 6–8) and “Fall at the Arboretum” (October 28) trips.
We are also taking reservations for our holiday events, which include the exciting shopping trip “Shop Some, Sip Some” and the spectacular Prestonwood Baptist Church’s performance of “The Gift of Christmas.”
For more information on all of these events, please log on to www.rrrrclub.com or call Gotta Go Tours by Patti at 972-355-1189.