After a wonderful Shabbos in Omaha, I drove east, stopping in West Branch, Iowa to visit Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.  The visitor center was well done:

Turns out Hoover was a pretty impressive fellow:

Hoover’s childhood town and surrounding countryside:

I continued east to overnight at the Cracker Barrel in Hammond, Indiana:

See the trip map for today’s drive.

I visited Timpanogos Cave National Monument:

The cave is accessed with a 1.5 mile hike with 1000′ of vertical:

The cave was small but fantastic:

I then headed southeast to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry:

I then continued south to The Wedge in the San Rafael Swell for Shabbos:

Good Shabbos!  See the trip map for today’s drive.

I woke up before sunrise, and could see the fires from a distant helium plant:

So long, great location:

I continued west to Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, where I checked out a replica Oregon Trail ferry:

I accompanied the refuge biologist checking bird traps and banding birds:

I continued west to Fossil Butte National Monument.  We’ve been here before, but it was on the way:

I continued into west into Utah to visit Golden Spike National Historical Park, where the two halves of the transcontinental railroad were joined at Promontory, Utah:

Quick hike on the original rail bed.  Central Pacific and Union Pacific were creating rail bed and laying track from opposite sides of the country, and Congress had not specified where the two competing companies would stop, so in an effort to claim as many land subsidies by building track as possible, the two companies simply built right past one another. Centered here in promontory Utah, there’s about 200 miles of parallel grades , one made for each companies track.  Here’s Central Pacific’s “Big Fill”.  Union’ Pacific’s “Big Trestle” was parallel to the Big Fill, about 100ish yards to the right:

I raced back to Logan, Utah to outrun a storm to overnight at the Walmart of South Logan:

Turns out today is a Utah holiday called Pioneer Day, so I was kept up late by fireworks:

See the trip map for today’s drive.

After a restful Shabbos in Oacoma, SD, I headed to a local hardware store for parts to reinforce this summer’s new solar installation.

Nearby, “Dignity” stands over the Missouri River:

South Dakota is under heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires, so I decided to continue west to get back to blue skies. Along the way, I visited Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The new visitor center (since our 2010 visit) preserves the history of Cold War nuclear proliferation:

The elusive dump station photo:

After buying propane and groceries, I continued West through the Black Hills of South Dakota to overnight in Thunder Basin National Grassland near Newcastle, Wyoming.

See the trip map for today’s drive.