National Parks – Page 3 – On the Road with Dan & Amy

Down East

After leaving Dan’s cousin’s house on the shores of South Twin outside of Millinocket, we traveled about 100 miles southeast to coastal Maine. We setup at Timberland Acres RV Park just outside of Ellsworth, ME and a 20 minute drive from Acadia National Park. We had plans in place to visit with more family and childhood friends.

South Dakota

Steam Engine Train Ride

After leaving our lonely campground in the Black Hills, we spent a week at the Elks Lodge in Rapid City. While there, we ventured back into the Black Hills to Hill City to ride the 1880 Train to Keystone and back. This is a tourist ride on a steam engine train, similar to the mode of transportation one might have taken in the late 1800’s. The ride to Keystone takes about an hour and then the engine is moved from on end of the train to the other for the return trip. There is no round table to turn the engine around so it actually hooks up backwards for the return trip. They told us this works just as well but does look strange.

Nebraska and The Black Hills

When we left the Casper area of Wyoming and headed to The Black Hills of South Dakota, we decided to route ourselves through Nebraska so we could add that state to our travel map. We stayed at Fort Robinson State Park in Crawford, NE for 2 nights before moving into South Dakota. The weather was beautiful when we arrived in Nebraska but little did we know this would be the last good weather we’d see for a while.

National Parks x 3

After leaving Panguitch and the Bryce Canyon National Park area, we headed toward Moab, UT with a 2-day stop in Torrey. Torrey is near Capitol Reef National Park and Moab is situated near Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. So over this past week, w, took several hikes in 3 separate National Parks.

Kanab to Panguitch

Kanab, UT

Our stay in Kanab was relatively uneventful. We decided to not enter the lottery for permits to The Wave, in part due to the inclement weather occurring that day. It turned out to be a good thing as Dan was a bit under the weather and hiking was not a good idea.