Yellowstone

Next on our whirlwind cross country tour was Yellowstone.

I definitely want to go back & spend more time there. I'm thinking this fall would be perfect.

And we could tour the Grand Teton National Park at the same time.

I didn't get overly many pictures when we were in Yellowstone & most of them are of wild flowers.
(yes, I drove a 1000 miles to take pictures of wildflowers. You have a problem with that?)

This is Bridge Bay Marina.

Some of the gorgeous wild flowers.

This is right near Fishing bridge on the Yellowstone River. So pretty & peaceful.

More flowers.

Old Faithful.

It just sits there and smokes (steams really)...

Until you get close to time for it to erupt & then it starts to tease you...

There was a group of kids next to us & one little girl kept saying it was "getting ready to ekrupt" 

(so cute)

And then it starts. It get's bigger...

and bigger...

and BOOM!!! Thar she blows!

and then it just kind of winds down...

It was so cool to actually witness Old Faithful. Something you only read about!

This big guy was along the side of the road.

Not long after we saw this guy we saw another HUGE bison, lying down between a creek & the side of the road. And  multiple cars stopping and people getting out & walking RIGHT UP to the huge, potentially deadly animal & snapping photos. Are you freaking kidding me???? Can these people not read? There are signs posted everywhere about the LEGAL distance they must keep not to mention the rash of deadly encounters that have been all over social media.

So, needless to say we just kept right on driving passed that bison...

We were almost out of the park when there was a collision on a bridge & it closed the road down for 2 1/2 hours. We spent the first hour gaping at the tourists running down to see what happened with their cameras & selfie sticks (no really)

The second hour we blasted Christian rock & Maccabeats  songs as loud as we could & sang along & played air drums with licorice.

You should have seen some of the looks we got...

We saw a huge combined herd of bison & elk but it was too dark for the cameras to focus by then.

So I definitely want to go back. Get more pictures. Spend more time. See more.

Yes.

Next stop Montana & home.

Blessings.

Mt. Rushmore

Our next stop was the ultimate point of our trip: Mt. Rushmore!

That was the furthest east we traveled - everything from that point on was headed west again.

Mt. Rushmore is just cool. Really really really cool!

See???

The kids with Gutzon Borglum - the man behind Mt. Rushmore.

The cool avenue of flags. Each state has it's own flag & a plaque with the date of statehood.

See?  Oregon.

See the rocks with the striations? Those are from being blasted off the face of the mountain. Cool.

Hi!

Borglum's original mock up of the monument. The mountain itself wouldn't support the extra carving of the torsos & hands hence the way it looks today.

This created great controversy in our family. What really is in the secret room & what aren't they telling us? (cue the theme music for X-Files. Mulder? Scully?)

The boys completed their Junior Ranger badges here as well. See the 2 professionals in their ranger hats?

After Mt. Rushmore we did some sight seeing in Keystone & ended up buying a Pakistan made knife from 2 Hebrew speaking Israeli men who live in Florida now but run a store in Keystone during the tourist season. 

Say that 3 times fast.

Next up: Yellowstone.

Blessings.

Devil's Tower

Our next big stop was Devil's Tower Wyoming. Totally not what I expected. I was picturing a huge rock in the middle of nothingness but instead its a huge rock in a forest. 

The trail around it is paved & shady & really quite pleasant. We saw one man pushing a double stroller full of babies around the tower. (that did not look fun).

Beautiful sky on the way there.

We borrowed an extra boy for this excursion ...

These beautiful shots were taken by my friend Stephanie who backed up, blocked the trail, squatted down & did everything but lay prostrate all in the name of the arts (thanks Steph)

The Native legend about the tower is a giant bear cat creature was clawing his way up to try to eat the people on the top. The stripes on the sides are from it sliding down & clawing all the way. 

Kinda does look like that...

The boys all earned their Junior Ranger badges while we were there.

Working away on their ranger books.

Stephanie was helping Levi with his ranger badge...I'm pretty sure she already earned hers...

One of the activities was to draw a plant...

...how cute are these guys?

Back on the trail.

Now that's a view...

Bear crossing?

Look very carefully & you can see the 2 climbers descending.

Cute cute cute!

Look! Prairie dogs. They look suspiciously like ground squirrels on steroids.

And I have it on good authority that they really enjoy Twizzlers & Cheetos... but I don't know anything about that.

So that was Devil's Tower. We had lots of fun, earned our Junior Ranger badges (some of us anyway) hiked around the base & decided we thoroughly love Wyoming.

Next up: Mt. Rushmore

Blessings.