BlackHills/Yellowstone Day 6 and 7

Late night of driving, early morning of driving. On our way back to South Dakota to Marshall's hunting home away from home. Marshall makes the trek to SD a couple times a year. This was our first chance to meet everyone and see the famous "hunting trailor". Marshall suggested I take a picture to prove I was there!

Thanks to Justin and his family for letting us crash at their place instead of the "trailor"! We enjoyed a couple wonderful home cooked meals and good company. Fun to meet everyone and hear some great stories. There are two SD Hunting Families, and Ruth and Paul visit Wisconsin every summer, but this was our first time seeing their farm. If I ever randomly disappear, I'll give you a hint, you'll find me on a farm. I could totally be a farmer. And the kids took to it like, well you know the saying. Look at Trent crawling around in the dirt. He was covered chasing the little kitties! Wish I wasn't allergic.

A quick lunch, we said our good byes and headed out, homeward bound. Marshall drove us down the "road" to some of the hunting fields. Yes, you read that correct. Road. Does that look like a road to you? Well there were street signs at every intersection. I think everyone either drives a truck or a tractor. My car would never cut it!

We stopped for lunch/gas in Stugis. The big Harley Ralley was just kicking off. The whole trip, the motorcycles were all around, but this was the best biker thing we saw. Some Good "clean" fun!

We got home around 8:30pm, just about the time we left the house 6 days prior. To wrap up this adventure here are some stats: 3000+ miles driven, 6 days and 6 tanks of gas. 5 hotel rooms, 4 National Parks, 3 scenic drives, 2 French Hens,(wait what?) 1 State Park and Countless Bison and Bathroom Breaks all add up to an amazing memory. We can't wait to get on the road again.

BlackHills/Yellowstone Day 5

Being that the Old Faithful Inn IS very "Historic" it lacked certain modern convienciences such as air conditioning and/or a ceiling fan. And also because it was so wooden, I could hear every move, every person in the entire hotel made! So being the optimist that I am, I am thankful for that, because I was up at sunrise to capture some shots of Old Faithful erupting.

Or room is the 3rd from the right on the first floor, behind the pine tree. A little later in the morning the kids watched it erupt right from that window. Again, it was more like, "Look Kids!.....Old Faithful!" The kids love water, but more along the lines of, "Can we go to the pool?" Because we hadn't really had time to do any swimming at any of our late night hotel stays, I was hoping we would be able to find a Hot Spring that you could actually swim in at Yellowstone. There are a couple, but none of them worked into our schedule. We did hit the Firehole Lake Area, which does have a swimming spot, and also a very loud and steamy guyser, on the way to meeting my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin near the West Entrance, but no swiming for us. "Places to Go!" Off to the meeting spot at Lower Geyser Basin and Fountain Paint Pot. Next up, the spot on my wish-to-photograph-list, Grand Prismatic Spring at Midway Guyser Basin. Wow! You can tell it's Friday! Good luck trying to find a parking spot. Our truck is pretty big, and add in my Uncle's car, we're as long as a bus, bus parking it is! And Wow! Prismatic it was!

My sad little girl had found the day before, and forgotten at the prior stop, a perfect walking stick. It really was just her size. She couldn't quite cheer up for yet, ANOTHER picture.

In my opinion, our most spectacular stop of the day, for more reasons than scenery was Fairy Falls. Here is how I presented it. "One Mile to the trail head, then 1.6 miles to the falls." You think anyone of us took that as almost a 6 mile hike?!?!? Over the river and through the woods, 2nd star on the left and straight on til waaaaay past lunch time! If Callie was thirsty yesterday, she was even hungrier today! Luckily I had a stache of old candy crane rejects in my camera bag from the hockey season. She didn't want em back then, but now it was like gold! All and all worth the time and effort.

After our long hike, our picnic lunch was well recieved. Ice cream at Yellowstone Lake was also well recieved. Thanks Aunt Laurie. My cousin and I were reminicing about how IceCream was a favorite with our Grammie. This was a nice way to honor her memory.

We found equally spectacular scenery with our last Yellowstone stop of the day at the Upper and Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Good bye Yellowstone, thanks for showing us the wonder of nature. Can you believe I missed getting a picture of the, "You are leaving Yellowstone National Park" sign! Finally we made it to Cody, but once again too late to see the Firearms Museum and the Shootout! We still did enjoy dinner at the Irma Hotel.

Our 3rd and final scenic byway took us on a very late night drive on the Bighorn Scenic Drive. All we wanted to see was the next town where our hotel would be.

Blackhills/Yellowstone Day 4

RedLodge is the gateway to the BearTooth Scenic Byway, the Most Scenic Drive in the whole U.S.! Have I mentioned I LOVE driving in the mountains? It goes from Montana down into Wyoming and then back into Montana and ends just outside the N.E. Entrance to Yellowstone, which is back in Wyoming. Half the time I didn't know what state we were in!

Marshall scored us a Yellowstone pass from someone at our hotel. He's so the man. So after reaching our crusing altitude of 11,000ft, and a brisk swim for Trent ('Cause he is ALSO The Man!) we came down the other side of the BearTooth Pass into Yellowstone for another lunch in the car because there was an hour wait at the Roosevelt Lodge. (Callie was not thrilled about having to take another picture.

With our Southern route through the Yellowstone loop predetermined, we set off toward the Petrified Tree.

Hours of research went into the planning of our stops througout Yellowstone. HOURS. Next up, our first little hike to Wraith Falls.

Then because it was already getting later in the day we did "drive-bys" of Mammoth Hot Springs Area, Obsidian Cliff and Roaring Mountain, The Norris Area had several boardwalk trails, where our tour guide Marshall, shared with us his vast knowledge (read from the brochure) of the wide array of geological features. As you can and will see, as much research as I did for this trip, it did have it's moments of unpredictability. It was ONLY a 2 mile walk around the boardwalks! "Water, Water all around, but not a drop to drink." At least we can all laugh about it - Callie was parched, she kept moaning, "I have no saliva in my mouth." "I'm so thirsty!"

Another short hike for the Artist PaintPots. By the time we had hit Monument Guyser Basin the kids had seen enough, so Marshall and I went solo. We passed a bunch of stops on the way down to our hotel, knowing that we would hit them tomorrow when we met up with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. It was almost 9pm when we checked into the historic Old Faithful Inn. Creaky floors and all. Once again, Marshall coming through with the hook up. Ahem, we made that reservation the day before. Not many people can say they've stayed there, unless of course they booked it a year ahead of time! Dinner at 9:30pm and then back to our room with a view - Old Faithful. Yup, we could look right out our window into the pitch black night!

BlackHills/Yellowstone Day 3

Up early and on our way to the Center of the Nation - Belle Fousche, SD. In case you were wondering, that's where it is. An odd spot if you ask me, since SD is like 2 states down from Canada, but I'll explain. See it's not an exact science (Duh!), but what they do is take a cardboard cut out of the nation. Balance it on a pin and where ever it perfectly balances is the center. So when they factor in for Hawaii and Alaska, it puts it right smack in the middle of someone's farm field 20 miles outside of Belle Fousche.

It took us waaaaay longer than I expected to drive the dirt road out there, so we were waaaay behind schedule for Devil's Tower which was 5.5 hours away, which also took waaaaay longer to hike the 1.5 miles around the base, which put us waaaaay behind for the Buffalo Bill Cody Firearms Museum, which eliminated the possibilty of seeing the Shootout at the Irma Hotel, which allowed us to change our route, skip Cody, WY and make an unplanned visit to the Battle of Little Bighorn Battlefield. So Marshall had to trade his one bit of history for another.

You may have heard there is a drought going on right now, and many Western States are having fires. We drove along side a ridge that was burning. You could see the smoke for miles. I was just so taken aback by the magnitude of this "little" fire. I can't even imagine worse. The smoke shadowed the sun. Another unexpected sight to add to our trip.

We ended the night in Red Lodge, Montana. So lets review: That was SD to WY to MT.

Blackhills/Yellowstone Days 1 and 2

With a full weekend/Monday schedule, it just worked out best to leave at night and drive straight through. Marshall always tells me I'm crazy, but it really does work for us. (Read here for our Middle of the Night drive to Colorado) At 4:30am, it was, "Look kids....The Corn Palace!" Sunrise over South Dakota then the famous Wall Drug for flapjacks. Day 1 and 2 were kinda one in the same.

Full bellies and a full day of sights ahead of us, we jumped back into the car to drive through the Badlands. The first of many awe inspiring geological features we saw. The world was certainly Trent's jungle-gym on this trip.

If he could have climbed up Mount Rushmore to actually pick George Washington's nose instead of pretending to in the picture, he totally would have.

Lunch was on the road, which got old real fast, but like I said...."Places to Go!" We did have some great scenery to take in while we were eating, Custer State Park Scenic Byway. The first of 3 Scenic Byways we travelled. I'm sure you get the idea of a Scenic Byway, but to clarify, the ones we drove were Mountains, Mountains and Mountains. I L.O.V.E., love driving in the mountains!

Dinner was at the Circle B Ranch in Hill City, SD. A real friendly little place with a great atmosphere. Wax bullet shooting, Cattle Rope'n, A shootout skit for the kids with the Biscuit Bandit before dinner, and a Cowboy Concert after dinner. We finished the night off at Mount Rushmore (or as Callie calls it "More-Mount-More-Rushmore").