Trip Out West

 In June we traveled west to South Dakota (Badlands, Rushmore, Custer SP, Jewel Cave) and to Wyoming (Grand Tetons).  We were supposed to see Yellowstone too but due to the massive flooding in that area, the park was closed.  

One of the highlights for the kids was staying at the KOA campgrounds, which had pools and playgrounds.  

Made a quick stop at the Corn Palace.  So they can say they've been there. 

Stayed in the Badlands.  It was very, very windy that day.  And hot.  We hiked the Notch trail, and several of the shorter trails.  The kids loved the open-hike policy and ran all over and tried climbing different rocks and ledges.  There were several times my mom-fear kicked in and I found myself saying, "not too close to the edge!" 

Even Lena climbed this ladder on the Notch trail.  She handled it much better than I thought she might.

Ah, my favorite - flowers!!

And... dinner at Wall Drug.  Best hot dog ever, according to Clare.  My buffalo burger didn't hold a candle to our lamb-venison burgers.  We're so spoiled with our everyday farm eating, it's hard to enjoy restaurant food sometimes.  My onion rings were great though!  

Mt Rushmore was too hot and the sun was too bright.  As seen in this picture.  

Grandpa K told the kids that when he was a park ranger he got to sit on top of George Washington's head!  

We also went to the Cosmos Mystery Area, which was one of Clare's favorite spots.  All the kids really enjoyed it.  

We decided last-minute to swim at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.  What a beautiful place to swim! Matt, Clare, Karl & I swam out to these rocks - you can see Matt & Clare waving.  

We returned to our campground in Custer S.P. via the Needles Hwy.  Such beautiful rock formations.

The next morning we woke up early to get to Jewel Cave in time for our tour.  The cave was another highlight for the kids.  This is a pretty poor picture of a neat feature called "cave bacon".  

Since we couldn't enter Yellowstone, we rerouted our trip to stop at Hot Springs State Park in WY.  The features there were similar to Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone.  You could take a 20 minute soak in the hot spring at the state park for free, so we did.  The whole town smelled of sulphur; it wasn't a place I would like to live!  

There was a neat walking suspension bridge at the park.  

The source of the spring.  The water was really hot here!  A bit Yellowstone-ish.  

And bison!  We got about as close as we would like to a herd of bison.  The wind and sun really wreaked havoc on my photos of the kids.  Oh well.  

Finally made it to snow-capped mountains!  Here we are at the Continental Divide.  A science teacher from Utah stopped near us and suggested that Karl throw a snowball from one side of the divide to the other (just to make the snow melt on the wrong side of the hill).  Perhaps his video of Karl's snowball will be shown to high schoolers in Utah next year.  

Snowball fight at the divide!  Watch out!  

It was a novel thing to have a snowball fight in June. 

Grand Tetons at last!  Love those snow-capped mountains.  The weather didn't really cooperate; it rained that first evening, cutting our hike short so we could set up the tent in case it really started to come down.

Could there be any cooler place for a picnic?  

This whole trip started because Karl (years ago) said he wanted to see snow-capped mountains.  There's one behind him here but it doesn't show up great in this photo. 

This is how we rolled. Old 2005 Toyota Sienna with a rocket box, no AC and no CD player.  We managed to fit all of us into our 6 person tent, with Lena laying sideways across the top.  It actually was a lot nicer than it sounds and the kids were amaaaazing during the long van ride. 

Our second morning in the Tetons we woke up to 34 degrees.  Brrr.   Surprisingly, the kids handled it really well.   

Our full day in the Tetons was gray and overcast with occasional rain. We did have periods of sun on our hike to Moose Ponds, near Jenny Lake.  And we saw one mangy moose, a cow shedding her winter coat.

Nora LOVED the hike.  She literally bounced from rock to rock, asking if we could go again as soon as our hike finished.  

As we headed back east through the Bighorn Mountains, we drove through a snowstorm.  

Rented a camping cabin at the Buffalo, WY KOA.  It was one of the nicest KOAs we'd been too - family run and very neat and clean.  

The cabin had two rooms, one with a double bed and one with two sets of bunks.  Perfect.  

Stopped at the Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, SD.  Kids petted a giant tortoise.  

The girls thought the prairie dogs were so cute.

The orchids at Reptile gardens were amazing! 

Afterward we stopped at a candy store.  Mix 'n Match candy was a hit.  We let the kids each pick $5 worth of candy (except I forgot to stop Lena and measure her bag soon enough and we had to raise it to $6 each because hers was already over the limit.  No one seemed to mind.)  

Karl had a stomach ache for several days but he really perked up at the candy shop and was better from then on.   (He really was on the mend already, it wasn't the candy that pulled him through.)  It was so nice to see that smile again!  Here he is in the hot tub at the Rapid City KOA.  

Yay! Another cabin!  (I had called and upgraded to this one when Karl's stomach was bugging him so much.)

Pancake breakfast at the KOA.  The girls loved the fluffy pancakes.  I guess I put too much whole wheat in mine.  

Butterfly House and Aquarium in Sioux Falls.  

Nora feeds butterflies with a nectar flower.   

This butterfly must have liked the others on Lena's shirt.  

Clare gets a friend on her shoulder and on her flower.  

Our last night we stayed in a teepee.  The kids had been looking forward to it all trip.  I wasn't sure what the inside would look like...

... I wasn't expecting this!  

It felt like a plush hotel room.  It even had a lamp, a fan, and AC.  Unfortunately the KOA was close to the interstate so I didn't sleep well with all the large trucks rushing by.  

Our last night we treated the kids to a buffet at Pizza Ranch.  They loved it.  Nora went back to the food line so many times.  All-you-can-drink pop and all-you-can-eat ice cream were hits.  As well as the many choices of pizza.  I liked that I didn't have to cook anything.  

All in all, it was a perfect trip.  Only two things would have made it better - Yellowstone open and Karl not getting sick.  The kids traveled so well!  We didn't take any screens but they each had a sketch book, new colored pencils, and a folder of maps and activities as well as a print-out of the License Plate game.  (The only license plate we didn't find was Delaware. ??!)