Mt. Rushmore & Yellowstone National Park Vacation

It took a lot of planning, packing and patience to pull off our 16 day vacation during the summer. We drove a total of 3,842 miles and Curtis drove about 3,800 of those miles. As the co-pilot, I was the snack getter, movie player, referee, map reader, sandwich maker, cocktail waitress, and book reader on this trip. I have to hand it to Curtis, he did a fantastic job getting us safe and sound to our destinations. If it meant driving for 14 hours into the wee hours of the morning, he did it. As Jack said "Dad, without you we could have not gone on vacation. Mom doesn't know how to pull the bus."

We all were so excited to go on vacation that we wound up leaving a day early. I had always wanted to see Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone and Curtis had great memories of the time he had gone as a kid. Our plan was to do most of the driving at night because, well let's face it, it's better for everyone when the kids are sleeping and you don't have to listen to "He touched me, are we there yet?, I have to pee" etc.

The first day we decided to drive to Las Vegas to stop and have dinner and show the boys the lights of the city. We decided we were going to have dinner at the NASCAR Cafe that night. The boys favorite drivers are number 24, 48 and 88. Looking at their website on the way to the restaurant, it looked like fun but when we got there it was just kind of eeh and there wasn't a kids menu. Go figure. It was getting late so we ditched that plan, made sandwiches in the trailer and headed back out on the road. We drove down the strip so the boys could see the lights. They kept asking "Is that the real (fill in the blank)". Our next stop was a Wal-Mart somewhere in Utah.

It was HOT in Utah even at 3 a.m. when we pulled in. The next morning we got up, did a bit of shopping (Wal-Mart has it all figured out. You can sleep in their parking lot for free because they know you will spend your money at their store in the morning.) and headed out on the road. We stopped at Union Station where they had 3 different museums we wanted to visit. First and foremost Curtis wanted to see the John Browning Firearms Museum. Giddy is an understatement on how he felt about visiting the museum. After that we saw the Car Museum and then the Railroad Museum. They were small but still a fun time for the boys. We had lunch and headed out to our next destination, Casper Wyoming.

Again, another late night of driving and sleeping in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The next day was a lot of driving to Hill City, South Dakota where we would camp for 3 days. We arrived at the KOA forgetting that we had left a day early in our trip and our reservations weren't until the next day. Oops! Thankfully they were able to find a spot for us that night or we probably would have had another night at Wal-Mart. That night I was reading a brochure and it said Mt. Rushmore is lit up at night and they do a special presentation at 9pm. I thought it would be awesome to see Mt. Rushmore lit up at night and boy was I right. It was fantastic! It was so good that we never wound up going back during the day to see it. The next day we went to Custer State Park for some wildlife viewing. One of the unexpected animals we saw were two burrows in the middle of the road. We pulled over and got out of the truck to get a closer look. The boys pet them and the burrows kept going from car to car to get fed the random cracker or whatever else someone happened to be eating at the time. Come to find out, the dark brown one was pregnant. She probably enjoyed that fig newton! Later in the day we headed to Thunderhead Falls which was a cave that had a waterfall at the end of it. We enjoyed the cool temperature inside the cave because it was another hot day. We headed back to camp that night for a dip in the pool. Curtis took an unexpected dip in the pool because one of the boys accidentally came out of their floaties. He jumped in fully dressed without hesitation. That's my man! The next day was our last day in South Dakota. We went took a ride on the 1880's train through the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was nice and relaxing and we got to see the beautiful countryside. South Dakota was so enjoyable but it was time to leave for Cody Wyoming and another night at Wal-Mart.

We decided to stop at Bear Country USA and Old McDonald's Farm on our way out of South Dakota. Bear Country USA is the place to see wildlife. We saw lions, bears, antelope, goats, raccoons, and sheep. I think the guy told us there were 52 bears at the place. Then we stopped at Old McDonald's Farm to feed the animals. The boys got to feed baby goats and sheep and take a horse ride. We watched the pig races and goats doing a high wire act. Well it looked like a high wire act but it was some type of platform they got to walk across to get some hay. Then we got back on the road....

The drive to Cody was quite an experience. The road to Cody was under construction and it was quite the off road experience in a 36ft trailer. We were driving at night again so it was dark, the road was narrow and very bumpy. Curtis had noticed a small bulge in one of the trailer tires before we left South Dakota and and all I kept thinking is that we were going to get a flat in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and get stuck out there. Thankfully we made it to the Cody Wal-Mart in the wee hours of the morning without a flat. So that next morning we headed to a tire shop to have the tire replaced. We grabbed a pizza, had a picnic and then took off for West Yellowstone Montana.

On our drive to Yellowstone to our KOA just outside the west entrance, we decided to stop by Old Faithful Geyser. Goodness gracious there were a lot of people there! We still had our trailer with us and that was "fun" to find a parking spot. We just missed the last eruption so we had about an hour to kill before the next eruption. We walked around to the other geysers in the area. For some reason, Nolan loved the smell of the sulphur that came out of them. I got nothing but a headache from them. We got to see Old Faithful erupt which was very cool. We headed out and needed to check into our KOA for the week. We set up camp that night and looked forward to the next week of exploring Yellowstone. The first couple of days we visited a lot of geysers. I think one of the highlights was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Wow, was it beautiful! We decided to hike down to the place where the waterfall goes over the edge. Now, had I known there was going to be a wind and hailstorm during the 600 foot descent, I wouldn't have gone but who knew! Yeah it was kind of cloudy when we got out of the truck but a little drizzle never hurt anybody. And hey, it was warm outside so we didn't bother bringing a jacket either. By the time we got to the end of the trail and the overlook of the waterfall we were drenched. I think we spent about a minute looking at it and then headed back up. Straight up. I was so proud of the boys. They didn't whine or cry at all. They saw it as an adventure. And wouldn't you know it, by the time we got back up, the rain stopped and the sun started to come out.

Some of the highlights during our stay in Yellowstone was seeing a family of bison most days on the road to wherever we were going. One day they decided to run down the middle of the road. It's not like you can go around them or anything because everyone is stopped in both lanes of traffic to watch them. We planned a scenic float down the Yellowstone River in Gardiner Montana. The water was pretty low so the class of rapids weren't very high. I had regretted not doing the actual whitewater rafting trip after that trip. We had an awesome guide and it was just our family on the boat. Jack kept yelling "HEADS UP" when he would see just a bit of whitewater. We had a chance to get out of the raft and jump in the water. It was a hot day so I thought, sure! Oh my gosh that water was sooooo cold. The guide got in and helped the boys dip themselves in the water too. I guess my blue lips deterred Curtis from getting in that day. On the drive home Curtis talked about going again but this time with more whitewater. We had talked to the guide about it and said that the boys would be safe and it wouldn't be that bad. So 2 days later we went again and asked for the same guide. This time we had 2 other families with us. The boys kept everyone laughing with their reaction to getting hit by waves of water. I am glad we went back so they could experience the true whitewater rafting experience.

Our time went by so fast in Yellowstone. We decided to drive through the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole on our way back home. The Tetons were so beautiful. Jackson Hole was a quaint little town with some great ice cream. Our last destination before home was Cedar City Utah. We stopped at the Dinosaur Discovery Site in St. George. They have the largest single block of dinosaur tracks in a museum anywhere in the world.

We arrived home full of memories that will last a lifetime and dirty laundry that seemed to never end. I am thankful to Curtis for his sacrifice of time in the office to take us on this great vacation. We sure enjoyed it!

Of course, pictures! Grab a cup of coffee. There are 200+ pictures.