Days 11-12 - Great American Road Trip - Little Bighorn & Devils Tower

When I was in the 4th Grade we studied states and their capitols.  We also were assigned a state.  I had Montana.  It sounded like a very far away place from southern Illinois and I was sure I would never get there.  I was wrong.  Yesterday I saw the real Big Sky Country - rolling pastures and blue sky as far as the eye can see.  As we drove back into Wyoming, I saw more horses in pasture than cattle.  I love horses so that was very cool.

Little Big Horn National Battlefield was worth the trip even if it is a somber place.  We heard a rousing 50 minute talk from a park ranger (and former high school history teacher and coach) describing the battle in dramatic detail.  We won't forget him soon and my kids also won't forget the history of this place.  General George Custer made his Last Stand and the Plains Indians (mostly Lakota and Cheyenne) won a battle but lost a war to protect their way of life.

The site is so quiet and unassuming - a couple of hills on a prairie near the Little Bighorn River.  The battlefield is dotted with white markers in the locations where each soldier fell.

On the top of the hill is a larger memorial where Custer and most of his men died.  You can see the exact spot Custer fell on the white stone with a black face.

On the same ridge is a monument to the Native Americans who died that day.  It's sobering to think of all the people at this violent confrontation lying silently nearby over 100 years later.

From Little Bighorn we worked our way over to the KOA at Devils Tower.  We have enjoyed KOA campgrounds, and this one was unique.  It was about as close to Devils Tower as you can get.  This was taken from our campsite:

Notice that there is no apostrophe in "Devils Tower"?  When Congress designated it the first National Monument, it was left out of the name and never added.  The Lakota legend says that eight siblings were playing in the forest - seven girls and one boy.  The boy was pretending to be a bear and the girls were running away.  Suddenly, the boy became a real bear and his sisters ran screaming in terror.  They climbed on a tree stump that started rising into the air.  The bear tried to climb the stump, and left his claw marks in the side.  The stump continued to rise until the seven sisters became the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

We spent the morning hiking around the Tower and watching the crazy climbers going up.

I think we also took our Christmas picture.

On to Mount Rushmore!

cindy

Day 10 - Great American Road Trip - Bear Tooth Pass/Red Lodge

We loved Yellowstone, but after several days the kids were done with the great outdoors.  Too bad for them because we still had to drive to the northeast entrance to the park on the Bear Tooth Pass Scenic Byway.  If you ever get to Yellowstone and have any reason at all to enter/exit through the northeast entrance, I highly recommend it.  It's closed part of the year for weather and there are lots of switchbacks through 11,000 feet of mountain, but it's awesome.

We saw lots of bison - herds for the first time.  Previously we were only seeing them individually, but mating season is almost here.

The views were spectacular and we were rewarded with snow on top.  Christian loved it!  Unfortunately, there were swarms of mosquitos in the snow area so my Arizona boy is experiencing the joy of multiple mosquito-bite welts on his arms and legs.

Mackenzie loved the little chipmunks/ground squirrels we found at the top of the pass.  At the rest area they darted in and out of weep holes in the retaining walls and ate right out of your hand.  (I know, they are wild and it's probably not a good idea, but it sure was fun!)

The ride down to the valley was full of switchbacks - the Google map looked like a child's squiggle drawing - no kidding.  We were rewarded at the bottom with more great views and lush settings.

We stayed in Red Lodge, Montana for the night and this was one of those places I wished we could stay longer.  The town had an old-fashioned main street with more antique stores in two blocks than I have seen in all of Scottsdale.  We had a great time walking through them with the kids.  For Kent and I we saw some things our grandparents had in their homes.  Christian found a rotary phone "from the 50's", but it was the same model Kent and I had as kids.  Sigh.

After dinner in town and more card games (still no wi-fi), we settled in.  Tomorrow, back into Wyoming and Devil's Tower.

Thanks for riding along with us!

cindy

Days 8-9 Great American Road Trip - Yellowstone

During the next two days at Yellowstone, we saw some of the more familiar sites - geyers, fumeroles, mudpots, sulphur springs and other volcanic activity:

Very pretty and interesting, but not as good as the flora and fauna that make up the rest of the park.  We did see Old Faithful, but it wasn't as impressive as good old Fountain Hills.  The highlight of that particular experience was gathering with the rest of the crowd on the edge of the "boardwalk".  Kent took some video of Old Faithful erupting, but all you could hear was the female park ranger screaming at the lone man who wouldn't get back on the boardwalk:

The kids think Kent should remix the video to a rap beat so it will go viral on YouTube.  We don't know how to do that, but our 10 and 12 year olds could easily figure it out.

We're about a week into the trip now and living in a RV together 24/7 is beginning to make tempers fray.  This was heightened by the lack of internet connection - no Minecraft or Instagram!  Mom and Dad weren't so cheerful either without cell service or Facebook.  The general complaint was about the poor WiFi at the KOA.  We did manage to muddle through without hurting each other too much, but some days are better than others.  Here's to another day in Paradise!

cindy

Day 7 Great American Road Trip - Yellowstone!

We finally made it to The Place - Yellowstone National Park.  We drove through the southern entrance of the park up to West Yellowstone, Montana where we stayed at a very nice KOA campground.  The drive in was momentous because we saw so much wildlife!

Elk:

Bison:

And a rarity, a mother black bear and her cubs.  Check out the video:

We discovered that traffic jams in Yellowstone are usually caused by people looking at the animals.  The bison in particular are very bold - this family above caused a half hour jam because they kept switching lanes.  I was disappointed because I never saw a moose - I really wanted to see a moose.

The scenery wasn't bad either:

When we returned to the RV park, we did a little camping cooking - yum!

Just enjoying the great outdoors (with a little pain without cell phone service or internet).

cindy

Check on the Bucket List

This summer I'm making a big checkmark on my bucket list.  The great American family vacation - that's on my bucket list.  It's a long vacation - 21 days - the longest vacation ever!  Ever since I was a kid I wanted the big western family RV vacation.  We're renting a RV and that's scary enough, but imagine a 21 day road trip with a 10 and 12 year old.  We know the kids may not enjoy every day (or any day), but we are confident that it will be a vacation they will always remember.

The journey begins in our home state - Arizona.  We're not going to see the obvious - the Grand Canyon - because we've already seen it and can with only a three hour car ride.  Instead, we'll be motoring through Utah, Wyoming, a bit of Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico.  That's right, 7 states and nearly 3000 miles in 21 days!  On the way we'll see multiple national parks, monuments and forests and some of the most beautiful places in the United States.

Oh boy, this is going to be awesome!

cindy