Last summer we hit many of the western states, including Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. So this summer, we decided to do a big road trip hitting a lot of the eastern half of the U.S. Our biggest goal was to go to some of the church history sites and visit some of the big cities on the east coast. But, we also had a few other stops we wanted to make along the way.
Our first stop was to the Tetons. These mountains were beautiful! I wish we had some more time to hike and explore in this area, but we only had enough time for a short 3 mile hike to a lake at the foot of the mountains. It was a pretty easy trail and provided some great views of the mountains, forests, and plant and wildlife. The weather was also perfect for it - sunny, but not too hot. This hike ended up being a really nice way to split up our long day of driving as we made our way to Mount Rushmore.
You will notice in these pictures that I was able to convince some of the boys (all but Ethan) to shave their heads. It is not their favorite haircut, but I think it makes it so much easier for them to keep clean, presentable looking, and less stinky.
The lake was nice and cool. It was fun to wade in some and look for little fish swimming around.
Agnes tripped and fell mostly in at one point. But she still kept a positive attitude about it even though she was all wet walking back to the car.
We spent that night at a hotel just about an hour away from Mount Rushmore. The next morning we got up early and went to Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. This is just a little bit away from Mount Rushmore and not too far out of our way from our hotel. This rock formation was really amazing to see. The massive rock face goes straight up all the way around in a big circle shape. We took a few pictures from far away and then did a short hike (about 1 mile) around the base of it all. Usually there are people around trying to climb the rock face, but, during June they encourage people not to do that to show respect for the Native American's spiritual traditions at the site during the month. It was cool seeing all of the colorful prayer clothes tied to trees around the site.
At the base of Devil's Tower there were fields with thousands of prairie dogs. The kids had a fun time chasing them around. It was just like Whack-a-Mole. They would peak their heads out of one hole until the kids got close, then they would hop down and go to a different one and stick their heads out there.
Right before Mount Rushmore we also took a picture of the Crazy Horse Monument.
There were lots of people visiting Mount Rushmore. We visited the small museum and walked around it some to get a few different views. It was impressive to see, but only took a couple of hours before we were ready to go. I am glad we were able to see it on our way to other things, since I don't think it would be worth the 10 hour drive to just see it on its own.
After Mount Rushmore on our way through South Dakota, we stopped by the Wall Drug Store. It was fun to see all of the things that they had there and a nice way to break up the long drive as we made our way to Independence, Missouri.
During this first leg of our trip, we also experienced a huge blessing. During the drive after seeing Mount Rushmore we realized that our air conditioner was really not working at all. As we thought about all of the driving that we had left to do, we figured we needed to try to get it fixed if we could. When we stopped at a gas station in a small town about two hours away from where we would spend the night, there was a tow truck driver that I was able to ask for recommendations. He told me about a couple of possible mechanics. The first one we tried wouldn't be able to get us in until the next day. But, the second one said they would squeeze us in even though they were supposed to close in 15 minutes. It took them about an hour to finish with our car and the cost was less than $100, but they were able to fix it and it made a huge difference on the rest of our trip. Finding that mechanic and getting that taken care of with such little delay to our trip was definitely a miracle for our family.
No comments:
Post a Comment