Yellowstone National Park
Day One
We are up at the butt-crack of dawn to catch a 7:45 AM flight. This is our first experience at Hobby Airport in Houston and it is a pleasant one. Security is super fast. We scarf down some breakfast and off we go. We arrive in Denver around 10:00 AM local time and jump in our rental and head East. We made it to Nebraska, which is our 18th state visited with the boys, and were thoroughly disappointed. The scenery was pretty bland and desolate looking. The highlight was our stop at Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska. We made it to Keystone, South Dakota (State #19) and checked into our room at the Powder House Lodge. Our first evening we went to downtown Keystone and had some dinner and goofed around until almost dark. We ran by Mount Rushmore, which is about 4 miles from our room to see if we could see it from the road. You can, and we did. Everyone was impressed. |
Day Two
We started off day two with a quick trip over to Hill City to pick up a few groceries. Hill City is a cute little town and the people at the grocery store were very nice. We dropped off the groceries in our room and headed over to Mount Rushmore for a proper visit. At $10 a car load, Mount Rushmore has been one of the most affordable attractions we have ever visited. I thought I would have to fight my kids the whole time, but both of them seemed to enjoy it, Coby especially who told me how awesome it was several times. We didn't realize we were in the Black Hills National Forest until we were. We must have missed the bug sign. We actually stopped to take a picture in front of the Mount Rushmore sign and then realized were there. Looking on the map later, it is a huge place. They have tons of little stopping points where you can easily spent 10-20 minutes. We really didn't feel like spending $30 to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial so we tried to get lucky and drive by and see it from the road. We saw it, but it was really far away and did not get a picture. We ended up in Custer, South Dakota around lunch time. Due to bad planning, we had to stop to eat. We stopped at a couple of burger joints which were packed and ended up at a buffet style place. The place was deserted and after eating, we knew why. Food was average to terrible and super expensive. However, the waiter was very nice. Custer State Park was our next destination. The park is a drive through park where there are tons of places to stop and take pictures. The also have a road called the Wildlife Loop and one called the Iron Mountain Road. The Wildlife Loop took us through a herd of buffalo. There were several times where traffic was stopped due to them crossing the road or just plain standing in the road. We also saw some burros and a prong horn along with some prairie dogs. Iron Mountain Road was next which conveniently took us back to Keystone. This road was amazing. There were several switchbacks, which they call pigtails, wooden bridges, and tunnels. The views were awesome. As we got closer to Keystone we could see Mount Rushmore in the distance. Upon arrival back to Keystone, we ran into a little thunderstorm which included some hail. We made it back to our room, had some sandwiches, and called it a day. |
Day Three
Breakfast in the room and jumped back in the car to go to Rush Mountain Adventure. They opened at 8:00 AM and we walked in the door at 8:01. Upon arrival I had the Griswald Vacation feeling as there were no cars in the parking lot and the place was deserted. However, they were open and we ended up having a great time. We took the cave tour, road the zipline, tried the 7-D adventure game and even road the mountain roller coaster. The coaster was teh best and a truly unique experience. We ran back to the room for a quick lunch and then hit teh road again. This time the destination was the Badlands National Park. We took a detour through Rapid City to check out the Storybook Island which we decided to skip. We also made a pit stop in Wall, South Dakota at the world famous Wall Drug Store. It sucked. Way to crowded and even to touristy for us. We didnt even get any free ice water. We finally made it to the Badlands and really enjoyed it. It is like a mini Grand Canyon and really accesible. Tons of photo ops. They place is just huge. 1000s and 1000s of acres. We spen about 2 hours there and then headed back making a stop at Walmart in Rapid City for more supplies. We had dinner at the restraunt at our lodge. I had the elk burger and the boys each had a buffalo burger. Elk burger was fine, but probably would not try it again. We made a quick stop at the pool and the laundromat and then called it a night. |
Day Four
Day four was a travel day. We started in Keystone, South Dakota and our destination was Wapiti, Wyoming. Heading out from Keystone we headed North. Our route took us through the corner of Wyoming and then up into Montana. There was a more direct route, but we wanted to spend a little bit of time in Montana. Along the way, we stopped in Belle Fourche, South Dakota to visit the Geographic Center of the United States (which includes Alaska and Hawaii). After crossing the Wyoming border we lost cell reception and did not get it back until we were well into Montana. We stopped in Billings, Montana to pick up more supplies and then shot down into Cody, Wyoming. Cody, Wyoming definitely has a cowboy feel to it. It was really clean and the people were very friendly. We ate dinner at Granny's and then headed to our cabin just outside of Wapiti. The cabin was small and cozy. It started to rain as we arrived so we quickly got inside and prepared for a big next day. |
Day Five
Mancie booked a whitewater rafting trip down the North Fork of the Shosone River for Saturday. We have been rafting before and felt like we could do a more exciting raft trip. What we did not plan for was the 50-60 degree weather we encountered. The rain from the night before was actually a cold front. When we arrived at the rafting office there was some talk of the river being to rough to raft. The finally decided to let us give it a shot and it ended up being just perfect. More exciting (and rougher) than our last trip, but not so sketchy that we bailed out. Everyone with the rafting company was great. The trip included lunch so around 2:00 PM when we were done, we we were looking for something to do. The girl at the rafting place suggested driving the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway which was near by. This turned out to be one of the highlight of the trip so far. The road twists and turns and takes you up 10,000 feet into the mountains. When we got to the top, there was snow everywhere. Coby was able to see, and play in the snow for the first time. It was a blast. near the top we stopped at a little store called, Top of the World, and the lady there let us know that the rest of the road was closed due to the snow drifts. We had to turn around and head back down the same direction. We were not discouraged, we just stopped to play in the snow some more on the way down. We arrived back in Cody and stopped at a local pizza place for dinner. Service was slow, but the pizza was good. |
Day Six
Day six was Yellowstone day and the ultimate destination of our trip. Everyone told us if you wanted to see animals you needed to get there early so we were up and ready to rock at 7:00 AM. We arrived in the park and within a few minutes we saw a small herd of bog horn sheep chilling out on the side of a snow bank. After that, we mostly saw bison but did run into a few elk, tons of different birds and ducks, small critters and a small grizzly bear. There are tons of pullouts and places to stop and see different things like waterfalls, geysers, lakes, rivers, forests, mountains, snow, you name it, it's in there. The temperature also ranged from about 60 degrees and dipped down into the low 40s in some places. During the ride between sites Coby asked when we were gonna see Old Reliable. Well we did finally make it over to Old Faithful and watched it erupt with about 1000 other people. It was super crowded but well worth the stop. We stayed long enough to have a picnic lunch and a picnic dinner (it's a big place) and finished off the trip with some ice cream. On the way back to the lodge, after leaving the park, we saw a huge momma grizzly bear and her 2 cubs playing on the side of the road. |
Day Seven
We headed out bright an early Monday morning on our way to Layton, Utah. Our route South took us through Grand Teton National Park. We kinda breezed through it as most of the views were very similar to Yellowstone. However because of the layout of the road, we were able to get up close and personal with the mountains. It made for some great views. The trip through Idaho and Utah was uneventful and we pulled into Layton around 6:00 PM. We ate dinner at the Sizzler and then went for a swim in the pool. |
Day Eight
Day eight was a re-planning day. We initially planned on visiting Lagoon Amusement Park but with a 80% chance of rain, we came up with plan B at the hotel the night before. So we we woke up, plan B was activated. Our first stop was the Clark Planetarium. We picked up a brochure at the hotel and really liked that admission was FREE! The place is very similar to a Children's Museum with tons of interactive exhibits all based on space and science. What family vacation would be complete without a trip to the Zoo! The Utah Hogle Zoo was a little pricey but still less than the amusement park. The zoo was small but had some character and ended up being a fun. Most of the animals were up and about and we really enjoyed watching the orangutans play. They also had a short educational program about the elephants which was short and to the point. Lasted maybe 5 minutes. Definitely interesting enough to hold our attention. We then headed back towards our hotel and over to the Antelope Island State Park to get a view of the Great Salt Lake. At only $10 a car this attraction was perfectly priced. There is almost nothing to do on the island, but it is the best spot to view the lake and the skyline of Salt Lake City with the mountains in the background. There is a small visitor center on top of a hill and an area to dip your toes in the water. We skipped that part, because it was too far to walk. We ended our last night in SLC with dinner at the Pizza Pie Cafe. |