Capitol Reef National Park

Wow! We just spent an amazing three days and nights in Capitol Reef N.P. We were fortunate enough to arrive in the early afternoon on Saturday so we could secure a campsite in the campground. It filled most days by late afternoon!

Capitol Reef is most famous for its Waterpocket Fold, which runs one hundred miles north to south through the park. It was formed when major forces beneath the earth's crust created a fold in the rock, leaving one side of the plateau 1000's of feet higher than the other. The geology is rather complex, but a great topo map in the VC, along with a ranger talked helped!

Although we did drive the scenic drive (with auto tour cd!), we spent most of our time in the Fruita Historic District, near the Visitor Center Complex. The apple orchard was one of our favorite spots! It was also a favorite spot for dozens of mule deer! We had them in our camp every night! The ampitheater was also just a short walk and on Sunday and Monday nights we watched the Ken Burns film. We are hoping Tom is taping the other episodes!

Yesterday we hiked four miles up Sulfer Creek, climbing over rocks, swimming in deep holes, and sunbathing. This was all after completing two hours of school work. Yes, I am crazy, but it's got to get done! We were exhausted last night and ate trail mix for dinner!

So far, Capitol Reef is on the top of our list just below Yellowstone!

Canyonlands National Park

We spent today in Canyonlands National Park. After completing today's lessons, we headed to the park - a 1.5 hour drive, if that. After checking in at the VC to pick up the Jr. Ranger books (the girls are hooked), we traveled to the end of the scenic drive for the rim hike. Canyonlands looks much like the Grand Canyon in that the Colorado River has carved down through many different rock layers making it look like a layered cake. We hiked about 2 miles along the rim to get great views of the Green and Colorado Rivers. After refueling in the picnic area, we drove to Whale Rock and hiked a mile to the top. The trail was lovely, no one but us! It was amazing to see so few people in the park compared to the "zoo" in Arches. Afterwards, we drove to the Upheaval Dome trailhead and hike 2 miles to the dome. We wanted to just hike .3 of a mile, but missed the sign and ended up hiking to the second overlook which was a mile from the trailhead. This hike made our grand total for the day at 5 miles - not much, but in 80 degrees and lots of switchbacks, it felt like more. Tomorrow we head west to Capitol Reef National Park.

Arches National Park - Day 2

Today we spent the day hiking again in Arches. We hiked a little over 4 miles in the sand to Broken Arch, Sand Dune Arch, and the famous Landscape Arch. Even though we only hiked 4 miles, it felt like 10 because with every step our feet sunk down in the sand several inches. The weather was exquisite and we met a lot of nice people along the trail. The girls love meeting new people and sharing their adventures. After returning to camp, we cleaned up and drove into Moab for dinner - a real splurge! We savored every bite of our enchilada dinner! As I am writing this a day later, we spent the day in Canyonlands today! I can't keep up with the blog!

The girls are both so helpful and we are thoroughly enjoying each others company. I feel so fortunate to have such a great husband who is supporting our endeavors and such great girls.

Arches National Park - Day 1

Our first day in Arches proved to be a very busy one. When we arrived at the park, we saw the CAMPGROUND FULL sign in the entrance station window. Much to our disappointment, we briefly checked out the VC and then headed back down the road to scout out a campsite. The first one that caught our eye was a RV/Tent campground called Slickrock just outside the park entrance. Not really our usual, but it had a pool, hot tubs, wi-fi, and free coffee in the a.m. I still don't drink straight coffee, but was good to know some thing was free! It took us just a half and hour or so to set up camp and then we were off to explore the slickrock.

Our first hike took us to Delicate Arch located about 10 miles up the mountain on the scenic drive. The road was a series of winding switchbacks most of which followed along 500 ft. cliffs. Once we arrived at the trailhead we hiked 1.2 miles in the red sand to get to an awesome view of the arch. Tomorrow we will get schoolwork done and then head out again. Girls are already working on their Jr. Ranger books. I think they both shall be able to do MY job at Glacier Bay when we return - both are quite the budding naturalists.

Colorado National Monument

Colorado National Monument is a little gem, and a well kept secret in the National Park Service. We arrived in the monument on Tuesday afternoon after our drive from Rocky Mountain N.P. It was a welcome relief to be back in canyon country with a lot of sun and heat. We set up camp in the park campground and then hiked the one mile Canyon Rim Trail. CNM is on the Colorado Plateau and a prime example of deposition, mountain building, and erosion. Most of the exposed rock is a beautiful red sandstone. After a visit to the VC to watch the park film and pick up Jr. Ranger books, we explored several more trails around the campground. On Wednesday, we drove part of the scenic drive to Fruita, a small town located near the entrance to the monument. We could have stayed a lot longer, but Arches National Park was calling! We plan to stay several days exploring Arches and Canyonlands.

Rocky Mountain National Park

After leaving a very wet campsite in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. Unfortunately we ended up in a snowstorm that passed through Denver leaving behind 8 inches of snow! Just our luck! It wasn't so bad at lower elevations, but the road through the park was closed for 2 days. The pass is over 12,000 ft. high! We made it to the visitor center just inside the park near Estes Park and took in the exhibits, park film, and Jr. Ranger books. Because all our gear was still soaking wet, we decided to stay in a KOA cabin for the night. The cabin was "bare bones" but did have a nice porch on which to hang our wet gear AND a small space heater. It got down to 28 degrees that night and the daytime temp. was about 47. We all nearly froze, especially after spending almost two weeks in 85-90 degree weather in South Dakota!

The next day we drove interstate 70 through Colorado. We drove through some snow over the passes which was very stressful, but made it over o.k. Fortunately the weather got much better the farther west we traveled. By late afternoon, we made it to Colorado National Monument - a real gem!

Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff

Just a quick post as I am trying to get caught up! Left Rapid City on Sunday and traveled to Chimney Rock and Scotts Bluff, Nebraska. These two landmarks are amongst many that served as important monuments to pioneers traveling west on the Mormon Trail, Oregon Trail and California Trail in the 1800's. When in sight they knew they were getting closer to their destinations. We stopped briefly at Chimney Rock and headed to Scotts Bluff. The girls earned their Jr. Ranger and we hiked a mile-and-a-half from the top of Scotts Bluff back to the VC. A lovely day. We camped out in a wind/rain storm that night in Scotts Bluff and everything got pretty much soaked. In the a.m. we just folded it all up and put in the back of the van and headed to Rocky Mountain N.P. The weather changed dramatically over night! Will be glad to get out of the stormy weather.

Badlands National Park

With no access to internet for 6 days now, it has become difficult to remember where we have been! I think we left off traveling to Badlands National Park. Our drive was interesting, especially our quick stop to Wall Drug - the largest drugstore (a whole lot of crap) in America. It was fun to sip a fountain drink and buy a cheap t-shirt.

By late afternoon we arrived in the Badlands. Made a quick stop in the Visitor Center to pick up Jr. Ranger books, etc. I always need to map out our days in advance. My mom was always very accomodating! Stayed in a grungy hotel that was just outside the park entrance. Staff was very nice, but oh my, the room left much to be desired! We made it to the evening star program and stayed for 2 1/2 hours! Emily got very excited over the big telescopes. We saw the entire universe, it seemed, under the South Dakota sky! Hiked several trails before heading back into Rapid City to get my mom off to the airport on the 20th.

Jewel Cave National Monument and Custer State Park

The rest of the gang has all collapsed in bed! It's very late and we are all exhausted from our fun-filled day. Once again didn't get out of our lodging until about 10:00 a.m. - school work comes first. It makes the day go much smoother to get it all done early, but we always get back so late and end up eating dinner around 8:00 p.m.

Spent the day exploring Jewel Cave National Monument and the early evening walking around Sylvan Lake at Custer State Park. Jewel Cave is the 2nd longest limestone cave in the world. On our 1 1/2 hour Scenic Tour, we saw cave popcorn, draperies, stalactites, dog tooth spar, and soda straws - all made of calcite. The .5 mile tour took us down beneath the surface 347 feet and up and down over 700 stairs. The girls loved it! They both worked on the Jr. Ranger book and earned a badge. We also walked on a lovely 1/4 mile trail around the Visitor Center.

In the late afternoon, we drove back to Custer State Park so we could hike around the very popular Sylvan Lake. The girls wanted to do a little shopping in Custer, but I talked them into staying outside and hiking. Needless to say, when you see the pictures, you'll know why they thanked me profusely after our hike! The trail took us through some of the most beautiful scenery I ever seen and the girls had a blast rock hopping.

When we returned we played a round of putt putt golf (18 holes), cooked dinner, and then collasped! That's our day in a nutshell! Tomorrow we head to Badlands National Park for two days!

Custer State Park's Wild Burros

Forgot to mention the wild burros in the park. Abbey and Emily could hardly wait until the car stopped to get out! As you can see, they were very friendly . . . . the girls and the burros!

Custer State Park, South Dakota

We had a lovely day yesterday in Custer State Park. The park is the largest state park in South Dakota at 71,000 acres. It's amazingly beautiful and somewhat undescribable - open grasslands, dense ponderosa forests, and granite spires. The main attraction is an 18 mile Wildlife Loop Road that takes you through the southern portion of the park to see bison, pronghorns, elk, whitetail deer, mule deer, bighorn sheep, prairie dog towns, and coyotes. We saw all of the above with the exception of a coyote! Actually, I don't think I've ever seen so much wildlife in one place at one time.

Just getting to the park was an adventure. We drove the Iron Mountain Road which is over 20 miles of twisty, uphill road with single lane bridges and tunnels. When we finally arrived at the visitor center, an hour later, we were happy to park the car! We read the exhibits and the girls got their Jr. Ranger books and then we headed out for some exploration. First, we participated in a ranger led gold panning activity. We didn't find any gold, but did find a few agates which were very small. After lunch we hiked the "Lover's Leap" Trail, well almost. We hiked for over a mile and a half (mostly uphill - sorry mom), and came upon some hikers who had just turned around. They described, in detail, a 1500 lb. male bison who was traveling on the trail along the stream and wouldn't move! Needless to say, we walked a little farther, but then turned around. Abbey was so disappointed we didn't make it to Lover's Leap.

In the early evening we drove the wildlife loop and got up close and personal with all the animals listed above. It was amazing. Finally got back to our lodging at 7:30 p.m. Tomorrow we are off to Jewel Cave National Park and a hike around Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park.

Devils Tower and Mt. Rushmore

Wow! We think we could easily live in Wyoming or South Dakota. The scenery is beautiful and the people very friendly. Yesterday we traveled from Rapid City, SD to Devils Tower National M0nument in northeastern Wyoming (about 80 miles). The girls worked on school work until about 8:30 a.m. and then took the rest on the 1.5 hour drive. Devils Tower is made up of 50 million year old molten magma that was forced into sedimentary rocks above it and cooled underground. As the magma cooled it formed columns. Over time the softer sedimentary rock eroded away leaving behind the ingneous intrusion. Devils Tower became our nations first national monument in 1906! We spent most of our day hiking around the tower on the Tower Trail and exploring the many prairie dog towns in the area. The girls also worked on Jr. Ranger books in order to earn an "official" badge!

Today we got a late start because there was much grumbling about school work. The girls finally finished up around 10:00 a.m. and we took to the road. We are staying near Hill City, SD which is only a few miles from Mt. Rushmore so it didn't take us long to get there (15 miles). We spent the entire day learning about the four presidents carved into the mountain: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. We also learned about the artist, Borglum, who carved Mt. Rushmore. The visitor center was amazing! We watched two park films, listened to a 120 minute audio tour while walking the 1 mile loop trail, attended a ranger program at the Sculpter's Studio, and spent 1 hour in the Lincoln Borglum Museum. We didn't eat lunch until 4 p.m. Tomorrow we're off to Custer State Park, Wind Cave (wildlife loop), and Jewel Cave.

Wind Cave and Agate Fossil Beds

Time is going by way too fast! Our days are filled with morning school work and then afternoon and evening exploration. Usually we leave our lodging (tent, hotel, or friends house) by 10:00 a .m. and return late in the evening just in time for dinner. By early evening we are all ready to collapse in bed, but not before reading from our special book. Currently we are reading Aldo Leopold. We spent the past two days exploring Wind Cave NP and Agate Fossil Beds NM. Both were totally amazing. Our long time park friends live in Hot Springs, SD and work at Wind Cave. We took a tour of the park and the cave yesterday. Wind Cave is the 7th oldest National Park (I did not know this!). The cave is the fourth longest in the world and has 95% of the worlds boxwork formations. It is not your typical cave with stalagmites and stalactites. The scenery beneath the ground was interesting, but what was above the ground was even more spectacular. We drove the 20 mile scenic drive took us through the most beautiful mixed grassland praries I've ever seen. Herds of buffalo were grazing along the roadside at almost every turn and prairie dogs barked as we stopped the car to watch. Several pronghorn antelope were also seen along the road and up close.

Our visit to Agate Fossil Beds today was awesome. We drove about 113 miles to northwestern Nebraska. We hiked through grassland prairies and ancient rock formations that preserve 20 million year old small mammal fossils. Here's a story for Em's classmates . . . when we arrived Emily had to go to the bathroom. I just told her to go over to the tall grass and go by the parking lot. When she returned we grabbed our backpacks and found the trailhead for our short hike. The first signs we saw were warning signs for Prairie Rattlesnakes and they said, "Warning, Rattlesnakes. Stay on trail." Emily was so mad at me! Abbey and Emily completed the Jr. Ranger program and became "official" Jr. Rangers! Abbey was a good sport!

Tomorrow my mother is flying out from Virginia to explore Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Badlands, and Custer State Park with us. She will be visiting for 7 days. She has promised to help the girls with English while I do the math!

Bighorn Canyon and Drive to Hot Springs, SD

We arrived in Hot Springs, SD after two days of driving from Yellowstone. Left Mammoth on Wednesday via the East Entrance. Spent at least a half an hour sitting on the road and checking out bison during two "bison jams." Cars just sit at a standstill while bison walk literally down the middle of the road. You don't dare get out of your car or you could risk being one of the two dozen who get gored by bison each year in Yellowstone. Stopped at the Mud Volcano area for about an hour to check out hot springs and mud pots.

We drove through Cody, WY in the afternoon and all decided that we could move there tomorrow! Loved the town, scenery, and wildlife. Not too sure about the winters though. Our drive took us through the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. The entire area was just beautiful - grasslands, alpine meadows, forests. We camped at Porcupine Campground on Wed. night and the temp. got down to 29 degrees F. We froze!

Finally arrived in Hot Springs Thursday afternoon. It has been great to reconnect with our NPS friends, the Davila's, after six years. Today we spent the day touring Wind Cave National Park. Will share our day in Wind Cave tomorrow. It was amazing.

More Yellowstone

Yesterday we spent the day exploring the Norris Geyser Basin and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We saw lots of hot springs and geysers. We also got up close and personal with bubbling mud pots. We left Mammoth at 10:00 a.m. and didn't get back until 8:00 p.m. The girls were exhausted when we returned.

Today, after the girls completed their school work (which took us from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.), we explored the Mammoth Hots Springs area. All is going well and we're having lots of fun. It's challenging at times to get up early for school, but necessary as we want to spend the day exploring. We are all learning so much natural and human history in our daily jaunts. We have spent a total of 4 days in Yellowstone and have enjoyed every minute of catching up with our park friends! Oh, and the weather has been exquisite.

Grand Teton and Yellowstone

Yesterday we drove from Grand Teton NP to Yellowstone NP. The day was long, but saw lots of amazing scenery and wildlife. Started our day at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY and made our first stop just inside the south entrance of Yellowstone at Old Faithful Geyser Basin. Hiked for over two hours on on miles of boardwalks to get views of hot springs, geysers, and fumaroles. Returned to the Visitor Center area just in time to get a great view of Old Faithful erupting - the most popular tourist spot in the park. Abbey and Emily enjoyed the day immensely and likened it to Disneyland. Maybe that's pathetic. Oh well, I think the crowds and traffic helped them come to that conclusion, not to mention they just spent 3 days in Disneyland about two weeks ago!

Today we spent the day hiking along Slough Creek in northeast Yellowstone. The forest was beautiful, made up of mixed spruce and Douglas Fir. We rock hopped part of the way on enormous boulders along the side of the creek and finally made it to an open meadow. Bison were grazing nearby and a Norther Harrier was soaring overhead. We hiked back to the trailhead via an old wagon road dodging lightening strikes along the way. When we returned to the car the sky opened up with a torrential downpour of rain and hail.

Tomorrow we are off to explore Norris Geyser Basin and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This place is magical. We are having a great time reconnecting with our lovely park friends the Herrings.

Fremont Indian State Park and Grand Teton

Wow! We have been traveling for days and are lovin it! We left Las Vegas Tuesday morning and arrived in Fremont Indian State Park in southern Utah. We spent two nights at Castle Rock Campground - great spot, lots of cool geology, and a stream to cool off. The weather was hot and sunny with an afternoon shower on Wednesday. We hiked every trail in order to get up close and personal to Fremont pictographs, petroglyphs, and pictoglyphs. The girls were strong hikers and there was no complaining.

On Thursday morning we packed up at 6:00 a.m. and headed north to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. We are staying with a friend who works at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY. Spent the day hiking in Grand Teton and checking out the Elk Refuge. Tomorrow we head to Yellowstone - Old Faithful here we come!

Gotta sign off, no time to write. Off to check out Jackson and get a little taste of city life!