For our family vacation we set off to see the sights in Eastern Wyoming and the black hills of South Dakota. James’ father (the first Jim) lives in Sundance, Wyoming, only miles from the South Dakota border. We spent time with him and his wonderful wife, Sharon, their family, and saw the sights in Sundance. The second day we went to Devil’s Tower. Amazing!
This is the view as we approached from the highway. The tower juts about 800 feet above any other nearby land form. 
The view from the Visitor’s Center parking lot. The trail leads all the way around the base of the tower, about 1 mile. It’s amazingly tall… 867 feet. 
Sam showing off. 
This sign explained that Devil’s tower is a volcanic intrusion. Once all the surrounding land was just as high as the top of the tower, but was eroded by the Belle Fourche river. Only the hard igneous rock was left. As the magma cooled, the stress points formed into tall, hexagonal columns, and that’s why the rock has the striped look.
Can you see the rock climbers?
Abby was a cheerful hiker. 
The whole gang taking a rest on one of the many viewing benches…
And yes, we were only half way there!
Indian legends call the rock “bear lodge” or “bear tipi” or “grizzly bear house.” This painting depicts the legend where seven Indian girls were trapped by a giant bear on the top of the stump of a tree, and the bear scratched all the marks into the rock.
At all the national monuments they have a “Junior Ranger” program. Augie completed his booklet and got sworn in as a Jr. Ranger. In the town of Sundance itself there is a lot of history and charm. It’s a very nice place! We enjoyed driving by the jail where the outlaw got the name “Sundance Kid” and saw the Sundance State Bank, dated 1914.
We had a fun time at Dad and Sharon’s house that evening, with a barbecue and s’mores over a backyard fire.
We had fun at our hotel pool, too. And spent lots of time in our pajamas.
After all this fun swimming, Abby was too tired to wake up!
Then we were off for another fun day in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This is a beautiful area! It’s about 2 hours from Sundance to Mt. Rushmore. We first stopped at a zoo/park called Bear Country. They have hundreds of bears! And we also saw elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, mountain lion, reindeer, badger, skunk, red fox, wolves (artic and timber), river otter, and more.
Grizzly bear
The baby bears were so cute! As playful as puppies.
And this is the world’s only pink arctic fox… actually just an arctic fox that rolled in the red dirt.
Now, on to Mt. Rushmore! It was amazing. It is so tall. It’s quite astonishing how they did such a great job carving the presidents’ likenesses into granite. The kids also got their Jr. Ranger badges at this national monument.
We found Idaho on the walk of flags… the 43rd state. 
The view of the monument from the Grand View terrace.
Inside the visitor’s center, we learned about how it was carved and found lots of little facts to fill out their Jr. Ranger workbook. 
Then the youngest 3 were sworn in as Jr. Rangers.
A final parting shot of our family on vacation. What a fantastic trip! We’d go again tomorrow if it wasn’t 12 hours away (that was one long, hot car ride). But we had a marvelous time.
No comments:
Post a Comment