Our destination was Devils Tower, made most famous by its appearance in this movie. It was quite far out of the way but it was something I've always wanted to see, and who knows when we'll ever be up in that part of the country again so we decided to go for it.I'm so glad we made the effort because it's really neat! In my mind I had it shooting straight up out of the desert, but in reality the landscape is quite hilly and green with lots of trees.
We hit the visitor's center so Maren could get another stamp in her passport but decided to forgo the 1.3-mile hike around the base of the Tower. I would like to have gone so that we could have seen it up close, but a thunderstorm was brewing and quite frankly, we were all just sick of hiking!
It was a long drive home along pretty much the entire north-south length of Wyoming. I'm fairly certain that we drove through the most seriously boring part of Wyoming, between Gillette and Douglas. We didn't get home until 11:00 pm that night.While our first day at Mt. Rushmore didn't go even remotely as planned and we never got to see the fireworks over the Presidents, I'm still glad we went. We had a fun time as a family and got to see neat things. For any of my local friends who might be planning a trip, let me know if you have any more questions about the area!
Glad the rest of your trip was fun!
ReplyDeleteThat was one of those trips that you always think to yourself, "yknow, someday I'd like to see Mt. Rushmore and that funky stone mountain on Close Encounters", and now you've done it! I'm so envious...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your trip with us. It was a lot of fun to read - I feel like I was there! I am sorry that the fireworks didn't work out. You are such a trooper to even go on vacation at 6 1/2 months pregnant, let alone on a 2-mile hike uphill.
ReplyDeleteFunny story about the National Park Passport books: on one of my first dates with my husband, we went to a National Park and he brought his Passport book. I had never heard of them before and I thought he was so corny - I mean it's cute for a child to do, but an adult on a second date? Then one year later, I married him and now all three of our children and their dad all have National Park Passport books! :-)
I am so glad that your trip ended better than it began! We have wanted to go to Mt. Rushmore since we moved to CO. We will have to get more details from you.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had such a great trip! I'll have to go there someday for sure!
ReplyDeleteglad you hit Devil's Tower - out of the way, but I really enjoyed seeing it. When we were there rock climbers were rappelling down it...I was content to hike around it!
ReplyDelete