National Parks & Monuments

Winter in Rocky Mountain National Park

It was mid-January when we left South Dakota and began our journey south in search of sun. We learned a lot over the last few months about winterizing the Turtle, and have systems in place so we can go anywhere we want and live comfortably, even in single-digit temps. But seriously—we’re mobile and get to choose the climate in which we live. Let’s ditch the gloves and base layers and go play somewhere warm!

That was the idea, anyway. This story is not about finding the sun, but about the journey toward the sun that I am basking in as I write this. And that journey includes a National Park and a three trips down memory lane with awesome old friends.

First we stopped in Fort Collins to see my friend Rachel, who I hadn’t seen in 20 years! (There was much discussion about how that number was an impossibility, but the math doesn’t lie.) But even a couple decades couldn’t interfere with us picking right back up where we left off, and having hours of fun getting to know each other again. We were having so much fun gabbing, though, that I took no pictures! Only a few snaps in town as I walked Scout before bed. What’s that about? Having too much fun, of course. So I had to get one from her that we took after having coffee together the next morning. SO good to see you, Rach-o!

The next day we made the short trip to Boulder to check out the town since I’d never been. The highlights of our stay included Taco Tuesday at T-ACO (my favorite day of the week), Andy’s Lego picostomus,

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the charming and bendy performer on Pearl St. who wriggled bum-first through a bucket,

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Andy coming through on my request for a snow angel in the park,

and an unexpected early visit with our friend Rob, who we were going to see when we made it to Arvada, but happened to be in Boulder that night too!

Rob had to work through the rest of the week, so we took a trip over to Rocky Mountain National Park while we waited for the weekend.

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We were lucky enough to get a clear sunny day upon our arrival, and had a beautiful snowshoe hike into the mountains.

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As we got higher up, the ice crystals were so sharply defined and sparkling in the sun that I took a hundred pictures trying to capture the magic, and failed. So instead we ate some.

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After a parking lot picnic, we drove up to Bear Lake to hike around, but the sun was starting to descend and not only was it getting chilly, the drifts there were so high that there wasn’t much to see aside from snow piles of various sizes.

Andy did find a bench, and we realized that what we thought were trail markers were actually a fence along the path that was nearly buried!

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We should have known what we were in for, since the signs on the way up all looked like this:

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There is one loop in the campsite that is open year-round, and a few of the spots had even been dug out already, so we picked one and called it a night. The next day we decided to take another snowshoe excursion, and as poor Scout was dying to run through the snow, we decided to walk around the expansive campground where dogs are allowed. It was overcast and cool, and the views even in the campground are stunning.

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We left the park after our outing and drove to Arvada, where Rob lives. He’s a good friend who lived in our neighborhood when we lived in Portland, but his job took him to Colorado while we were still living there. We’ve missed him and his sweet fuzzy dog Kokanee very much, so what a treat to get to hang out again after a few years! He showed us the town, the Geology museum at the college in Golden, a great brunch spot, and the nearby park for Scout to catch Frisbees. And somehow, just like our visit with Rachel, I ended up with only a few pictures. And neither of them included us with Rob! We’ll have to go back soon.

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Rachel had recommended that we check out Casa Bonita, a bizarre restaurant outside of Arvada with sub-par food and inexplicable ambiance. That girl still knows me well, because I was on Cloud Nine at that place! Yes, the line was staggeringly long, the cafeteria-style food was as shockingly bad, the place was jam packed, and still I loved it. They have divers jumping 30 feet into a small pool in the middle of the restaurant, fire jugglers, a guy in an ape suit, a spooky pirate cave, a mariachi band . . . it was hilarious! Andy agreed it was “pretty crazy” and suggested we go for a beer afterward. He’s a good sport.

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After a too-short visit with Rob, we drove to Brighton to visit my friend Bev, who I hadn’t seen in 15 years. Once again, the years between were irrelevant, and we talked and laughed for hours, and only drove Andy and John a little bit crazy with our old jokes. It’s amazing to me how easy it is to pick up where you left off with real friends. If they hadn’t had to work the next day, we’d probably still be there playing games and being ridiculous in our usual way. Aaaaaand, once again, I’m full of great stories and low on photos. Love you Bearly! xoxo

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It has been a dream come true to have enough time and flexibility to be able to reconnect with friends. This Turtle life is really making up for lost time, right? It’s also ensuring we’re able to continue checking National Parks off our list, with one more coming right up: Great Sand Dunes National Park.

The warm weather will have to wait! We’ve got some snowy dunes to climb.

 

Winter Camping in Yellowstone National Park

Have you ever heard of a Chesapeake Start?

Well I can’t find anything on the internet to support that this is a thing, but here’s what I can tell you. Somewhere along our travels, someone told us about a “Chesapeake Start.” He said that when Lewis and Clark would leave for a long journey, everyone who was going on the trip would pack everything up and travel a mile down the road, then stop and stay the night. Once they had set up camp, they would quickly discover what necessary items they’d left at home, so the next day they could easily return to their home base and get what they needed for the long trek ahead. We love this idea in the context of Turtle travels. . . especially since in the scenario we get to be Lewis and Clark. 🙂

On our exit from Bozeman into our first wild winter weather in the Turtle, we’re especially happy that we opted for the Chesapeake Start. During our stay in Bozeman, Andy did a whole bunch to prepare us to be a Turtle For All Seasons, but there’s so much you can’t know to prepare for until you’re into it. So knowing that all Andy’s tools were only an hour and a half away, we left Bozeman on Sunday and drove to Yellowstone National Park!

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We arrived in Yellowstone mid-day, and it didn’t take long for the temperature to drop. Of course this time of year in Yellowstone is cold and icy, and this is the longest amount of time we’ve been completely off-grid in freezing temperatures! We’re still working out the finer points of living entirely from solar, so boondocking proved more challenging than ever before. Especially since we get so few hours of sun in these winter months and the sun we do get is weak, we had to really conserve our light and heat usage, as both are powered with the house batteries charged by the solar panels.

We were happy to have lots of blankets that evening. . .

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And to see sunshine in the morning!

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This isn’t the first time that I’ve been thankful that Andy is an engineer, and a motivated one at that. At the campsite, out in the wind and snow, he wired up a second alternator that he’d been working on and hadn’t yet completed, and got us extra power using wizardry and magic, and I think a little power from the engine.

We knew it would be cold in the park in November, and also that we’d be a little more limited in how much of the park we’d have access to. I’d done some research before we visited Yellowstone about its off-season, and here’s what I found:

  • The majority of the park is considered “closed” from early November to mid-April. That means that all the roads are closed except for the road from Gardiner to Cooke City. (And during the winter season, all roads out of Cooke City are closed save that same road back to Gardiner.)
  • In mid-December the park opens up to “oversnow” travel, which means you can only access the park by snowmobile or snowcoach.
  • In November and the beginning of December, the northern portion of the park is still open to visitors, and since it’s the off-est of the off-season, you have the place pretty much to yourself!

We’ll definitely return to check out the rest of the park when it warms up, but in the meantime, we found November to be an awesome time to visit the park!

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Here’s what you can do in the park in November:

  • Mammoth Campground is open year-round, and much easier to get a spot this time of year. We only had two neighbors the whole time we were there!

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  • Mammoth Hot Springs and the Albright Visitor Center are right next door to one another and both are also open year round.

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  • The animals are out in droves and grazing so close to the main road! We saw hundreds of bison, antelope, elk, deer, bighorn sheep, a few coyotes, and the sweetest little light-footed fox you can imagine. (My favorite, but don’t tell the other wildlife.)

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  • The Boiling River is also open year-round, and in my opinion, it’s best in winter. . . since that’s when I went, and it was awesome. I can’t imagine a more surreal and magical time to be submerged in a river than a snowy November. The Boiling River is a swimming spot at the confluence of the Gardiner River—which is of course frigid this time of year—and the Boiling River, a hot springs which reaches up to 140 degrees. You wade down to where the two begin to mix comfortably, and you’re in an outdoor hot tub in the middle of the snow and mountains! The steam pours and curls off the water, and the Boiling River gushes over the rocks and iced plants in a bubbling hot waterfall tumbling into the cold river. You’re sitting in the middle of it all, in one of the man-made terraces, adjusting your position to accommodate the sometimes burning, sometimes freezing, mostly perfectly-cozy warm water flowing past your body. We splashed and floated, counted the dozens of elk grazing on the mountainside, avoided staring at the high school couple making out near us, watched the shadows the sun cut through the steam, and laughed at how crazy it was to be swimming in a river in the mountains of Wyoming in December. We stayed for hours and hours, the final hour a procrastination knowing how cold we were going to be once we stood up and waded up the river back to our clothes! (I’m not going to lie; the walk back out was brutal. But it was so so worth it!)
    • If you’re planning to go, it’s not marked on the main road, so park at the lot just north of the 45th parallel, near the Montana/Wyoming border. It’s a straight, level hike along the Gardiner River, just 1/2 mile to the spot where the Boiling River converges. It’s all well-marked. My main recommendation is to bring water sandals. . . as you get in, you’re so cold and then so hot, trying to figure out where the separate currents are, that the slippery rocks are just another inconvenience that could be avoided with good footwear.

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  • Lots of hiking. While we were there the snow wasn’t deep, so we were able to hike around without our snowshoes to lots of nice spots. If we’d spent more time in the park (a week when Andy wasn’t working so much), there were portions of the park we would have loved to have snowshoed through. Next time!

 

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We spent so long in the Boiling River the day before we left that we didn’t have as much time as we would have liked to see the east side of the park. We decided to drive the distance up to Cooke City, stay the night and then make the drive back the next day to see the landscape and animals from the east gate back to the north entrance. We got to Cooke City right at dusk, and at almost 8,000 ft. elevation, the snowy mountain town was a twinkling haven in the middle of the frozen wilderness. We parked on the street, and woke up the next morning to find the streets bustling with people, all preparing to ride their snow machines, or zipping down the street on them! It was so much fun! Apparently when they close all the other roads into town for the winter, the snow machines (I guess they call them”sleds” now) can go nearly anywhere they want, and they do.

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Everyone was having such a great time! And super duper nice.

We had coffee and hot breakfast at a friendly bakery that was also half snowmobile shop, and drove back through the park in the snow. We saw almost every animal on our wish list, and even after we left the park we saw a bald eagle and a moose!

The week was packed full of adventure, and that was just on the North road! Lewis and Clark would have approved. And they would have been especially pleased that, since we utilized their Chesapeake Start, we were able to take our frozen tanks and campsite-rigged alternator the short trip back to Bozeman where we can make the necessary updates. And then we’ll be ready for whatever weather we feel like driving into! Woohoo!

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Leaving Bozeman Harbor

We’re back on the road! It’s super, super exciting. When you’ve spent a year roaming and adventuring and then suddenly sit still for a while, the call of the road is stroooong. But even though we were looking forward to moving on down the road, we got a lot of valuable things accomplished in Bozeman Harbor, mostly lots of family time, and it was two months very well-spent.

We originally posted up for a bit to do some Turtle work before winter hits, and after a year of being in the Turtle, we finally finished the bathroom! Andy really killed it on the vanity and faux toilet tank. The “tank” is actually storage (our favorite word these days), but he even made a little flusher you can pull, whose only practical function is to be charming. Andy always goes the extra mile!

You could say it’s come a long way from when we first bought the Turtle. . .

I’d like to make it clear here that it didn’t look like the above photo while we’ve been living in it. . . That’s a BEFORE “before” photo. 🙂 We got a good amount of progress done before we hit the road, but as you can see in the photos below, the vanity was still completely inefficient for storage and took up a ton of room in the small space. And we still had that sink in there, which we didn’t find useful since there’s a kitchen sink three steps from this one, and we’d rather have the storage! But with all the work we had to do in the rest of the Turtle before hitting the road, this portion of the renovation was put on the back burner.

 

But now it’s done! And we loved our extended stay in Bozeman. We parked the Turtle at my Mom’s house, and while Andy reveled in his huge garage/shop space and engineered all kinds of new fancy Turtle improvements, I got to spend lots of quality time with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephews. I had the best time getting to be a local for a while, and my love tank is filled to the brim. 🙂

We even had a pasta party night, where we made homemade 4-cheese ravioli, sausage ravioli and fettuccini, and three kinds of sauces. If you’re thinking about inviting me to a party, I can promise I’ll come if it’s this kind of party.

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We had a fulfilling and productive stay in Bozeman, and I was only able to leave knowing that we’d be back for one more short stint since I have to return on the 8th to walk the green mile go to a dentist appointment. In the meantime, let’s go to Yellowstone National Park!

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Everything’s Happy Underground

Ben Folds Five reference, anyone? Anyone?

Ok, well before we get underground, we have a few stops to make.

By the time we left Angostura Reservoir, we’d been there almost two weeks! We really, really enjoyed that spot. We have a freezer full of fish, the animals are in top physical condition, and Andy and I are tan and relaxed.

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Additionally, we have an album full of photos of unbelievable views! The summer weather in South Dakota makes for some stunning sunsets and thrilling storms. Unlike the storms we’re used to in Portland, these lasted for hours and hours. We sat outside on multiple evenings, snuggled under the awning in blankets, drinking wine and watching the show.

So cool, right? South Dakota, man. We love it.

Eventually, though, it was time to leave the reservoir. We had other spots on our list to check out, so off we drove to Wind Cave National Park. This park is super neat! Wind Cave is one of the longest caves in the world, and that length counts just the 5% of the cave that has been explored. You get to walk down, down, through winding tunnels that open into big rooms with amazing minerals and rare boxwork formations. A lot of Lord of the Rings references were mentioned by members of our tour group from room to room.

I have very few photos of our cave tours, as they do the experience no justice. Here are two that help you imagine what it’s like, but as with most things, it’s much better in person.

I love spelunking! There’s something so far from normal about climbing deep into the earth and seeing things that were created without any help from humans. If you have any imagination, it will go wild down there! They even have caving tours you can take where you spend four hours crawling on your hands and knees in areas most people don’t get to go, but as a portion of the tour requires you to squeeze under rock with just a 10″ clearance, I passed.

We stayed two nights in the campground at the park, saw fireflies, rode our bikes through the park, listened to rangers tell stories at the amphitheater in the campground, and were gifted some homemade moose dinner by our lovely French neighbors.

As we left the park, we made a number of stops on our way to Jewel Cave. We pulled over in Pringle to see a huge bike sculpture. . .

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We stopped to see Flintstones Bedrock City, and discovered it’s being torn down after 50 years for a Western-themed campground. . .

We visited the National Woodcarving Museum, where you can see charming animatronic carvings made by the man whose talents inspired Walt Disney to ask him to help build Disneyland. . .

We toured the Four Mile Ghost Town, a collection of antique buildings and items set up in a little town, with a cassette tape recording to guide your way. . .

And then after a tasty lunch at Pizzaworks and a beer at Sick-N-Twisted Brewery, we stopped for the evening in the Black Hills. Andy picked a lovely wildflower bouquet, I read my book, Scout played frisbee, and Gracie climbed trees.

The next day, we stopped by Jewel Cave for a tour.

Now let me interrupt myself to point out that, while it took us a day to make it from Wind Cave to Jewel Cave, for those of you planning trips, they’re not a day apart. That’s just Turtle Time. For travelers in a regular vehicle, they’re actually about half an hour apart! We move slowly, but you can easily visit both in a day. And it’s worth it; they’re very different caves.

Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world, and is chock full of sparkling formations and stalactites and stalagmites. We took a tour a few years ago, and I was excited to be back to see the shining crystals again. Unfortunately, it was a very popular day to visit the cave, and by the time we got there, the standard tours were all sold out for the day! They did, however, have a Lantern Tour a few hours later, so we got our tickets and had a picnic while we waited.

As our tour group assembled to hear the beginning of the tour and get our lanterns, a storm started to blow in. We hiked single file around the hill to the mouth of the cave, and right as we got inside, the clouds broke and it began pouring! We stood inside the dry cave and lit our lanterns, the thunder booming and the wind pushing the rain sideways in sheets outside. It was so exciting! It felt like being another person in another time. We heard some history of the cave’s discovery from our tour guide, and then walked into the cave.

If you ever want to know how it feels to be Indiana Jones, this is the tour for you! If you grew up watching The Goonies and wanted so badly to adventure underground searching for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure, this is also the tour for you. We just laughed out loud with excitement the whole way. The tour took us  down incredibly steep and narrow steps that descend endlessly, until finally we reached The Heavenly Room. We all sat on rocks and listened to more stories, and then were instructed to blow out our lanterns. The darkness was absolute. It was thrilling.

We had such a great time on that tour! It was a great way to end our time in South Dakota, and we discussed how much we loved it the whole way to Montana.

And here we are now, fishing licenses in hand and ready to spend the summer playing in Montana’s backyard. Bring it on!

 

 

 

Bring On The Badlands!

Hello there! I’m here today to help you plan your next trip. For quality purposes, we just tried it out for you, and we can say with confidence that you are going to LOVE it.

It’s a week-long stay in Badlands National Park!

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Ok, you don’t have to go, but it’s absolutely our favorite place so far, and I highly recommend it! 🙂 Neither of us had ever been, and we both had no idea what to expect. We were completely floored by how beautiful this park is. We often weren’t even able to come up with words for it; we just kept laughing out loud with happiness and complete awe!

We drove into the park from Scenic, SD on Sage Creek Road to Sage Creek Campground. It’s a free primitive campground (that’s the term, though I figure if it has toilets and garbage cans, it’s pretty fancy) and it’s outside the portion of the park with all the iconic formations. It really doesn’t get super Badlands-y until the point where Hwy 240 drops into the park.

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There are lots of spots to park and set up tents, and though the days were quiet, every evening it was full and bustling, with people playing frisbee, hiking the hills and picnicking. We kept wondering when Dave Matthews was going to show up and start the show.

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We decided to stay at the site for four days, as we got a strong enough wifi signal through our hot spot for Andy to log into work. What an office, huh?

If you do end up with extra time in Badlands, this is a great spot! Ok, here’s what you can do, if you want to take me up on my offer to be your trip planner. There are trails in every direction with magnificent views at the top of every hill. Hike as many as you can.

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You can add your own cairn to the collection at the top of the nearest hill. . .

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And sit at the top of the world and enjoy the view.

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You will likely get a taste of the powerful evening weather the Badlands can conjure up! While it’s sunny and hot all day (in May, anyway), towards the end of the day, it gets wild.

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Oh, and you will definitely see bison. They graze right through the camp for hours every day!

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At one point, we heard a shriek, and our neighbor came racing back to her boyfriend at top speed, breathlessly giggling about the buffalo standing right outside the bathroom door as she exited. They’re not worried about us (humans) one bit.

All of our neighbors were great while we stayed at Sage Creek! Maybe you will be lucky enough to camp next to a fun outgoing couple who is on a long trek in the US before moving back to Holland. Maybe they will also gift you a map to scratch off the states you travel through. So nice of them.

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These scratched off areas are limited to where the Turtle has been, of course. We’re excited to scratch off more! But our goal is to take our time and really experience the places we stay. Which was really easy this week. We knew we loved Badlands already, but then we drove to the Pinnacles Overlook.

Oh, wait! We didn’t do that yet. We were planning to drive there, but the Rim Road access was closed. So we diverted up to Wall to check out the famous Wall Drug. And holy cow! I’ll let Bill Bryson sum it up for me. “It’s an awful place, one of the world’s tackiest tourist traps, but I loved it and I won’t have a word said against it.” Yep!

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I loved every weird minute we were there. They allow RV’s to park in the lot down the hill for free, so we did that, and then drove back into the park the next day via the Pinnacles Overlook entrance.

Again, holy cow.

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There are loads of hikes you can take in the park, each with a very different landscape to explore.

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We started with Window Trail, a super-short walk to a stunning viewpoint:

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Then we played on the giant playground next to the parking lot.

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And then we hiked Door Trail. This one is also fairly short, but can take as long as you want it to take, since it’s a wide open expanse of peaks and valleys to climb around on. We liked it so much we came back on our last day to sit at the end of the hike and have a picnic, sketch and read books.

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After leaving Door Trail, we hiked up Notch Trail. This one has an incredible view of the geologic slump and the Cedar Pass campground, and the hike itself feels like a Star Trek set!

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We stayed a few nights at the Cedar Pass Campground, which is a pay site, but totally worth every penny! It’s bordered by the peaks, which are so beautiful to see in both the morning and evening sun.

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The next day, we hiked up Saddle Pass (steep and slippery!) to Medicine Root Trail and then back on a portion of Castle Trail. It’s about 4 miles of flat, picturesque views and takes you through the prairie and through some of the crazy formations.

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We were so happy during our entire time in Badlands! It’s other-worldly, and so very relaxing.

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Scout liked it quite a bit too! But if he was your travel planner, he’d encourage you to take a driving tour of Badlands, see the sights, and then leave the park to stay somewhere that dogs can be off leash and play frisbee!

We’ve compromised with him, and after our glorious, sunny, and exhilarating week in Badlands, we’ve moved along to Angostura Reservoir. He gets his own waterfront frisbee spot, so his week of leashed walks will soon be forgiven.

I hope you enjoy your stay at Badlands as much we did! If you follow the travel plan I’ve laid out for you, I don’t see how you can go wrong. 🙂

Scout and Gracie Take On South Dakota (Also, Amy and Andy go to Devils Tower)

Well here we are in South Dakota! We spent a week in Billings with some friends, Blake and Martha, and had a month’s worth of fun in that one week!

We met little Harper for the first time, climbed up the Rims, had relaxing chats in Blake and Martha’s sunny back yard, took some nostalgic drives around town, the boys almost watched Blake’s dog get smashed, Martha and I snuck out to watch some bluegrass, and Andy and I were taken to many of the tasty new spots that have sprouted up in Billings since I grew up there. (The last time I was in Billings, the exciting action in the restaurant scene was the second Chinese spot to arrive in town. Yikes.)

New and delicious places of note: Cafe Zydeco for Cajun food, Carters for a very cramped but cozy Missoula-esque brewery experience, Angry Hanks for a more modern and airy brewery experience. . . and while we’re on the subject, let’s never forget Great Harvest for a killer sandwich on freshly baked bread, and of course the best sweet in history, Caramel Cookie Waffle. Okay, so next time you’re in Billings, if you go hungry, you can’t blame me!

Image Sources

On our way out of Billings and into South Dakota, we went just a little out of our way to go see the first National Monument, Devils Tower.

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Fun fact for us nerds: Originally the spelling was Devil’s Tower, with an apostrophe, but while signing the documents to make it a National Monument, Teddy Roosevelt accidentally omitted the apostrophe. Nobody ever corrected it, so the official spelling is now Devils Tower. The more you know!

It’s a really amazing natural formation with a few theories regarding how exactly it was formed. There is a 1.3 mile walking path around the monument, and with us taking our very sweet time, stopping to watch the squirrels and climb around on the boulders, it only took us about an hour. It’s really neat to see how different the formations are on all sides.

There are a number of Native American tribes living near the tower, and it’s considered a sacred site where they worship and perform dance rituals. I loved seeing all the prayer bundles hanging from the trees.

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In the photo below, if you look closely on the tipped-over column, you can see some teeny-tiny people making their way up the side of the formation. Devils Tower is a popular spot for climbers. Crazy!

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Not to be outdone, Andy also found a miniature Devils Tower and climbed it.

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Ok, enough about Devils Tower. On to South Dakota!

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We are presently staying at Andy’s sister Maggie’s house outside of Spearfish, and our new backyard is surrounded by trees, spring flowers, and deer families. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Plus we’ve had lots of sunshine and barefoot days!

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If you’ve been following along with us on our adventures, you can probably guess who’s having the best time in our new spot:

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Yes, Scout and Gracie are absolutely loving life out here. These kids have the run of the place!

Gracie climbs trees and tags along with us on walks through the hills.

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And Scout has two best buddies, Will and Ellie, who love to throw his frisbee and play with him all day long. He’s going to leave here spoiled!

 

Then again, so are we! We’ve been having so much fun with everyone here. But there’s so much to cover, we’ll just have to save that for the next post. . .

(Oh, and if you want to stay apprised of what we’re up to in this crazy Blue Turtle, don’t forget to click the “Follow” button on our page, and you’ll be notified every time we post! We like to have our friends all accounted for.) 🙂

Craters of the Moon ROCKS!

Pardon the pun, but seriously. What a cool landscape!

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We drove into the park and were disappointed to find that the road was closed to vehicles in the snowy season. Luckily the sun was shining and, even with the impressive wind, the hike down the road was completely comfortable and the dramatic scenery felt all the more magical considering we were the only people in sight.

We came across a nice rocky rise that we thought looked like it would be a fun climb. And yes it was! Although the next time Andy asks me as we leave the Turtle if I think I’ll want my gloves, I’ll likely say that I do. Climbing through snow and icy volcanic rock—brrr! Once we got to the top, the already-vigorous wind really picked up force. I had to press myself against the side of the rock to prevent myself from actually blowing right off the side of the cliff!

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After we hiked down, Andy showed us what he’s really made of. Pure muscle.

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Ok, it’s volcanic rock. But impressive all the same!

I said as we drove past all the crazy cool rock formations, “Wow, it’s like an alien landscape or something. . .” to which Andy replied, “Yeah, like the moon?” Ahhhh, riiiiight. Aptly named, sirs!

And with that, we drove on down the road toward Bozeman, MT.

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