Family Vacation 2021

Our summer family vacation this year was to a few national parks and places none of us had ever been before.

We started the first day with a stop at Martin's Cove in Wyoming to learn a little bit more about the pioneers and what they endured.  We walked with a handcart for a little bit, checked out the museum and hiked to Devils' gate with about a million mosquitos (don't ever do that, seriously so many mosquitos!)  We also stopped just up the highway at Independence Rock to see the carvings on pioneer names that had passed through there.

Our 2nd day we went to Devil's Tower.  At first I didn't think it was going to be that great but we ended up having a great time.  We did a hike around the base of Devil's Tower and it was such a pretty day and a great place to enjoy.  

That afternoon we went to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND.  For sure the highlight of this park was we saw a wild horse not too far away from the road and then on the way out we saw the whole pack of horses from quite a distance away.  This was by and far our little horse lover, Aria's, highlight of the trip.  She always talks about seeing wild horses so she was so excited!!

The next day we headed down to Spearfish Canyon.  This was such a pretty drive and we stopped at a few waterfalls and short hikes in the area.  It was cook and rainy this day but it was so green and pretty.

That afternoon we headed to Deadwood.  Kind of fun to see but so crowded.  We saw to re-enactments of a shoot out right on main street which the kids really liked and it was fun to see how the main street just shuts down for them a few times a day.

The next morning we headed to Mount Rushmore.  I also enjoyed seeing this more than I thought I would.  It was cool to see and we enjoyed the hike up to and across the monument to see it from different angels.

After Mount Rushmore we spend the rest of the day enjoying Custer State park.  I think this was my favorite part of the trip.  We drove the Needles Highway which was gorgeous and also fun with their small little tunnels we had to fit through.  We saw the open land and some wild donkeys/burros, something like that and then spent the rest of the time at one of the lakes where the kids could have spent many more hours hiking over and and top of these large rocks.  While we were there we had a nice fly over (so close and so loud) from the air force jets which was so cool and unexpected.  Not sure where they were going but it was awesome to see.

That night we got some yummy food, ice cream and ended the day at  Crazy Horse Monument where we spent some time at the museum, did a scavenger hunt for some prizes and then watched the light show once it was dark.  

The next day we headed back to Custer State Park and let the kids climb on the rocks again and then went to Badlands National Park via the famous Wall Drug store to get some souvenirs.  Badlands was really cool...and by cool it was super hot that day but fun to see something kind of different.  We went on a hike that just about did us all in cuz of the heat and I even slipped off this ladder as I was coming down and bruised my tailbone so bad.  It hurt for several weeks afterwards.

That night we spend the night at Margene's place.  It was fun to see her because it had been a few years since we had seen her.  She made us cheeseburgers and then taught Siena how to sew.  Margene showed the girls the little baby kittens that live in the laundry room.  Siena and her cut out a pattern for a dress and it was a fun night.

The next morning we had to drive all the way home...it was over a 12 hour drive not counting the stops for lunch, dinner, gas, etc.  We did find this cute park with an old school merry go round where we ate some doughnuts to celebrate being in Nebraska for the first time.  We went to 4 states (WY, ND, SD, NE) We were all tired but happy to be home.  We had such a fun trip and I can't believe everything we got to see while we were gone.