Days 9 & 10 Glacier

They next day we headed out for Glacier National Park in Montana. When we got there, before we even went to the hotel, we went on a hike. The trail was long and windy and we were afraid we would see a grizzly around every bend. It turns out the only bears we saw were on Patti's shirt! My grandpa wanted to take a boat across two lakes, so he tried to get on between the lakes but he found out you had to start at either end, not in the middle. We walked to the end of the second lake and found out it would be 40 minutes until the boat even came to the docks. We decided to hike back instead. We finished the hike before the boat came...and before the thunderstorm came!

When we got to the hotel, it was pouring! The hotel was huge and made out of logs. It was an old railroad lodge. A bellman brought our bags to the room while my mom went to park the car. We went to the room and my grandpa and I got bored, so we looked in what we thought were closets, which turned out to be doors to a giant second story balcony. From there you could see the whole parking lot and train station! We watched my mom driving around looking for a place to park.

The next morning, we went on an 9 hour bus tour. It sounds like it was long, but it didn't feel that way. We rode on a Red Bus (an old fashioned bus with a pull back top like a convertible). There were waterfalls galore! We were lucky because they had just cleared all the snow off the Road to the Sun the day we got there. It had been closed before that. At the top of the mountain, I got to climb some snow banks and play. At one of our stops, I spied a mountain goat sunning itself on a rock in the distance. Later, I saw a bighorn sheep lying on the side of the mountain. It was so cool. Can you spot them in my pictures? They are both there!

We got to the hotel late at night and there was a guy in the lobby singing songs with his guitar. He sang us all to sleep.

Days 6, 7 and 8 Yellowstone

We were at Yellowstone for two nights and it was amazing! At the beginning of our first day, we climbed down 350 steps to the bottom of a waterfall on Uncle Tom's trail. We were tired going down...we couldn't even imagine going back up! The falls were beautiful. We stayed there for a little bit and then we climbed back up. That was hard! When we got to the top, my grandpa said there was a great view of the falls down another trail, so we decided to take that and have a look. We were supposed to be able to see both the upper and lower falls. It was about 2.5 miles out to Artist's Point. When we got there, it turns out we had a great view of the same falls we had just seen and the canyon created by the river. It was a long a trail to see the same thing. Mom and I hiked back to get the car so we would get to the hotel before dark. Pa and Patti stayed back and took pictures of the one fall and canyon.

When we were driving to the hotel, buffalo started to cross the road and there were millions of them. It was a buffalo traffic jam! When we finally got past the buffalo, we decided to stop and check out the mud pots and sulfer springs. Those smelled so nasty I can't even describe it. If you smelled too much sulfer, you could die because it is toxic. The springs were hot and steaming because the crust of the earth was thin there and they are heated from the magma in the mantle.

When we got closer to the hotel, it was dark, so we had our headlights on. Suddenly, the car stopped and everybody jumped forward. There was a huge elk in the road...right in front of the car. Pa says it was the same elk he ran into on that same road 18 years ago. I'm not so sure.

The next day, we saw Old Faithful. It's blast was huge. We got to see it go off twice. We walked on a giant boardwalk around Old Faithful and its fellow geysers. We were surprised to see three buffalo laying near the boardwalk, right by the signs that warned us about the thin crust in the area. I guess they knew where to lay. Near the boardwalk there were a few very, very deep hot springs that are super hot since they are heated by the earth. They were also very clear.

Mom and I decided to call it a day and hang out at the hotel while Pa and Patti climbed in the car for yet another LONG, scenic drive.

Yellowstone

We are out of Yellowstone, but have spotty internet so we can't upload pictures or write much. We're headed to Glacier today and then 2 more parks with little service. We probably won't be able to blog again until next Wednesday, stay tuned...Andrew will have a lot to say by then!

Day 5 Custer, Wind Cave, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower

We drove to Custer State Park. To get to the park, we had to take a very windy road through tunnels. When we got there, there was a lot of wildlife like the rare pronghorn, billions of buffalo and donkeys. The mama pronghorn was feeding her babies. The big daddy buffalo was rutting on a sign next to the road. The donkeys were like a roadblock. They would come up to your car and if you had your window open they would stick their heads in. They were all over the place because they live there. Some people were feeding them. Then two of them came up to our car and stood right in front of it so we couldn't move. On the car next to us there were six donkeys...one in each back window and two in each front window. That was funny!

Then we went to Wind Cave National Park. We got the noon tour that started at the natural entrace to the cave. I love my mom, but I think she would have gotten stuck if she tried to enter through that tiny hole. So we entered through a man-made enterance. We went down 300 stairs and saw big caverns with boxwork that is stronger than the surrounding rock. It looked like petrified spider webs or a bee's nest. When the ranger turned the lights off inside the cave, it was pitch black. You think you've been in something dark, but this was SERIOUSLY dark. Then we took the elevator up. Phew!

Next we went to Crazy Horse Memorial. Crazy Horse is a Native American who beat General Custer in battle. For the memorial, they only have his head, his arm, and a drawing of the horse's head finished. They are still carving it.

Then we went to Devil's Tower National Monument. My mom and I took a walk around it. It was a 45 minute hike. We could see little clibers on the tower. Devil's Tower looks cool. It is very tall and it has these weird lines running down it that no one can explain. The Native Americans thought a giant bear climbed up and scraped it. Scientists now believe it was caused by a volcano.

The Fourth Day

When we passed through Pierre, ND we saw remnants of the flooding from last month.  There were several times when there was some water across the highway, and at one point we had to take an hour detour to get to a road that was not flooded!  I had no idea it was still so bad.

Day 4 Badlands and Mt. Rushmore

On the fourth day, we went to the Badlands. That is a series of a lot of mountains. It is fun to climb them, but it can be very dangerous because there are rattlesnakes and rockslides. My mom and I climbed the hills. Even though they looked crumbly, they weren't.
TIP: If you want to go to the Badlands, you should plan to stay there at least one whole day. It is fun and there are a lot of places to stop and climb. One of the trails we went on had a whole bunch of fossils in glass cases right where they were dug up. It tells about the dinosaur the fossil came from and shows a picture of it.

From there, we drove to Mount Rushmore. The faces were HUGE! Everybody was snapping away at pictures and waving at each other and you got to meet many people. When it got dark, a ranger came out and he asked for every person that had ever been in any branch of the military to come down after the movie. We watched the movie...it was a nice movie to watch about the creation of Mt. Rushmore. When the movie was done, my grandpa went down because he is an Army veteran. They took down the flag and put it away. Everybody clapped at least 20 times. I am proud of my grandpa. After that, the park ranger said, "Even though the speed limit is 15, you should drive slower because this is when the night animals come out, like the mama and baby big horn sheep." And that was the end of the fourth day.