Yellowstone Road Trip–Part Four (The End)

(Part One, Part Two, Part Three)

We left Cody, Wyoming early Saturday morning, and started the drive to South Dakota.  When we planned the trip, we had decided to come home from Yellowstone the long way through South Dakota, so we could see Mount Rushmore and drive through the Badlands (one of our travel goals is to visit as many national parks as we can).

Before we reached South Dakota, though, we visited the Devil’s Tower National Monument, which is in the northeast corner of Wyoming.  It is a pretty impressive tower made up of igneous rock – magma hardened inside sedimentary rock, and then when all of the sedimentary layers eroded, the tower of hardened magma was left standing. 

The columns of rock that form the tower make it popular for climbing – while we were there we saw climbers rappelling down from the top, which was kind of crazy.

Rachel, Lizza, and Henry posing in front of a teepee near the tower:

We decided to walk the 1.3 mile trail that goes all the way around the base of the tower.  The kids stopped to climb lots of boulders along the way:

Poor Henry’s knees took quite a beating:

Another view of the tower:

The kids at the end of the trail, after walking all the way around:

Right near the Tower there is a huge prairie-dog field, and there were hundreds of prairie-dogs running all over the place and popping their heads out of holes.  They were so funny to watch. 

After Devil’s Tower we moved on and drove into South Dakota.  Here’s a little South Dakota story:  Rachel had a wiggly tooth, and she pulled it out while we were driving.  She asked what she should do with it, and Daniel told her to throw it out the window (we’ve never been great at the whole tooth fairy thing).  She’s very proud now to know that she has a tooth just sitting on the ground somewhere in South Dakota.

We drove through the Black Hills National Forest (very pretty), and then made it to Mount Rushmore.  Our first item of business was to walk through all the parking lots looking for a New Hampshire license plate.  We had been playing the license plate game throughout the trip, and keeping track of all the states we found.  By this point we had found all of them but New Hampshire, including Hawaii and Alaska, so we were really hoping to be able to get all 50.  No such luck at Mount Rushmore, though.

Here’s Daniel with the kids in front of the Avenue of Flags: 

Texas!  I can’t remember now if we even looked for the Utah flag.  I just realized that as of this summer, we have  lived in Texas for more of our married life than we lived in Utah.  And half of our kids are Texans.  Weird.

It was really cool to see Mount Rushmore in person – it’s one of those places that you know about and see pictures of your whole life, but it’s hard to know what it’s really like until you go. 

All the kids posing in front of the mountain.  That little stuffed horse that Henry is carrying around everywhere was a free gift that came with our hotel room in Cody the night before.  We named it Cody and gave it to Henry, and he bonded with it immediately.  By the time we got to Mount Rushmore he considered Cody to be part of the family, and there was no way he was leaving him in the car (he claimed that Cody had always wanted to see “Mountain Rushmore”, as Henry calls it). 

  

  

We walked down a trail that goes right along the base of the mountain.  Mount Rushmore itself was a lot smaller than I’ve always imagined it – I was surprised at how close we could get to the faces.

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln:

Silly girls:

Daniel hiking with Cindy; Henry hiking with Cody:

Saturday night we stayed at a hotel in Rapid City.  The next morning we headed straight to Badlands National Park.  It was pretty amazing. 

Besides the incredible views, we also saw hundreds of prairie dogs:

And some bighorn sheep:

And best of all, New Hampshire!! Daniel drove into this parking lot specifically to check.  It was pretty cool – we have played that game on all of our trips, and this is the first time we’ve seen cars from all 50 states. 

We didn’t do any long hikes in the Badlands, but we did do a few short boardwalk trails out to cool overlooks:

The kids were in heaven at the last area we hiked to – miles and miles of rock formations to climb:

If I had known there was going to be so much climbing involved, I would have put pants on Henry.  His legs got so scraped up, but he is by far the toughest of my children, and he didn’t mind at all.  He kept saying, “Mom, you don’t need to worry about it– they’re not the blood kind of scrapes.” 

My boys with their tough faces on:

I love these pictures Daniel took of Oliver and Henry:

When we were all done climbing around in the Badlands, we continued on our way and drove to Omaha, Nebraska, where we stayed for the night.  I know I’ve mentioned this before, but we love Homewood Suites.  They fit our family perfectly.  And by this point in the trip, the kids were pros at the whole hotel routine – baths and jammies, then everyone in their spot (Cindy in her tent, Rachel, Lizza, and Henry sideways in one of the queen beds, and Tristan and Oliver out in the living room on the pull-out sofa). 

The next day we had a really long drive from Omaha home to Texas, but like I said, the kids were pros by this point, and it really wasn’t that bad.

It really was a great trip. 

We’re already planning out our road trip for next year, and I’m getting excited.  Here’s what we’re thinking: