Driving, Tetons, Devils Tower, and Mt. Rushmore

I am sorry that I have not kept up on the blogs but WiFi has been horrible, and I was not feeling too great last night when we got in so here the last 2 days in one, and hopefully I can keep up on the last 5.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we left Yellowstone and headed 2 hours to The Grand Tetons National Park.  It was a beautiful day and a pretty awesome drive.  We saw more bison, this time on the side of the road and a heard of elk.  No long horned sheep, which sadly I have spotted twice on this trip but very long enough to get a picture.

Once we made it to Grand Tetons we went to the visitors center.  Then had a station set up for sun and solar flair viewing which Doug and Maddie were really into.  The mountains are truly beautiful.  I kept taking picture after picture.  The landscape itself was different than Yellowstone, there were more wildflowers in much more vibrant colors.  It was just amazing to look at.

After that we began what seemed like the longest trek through the most boring state ever.  Wyoming is flat, bushy and only seems to have cows horse and antelope to look at.  So after about an hour or so you are done.   However, we had over seven hours in the car before we got to a truck stop near Devils Tower.  Did I mention this part was long and boring?  LOL  WiFi was erratic at best so I did not even have that to keep me occupied.

Today was much more eventful.  We went to Devils Tower and had a good morning there.  It is pretty cool reading about the history as well as the Native American folk lore behind it.  We had a nice lunch at the store at the bottom of the park, where we met a family from Maryland.  Hailey noticed them first by the Ravens flag they had on their motorcycle.  Hailey also bought a 2 foot long beef jerky at the store.  She sat with it in the car holding it for over an hour before she finally ate some. :)

After Devils Tower we drive about 2 more hours to Mt. Rushmore.  It was cool but a lot smaller than one would think.  It was really interesting to go through the visitors center and see how it was made and learn about the construction.   I will admit that it was cool seeing it in person.  Even the girls were eagerly snapping pictures of it with their phones. The area around Mt. Rushmore is so touristy and commercial.  It was crazy just driving through it. I am very glad we were not staying overnight there.

We left Mt. Rushmore and had another 2 hour drive to the KOA near Badlands National Park, where we are now.  Tomorrow we plan to explore the park and then head to Chimney Rock.  We sure have been busy!!!!!