Over the Plains

Over the Plains

After leaving Columbus we headed up towards Chicago.  Casey put in some serious hours behind the wheel and the rest of us enjoyed the scenery and got some schoolwork done.  There is some beautiful country in that area.  

We enjoyed driving into Chicago and seeing the amazing buildings.  As we got deeper into the heavy traffic and narrow streets, we realized that it was not a great idea to continue to drive through in the R.V.  so we just headed on out onto the open highway.  Maybe next time we will get to explore the city and enjoy the famous deep dish Chicago pizza.

This next part of our trip consisted of gorgeous scenery, schoolwork, and reading.   Many hours of driving and a few states later we arrived in South Dakota.  We passed the famous Mississippi river, so I snapped a picture of it.    We stopped at campground there and enjoyed our first campfire and smores with the kids.  

We discovered that we were close to the Badlands, so we decided to drive through them and was it ever worth it!  The views were incredible.  We were able to go for a walk through them and it was like we were in a different world.  The kids were excited to run and climb through the cliffs.  It reminded me of southern California a bit.  It was a lot of fun and very HOT!

We were happy to finally see the mountains come into view the closer we got to Mount Rushmore.  The drive up to the mountain was beautiful.  As we rounded the last bend, the faces came into view and we were all amazed.  We viewed the museum there and did the short hike through his studio and up as close as they will let you get to the top.  It was incredible to stand there and see the faces on the mountain in person and also to learn how they accomplished such a feat.

Our next stop on the way was Yellowstone National Park.  I had been to the park when I was sixteen and was really looking forward to showing my family what an amazing place it was.  We ended up spending the next two days driving and walking all through Yellowstone.  We were amazed at the animals, hot springs, geysers and scenery.  It was also really neat to learn all about how the geysers and hot springs worked.

                                                    We caught this geyser just in time!

                                                             Learning how it all works.

                                                                  Gorgeous waterfall

           We took a short hike up on the mountainside and I captured Malaya with the wild flowers.

                                                                  Mammoth Falls

One of our favorite places was the mud geysers...they bubbled and spewed mud everywhere.  It was really funny to watch!

More Mammoth Falls

                                                           Camping outside of Yellowstone.

  We felt very blessed to see a black bear, herds of bison, antelope, big horn sheep, moose, deer, and elk.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Yellowstone and decided to finish it off with a swim where the hot springs mixed into the river.  It was a really fun experience!  Too far to the right and it was too hot…too far to the left and it was too cold…somewhere in the middle where the water mixed was just Right!  An excellent way to finish a wonderful stay in Yellowstone.