Vacation

When the kids got out of school on the last day, we loaded them up and headed off on our road trip. We did a big loop through South Dakota and Wyoming. There is so much to see through those areas, and we had such a great time!

DEVIL'S TOWER

I have to admit, I thought this place might be boring, but I wanted to use it to break up the drive. It ended up being really cool. There is 6 miles of hikes around the tower, and we did all of them. The tower was huge, and the area around it was beautiful. On our hikes we saw 3 snakes, a wild turkey, and tons of eagles and prairie dogs.

The tower from a distance.

The first snake we saw.

The last snake we saw.

Sawyer and Bailey at the base of the tower.

The area around the tower was beautiful.

JEWEL CAVE

Jewel Cave is in South Dakota. It's the second longest cave in the United States. We took a tour through the cave, and then did a 3 mile hike around the area. The hike would have been nice, but we found out there were ticks, and Sawyer HATES them! He was freaked out, and had the heibie jeibies the whole way. We knew he wasn't a big fan of bugs, but we didn't realize just how freaked out he would get :)!

CRAZY HORSE

Crazy Horse is a mountain carving of an Indian on a horse. It isn't finished yet, but when it is, it will be huge! Mount Rushmore would fit in just the head of the Indian. We walked around the shops and museums during the day, and then came back at night and watched a laser light show that they projected up on the mountain. It was pretty cool.

This is what the carving will look like when it's all finished.

THE BADLANDS

The Badlands were Awesome. We did 8 miles of hiking, and saw some really cool areas. We also fed some prairie dogs, which was really fun for the kids.

The view from the top of the notch trail.

This was a ladder we had to climb to get up on the cliff of the notch trail. It was cool, but kind of scary for Bailey to climb down.

Bailey and her little prairie dog friend.

Sawyer and his prairie dog friend.

MOUNT RUSHMORE

Mt. Rushmore was great. We watched all the videos, looked through the museum, and did the walk around it. We were amazed at the details that were put into the carving. Definitely something everyone should see in their lifetime.

The view from the terrace.

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

This is the sculpture that they based the mountain after.

CHURCH HISTORY

We are going on a trek this summer with the Young Men and Young Women in our stake. We thought it would be fun to read Fire of the Covenant before the trek, so the kids would have a better understanding of what the pioneers went through to get to the Salt Lake Valley. Then I decided that we should see some of the church history sites on our way home. We listened to the rest of the book in the car (which made the drive go by so fast). We finished it right as we were going through where all the sites were. It was awesome! We truly have an appreciation for the trials, hardships, sorrows, and sacrifices the early saints made. This was one of my favorite parts of our whole vacation.

This is Independence Rock. It was a huge landmark along the trail for the saints, and everyone who traveled the Oregon Trail. To make it safely to the Valley before the winter weather set in, the saints needed to be to this rock by July 4th. The Willie and Martin handcart companies didn't even arrive to the rock until October.

Sawyer and Bailey standing on top of Independence Rock.

This is Devil's Gate. This is where the Martin handcart company was camped during a terrible storm. They had to move them 3 miles to Martin's Cove to shelter them from the wind.

When we got to the Visitors Center we pulled handcarts on a 4 mile loop to Martin's Cove.

Bailey pulling Mark.

This is a picture of Martin's Cove as we walked up to it on the right hand side. The Martin handcart company camped there for 5 days while they waited for the storm to pass. Lots of people died there, and we saw where they think they were buried.

Martin's Cove is behind them over the little hill.

This is a statue at the 6th crossing. This is where rescuers spent the day carrying the people across the river. This is one of the most touching stories in all of our church history, and it was awesome to be able to see where it happened.

The 6th crossing.

This is Split Rock. It's the landmark they looked for right after Martin's Cove.

This is part of Rocky Ridge. This is the place I wanted to see the most. The story of Rocky Ridge is heart wrenching and amazing. It was a 5 mile stretch of a 12 mile day they had to walk. It was one of the hardest parts of the entire trek to the valley. It was a full blown blizzard when they hiked it. This is where the Willie company lost most of it's people. We tried to drive there, but it had just rained. It was 11 miles down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. We got so close to the landmark, but we had to turn around so we didn't get stuck. I was so disappointed. You can actually hike Rocky Ridge, so we are going to go back someday and do it.

Rocky Ridge.

This is South Pass. This is where most of the rescue wagons were waiting. The handcart companies knew that if they could make it here, then they would live and make it to the Valley.