We wander, though we are not lost…
8-31 after getting settled at our campsite (at Outlaw RV Park) we headed to the pits to do a few rounds of horseshoes. Addy and John came out victorious over Alex and I in both games.
9-1 we ventured into Dinosaur National Monument to hang out with really old dead things!
The geological formations in this area are magnificent! Even the kids thought so.
For some reason I think all of us would trade in our wingtips for a pair of boots and spurs. The Cowboy nostalgia is still alive today and I think just maybe it will never go away.
After leaving Estes Park we travelled through Rocky Mountain National Park via Route 34, the Trail Ridge Road. Now this road, though paved, is no more than a 2 lane standard road with 10% up and down grades and more switch backs than I can count.
Of course we get the “Holy Shit what is that” look from people when they see 68′ of truck and trailer coming at them on a 180 deg corner. I’m getting used to it and if they can’t figure out which side of the road is their side, well I can’t fix that.
When we left Rushmore.m, we headed south with the plan of going into Nebraska since we had never been there.
Luck has it that our route took us right through Wind Caves National Park. Though we didn’t have time for a tour into the caves, we did take a look around the information center and learned some about the caves themselves and the original explorers.
When we were driving through the area, we saw all of these prairie dogs. They were so cute, and photogenic!
The kids also found this huge caterpillar on the sidewalk. So addy picked it up and moved it to a leafy bush.
And we saw these buffalo just roaming along side the road.
As we continued towards Nebraska, we passed through the town of Hot Springs, where a majority of the buildings were this cool red rock. Some were real, and others had a facing to make more modern structures match. It gave the town this neat feel.
We finally crossed the line, headed towards our campground for the night.
We spent just one night in Scottsbluff at this nice state campground that had a great price, full hook-ups and a small lake nearby.
We moved on in the morning to Estes Park, Colorado.
Passing through the canyon into town was quite spectacular, with goats standing on the cliff sides (of course my camera hand wasn’t fast enough).
With two nights, we were able to arrive and relax at the campground pool, then head into town for delicious BBQ dinner!
With no specific plans for the following day, the kids slept in and then Addy hit the pool again!
We decided after everyone was up to take a bike ride around the lake. A 3.75 mile loop following the lake edge then down below the dam, with beautiful scenery all around!
Everyone was beat after this ride, so we headed back to the campground, and Andie got to meet some new friends at the dog park.
A nice relaxed evening, with thunder and lightening humming us to sleep!
So we have been following all of our friends with kids; enjoying all of their first day of school pics. Our kids however are still in adventure and US history school, and do not start academic school until October!
We chose October because these first three months were planned to be super hectic with lots of moves and new places to adventure.
With their program, we will be able to be a little flexible with the schedule for when to get the work completed and submitted. We like that.
So, to all of our friends, congrats on starting what will hopefully be an awesome new year of school! We will confuse everyone and post our first day pics in October, somewhere near the Grand Canyon I suspect…
~S
August 22
We spent the day exploring the KOA, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument.
I didn’t take any photos, but the KOA is not your normal Campground. It’s price should have given that away, but we all were in shock when we rolled into the resort and saw swimming pools, a water slide, a splash park, bouncing area, playground, 3 or 4 restaurants and horses!
Kids both took advantage of the water slide, and Addy spent extra time at the bounce area, pool and mini golf.
We headed into the mountains further to visit Mount Rushmore. Being closer to the rocky formations was even better than the previous days far away viewing!
When we made it around to the front side of the Monument, it was clear that this place was going to be way more awesome than originally expected. I caught these pictures just from the car!
AUGUST 20-21
After a long night freaking out about going over Teton Pass with our rig, I awoke early to verify I had found a much better route that only added about 45 minutes to our drive.
Going south on 31 from Victor to the 26 took us through much lower grades (6% rather than the 10% Teton requires). Though the pass was not as steep, it was still beautiful.
AUGUST 19th
First off, let me say that if you even think you will have time to visit some National Parks, you must get the annual pass. It has paid for itself in three park visits alone! So basically the rest of our park visits are now free until June next year, which is pretty cool!
Now, we spent our last full day at Murray’s in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. A full day was not enough to see it all, and the abundance of tourists kept us focused on the less beaten paths, which we like better anyway!
We started in West Yellowstone again, but this time headed north around the upper part of the park after crossing back into Wyoming!
We spent our third full day relaxing and took a chance at fishing the Teton River. Addy took to fly fishing pretty quick, and though we didn’t catch any, we got a great view of the river with some moose.
Later Addy decided to cook up a soup of noodles, carrots, celery and zucchini with some French bread! It was yummy.
We hung out around a campfire until the wind picked up and we were concerned about the ground catching fire. So a good soak with the hose it was out and we were inside.
The next morning Murray hooked us up with an outfitting company and we got two inflatable kayaks to paddle the Teton River.
We dropped in at Bates Bridge for our journey down River.
The weather was nice the first couple hours (yes we go Alex on a four hour kayak).
We stopped multiple times along the way to try our hand at fishing too.
We even managed to catch this beautiful little rainbow trout that was released back to the river!
It was Addy and I in one kayak and John and Alex in the other for the first part.
After about half way we swapped.
When we finally made it to the last bend in the road we were greeted by Andie and Murray. Being the great surrogate uncle he is, Murray convinced the kids to jump into the Big Eddie!
We have landed at our good friend Murray’s house in the Teton Valley. Now to say the view here is breathtaking is to say Einstein was kind of smart!
There are places in this world that you look at then wonder and imagine how it would have been to watch them transform. Now forrest fire smoke still covers the peaks but I can assure you that even in a rainy day it is spectacular here.
Well after an almost flat tire and great save by Shawnda we were headed out to adventure once more.
Now you should know other than a very few destinations none of our wandering has been planned to even the day we are going to be somewhere or planned at all for that matter. There are of course places and people we want to visit but the in between is where adventure lies.
Now we were headed to the great Teton mountains but in doing so you have to go where no Gallup has gone before.
Gallup Family Wanders 