Road Trip Day 5

Day 5 was a long day of driving (331 miles) as we headed home from Gillette, WY back to Colorado.  The first 100 miles was on WY59, which consisted of a long straight road surrounded by a lot of trains moving coal back and forth.

Trains, Trains and more trains

Then we were onto I-25 for the rest of the journey with a stop at the luxury diner in Cheyenne which was originally a trolley car, that is now a restaurant.

Enjoying another burger

When we arrived home we calculated the total distance traveled to decide who would win the grand mileage prize!

Road Trip Day 4

We woke up pretty late to start our journey to Devils Tower.  On the way we were going to make 2 stops, the first was the Minuteman Missile site, the second was Walldrug  One of these places was hidden and not advertized at all, the other had advertisements for many, many miles.

Our rental car in Murdo

The minuteman missile site consists of a visitors center (not yet complete), a command center (only very limited tours) and the missile itself.  We got to tour the visitor center and see the missile site. The boys were interested in how big the missile as we had been watching a few programs about similar weapons.

The visitor center

The secret location

The missile!

Next up was Walldrug.  Not sure how to describe this other than, its very big (76,000 sq ft) and full of stuff to buy. It was worth a visit to see the boys climb on the giant exhibits.

Wall Drug

Giant Jackalope

Then we drove onto Devils Tower. We stopped off in Sturgis, well technically we drove part of the way into town, before we turned around as there were just so many motorbikes before stopping for lunch.  Tyler went for his third fish and chips and halfway through he spat out a tooth!  At least he didn't swallow it.

Devils tower was visible from afar, and we managed to hike around it.  The boys really enjoyed climbing on the rocks and drinking magic water that gave them energy.  Grandma and Grandad took a more leisurely approach to the trail.

Devils Tower in the distance

Devils Tower up close

Before the climb to the top

At the very top?

climbers taking the hard way up!

We finished the evening off with a drive to Gillette and a well earned rest before our long drive home on Friday.

Road Trip Day 3

Day 3 started bright and early as we headed north towards Mt Rushmore. On the way we stopped at Custer State Park to check out the wildlife.  By this stage we had started counting animals and motorbikes and even though the buffalo herd was over 500, the motorbikes were still winning,

Entering Custer State Park

Pronghorn everywhere

Buffalo herd

Buffalo in the distance

Buffalo up close

Then we took route 16A through the park on the way to Mt Rushmore.  This was the perfect motorbike road and it was packed with motorbikes, and was cool for the kids as it went through a lot of tunnels

Large Bike

Empty tunnel

Can you see the heads yet?

We had finally made it to Mt Rushmore, normally there is 1 motorbike lane and 3 car lanes, today it was the reverse, so we find a spot fairly easily.

Mt Rushmore is spectacular and was well worth the visit, we got to see the heads and then take the trail which brings you closer to the heads.  A quick stop at the artists studio showed us how big they really are.

Entrance to Mt Rushmore

Four heads

I did go on the trip

Close up of the heads

Can you name them all?

First time we have seen this sign

Enjoying our ice cream

We had intended to visit the Badlands the next day, but as we were fairly early and we were driving to Murdo which was beyond the Badlands we took the scenic route through them.

They are rugged and cool, but they were also very hot that day.  Everyone enjoyed checking them out before our drive to Murdo.

Badlands here we come

Another bat picture

Who is pushing who?

Before our skydiving adventure

Exploring up close

More fish and chips

More sprite

Road Trip Day 2

Our second day started with us packing our things as we had organized our trip for the same week as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. They were expecting about 1.25 million motorbikes and consequently all hotels were sold out and charging quadruple the normal rate, so we had to change hotels even though staying in the same town.  Our second hotel was a little nicer and even had a pool for the kids to play in.

Our first stop of the day was to the Wind Cave National Park. We had previously been with Grandma and Grandad to the Cave of the winds in Colorado Springs, but these are on a much grander, but less spectacular scale.  They claim to have 95% of the worlds boxwork, and the sixth largest in the world.
Our cave trip wasn't available for 90 minutes so we did a small hike outside before venturing down the elevator and many many steps to explore the cave.

On our return to the surface the boys persuaded Grandma to buy them some bats (that then went on to provide endless entertainment)

Entrance to Wind Cave

The cave only covers a small area

The boxwork!

Lunch was at Taco Johns, we figured we better eat something, before we went on to see the famous Mammoths of Mammoth Hot Springs

They seem to have commercialized it more than I remember and it didn't feel as exciting as the last time I visited but the boys and Grandparents seemed to enjoy it.

Mammoth ahead

Dead Mammoth

Heavy headsets!

How tall are we?

Our final visit of the day was to the old schoolhouse. Tyler had spotted this house on the hill the day before and wanted to visit it for some strange reason.  It was quite interesting, but also full of so much stuff.

Check out the old relics

Time for Kumon

Old Schoolhouse

Dinner was at a nicer restaurant than the day before - Woollys

Road Trip Day 1

We set off on the first of our 5 day road trip heading towards Scotts Bluff.  We started in Colorado, crossed into Wyoming and then into Nebraska, 3 states in as many hours.

Scotts Bluff  is famous for being a place people saw when they journeyed from East to West on the wagon trains, for us it was a good place to see the sights and break the long car journey.

We managed to get a guide all to ourselves who told us about the area, and even took our picture, plus he had an air-conditioned bus which made the journey even better.

Arriving at Scotts Bluff

The top of Scotts Bluff

Just like the old days?

Lunch was at a place called the Mixing Bowl in Gering where Tyler had his first fish and chips of the trip,

Fish and chips please

before we went on to the Agate Fossil beds for a quick trip and bathroom break before playing spot the car color on our way to our destination of Hot Springs, SD our fourth state of the day.

Another national monument

Who would have thought that Hot Springs restaurants would all close at 8pm, so we were left with the choice of nothing or Chinese.  Haven tasted the food, still not sure what was the better choice.

Guess the dish