The Grand RV Tour: Grand Teton National Park

Just about every morning on our trip, Cori had 3-4 hours of work to do before we would leave. We chose campgrounds with internet access so he wouldn't have to miss too much. It gave the kids and I nice leisurely mornings to make breakfast and get ready for the next leg of our journey.

This day we passed through forest lands that had been ravished by pine beetles. Then we headed up and over the continental divide.

I should have mentioned a post or two ago that by this point in the trip we had encountered our next mechanical difficulty. The AC in the front of the RV completely died (this meant no AC whatsoever - no generator while driving, remember? So no AC in the back or in the front). Things weren't too bad with the windows down. But there was another problem brewing that caused the floor around the driver's feet to get uncomfortably hot. We started switching drivers more frequently. Cori really did most of the driving though.

We drove a lot of beautiful countryside with the windows down -- half of South Dakota and ALL of Wyoming. There was something about it that I liked.

We made a turn and our next destination came up over the horizon like the Emerald City. Grand Teton National Park. We had thought about taking the kids through Yellowstone, but opted against it assuming that the park would be extremely crowded. We certainly made the right choice because Grand Teton was impossibly empty. We were so happy.

We didn't have any car sickness problems from the older three kids, which was completely miraculous. On this day, Jeffers had a hard time keeping anything down. Not sure if it was motion sickness or something else. But he spent most of the day stripped down and draped in a pool towel.

Allowance money was spent at the visitors' center and the kids quickly set to work learning to draw park animals out of the drawing book Gracie had purchased.

We stopped at Jenny Lake for a picnic spaghetti dinner and had an unexpected guest. She was the only other one at the lake with us that evening. The park was so empty!

The visitors' center is new and really beautiful inside. We were so happy with our day in the park. That night we finished our drive into Iona, Idaho. Reunion time!

The Grand RV Tour: Devil's Tower

The next day we packed up and drove through the Black Hills and crossed through the South Dakotan plains into Wyoming. We made a small detour to visit Devils Tower National Monument.

Suddenly, there it is. Jutting out of the earth. Amazing!

We watched some rock climbers ascend the face. That is a hard day's work right there.

We took a family hike halfway around the trail that wanders the base of the monument. Eden opted to ride in the stroller which was fine as Jeffery will usually opt to not ride in the stroller.

It was a long drive that day going through Wyoming and we pulled in for a late check in at an RV site in Thermopolis that night. Family prayer and scriptures by campfire made a perfect close to the day.

The Grand RV Tour: Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore

RV camping has its perks. The KOA had cable hookups and we were able to plug in for morning cartoons while the kids were rotated through the shower.

We drove through miles of green rolling hills up into the Black Hills mountains of South Dakota. We had wanted to go to Jewel Cave, but learned too late that a reservation needs to be made far in advance in order to get on the tour schedule. So we drove around the charming, hilly town of Keystone and got some ice cream.

We drove to Custer and spent a couple of hours learning about the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is an incredible, privately funded undertaking. Maybe that is why it will take them another 200 years to get it done.

We watched the video and toured the museum and exhibits. We even pitched a couple of bucks to take some of the blasted mountainside home with us.

It was getting late in the afternoon when we drove back up the highway into the Black Hills. A windy drive finally led to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

I just love her Cindy Lou Who hands...

The grounds around the monument are impressively set up for large events. The visitors' center and film are top notch. We were doing our best to get it all in when the sky opened up and it began to pour rain. 

We were pretty soggy by the time we had trekked back to the RV. We got a glimpse of the memorial as we left the parking lot. It looked like Washington had been crying his eyes out. We mentioned this to the children and Grace muttered, "Obama's fault!" Ha!

We stayed that night at the Black Hills Trailside Resort just a short drive down the hill form the memorial. We checked in and made dinner. Cori's sister Arianne and her family caught up with us here. Cousins, yay!

I really wanted to see the memorial at night. Cori drove us all back up the hill later that night. It was still pretty cloudy. We set up the tripod and watched for about an hour as the mist blew over these historic faces. Ar, Will and their boys joined us. We did our family scripture study in the quiet dark there. I finally got a good shot. We changed the children into their pajamas and they all fell asleep in their beds on the drive back to the campground.