Road Trip: Mount Rushmore

After our one day stop at Yellowstone, Luke and I made our way to Mt. Rushmore. It is said to be quite the patriotic experience. I was actually rather surprised at how elaborate the attraction was. When you enter the site, you walk down an aisle of State flags. Just beyond these flags are the Presidents. Down below the viewing platform is the orchestra stage. I believe this is where musical events are performed during the evening lighting ceremony. Luke and I decided to head to dinner rather than stay around until 9:00 p.m. for the ceremony. We did however, take a little walk around the President's trail. It was quite peaceful and offered a great view of the Presidents. Here are a few pics from the one-hour stop over.

Yellowstone Part 4: Wildlife

As Luke and I arrived in Yellowstone, we were stunned to see mule deer just wandering around the Mammoth Springs area. They were so close and seemed quite comfortable with people snapping hundreds of pictures of them as they causally grazed on the green grass in the small town-like setting. After this initial sighting of wildlife, Luke and I set our sights on seeing bison. All day we peered out the car windows as we traveled through the park in hopes of spotting a bison in the wild. As we left Old Faithful at the end of the day we were both slightly disappointed as our hopes of seeing a bison had diminished. However, as we were coming around the enormous Yellowstone Lake on our way to the East exit we finally saw what we had been waiting for, a large herd just soaking up the sun right off the road. There had to be close to 50 bison and even a few of their young in the group. We swiftly pulled off to the side of the road to snap a few pictures. It was the perfect way to end a great day at Yellowstone.

This is the lake we were driving around.

Yellowstone Part 3: Upper Geyser Basin / Old Faithful

To finish off our day in Yellowstone we stopped by the Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful. We choose to walk around the Upper Geyser Basin so we could see the paint pots. The paint pots are holes that have bubbling, in some case bursting, mud coming out. In addition to the paint pots, we also saw a couple of pools that are filled with this pristine blue water. When we finally made it down to Old Faithful, we had to wait an hour to watch her blow. Since it had started to rain during our wait, we decided Old Faithful we would be our last stop of the day.

Old Faithful before it goes off

Old Faithful during the show.

Pictures from the Upper Geyser Basin

These are some of the paint pots.

This is one of the pools we saw.

Yellowstone Part Two: Grand Canyon of Yellowstone / Lower and Upper Falls

It was amazing to see how drastically the landscape of Yellostone changed within the 40 miles between Mammoth Hot Springs and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Although I have never been to the real Grand Canyon, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was still fascinating and incredibly beautiful. As part our adventure, Luke and I took and 3/4 mile hike down to peer over the lower falls that runs through the Grand Canyon. It was amazing to stand right above the falls and watch tons of water gushing just over 300 feet into the canyon below. I even enjoyed the hike straight up after the view. Here are some of the pictures from our stop at the canyon and the things we saw on the way there.

As Luke and I were driving along we passed Roaring Mountain. The steam was just billowing right out of the hillside. We found it so interesting we stopped to take a few pictures.

We also saw several of these signs throughout the park. We both felt it was wise to follow the park's advice and stay off of the thermal areas!

We were told there was an Osprey's nest perched on the top of this rock.

This is a view looking down into the Canyon.

These are some pictures of the lower falls. The water falls just over 300 feet. The first picture was Luke's favorite the second was mine.

This is a picture from over the top of the falls looking back at the canyon.

This is the view looking down from the top of the falls.

This is the only view we had of the upper falls. I think it falls just over 100 feet.

Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs

As I started to think about Yellowstone and what I wanted to share with you all, I realized it would take more than one post. Therefore, we shall begin with Mammoth Hot Springs. As Luke and I walked through the lower terraces it was amazing to see the variety of colors caused by bacteria and microorganisms, and how the incredibly hot water creates the hazy mist you see in some of the pictures. The blackened trees seemed to be almost artistically placed throughout the springs as well. I think I took over a 100 pictures just at this one stop. The pictures below are some of my favorites.

Road Trip Day 1

Luke and I began our two week road trip to South Dakota with a quick stop at the Lewis and Clark Caverns. You will be interested to know that Lewis and Clark never actually visited these caverns, but rather camped out in the valley below. However, the president decided it would be best to name this interesting sight after the pair. I guess they did accomplish quite a bit with their trek out to the Northwest. Since this was the first stop on our vacation, we were still figuring out the camera. You will have to excuse the blurry pictures. I will post about our next adventure soon - Yellowstone! For now enjoy the stalagmites and stalactites.