About a week after school got out my roomy and I took a trip to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone.
We took SO many pictures! I'm sorting through them now and I'll be posting some on my website for people to see.

Here is a breakdown of our trip:

Day 1

Leave Minnesota
Drive FOREVER… finally see some baby mountains…. See some mule deer along the road and antelope too.
Get to Keystone just as it is getting dark and zonk out in the motel.

Day 2

Get up and have nice big breakfast at Mt. Rushmore, looking up at the faces. Spend a little while there checking things out.
Head down the mountain (going opposite way we came) and see 2 rocky mountain goats right by the side of the road.
Go to BEAR COUNTRY! We saw bear, elk, reindeer, mountain lions, an otter, arctic wolves and normal wolves, skunk, badger, coyote, bear cubs, and more.
Go back to town and have lunch at Applebee’s, take a short 1 hour nap before heading to reptile gardens – giant tortoises, birds (parrots), snakes, lizards, crocodiles, performing critters, snake handler/crocodilian wrestler drool … etc.
Heading towards keystone look other way and see big fire starting – turns into huge fire after we leave.

Day 3

Leave for Yellowstone.
Stop in Cody, Wyoming and eat at Irma’s Hotel/Restaurant, named after Cody’s youngest daughter. I petted a horse that was giving wagon rides and saw a bunch of bikers.
Continue to Yellowstone and see a fox inside the park. Get there very late and stay at the Roosevelt lodge – “roughing it” We didn’t have our own bathroom and the cabins were one tiny room.
We woke up at 4am freezing to death. Roomy hopped into bed with me and we cranked up the fire. (no kinky stuff *ahem*) We had to go outside in freezing cold to go potty.

Day 4

Explored parts of the park – saw moose and a bear (though we thought it was a boar at first – close enough ;)
Saw petrified tree and a bunch of the park. Saw old faithful go off. Parents were back in Texas watching online and saw us waving like goobers. I was talking to them on the cell phone and my mom got so excited that she could see us.
We ate at the Old Faithful Inn then headed off to see more of the park.
Another freezing night – only we couldn’t get the fire started :(


Day 5

We took our time going around the park and seeing waterfalls, more critters, etc.
Saw MARMOTS!!!!! We stopped by sheep-eaters cliff, after visiting Mammoth Hot Springs, and there were 3 marmots and several chipmunks bouncing about. One marmot kept standing up on his hind legs chirping – they sound more like birds to me than fuzzy critters. It was really cute. They were doing their little poses and I took a ton of pictures!
Stayed in Canyon Village – much warmer and we got our own bathroom! Wahooooo!


Day 6

We started for home. We went up through the park and through Montana. Saw a moose, some deer, and a herd of antelope before we left the park.
We spent the night in Dickenson, North Dakota.

Day 7

Drove through the rest of North Dakota and Minnesota and made our way back home.