3cs

On Wednesday July 8, we woke up in Gillette WY, and saw the "Devils Tower" National Monument , which is more properly called the Bear Lodge National Monument. All the Indian nations called it something like Bears Lodge, and the caucasian explorer just came up with his own name, but claimed Devils Tower was the Indian name. Devils Tower was the backdrop for the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so we had to see it. Cray earned his fourth Junior Ranger badge there, after we heard a great talk from a Lakotan (Sioux) Indian woman about the Indian tradition there. We then ate lunch in Strawberry Hill National Forest in SD before going to Mount Rushmore in the afternoon. WOW...... I really thought we had so much fun in Grand Canyon that the other ... read more

Day 13 I have forgotten what day it is. Sunday, Monday, whatever day we're having a great time. Today we moved from the north of the park to the south. Before leaving Mammoth Hot Springs, we drove around the top of the upper hot springs. We then went over to Roosevelt Lodge for lunch. After lunch we continued going south to the Tower Falls which are 120 feet. Then we went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. What an incredible site! We went to the North Rim first and we saw the Lower Falls from the top. They fall over 300 feet! That's twice as high as Niagra Falls. Then Cray noticed a path leading down to another place to view the falls from. So, he and I hiked down while Colleen happily watched from above. ... read more

Today we started out in Idaho Falls. We stayed in a hotel down the street from the actuall falls. They're not that big, but still pretty to see. We drove east towards Jackson, WY where we had a great lunch at the Snake River Brewery. They have a great brown ale called OB-1. I had to get a shirt with that on it. In the town square there are arches made of thousands of elk antlers. We left Jackson to head north through Grand Teton National Park and then into Yellowstone. We drove up through the South Entrance and headed to Old Faithful. When we got there we found that we only had minutes until the next eruption for Old Faithful. We got there in time and saw the first of many incredible sights. After that, ... read more

Chris woke up early this morning and saw a beautiful sunrise over the Grand Canyon. Later in the morning we all loaded back up and drove across the South Rim to the Desert View Tower and then out the East Entrance. We have now seen the Grand Canyon from bottom to top and west to east. We headed north east to go to Four Corners Monument. Along the way we ran into a lot of road construction (more than 1.5 hours of waiting). It felt like Arizona DOT had cursed up to not make it to Mesa Verde. We got to the Four Corners and took Cray's picture and then one of Colleen and Cray in all four states. Then headed north to Cortez, Co and Mesa Verde National Park. We got there too late to ... read more

We went white water rafting on the Colorado River. They had 2 class 7 rapids, one of their names was honeymoon rapid. I could barely hold on but it was so fun and hard. We went on a helicopter, my mom shut her eyes. We went to Roadkill Cafe. It was so good, I was full, but I had to have their chocolate cake. My first bite and in my mind I was like this is the best cake in the world. Cray The first rapid was right where we put in. The first splash felt great but was very shocking as the water temp. was 49 degrees. After that first one though, I thought I'd be ready for the rest. Nope. They were all just as shocking. We stopped at a Hualapai Holy place called ... read more