Our Summer Trip
This Summer we took a fairly big trip that took 12 days or so (including driving) to a few places we have never seen before. We were able to do it because my husband had a trip he had to go on anyway to Jackson Hole Wyoming. Since that basic travel was there, we decided since my oldest is growing up we ought to try to do a family vacation we would never forget. So we took the plunge and had a great time.
We drive from the midwest to Auoroa Colorado first, then went to the Denver Botanical Gardens. Those who know me know I am a garden fanatic almost,lol, so my family was thoughtful and came up with that option! It was a good idea as we got in at a discounted rate because of my local botanical garden membership. I got a lot of pictures there that I will be posting soon.
The pictures I am going to start posting first (in my photos on RedGage) will be of the Rocky Mountain area and Rocky Mountain National Park. This is the route we took to go to Jackson Hole Wyoming. There is some different kinds of scenery along the way. I want to write and share the pictures now while its fresh in my mind. The areas we went to were beautiful and somewhat cloudy as you will see the first few days, but the effect is neat, to me anyway! You will next see my photos from the Botanical Garden.
My patient family stopped for me several times along the way to get photos of this and that. I just love nature and old structures and wildlife, etc. Next you will see photos from Jackson Hole Wyoming in the Grand Tetons area. Those will start with a herd of buffalo, so that is the break in the photos. The nature of the way I will put them here will be kind of going backwards of course when say looking at my photos. The end of the trip will be the latest photos, etc.
After this, we went through the Grand Teton National Park, then on to Yellowstone after a very brief and short stop in Montana just to spend the night. I wish we had more time there. I am a huge fan of Yellowstone, from its geysers to wildlife and scenery. WOW. I can say that too about the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole. A mother moose and her baby for instance really caught my eye, bears, a wolf, and much more.
Mount Rushmore had lots to offer, and we had the benefit of driving along with many at the 71st annual Sturgis Rally! Bikers galore, everywhere you looked and it was so awesome! Mount Rushmore, the memorial that it is, is amazing as well. Highly recommend going there. While in South Dakota, we ran into some old friends and our old Pastor from Southern California! Isn't that crazy? It was such a great time.
We went to Wind Cave, which was a large and beautiful underground world there.
We also stopped at the Devils Tower, which I almost forgot to mention! That is also very very amazing! I hiked the one trail all the way around it, and its a highly spiritual place to many people. They revere it and many Native Americans have much folklore and belief surrounding that interesting place.
The Badlands were rather interesting, I really liked that place! We didn't have a lot of time, but we did enjoy the time we had there. We got lots of videos as well, which I will be sharing too.
I hope my boys remember that trip forever, as they are growing up and going to be getting busier and busier. I know that I have some fond memories of short trips with the family that I will never forget when I was growing up, even though sometimes at the time we thought it might be a little boring or whatever. I have always loved every trip though, no matter how close or far. During hard times, its especially not easy to travel but if you can, I would recommend it. Its worth the sacrifice I think!
