Summer Vacation 2011

On the first leg of our journey, we camped in Custer State Park, in South Dakota.  No camping trip would be complete without marshmallows!

Driving through Bear Country, USA - which is like a zoo in reverse - the animals come so close to the car that you don't really need the binoculars...but it was good practice!

A bear, at Bear Country, USA, viewed from car.  The only bears we saw on our trip.

Mount Rushmore

Gordon Stockade, a rebuilt fort about 2 miles from our campground in Custer State Park.  The boys were surprisingly interested in it - we had to go back twice!

Miles "My Legs Won't Work" Barclay on a hike in Custer.  Don't let the bandanna fool you - there is nothing smelly around.  He is just pretending to be a cowboy!

Wild burros, Custer SP.

Looking for buffalo.

I guess we didn't need those binoculars...

Jewell Cave, South Dakota.  Definitely something new and different for the boys to experience!  It was fun!

All the kids down on the field for the rodeo in Cody, WY.  Jonas is in the middle with the black cowboy hat on, and Miles is 5 to the left in the white cowboy hat...and I think he is the smallest one out there! 

New cowboy outfits.

Watching the rodeo.

Camp in Yellowstone.

"Practicing" for the rodeo, Cody, WY.

Stinky Mud Volcanoes at Yellowstone.

Brink of the Upper Falls, Yellowstone.

We didn't run into any bears in the wild, luckily!

On a 5 mile hike in Yellowstone.  Jonas hiked almost the entire way on his own 2 feet!  Miles got piggybacks about half the way!

Yellowstone.

Chuckwagon Cookout, Yellowstone.

One of the thermal features at Yellowstone.  It is just amazing to me how unique the landscape is at Yellowstone, and how few places in the whole world are anything like it!

Riverfront Geyser

The Boiling River - a place where a hot spring dumps into a river coming off the mountain, making the water comfortably warm right here!

Chuckwagon Cookout, Yellowstone.