Day 9 to Day 13 - Iowa 2007

We went to the river over the weekend. The mosquitos are awful, get eatten alive around here. Quinn loves to ride in the boat. No fear what so ever. They had a surprise birthday party for Joes Uncle Allens 60th. Quinn sung happy birthday and the abcs over the microphone. And would have sung everyother song he knows as well if we let him. Quinn danced with everyone that night, when it was late enought the mosquitos finaly went to bed.

Quinn has been running around in the grass and today we flew a kite. This is the relaxing part of the trip so not much to talk about. Thursday we head back home, first stop Omaha and the zoo.

Day 8 - Iowa 2007

We arrived late at the farm and will be spending the next 6 days here . Quinn played uno with his great grandmother this morning. We looked at some gardens, its cool seeing all the things they can grow here and how much space they can use. There are tomatos, watermelon, carrots, brocoli, green peppers, jalepeno peppers, lettuce, and lots and lots of rasberries, apples and even some grapes. Tommorrow we will be heading to the Mississippi.

Day 7 - Iowa 2007

Drove out of the badlands this morning and then pulled over to a card place. Pioneer auto show and antique town in Mudo, South Dakota. It reminds me of the dukes of hazard with the general lee tuting his horn. Quinn also saw a real Mater towtruck which he thought was cool. The rest of the day consisted of driving strait, driving flat, driving across corn fields. Although we went thru 3 states you couldnt tell unless you were watching the signs.

Day 6 - Iowa 2007

We walked around Devils Tower, I figured it was the plug of a volcano but according to the information its actually deep down in an old vocano at one point it was hundrds of feet under ground and the ground has just erroded around it. There were some climbers climbing too which look extreamly difficult. We now headed into South Dakota and the Black Hills. We first stopped at Jewel cave, but could only take the 20 minute tour cause we missed the longer one. It is suppose to be the second largest cave in the world. We then headed over to Wind Cave, but due to some donkeys in the road it took forever. These things wouldnt move they were so friendly they walked up to the car and poked there nose thru the windows. They were very pretty and healthy, not sure if you could consider them wild. But that was interseting. At Wind Cave we took the tour down the natural entrace, that was a treat. There is a tiny hole that is the natural entrance but at some point they made one with a door so we went in there. You walk down a narrow passage that slowly progresses down with stairs too. While in there the ranger turned off the light and showed us the old candle, amazing how much light it does give off. Then she blew that out. And wow is it dark, no light what so ever. Very strange. The tour was about 1hr and 15 minutes. Very cool they are the 4th biggest cave in the world. We drove the scenic route to mount rushmore about 10 miles an hour around constant U turns and narrow one lane tunnels. After that we headed for the BadLands for the night.

Day 5 - Iowa 2007

We watched old faithful go again. It goes about every hour and a half. We then went thru other gyser areas. Man does this area stink. The springs really stink, the mud holes are kinda cool they pop bubbles. Quinn keeps calling then "Sh.ooters". We stopped at one for about 45 minutes waiting for it to go I guess it only goes once a day. It was alot more bursty than old faithful but you sit alot closer so its a diffrent experience. We ran into some more buffalo on the way out of the park. The funny thing here is they were on the other side of the river so I was wonder if they knew how to swim, and then what do you know they start crossing the river. Guess that answers that question. So we had to wait while they crossed the road then all of a sudden there was some weird noise they were making and .i heard it from behind us and here come about 5 of them at a full out run to catch up with the others. I heard they can travel up to 30 miles an hour and boy is that a site. We also saw a moose on the way out of Yellowstone with her baby. But no bears. We almost hit one elk and one deer, but their suicide attempt failed thank goodness. The road isnt the best you come out of yellowstone and its flat as flat can be then all of a sudden you have to go thru a pass that seems to last forever. The speed limit is high but at night the dumb deer are all over the place. We drove to devils tower for the night. Saw a porcupine in the campground and a skunk crossing the road

Day 4

Woke up early and headed on a 1/4 mile hike to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Its not very wide but it sure is deep. We walked up the rim a bit to check out the lower falls. They are supose to be twice as big as Niagra. They did seem rather large, the path down to the base of the falls was closed so we didnt get very close. On our way back we practicly ran into a deer just eating some grass and a mushroom.


We next headed up to Tower falls, the path down to the base of this one was also closed. Only the top view point was visible. We then stopped on the side of the road a bit up to have some lunch. As we setup we saw some antelope in the meadow. We then noticed more and more people stopping and after a further look there was alot of antelope and a male with some big black spikes. A little bit later a coyote wandered up the medow, the antelope looked up then ignored him. One guy said they are only afraid of mountain lions and lightning and there are no mountain lions in the park.

We then headed out again after lunch. this time more people stopped on the side of the road. So we checked it out and there was this gigantic elk with a huge rack just laying in the creek scratching his back with his antlers. Then he stood up and started attacking the ground, quinn enjoyed this cause dirt and grass went flying. He then went back to laying in the water. strange. We went a saw a few more water falls then headed for gyser land. As we neared the first stop a giant buffalo took up the entire road. We had to wait as he passed us on the right taking his jolly time.

We next walked to mammoth springs and saw the smelly sulphur pools. And then some gysers we will likly go see more tommorrow. Quinn calls them pushers cause they push the water up. We saw old faithful just before dark and are staying at the old faithful inn tonight.

Day 3 - Iowa 2007

We figured out that near the hotel we could drive by Temple Square and the Capital which was on a hill and alot of old fancy houses leading up to it. Another weird site was old houses that actually were Old apartment buildings, all out of brick with porches and everything. Most of the area downtown Salt Lake was nice. We then headed north on 15 until we hit 89 and took that thru lots of mountain windy roads with big fancy boats. Each time we passed a lake there would be huge boats on the roads. We drove thru one small town that had antlers across main street that you had to drive under. Jackson has something similar it had antler entries on all four corners of the city park. After jackson we headed to Jenny lake and walked around a bit and took some pictures of the Tetons. You can still see some ice in some of the shadyer parts of the mountains. There was a real nice sunset while we were leaving and the moon was out early. We then headed into Yellowstone. Only bad part is it was dark so not only could you see nothing you had to drive slow for all the animals you couldnt see. We didnt really see anything. We stopped for dinner at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and walked to the lake. With the moon almost full it was very cool. We then went to Canyon area where we stayed the night in a cabin in the Cayon Lodge.

Day 2 - Iowa 2007

We woke up early the next morning and went on a few hikes of the canyonlands area called needles. It is a number of rock formations that are tall and skinny and have many diffrent colors. We also stopped at an old granery of the pueblo indians in the park. All the hikes were relativly short since we wanted to head to Arches National Park. On our way out of Canyonlands we ran into the mass heard of turkeys again. We then went thru Moab to get to arches. In arches we took the first loop trail that runs by 3 arches. This was neat because they are all withing climbing distance. And man was it getting hot. After these three we stopped at the overlook for the second arch which is the most famous one and on the utah licensplate. It was too hot to hike up to it maybe another trip. The last arch we went to see was called landscape, it is huge but very skinny looks like it could fall any day. The hike was a mix of hot suny areas and cool shady parts between the pilars of rocks. After this we started out to head into salt lake city. We took 6 into provo then decided to take a side route up to Park City to see the ski resort. There are some amazing houses in this area. We stopped at the resort and they have some rides so we decided to try some. The two we tried are called the slide and coaster.


The slide you take the chair lift up to the top then sit in this sled type thing with a break and you go down a tobagin type ride all the way to the bottom. Bit scary but fun. The coaster you get in a single car roller coaster type thing with a break again and it pulls you up to the top. Once at the top only one way to go is down, it has twists and turns a bridge some dips and you control the speed. Very wild, I went slow but Quinn had a blast with joe, they were cruisin. We are now in downtown Salt Lake City for the night. On to Yellowstone tommorrow.

Day 1 - Iowa 2007

We headed out early and drove thru monument valley. Lots of large rock formations but the rest of the drive was very flat. We then drove thru Mexican Hat and saw the rock that looked like a little mexican. After Mexican Hat we decided to take a "Short Cut" to get to Natural Bridges. Well this shortcut was strait up. about a 10% grade and it was gravel. switchbacks but one heck of a view. Once on top we reached bridges without issue. There are three bridges in the park. We did the overlook on the first two then hiked down to the last one. They are very large and the way they form is interesting.

To be classified a bridge a river has to assist in its formation. Otherwise it is considered an arch. So after bridges we drove up to canyon lands. We started down the canyon lands entry at about dusk, then comming around one corner we saw three black bears in the road, a momma and two larger cubs. One cub stood up on two legs to either get a better look or strut his stuff. Soon after the bears we ran into about 20 or more turkeys just making tons of noise and chasing each other around in circles. Well we decided to camp this first night and setup camp in the canyonlands campground. A very nice place with spaced out campsites and very nice facilities.