Summer Road Trip! Part 1

I thought I would use my long neglected blog to document our crazy summer adventure.  We just got back from 2 weeks on the road in a rented RV.  We drove over 5,000 miles, visited tons of family and friends and saw some amazing sights.  Here are some of the highlights!

(This is a photo-heavy post and I decided to break it into 2 parts to make the files easier to open.)

Day 1:  We left Minneapolis mid-day after picking up and packing up our vehicle.  We made a stop in southeastern Minnesota at the Jeffers Petroglyphs which are prehistoric carvings found in rock outcroppings right in the middle of the prairie.  I've been wanting to see these for a while, but they are kind of out of the way.  We saw this beautiful rainbow after our first stop and it felt like an auspicious sign!

Day 2:  Our second day on the road was an epic tour of South Dakota.  We camped just over the state line the night before so we could drive through the badlands first thing in the morning.  After a quick trip to a prairie dog town, we visited a cold war missile silo and then had breakfast at Wall Drug.  We headed up to pay our respects to Mount Rushmore and then hightailed it to Wyoming so we could hike the Tower Trail at Devil's Tower before sunset.  Wow - was that all just one day?

Day 3:  After an exhausting day of sight seeing, we had a long day on the road.  We drove from Sheridan, WY up to Kalispell, MT where Ray's brother Shawn lives.  It was really neat to watch the Great Plains slowly turn into the Rocky Mountains.  We also saw our second rainbow of the trip! 

Day 4 - Kalipsell is a beautiful city, but one of the best things about it is that is sits right outside Glacier National Park.  After resting up at Shawn's house, we drove up to the park for a night.  Glacier was overwhelming and awe-inspiring.  According to the park rangers, the glaciers could be gone as soon as 2030.  After seeing what a beautiful place this is, that fact breaks my heart.  If you have the opportunity to visit, do it now.  This park is a jewel and one of the most amazing places I have ever been in my life.  Special thanks to Shawn for his terrifying and exhilarating tour of the park.   It was really nice to visit with someone who knew his way around.

I was so impressed with the programming offered by each of the National Parks.  Each evening, park rangers led programs giving information about the parks.  We really enjoyed the presentations and all joined the Junior Ranger program.  We were inducted as Junior Rangers both at Glacier and Crater Lake.  It is a really fun program and we are all very proud of the accomplishment!

Day 5:  It was really hard to leave Glacier.  It would be easy to spend a week or more at the park and we all hope to make it back there some day to do just that.  But we had a very important person to meet on the coast and had to start our long trek West.