Life... One Day at a Time: A Summer Vacation Adventure

We were so blessed to be able to take a two week vacation this summer. It was an adventure for sure! We spent time in the Black Hills, Yellowstone, and the Tetons during those two weeks. And don't forget about all the close together time in the truck!! We pulled our camper and slept in it every night except for one night in the Jackson Lake Lodge. We loved every minute of it in spite of all the small spaces.

Pit stop in Osh Kosh, Nebraska

We left early Saturday morning and headed to the Black Hills. We camped at Custer Gulch while there. It was beautiful and quiet. We were able to have a spot clear in the back so that we looked out into the hills. This was the only camping spot for the trip that allowed fire pits and that had free showers. We took full advantage of this!!

While in the Black Hills we covered some ground! We went to Mount Rushmore, Bear Country, toured a Gold Mine, hiked through a ghost town, and went swimming and hiked around Sylvan Lake.

Mount Rushmore

Bear Country

Going into the gold mine

In an ore cart deep in the mine! So cool!!

Ghost town finds

Around Sylvan Lake

Favorites from the Black Hills:

Ella: climbing big rocks

Ava: climbing rocks, seeing rocks, and watching the really good rock climbers

Matt: touring the gold mine and seeing Ava and Ella's excitement when watching the climbers

Megan: gold mine and the beautiful hike around Sylvan Lake

After 2 full days in the Black Hills we headed to Yellowstone. In Yellowstone we camped at Fishing Bridge RV Park. This is the only camping spot in the park with full hook ups and we were glad to have them. They require hard sided campers in that area because of the frequency of bear activity in the area. Luckily we didn't see anything. Yellowstone is a huge park with lots to see. We spent a lot of time in the truck but stopping often to hike or look at something. Yellowstone is a park like none other I've seen and feels so bizarre. Yellowstone has forests, mountains, deserts, rocky areas, lava tubes, thermals, lots of rivers and waterfalls, and wildlife. It feels like you're driving in lots of different areas of the US instead of just one park. We covered lots of ground at Yellowstone. We saw the canyon area and hiked to the brink of both waterfalls, bison were everywhere, Old Faithful, hiked lots of thermal boardwalks, swam in firehole canyon, enjoyed lots of picnics for lunch, and bear shaped pancakes for breakfast. Almost every night we were out until about 9:30pm because there was so much to see. So we'd come home and be ready to crash. Luckily we slept in every morning as late as we wanted and with the camper we all got a great night sleep. We had 5 days in the park so we were able to take our time and have afternoon snacks and still see everything we wanted while there.

My birthday dinner night...they took me to dinner at the Lake Lodge

Some thermals smelled worse than others! LOL!

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

A lady gave the girls stickers that states, "I'm a buffalo, I do what I want". I think we have 2 buffalos in the family.

Mammoth Springs

Old Faithful

Grand Prismatic Spring

Firehole Canyon

Favorites from Yellowstone:

Ava: Camping, being with family, Old Faithful, and Grand Prismatic

Ella: Camping, hiking, being with family, Old Faithful

Megan: Top of Lower Falls, Grand Prismatic

Matt: Boat ride on Yellowstone Lake, top of Lower Falls, watching Old Faithful from the Inn Balcony

Our last stop is one of my favorite places on the planet; Grand Teton National Park. I love the majesty of the mountains rising out of prairie. Tetons never disappoint on wildlife viewings either. This year we saw several bull moose, a cow and baby; grizzly bear, elk, bison, and the cutest red fox. We started our stay with a break from the camper for one night and staying in the Jackson Lake Lodge. We had a beautiful view of the mountains from our back patio. We also went swimming in their heated pool and had a fancy dinner at the Mural Room. We were able to hike with the girls up to Cascade Canyon (one of our favorite spots). Ella was lucky enough to be carried most of the way but Ava rocked it out and hiked a mile up plus about 4 more miles! We were so proud! At the top we were lucky enough to see 2 huge bull moose. We had another beautiful campsite.