The West is calling

My grandmother is where my love for travel and many other aspects of my life come from. She has taken me and my other 5 Lamp cousins on multiple trips throughout all of our lives. This Summer, before I head off to Taiwan in 17 days, we took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. My younger cousins Riley (11) and Spencer (7) also joined. We left on a Wednesday, drove 518 miles to Cheyenne, WY. Thursday we headed northwest all the way to Grand Teton National Park. The Teton mt. range was described as the energetic teenagers of the Rocky Mts. I would have described them as pure beauty that you'd never believe existed until you actually saw it. We had planned on camping most of the trip, but since we came late May/ early June it was still pretty cold, so my grandma bought a cabin for the night. The four of us played charades for entertainment and it ended up being a highlight of the trip. 

The mountains and the whole area was majestic. I took plenty of pictures, there were multiple signs to be "bear aware," and we stopped at many gift shops. Riley and I were the only ones to hike around the area. Day 3 we took the 18 mile drive north to Yellowstone. We spent the entire day in Yellowstone. We saw Old Faithful go off, drove around the Emerald pool and Sunset Lake, we saw mule deer, big horn sheep, bison, and an eagle. Unfortunately we were not lucky to see any grizzly bears or my favorite, the wolf.

Mule deer

We left Yellowstone through the east entrance, still hoping to run into some bears. Never happened. We drove through the windy roads, high cliffs, and "falling rocks" until we reached Cody, WY. Cody is known for their large rodeos and their remembrance of the legendary Buffalo Bill. In the morning, we attempted to go to Buffalo Bill's museum, but we felt that our money was better put to an hour of horse back riding. Both of the boys had never been on a horse and it had been several years for me. 

At the last minute we decided to put South Dakota into our trip, so we headed off to SD. We made it about 80 miles from the boarder of SD and decided it was nice enough to finally camp for a night. We spent a good half hour trying to get a fire going, when we finally did we roasted miniature marshmallows, cooked chicken noodle soup, and heated up some peas. 

Day 5 we packed up our camping gear and drove 30 miles north to see the Devil's Tower.

On the way up we saw a prairie dog field and had quite a laugh watching them chase each other and jumping up into what looked like a prayer stance.

We hit the road again finally making it into SD. Since Riley and I were the only two to suffer through the 39 degree overnight weather in a tent we fell asleep quickly in the car. 

Next on our list was Mount Rushmore. I had been a few times before, but it was the first time I took the Presidents trail that went much closer to the monument. (It helped to burn off some of the boys' energy).

In the evening, we spent a good amount of time in Wall, SD where the famous Wall Drug is located. I enjoyed it just as much as I used to when my mom would bring us up every summer. It was the boys first time and they liked it at well. If you've never heard of it, the town was made famous by giving out free water to traveling settlers back in the day. Nowadays there are between 2-3 blocks full of shops of all variations; leather, Indian art, glass sculptures, wild life mounts, kids toys, etc. They also have homemade ice cream, many sets/statues to take photos with, and musical singing westerners.

We drove another 20 miles to Badlands National Park and camped there for the night. When the sun set there was a program about the American Black Footed Ferret, how they are endangered and the story of bringing them back into population. After that, they brought telescopes out to look at Venus, Mecury, Saturn, and other star constellations. There was a 22 mph wind that night so we did not stay for that part. 

Monday, day 6, we left the Badlands with the attempt to make it back home. We stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the worlds only Corn Palace! We had drove about 200 miles that day and had another 300 miles to go so the visit was brief, consisting of some photos and a 15 min clip of all the details and history of the Corn Palace's significance and uniqueness.

After a round trip of 2,205 miles, hundreds of pictures, strong memories, and plenty of buttons pushed we made it home at the end of day 6 around 6:45 P.M.

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go on a trip West with family that I love and to experience so many historical wonders and natural beauties of this country and this planet! 

 -KMLS