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| We set out in a pouring rain (thanks for the umbrella to car service, Marcia!), we drove in and out of rain storms all day. But the weather was absolutely perfect for our first stop at the Kirtland Temple. Event highlight: singing "The Spirit of God" with our tour group. |
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| Flowers on the Kirtland Temple grounds. |
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| My Dad, an excellent road trip companion. |
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| I don't remember which city this is, but we spent most of day 1 driving and made it from Sterling, VA to the west side of Chicago, IL. |
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| In Chicago, we arrived at the hotel late. Luckily, the hotel gave out free popcorn, which hit the spot as far as dinner was concerned. |
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| Lucky mileage day on the odometer. |
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| On day 2, we got on I-90, cut the corner of Wisconsin, drove through Minnesota, and crossed most of South Dakota. |
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| The Mississippi River is big, even way up north on the Wisconsin / Minnesota border. |
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| The falls that give Sioux Falls, SD its name. |
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| The Great Plains are very green, even in the middle of summer. |
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| We started day 3 at Badlands National Park. |
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| The rocks were beautiful. (I like rocks.) But what surprised me most was how green everything else was. |
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| This is a photo from my favorite spot in the park, a little windy hill with a 360 degree view where you can see the green plains stretching off in one direction, and the badlands laid out in another. |
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| There were so many ads for Wall Drug, we figured we should stop in and see if it lived up to the hype. Our verdict: it doesn't. It is one big souvenir shop. (I guess if you like that sort of thing . . .) I much preferred the human skeleton leading a dinosaur skeleton that we saw somewhere on the roadside. [Sorry, no picture available. Google it.] |
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| Next we did Mount Rushmore . . . |
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| . . . where we had ice cream for lunch. Yum. |
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| Then it was on to Wyoming. |
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| So neat. |
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| I very much prefer the traditional names for it, though. |
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| Around the base of the tower. |
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| We walked around the whole thing, taking lots of pictures. (It was a little more than a mile.) |
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| This was a really pretty canyon we drove down on our way through Wyoming. |
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| We spent the night in Cody, WY. |
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| On day 4 we headed into Yellowstone via the East Entrance. |
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| I love how they made the sign the same color as the lake. |
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| Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. |
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| Warning, Sasquatch sightings. (Dad pointed out how very official these signs looked.) |
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| A petrified tree. Dad and I wondered why it was so lonely (as opposed to a petrified forest of trees). |
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| When you are in Yellowstone and you have a chance to hug a bear, you hug a bear. |
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| And then there were elk. |
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| Mammoth Hot Springs. |
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| Dad and his (awesome) red shoes at Mammoth Hot Springs. |
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| This one is trying to be a picture of a bear. |
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| After heading around the north part of the Yellowstone loop, we went out the West Entrance (Exit) and took a detour to Mesa Falls in Idaho. This is the Upper falls. |
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| Gotta love a snow pole. |
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| This is Lower Mesa Falls. |
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| We spent our last night at Julie's in Rexburg, ID. The next morning we got up and headed south, but we had to stop for gas one last time. |
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| We pulled into Salt Lake City around noon on day 5. Then we took the rest of the day off. (Thanks for a great trip, Dad!) |
