Yellowstone Adventure 0 Let the adventure begin 26-JUN-2012 07:00:18 Well, we wanted to hit the road around 5 or 6 am...HaaaHaaaHaaa! We left Island Lake Campground at 7:30am. Actually, not that bad for a family with a night owl like Tracie and kids on summer vacation. Not much to say about this day but WOW, what a drive... We made it to Hill City, SD, thank God for video babysitters and power adjustable seats...my ass is still sort'a numb! 0 Rafter J Campground in Hill City 27-JUN-2012 10:53:00 Rafter J Bar Ranch, great recommendation from friends. One complaint, how can you have the word Bar in your name without an actual Bar on-site??? Anyway it was clean, fun, and friendly. Great home base for touring. 0 The Sin Bin 27-JUN-2012 14:27:26 Need I say more? 0 Custer Skate Park 28-JUN-2012 09:33:32 The kids loved this one so much the first time last year that we had to hit the wildlife loop again. This was our first encounter with...nope, not wild animals...yep, "Tracieisms"! If you were a fan of the "Terri-ism" on our last blog, this newly discovered guttural utterance closely resembles the sounds uttered all the way to Florida and back last season. But these are evoked by a magnificent fear of heights. Great, Tracie's fear of heights is getting to her on the wildlife loop...can not wait for the mountains of Montana and Wyoming! 0 Needles Highway and Sylvan Lake 28-JUN-2012 11:16:02 This was a favorite of our whole family last year so we hit this one again as well. Once we finished the loop, the kids took a dip in Lake Sylvan, oh yeah, that fear of heights thing kicked in during the loop and I may need to replace the passenger side floor board of my truck. Wow, can not wait for the mountains, what is that bomb proof stuff? Kevlar, that's it, I will line my floor with that...no more fake brakes, bring on the mountains!!! 0 Bighorn Mountain 29-JUN-2012 11:04:03 Don't worry honey, those are not the mountains we will be climbing. We will just stay down here, go around the mountains to the north side of the park where it is safe and flat! 0 Fuel stop in Montana - HOT 29-JUN-2012 14:49:13 WTF, we left 70 degrees for this? 0 Campground at Yellowstone 29-JUN-2012 19:01:55 We made it to the north end of Yellowstone. What a beautiful location, view of the mountains (most of which I tried to avoid driving through) , trout fishing with my kids out our backdoor, and yes, full hookups for Tracie's tent! Life is good! 0 Chico Hot Springs & Yellowstone 30-JUN-2012 09:00:46 I got wind of this little gem from a friend at work. Everyone loved the natural hot spring fed pools, views of the mountains, and of coarse...the booze pool side. Tylerism...The pools are fed from a hot spring, with the hot tub flowing into the swimming pool. Maddie tries to get Tyler to swim through the hot water flowing into the pool below. Tyler promptly tells Maddie, "don't swim in that, it is warm from peoples pee! 0 Yellowstone 01-JUL-2012 09:00:52 First big day exploring Yellowstone. It sounds corny, but WOW, the natural beauty is quite breath taking. You actually have to remind yourself that this is not an amusement park but a National Park. After a while amazing natural features of the park become mundane due to the sheer volume of all that Yellowstone has to offer...which is a good thing! OBTW, Yellowstone has mountains, could not avoid them if you tried. I drove through Wyoming to Montana, to the North entrance to avoid the fear of heights thing...Holy backfire Batman...no matter how you slice it, Yellowstone is mountainous...guess we will have to deal with our personal geyser sitting next to me, faithfully spewing "slow downs", and "be carefulls", around every bend. I just pulled a 9000lb trailer from Duluth with you and the kids...I should start being careful now??? 0 Horseback riding in Yellowstone 02-JUL-2012 09:15:45 I knew coming out here that Daddy could not bring his Western little girl to Yellowstone and escape the horseback riding trap. So I planned a saddle and paddle adventure prior to visiting the park. Glad I did!!! This is the only horseback company allowed to bring their horses into the park. Yes, we rode in the Park! What a blast, this was my first time on a horse, Maddie takes lessons, Tyler has some experience at birthday parties and stuff, and Tracie used to ride back in her high school years. We met our guides, one of which was from Waseca, Mn...small world...anyway. We traveled through the Hoodoo Basin, one of National Geographic's top three hidden gems of Yellowstone. There were times that even I feared the heights! It was like the Old Western Movies...here we were, following this 12 inch wide path through the mountains...we must have looked like mountain goats! Screw up and it is straight down from here!!! Yes, Tracie had problems driving, but you should have seen her handle her horse as well as keep track of her children's' safety and horses as well. Moral of the story here is do not "F" with Tracie's kids. Way to overcome super Mom...BTW, after the Hoodoos we are going white water rafting. Nothing like taking a fear and bashing it in the face...you rocked this one Tracie!!! 0 Whitewater Rafting 02-JUL-2012 17:06:33 Well, we conquered the Hoodoos, lets try to get over the fear of losing a kid in the water. Whitewater rafting, here we come! This was a blast, and Tracie admits that it was way more fun, and work, than she expected. We experienced great drenches and crazy fast rushing rapids. There were also points on our trip that we were allowed to jump into the rushing water for a swim. This made for a comfortable mix. As far as swimming, Maddie was first, of course, then closely followed by Tyler. I jumped in but Tracie decided that the perfectly good floating raft was the place to stay. At least we all did the trip together, it was a blast!!! 0 Yellowstone - Mammoth Hot Springs 03-JUL-2012 16:27:36 Our final day touring Yellowstone:-( What an awesome experience. We would have posted more photos of the amazing sites, but you really need to see them in person to understand what you are looking at. Our final destination was Mammoth Hot Springs. Again, unbelievable natural wonder. If I knew first hand what the moon's surface was like, I could compare it to this place. But since I do not know, I will venture to say it sort'a reminds me of the moon! We finished our evening with a great meal at Rosie's in Gardiner, Mt, just across the street from the North entrance of the Park, we watched the elk and pronghorns from our window seats, ordered drinks, eat great food and watched the moon rise over the mountain tops. 0 Trout Fishing in Paradise Valley on Yellowstone River 03-JUL-2012 18:18:53 So I planned this trip in order to tour Yellowstone. What I did not realize was that our campsite sits on one of the most famous and productive trout river systems in the world! "The Yellowstone River is considered to be one of the greatest trout streams of the world. The most productive stretch of water is through Paradise Valley in Montana, especially near Livingston which produces brown trout, rainbow trout and native cutthroat trout as well as Rocky Mountain whitefish" (Wiki), yep, right out our backdoor! We visited the local fly fishing shop, Angler's West, bought some gear, received expert advise, and gave fly fishing a try...The photos speak for them selves. We had trout for lunch! 0 Livingston Rodeo 04-JUL-2012 19:00:16 When we booked our RV site the management suggested I take the family to the Livingston Rodeo on the 4th of July. Horses, fireworks, Rednecks, beer, big trucks...how could I resist? I booked the tickets and boy am I glad I did! When we arrived for our reserved seating we noticed the place was a "sell-out". Who knew rodeo was so popular in Montana, we didn't. I thought I was going to need to resuscitate Maddie after the first event! Tyler was also completely mesmerized by the pomp and circumstance that is outdoor rodeo...great announcing, rodeo clowns, music, fair food, amazing (and completely insane) athletes, fireworks and all the patriotism that goes along with the 4th! We completely enjoyed the experience. Why not??? Where else can you buy beer by the six pack to bring to the stands??? They had bags of beer for sale, six packs in a bag!!! I love this place. The rodeo. 0 Medora Outdoor Musical or Bust 05-JUL-2012 20:30:05 Well, we arrived in the Metropolis known as Medora. Checked into the campground for the evening and awaited the Medora Musical (http://www.medora.com/musical/). We arrived for the show prepared to get a little wet from the rain forcasted...we eventually got rained out. Oh, well...on to Minnesota. 0 Finlayson (the cabin) via Mille Lacs. 06-JUL-2012 20:20:42 Almost home. Going to stay in Finlayson this evening. Tracie and the kids spotted this rainbow over Mille Lacs...must be a sign...we are almost home! 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0