Day 8--Deer Lodge, Montana--Grant-Kohrs Ranch

Well, we've made it. The last stop on the trip before arriving at our final destination and it was fun. Our favorite part was meeting up with our San Antonio friends who just moved to Deer Lodge (2 mins. or so down the road from this stop.) Thanks Karen for letting us borrow you guys for the day.=)

Background story: When they moved to San Antonio, Glen and Andrew went over to help move their family in. They moved out of their house before we were in the midst of packing so Glen and Andrew went over again to help load up the truck and store their stuff in storage. Their family ended up leaving San Antonio a day after us but were arriving at their home before us so the running joke was we'd get there in time to help move them in. Unfortunately, they didn't have access to their house yet so we didn't get to help. But Karen, we truly would have.=)

There was so much fun stuff to do here and it was all free (except for the wagon ride.) We explored old farming equipment.

Checked out stables, bunkhouses, the original house of the family that used to run this ranch. The favorite was the blacksmith shop. We watched the Park Ranger make a brand from a piece of iron and then she branded everyone a piece of wood for a keepsake. Did I mention this was ALL FREE!!!

The lasso station was a HUGE hit. The kids and adults played for a very long time.

We went on a wagon ride. This part wasn't free but it was worth it. I think the kids had fun and we adults enjoyed the tour of the premises.

The kids worked and worked on their Junior Rancher booklets. Here they aren't Junior Rangers. They became Junior Ranchers.

Alex and Calvin just played and explored new fun things.

They let the kids round up the chickens then collect their eggs.

Dinner's ready. Come and get it.

It was a very fun day and like all of our other stops, we enjoyed it longer than planned. But we enjoyed it and had fun relaxing and playing and then got back in the car for the last leg of the trip. We're almost there. Tomorrow we get to see Grandma and Grandpa.

Day 7, part 2--Crow Agency, Montana--Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument might sound more familiar to you as Custer's Last Stand. My history buff husband said this was his favorite stop on the trip. The kids were a little bored, but that's why this was called a "family" vacation, something for everyone.

We watched a video that made most people (well, myself anyways) wonder why in the world did General Custer go into this battle. They were at the top of the hill with a camp of indians on each side outnumbering them by huge numbers (the actual numbers are in the kids Junior Ranger books and can probably be found online, but I mostly remember the odds were definitely not in General Custer's favor.) What was he thinking? But then again, we'll never know the real story because the one that wins the war tells the history and history is usually one-sided because of it.

Then we walked around the battlefield and up to the US Cavalry monument. This is where General Custer died. Tombstones were placed in approximately the places where the soldiers fell. It was sad to see random tombstones by themselves or in small clusters in a completely different part from the main battlefield. I pictured how that soldier must've felt. Was he escaping from the bloody battle or sneaking up on someone?

The white tombstones are for US Cavalry and reddish tombstones are for the Indians that fell. There aren't as many red tombstones because a lot less indians died and they took care of their dead before places could be marked.

My favorite part was the Indian memorial. It was beautifully done and had this fun art piece.

We had fun.

Day 7, part 1--Montana--Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area--Yellowtail Dam

An hour out of the way but we could get Junior Ranger badges so we stopped at the closest part of the recreation area possible to get the job done. This led us to Yellowtail Dam Visitor's Center which was ... well, exciting enough. We had just started taking the side road to get to our destination when the amazing thunderstorms almost stopped us in our tracks. I again heard the radio warning to take cover and got nervous when the pea-sized hail started hitting the top of the van. Glen was in the car behind me and we couldn't see a thing. I pulled over for a few mins. debating whether this trip was worth it, but we decided we might as well. After 10 mins. or so of scary driving, the rains cleared up enough to feel confident again. When we got closer to our destination, we saw a fire on the side of the mountain. I secretly hoped we'd get a chance to see it and my wish came true. Lightening struck the mountain across the way from the dam so we got to see the dam, eat our pb&j sandwiches and watch the smoke from the fire. As I said, it was exciting enough. And we got our Ranger badges.

Day 6, part 2--Wyoming--Devil's Tower National Monument

That's it. Off in the distance is Devil's Tower National Monument. Mount Rushmore was a long day but we rushed to see if we could quickly see this site. Glad we did because it was perfect and still left us only 1 day behind.

On the way there, we saw a small herd of these straggly looking goats. There were 6 or 7 of them on the side of the road so we stopped to get a picture.

We made it to the Visitor's Center at 6:15 and it closed at 7. So we rushed in to see how fast we could get our Junior Ranger stuff done. The park ranger was very nice and went ahead and filled out certificates and gave me the badges to give the kids when they finished. PERFECT!!! We were able to relax and just enjoy the site while the kids worked on their stuff (which was a nature booklet. If they saw a squirrel, check it off. If they saw ... Pretty easy stuff.) These telescopes were free to see close ups of the large rock formation.

And there it is. And Alex is sporting her Mount Rushmore badge. That was the only badge she earned on the trip so she was extra proud of it.

We followed a trail around the base of Devil's Tower and the kids enjoyed climbing some of the side boulders. You'll see Izzy's beginnings of a black eye (at the end of this post) from not being so careful on these rocks.=(

You can kind of see random ribbons tied to some branches in the trees all around the tower. These are hung up by indians who still worship at this site. They are prayer ribbons to keep the evil spirits away or something like that. Very fascinating stuff. I didn't know there were still rituals like that still performed for real instead of just show. Very cool indeed.

And there it is. The humble beginnings of the famous black eye to be. At first glance it looked fine, but very quickly swelled to be a golf-ball sized lump on her cheek. (Also notice her fancy badges.=)

It doesn't look bad ... yet. Wait til tomorrow.

Almost done with our trail, Glen spotted 2 deer grazing in the grass close to us. They just watched us and slowly went their own way. It was a fun close-up.

And I finally got to show Glen a mountain bluebird. I'd seen a few so far on the trip and had never seen something so bright blue before. Absolutely gorgeous.

Day 5--South Dakota--Badlands National Park

Welcome to the Badlands. I'd never heard of it before this trip but whenever I heard the name, I always felt I was headed into my own World of Warcraft town.=) We got there to find what I compare to a miniature Grand Canyon. Of course we still had to be careful, but it was more touchable than the Grand Canyon. There were places to climb and play. We listened to a talk about fossils and enjoyed a few fun trails. We saw wildlife including the prairie dogs we watched from the side of the road for a while. We were supposed to enjoy the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore on the same day, but we had way too much fun exploring and being out of the car, so our plans were delayed a day. But that was the fun of this trip. We could do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted. Enjoy the many pictures.

Izzy and Alex had fun sliding down this section.

We watched the prairie dogs from the side of the road for a while. We found they make a loud squeaking noise.