"There's Gold in Them Thar Hills!"

No visit to The Black Hills is complete without a visit to a gold mine. We chose Big Thunder Gold Mine. It is an actual mine from the 1890’s. We took a private 45 minute tour of the mine. It was really interesting. Our guide was a homeschooled senior in high school. He was extremely knowledgeable, articulate, and great with the kids. We learned lots of cool stuff. Did you know gold fever was actually caused by mercury poisoning? Mercury was used in the sorting process, because gold stuck to it.

FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!

After our tour we decided to do some gem mining. Wait… why didn’t we go gold panning ? If you have ever been gold panning (and we have) then you know it takes patience. Enough said.

We ate lunch at Ruby’s Restaurant, exactly what I would expect an old elegant western restaurant to look like. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t that great. We also drove by The Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt. Rushmore, which we plan to visit.

Be sure to check out more photos of today in the Photo Gallery #2!

Ruby's Restaurant

Learn More About:

Black Hills Gold Mining: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hills_Gold_Rush

Devil's Tower

Do –do –do-do-…do. Did anyone out there guess where we were today? Hint: the music is from a movie… a Steven Spielberg movie. .. “Close encounters of the Third Kind”. We were at Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Our campground was built on the land where they filmed the movie. In the summer, the campground shows “Close Encounters…” every night. How fun !

We spent the morning at Devil’s Tower and the kids earned their junior ranger badges. My favorite part of the day was these little guys :

Then we headed to Custer, South Dakota where we will be spending the next several days.

See more photos of our time at Devils Tower National Monument in Photo Gallery #2!

Learn more about:

Devils Tower: http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm

Prairie Dogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_dog

Running With The Sheep

Ranger Don

Yesterday we returned to Rocky Mountain National Park. The kids received their junior ranger badges, we explored more of the park, we watched a documentary, and we hung out with a cool ranger who helped us identify some scat we saw (turned out to be elk).


The ranger also could tell they were homeschooled; he said there was a difference (he taught in the public schools for 30 years). It was a good difference ;0).

Today we drove through Colorado on our way to Wyoming. We saw Bighorn Sheep! It was so exciting. They were on the side of a mountain near the road. And then they were in the road. Everyone was stopping and taking pictures. Then we pulled back onto the road, and I think they thought we were chasing them, because they took off running. We were running with the sheep. 

We are now in Wyoming. If you want to know exactly where we are, Ted has left a clue on the "Where Are We?" page. Take a guess in the comment section. (And if we already told you, no giving away the answer.)





Be sure to check out more cool photos from our last day at Rocky Mountain National Park in Photo Gallery #2!!!

Rocky Mountain National Park

Yesterday we changed campgrounds and moved to a place right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. Since it was Mother’s Day, and mommy needed a rest we hung around the campground and went to dinner at a restaurant called The Other Side. It had a great view of The Rockies and we watched Elk while we were eating dinner. 

It’s a good thing we rested yesterday! Today we went to Rocky Mountain National Park, the kids worked on getting their junior ranger badges and we all went hiking. O.k. I know some of you are snickering (those who know me well) but this was a hike. 1.1 miles down the mountain. It was a gorgeous walk down to Alberta Falls. Let’s just say that on the hike back UP the mountain (remember we were at an elevation of about 9,800 ft.) I wasn't focusing on the scenery. If Ted and I can still walk tomorrow, we plan on going back to the park. 

After our hike, we went to Estes Park and visited a glass shop and watched a demonstration on blowing glass. We ended our day at the old-fashioned penny candy store where we rewarded ourselves for making it back up the mountain.

Learn more about:
Estes Park Colorado: http://www.estesparkcvb.com/
Rocky Mountain-NP: http://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm
Rocky Mountain-NP Junior Ranger Program: http://www.nps.gov/romo/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm