Magical Day

We woke up early since the motel was not very comfortable. To add to it, there was rain. You always know there is a chance of rain, but then it happens and feels a little unexpected.

The rain and lack of sleep could not take away from the natural beauty of the Badlands. We were all captivated as we drove through this national park. 

Wittle Wucy was in the back taking photos!

Nothing could make me happier than watching my kids run free across beautiful lands in our great country. 

We so enjoyed watching these prairie dogs pop up and run around!

Sis captured this buffalo walking across the road toward us. It didn't get that close before turning back to the larger area, but we definitely felt its presence!

I was quite taken with this area and couldn't help but exclaiming at the view at every turn!

Just down the road we stopped at the Prairie Homestead Museum. It was in rough shape, but we could see a sod house and imagine how tough life was with the thin walls that let the wind, cold, and rain through so easily. There were tons of prairie dogs! Charlie was worried about the prairie dogs since Aaron pointed out they carry rabies.

Our next stop was Wall Drug, made famous in the 1930s for giving out free ice water!. The kids thought this sounded like a crazy stop with "Drug" in the name, but once we went they thought it was pretty neat!

The homemade doughnuts were what attracted me! They had all sorts of western art the family has collected on display. The doughnuts were excellent and the food was pretty good. 

A jack-elope sighting!

A buffalo you could pet!

There were several gift shops and places to look around at local stuff and some interesting stuff like a giant T-Rex animatronic. 

We got back on the road headed to Wyoming! Two hours later after Harry Potter trivial pursuit, state capital trivia, and a round of guessing the state’s nickname we were there! 

Devil's Tower was a little out of the way and I started to think we should skip it, but this was a big hit for our family. 

We took a beautiful hike that brought us close to the base. This was hands down Sarah Graves' favorite part of the trip and a top pick for all of us. 

Part of the time Sarah Graves and Charlie went on ahead of us and loved having their independence! We passed some hikers who asked if they were ours. I was afraid they might say they were misbehaving, but on the contrary, they said they were great but were concerned for them to be all alone. We stayed closer to them after that! 

Aaron and Sarah Graves went ahead and Charlie sweetly stayed with me. He would offer me a hand when we came to tall rocks and would wait for me or warn me about rocks. Love him so! 

The views were amazing! Crazy to think a volcano was likely in that area millions of years ago and the lava created the formation!

I did get a little nervous as it was getting close to sunset and the trail seemed to keep going. We saw several deer on our hike and Aaron saw what he thought was coyote tracks. I had visions of us being left in the dark getting back to the car with coyotes howling, but all of a sudden the trail turned and we were back at the car!

We went to a restaurant close by and had a great dinner! We had that happy closeness that comes at the end of a great day together!  

We tried to see stars while we were out in Wyoming, but it was getting late and still not totally dark. Knowing we had several hours to drive to get back to our motel, we decided to head back. We did consider if we might sleep better in the car!