NPT Day 5 Yellowstone-Mammoth Spring

We woke up in the morning in Shell, ate breakfast and took off immediately for Yellowstone.  We got to our campsite, set it up and took off for the park.  We were unable to get a site inside the park because those are booked the first day they open up reservations a year in advance.

We went to Mammoth spring this day, after setting up camp.  

This name is fitting because it is MAMMOTH!

It had little springs by it too!  But you can see all the mineral deposits on the rock below.  This is the place in Yellowstone that changes the most because the spring mineral deposits change the look of it the quickest.

These springs were so pretty!  The kids had a million questions about the hot springs!  They just couldn't grasp that it was natural and hot!

Just look at the sky and the spring and the mountains!  It was amazing!  

And again, we had a WONDERFUL view from our campsite!

That is the yellowstone river.

And Joey was enjoying the view while cooking too!!!  He hasn't cooked in the mountains lately.

This is the first time on the trip that we stayed longer than one night.  We stayed here for 3 days and took in a lot of Yellowstone!

NPT Day 3-Custar State park and Devils bath tub

The next place we visited was Custar State Park.  That's right, STATE park.  It was worth it.  This place is very pretty as well.  Lots of stone/rock and views. 

We stopped and did a little hiking and found the "hole in the wall" stop and checked it out. 

We did not want to take our camper with us because we knew it would be tight to fit in places, like these tunnels.  They are one lane and narrow, but oh so neat.  

More rock and views and this photo thanks to Josie!

This is just some of the rock/views driving thru the park.

It is a very pretty park and I am glad we went thru it.  I recommend if you are ever in the area!

We then picked up our camper and headed to our next location and campground.  We were going to Devils bathtub in Spearfish, SD.

The spearfish creek and waterfall!  So pretty! We were prepared to get wet with our hike and views so we were ready in our bathing suits and water shoes. 

We were able to hike right up to the waterfall.  The kids thought this was the coolest!  The water was super cold but the day was hot so it was refreshing. 

And then after that we headed to Devils bathtub!  It was about 1.5 mile hike to get to and we had rock and the creek to cross over several times.  The kids did really good with the hike. Here is some of the terrain we hiked.

I just really enjoyed how the light was hitting the creek when we were there.  These pictures do not show just how pretty this was. 

And here is Josie going down the "slide"  

We all did this and it did scrape up the back of your thighs a little bit so I only did it twice.  The water was freezing but it was worth it! 

And then back to the Campground for the night! 

NPT Day 4-Devils tower and Shell Waterfall

The next morning we packed up and headed to Devils Tower.  This is had been created by hot magma coming up from the earth.  It is a big rock. 

On the stop to get up to devils tower we stopped and saw some prairie dogs on the prairie.   The kid loved this as we were able to walk into the prairie and they would stay out up until the last minute of us getting close and then they would hide in their holes.  We were up close and personal with them.  Of course our kids loved that and loved the "barking" noises they made and thought they were so cute!

We had to drop our camper, then wait in line in our vehicle to get to the to the tower.  They have limited parking near it.  Eli was being a little rowdy, aka annoying, so the kids and I walked up to it passing all the cars on the side of the road.  It was maybe about a 1-1.5 mile walk up hill to get to the tower.  We all did fine and it was helpful for Eli to get out that energy!

Trying to "hold" the tower up like people do in France....

These 2 pictures really show the size of it.  It is crazy big!

Then after that we picked our camper back up and headed to Yellowstone.  This was going to be a stop in the middle to break up the drive some.  We came in from the north and we drove on this very windy, elevation climbing road to Shell WY.  We drove into the clouds that was how much elevation we climbed.  This is a picture of the drive.  It was a very cloudy day so visibility was minimal, and it is soooo curvy and steep it made the drive pretty unsafe.  That car is closer than it appears in the picture.  I was glad Joey was driving instead of me.  I was little on edge, but also was able to admire the beauty of the mountain.

But while on that drive there was a little hidden gem we did not know about.  There was a sign for a lookout and I told Joey to pull into it so we could check it out.  He wasn't really keen on stopping as he wanted to get to the campground but did it anyway and I am sure glad he did!  

Shell waterfall and river was flowing thru the mountain and this scenic overlook was AWESOME!  I think, out of all the waterfalls we saw on this trip this one was my favorite.  

Again the pictures and videos do not fully capture the beauty of this!  If you are ever on Death Road heading to Shell, you need to stop!

After this we headed to our campsite that was in the town of Shell, population 74....

I was not quite sure about this campground, but we were there total for about 13 hours and we had a wonderful view and it was fine for one night!

Here was our view!

NPT day 2

Day 2 was our first "official" day of vacay and doing something fun other than driving.  It was AWESOME!  This was beautiful and I am so glad I was able to experience this.  Awesome views and awesome weather.  

Family pic

These pictures will not do this justice, trust me.  

Eli climbing on the rock.

Finding shade

It is so vast

We did a about a 1.5 mile hike in on Notch trail and our kids did great at it.  I did hear Josie say at least 100x's she is hot, but otherwise they did phenomenal on the hike. 

This was the view that we ate lunch at.  Just sat on rock and chilled.

I wish these pictures really showed the beauty and depth of the badlands.  I sure tried.

This was at Bigfoot lookout and found the one bit of color.  It spoke to me....LOL!

Definitely glad we made it to the badlands.  I highly recommend. 

Each morning we put our camper down and go on to another site and place to see.  After we did the Badlands we drove to our next campsite. 

Hopefully this one will be quiet and by the looks of it we would...except the sun was up and bright by 5:50am so Joey and I both woke up. Shade would have been nice.  I met our camping twins.  They had a pop up with a slide out, being pulled by a minivan, they are a family of 5 and get this, they had a unicycle.  Their son unicycles.  What are the chances of 2 popups and 2 unicycles at the same campground.  I woulda gotta pic but didn't want to seem weird..which is very unlike me.  

We ended up going to Mount Rushmore this evening because we had time and I am sure glad we did.  We caught the lighting ceremony.  We did see it before it got dark and then also with the Musco lighting from Oskaloosa IA light it up.  

We had some delish ice cream to enjoy while watching the ceremony.  The kids thought this was cool and they had learned about it in school so this was a WIN!!!

Mount Rushmore lit up!

They represented all the states and how canny is it that I had my Ohio sweatshirt on in the same writing. :)

And the kids wanted to represent Iowa.