We went on a long summer vacation in July. It was the longest trip we have ever taken.

We were gone for 12 nights, drove 3,720 miles, visited 6 states and 4 national parks. We saw lots of wildlife and natural wonders.

The first day we drove through Wisconsin to Little Falls, Minnesota and stayed at the Charles A. Lindbergh state park. It turned into a very long day because there was a lot of traffic through the Dells area and it rained most of the day. We also had a trailer tire blow out between the Dells and Eau Claire. We arrived late at the state park, set up camp, ate dinner and went to bed. One interesting part of this day was crossing the Mississippi River at five different places.

The second day we drove to Medora, North Dakota in the Bad Lands. The weather was beautiful and the day went much better, except for the rock that hit the windshield as we went through Bismark, ND. Most of the drive through North Dakota is rolling hills, but as you go west, you definately seem to be going uphill more than down. The area around Medora is beautiful and it really starts to look like "The West".

The third day took us all the way through Montana to the little town of Gardiner, which is just outside of Yellowstone National Park. Are campsite was right on the Yellowstone River. It was great falling asleep to the sound of the river and the breezes.

The fourth day was a short trip south into Yellowstone National Park to the Grant Village Campground on the shore of the "West Thumb" of Yellowstone Lake. We saw lots of bison and elk on the way to our campground. We set up camp amongst the lodge pole pine trees, had lunch and then went explore the West Thumb Geyser Basin.

The fifth day we went to the Upper Geyser Basin to see Old Faithful. Our timing couldn't have been better. We walked up, found a good viewing spot and then Old Faithful went off. We then explored the rest of the Upper Geyser Basin and saw several other geyser erupt. At one point I was on a walkway between to geysers that were erupting at the same time. It is amazing how each geyser has it's own distinct characteristics. To geysers can be a few feet apart with totally different behavior. After lunch and ice cream from the Old Faithful Inn we went to the Fishing Bridge area to see where Yellowstone Lake empties into the Yellowstone River.

The sixth day we drove south through the park and into the Grand Teton National Park to see Jackson Lake and the Grand Teton Mountains. On the way back we had a picnic on the shore of Jackson Lake. We also saw the Snake River, Lewis Lake, Lewis Falls and the Lewis River Canyon. The canyon was devastated during the 1988 forest fires and you can still see all the downed trees.

On the seventh day... We did not rest, but headed up into the northwest portion of the park to see the Midway Geyser Basin and the Mammoth Hot Springs area. We saw lots of geysers, mud pots, hot springs and fumaroles. We also saw a lot more wildlife, from the tiny Uinta Ground Squirrels all the way up to Elk and Bison. This was the only time we saw a coyote in spite of the fact that I heard them most nights. The biggest highlight of the day was stopping to see the Great Fountain Geyser. This geyser erupts every 8 to 12 hours. When we stopped, we discovered that we had arrived at the beginning of the four hour window. We sat down on one of the benches too see if our luck with the geysers would continue and it did. Within ten minutes of our arrival it started to get active, with several short periods of boiling and bubbling. Then 15 minutes after we sat down it went off. The Great Fountain is one of the more impressive geysers in the park. When it goes off it sends out massive sprays of water and continues to erupt for about an hour.

The eighth day was spent mainly in search of wildlife. We went north again, but through the center of the park and then out towards the north east corner. This took us up the path of the Yellowstone River and then out into the Lamar River Valley. Along the way we stopped and saw the Upper and Lower Falls. Getting to the Lower Falls was quite a work out as the path down was mainly stairways with a total of 328 steps. The real workout was getting back up again. We saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from both sides and stopped at Inspiration Point where can look up the canyon and see both the Upper and Lower falls at the same time. We also stopped at Tower Falls and had ice cream again. From there we went east into the Lamar Valley and saw herds of bison, elk and pronghorn. At a rest stop, we were told that there were some further bears along the road. When we got to the first area, there were dozens of cars parked along the side of the road. We found a safe place to park and I got out to see if the bears were actually there. It turned out that the bears, a grizzly with two cubs, were more than 500 yards away down in the valley and they had disappeared into a cluster of trees, so we moved on. Bear sightings quickly become traffic jams, and a little further on we came to another "Bear Jam". This time it was a young black bear that was really close to the road. We took a few pictures and some video of the bear. On our way back, we encountered the same two bear jams again. The black bear had crossed to the other side of the road. There were a lot more cars this time and many people we getting way too close to the bear. A ranger pulled up and got everyone back in their cars and started waving the traffic through to clear up the traffic. When we got back to the first bear jam, the grizzlies were out in the open, but so far away that they weren't more than dots. The traffic was so bad, that we didn't even stop this time. So many people were stopping almost anywhere to jump out and see the bears, that it seemed pretty dangerous. In both cases it seemed that we were in more danger of getting hurt by tourists than by the bears.

On day nine we left Yellowstone and headed for the Black Hills of South Dakota. On our way out of the park, we saw even more wildlife, with a group of Elk crossing the campground entrance into the woods behind the gas station. Then we saw a bull elk and some more bison on the way out. Most of this day was uneventful until another tire blew out on the trailer about an hour away from our destination. We were able to get it changed a lot faster this time and only lost about twenty minutes.

The main event for the tenth day was a visit to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. The sanctuary is set in 11,000 acres of land just south of Hot Springs, SD. The land and the horses were amazing. We also saw a cliff face covered in petroglyphs, wild turkeys, deer and a bull snake. Part of the sanctuary is sacred to the Lakota and they hold an annual sundance festival there. We saw the compound and the Tree of Life that they set up each year for the festival. The sanctuary land has also been used for the setting of television mini series "Crazy Horse" and the opening scenes of Hidalgo.

On the eleventh day, we went to Wind Cave National Park and took a tour inside with one of the best tour guides we have ever had anywhere. Wind Cave is the fourth longest cave in the world and considered to be the most complex because the 134 miles of explored tunnels are layered and twisted so much that they fit under a square mile of surface. After lunch we went to the Crazy Horse memorial and then to Mount Rushmore National Park. We stayed at Mount Rushmore to see the very patriotic evening ceremony, during which recited the Pledge of Allegiance, watched boy scouts retire the flag and then sang the National Anthem at the end of which they lit up the mountain.

The last two days were pleasant but uneventful as we made our way across South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to get home again.

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