i wasn’t kidding. after our 5.6 or so mile hike to mills lake on our first day, we turned around and hit the trails again on day two. the grandlidboms were set to arrive that night for a couple of days, so i wanted to cram in all the things i could before they were […]
rocky mountain national park.day one. mills lake hike.
when we came off the road in 2019, one of our regrets was that we never made it to rocky mountain national park. it was the one big park out west that we missed, but when we were in denver (in may 2017) there was a giant snow storm and most if it was closed. […]
torrington public pool.
our little layover campground between the black hills in custer and our upcoming week in rocky mountain national park was a city park in torrington, wyoming. the sites were $20 a night and there was a dump station and water and electric hookups and a level concrete pad. this alone made it so worth it. […]
fort laramie and the wyoming capitol.
whilst in torrington, we also made two wyoming based field trips. we were a little over an hour from cheyenne, so i figured we could kill a day by driving out to the capitol building. this was before i realized we would pass through cheyenne on our next travel day. oops. anyhow. we made the […]
nebraska national monuments.
after our lovely time in custer, south dakota, it was time to move on. we had a few days planned in torrington, wyoming, which was basically the halfway point between custer and our next big stop. to get there, we ended up driving down something like 25 miles of gravel road, mostly in nebraska. not […]
custer, south dakota miscellany.
we did a LOT while we were in custer. i didn’t even realize how much we kept on the go until i was composing all the posts for the things we did. but i also have a lot of fond memories of the downtime. the kiddos loved the little campground we stayed at. there was […]
the mammoth site.
for my last big adventure with the kiddos whilst in custer, south dakota, i dragged them all out to the mammoth site. it was about 45 minutes away, in hot springs, and we knew it would only take a couple of hours at most, so we were able to have a lazy morning. which means […]
black elk peak hike.
turns out, that lovely ranger from yesterday was right, and the skies cleared up and the sun came out, and anna and i woke up to a picture perfect day for a hike to black elk peak. so, once again, we geared up and packed up and headed to the trailhead bright and early (the […]
jewel cave historic lantern tour
with all of our “must do” items in custer checked off, we had a few days left to fill with any bonus activities. anna and i had been scouting a 10-ish mile hike to black elk peak, so we got up bright and early on a very dismal and foggy morning and drove over to […]
the black hills. custer state park.
when we booked our time in custer, south dakota, i knew it was close to wind cave, badlands, and mount rushmore, but i had only vaguely heard of the black hills. despite its gloomy sounding name, it turns out, the black hills are completely amazing. we got a little taste of them on our drive […]