FREE Entrance Day at National Parks

Coming up on Veterans Day on November 11th is the next FREE Entrance Day at our National Parks.

The above pictures are mine from Death Valley National Park.

FREE Entrance Day at National Parks

Coming up next week Saturday is a FREE Entrance Day at National Parks for National Public Lands Day!

The above picture is one that I took at the Grand Canyon National Park.

Where Did We Go Wednesday? Devil's Tower in Wyoming

At the end of our road trip this fall we did individual surveys to see what two places each one of us like the best. Devil's Tower in Wyoming was the number one place for all four of us which wasn't too much of a surprise because we had a lot of fun hiking around and exploring there.

The top picture is of Devil's Tower before we reached it. I thought that this image I was seen from the side of the road look like a postcard.

This next picture is of a picture of the legend, or one of many different Legends, of how Devil's Tower was formed.

Next we have a couple of pictures closer, when we were at the National Monument site. Devils Tower is a national monument and your national parks pass Works to get you in here as well.

We had the most incredible looking Sky while we were there to take pictures. I felt lucky that we had such blue skies with wisps of clouds. It really helped add to the contrast between the rocks and the sky.

Trying to take our own family photo at Devil's Tower. Again we had asked someone to take a picture and they took two, one of had all of us in it but didn't have all of Devils Tower which defeated the purpose and the other picture was out of focus.

A zoomed-in picture to see what the crevices look like in Devils Tower.

A couple of pictures of the kids hiking among the rocks and between the rocks at Devil's Tower. At one point we had to hurry them along because we needed to get going before it got too dark so that we could see some other things on the way home in Spearfish Canyon. If I would have known they would wanted to spend so much time hiking on the Rocks I would have budgeted even more time there.

There were so many places to climb and rocks to go underneath to explore.

We were mesmerised by the prairie dogs that lived in their own village outside of Devil's Tower National Monument. They are quite fascinating to watch. We got our fill of watching them here and then when we made our way to Custer State Park we spend more time looking for other animals rather than the prairie dogs that were everywhere there too.

Where Did We Go Wednesday? Mount Rushmore

From our house to Mount Rushmore it is probably about A 7 hour drive straight through. Although we didn't drive straight through, we stayed over in Sioux Falls South Dakota on the first night and then made our way to Rapid City South Dakota.

Being one state over you would think we may have visited this prior to this but there is a lot of nothing to look at during that 7 hour drive the really interesting part of South Dakota doesn't happen until you are in the 60 miles on the western side of the state.

It seems that thanks to Facebook a lot of people are visiting Mount Rushmore. I am not sure if there is that many more visitors or I am just made more aware of it because people are posting their vacations on that social media outlet.

My kids had 3 days off from school before the weekend for a fall vacation and we were going to take advantage of five days in a row when it was pretty nice weather to make this road trip.

Usually the one complaint I have heard from people who make this road trip in the summer is that it is really hot and really busy, I guess that's two complaints. My Hope Was That by going in the fall we would be past the hot weather and it would not be very busy. Both of my assumptions were correct and we were very happy that we went during the fall. Although going during the fall there are some things that are not open that are only open during the summer but everything we wanted to see including Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, Devil's Tower, and Custer State Park were all open. Plus there were several other things we saw as well.

Trying our best to get a family picture at Mount Rushmore. Someone did offer to take our picture but it seems every time someone does they can't seem to figure to get all of us in the picture and keep it in focus.

Below are some pictures that I zoomed in so that we could see greater detail on each of the president's faces.

Where Did We Go Wednesday? Death Valley, California

This was our unexpected find on our trip 2 Nevada, California, and Arizona. We knew we were going there but our expectations were a little low. Going to the known hottest place on Earth doesn't give you too high of expectations. But because we were so close I wasn't going to miss this opportunity to check it out and see what see what Death Valley look like.

Upon first driving into this National Park my husband commented that it looked like scenes from Star Wars where we were. Once we got to the ranger station we learned that in fact there were several scenes from Star Wars actually filmed in this National Park.

The top picture of me in it was one of the first places we stopped and we're just amazed. It was hard to take it all in. The immense beauty of it all was enormous. The picture right below it is of badwater basin where the lowest recorded temperature on Earth is.

Here is our attempt at getting some family photos at Death Valley. We went as early in the morning as we could get up and drive there from Las Vegas. The temperature hadn't risen too hot and we happen to be going on a day that was actually lower than normal. As we were leaving at lunch time it was just reaching 100 degrees which is not typical normally it has already reached that temperature much earlier in the day.

In the pictures above one is called artist palette and that is one location that Star Wars was filmed at. The other spot is called Devil's Golf Course. One look at that location we knew that if anyone fell trying to walk out there they would be ripped up a lot.

Upon entering the ranger station there is a sign that warns you of extreme heat Danger after 10am. The rental car had a hard time keeping up the AC and we made sure to have our CamelBaks full as well as a lot bottles of water in the car. Two of the pictures are of badwater Basin, including the one of my husband sitting on the ground looking like he is dehydrated. The other one is of the kids at one of our first stops upon entering Death Valley.

FREE Admission to National Parks for Veteran's Weekend (Nov 11-12)

In honor of Veteran's Weekend, there is FREE VEHICLE ADMISSION at all National Parks. YOu have 2 days to get out and enjoy the nature in these places for FREE!

Where Did We Go Wednesday? Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is a place I have wanted to go visit and see for a long time. I am sure it is One place that is on many people's travel bucket list. Even though I have captured these awesome images on my camera and some on video as well it is hard to really grasp the hand massiveness of the Grand Canyon. Once you are there you are overwhelmed with how expansive it is. We had only done the southern rim and went to the stops on the southern rim. Someday we may get there and tour the northern rim and do some hiking in the canyon. When we were there in June it was quite hot and even though we had our hydration packs doing a lot of hiking was not on our agenda.

We took full advantage of The Trolley system that they have that runs through this National Park. I was very impressed with all of the signage and busing that were in place at this National Park. They were very sure to make sure that people were aware where the trolley stops were, bathrooms that were available, and water Outlets. It seemed there was enough places to fill up water as needed along the Route. Again we wore our hydration packs and throughout the strip we learned that my daughter drinks a lot of water and had to continually refill her hydration pack or she would drink out of hours because she consumed so much water. 

We arrived early enough that it didn't take too long to get into The National Park and find parking. I had read the tips about getting on the bus transfer outside of the park and we had attempted to do that but didn't make it quite in time and didn't want to wait for the next one to show up so we took our chances had to getting there and finding parking for ourselves. By 10 a.m. there We're many buses of tour groups that had been showing up. We had gotten there before them so we didn't have to wait as long and places because we started on our trolley stops before they got there.

We didn't just do the trolley stops we did do some hiking in between a few of the stops because we wanted to be able to see some of it from the trail perspective rather than just from the stops.

Getting in was really quick and easy because we had our national parks pass. We bought one when we went to Death Valley National Park. After our Fall Road Trip to the Badlands National Park we will probably be breaking even on the cost of the national parks pass. We were also able to use our national parks pass when we were touring the different rock formations in Sedona, as they accept that pass for payment.

FREE Admission to National Parks THIS SATURDAY

In honor of National Public Lands Day, there is FREE VEHICLE ADMISSION to all National Parks. Enjoy! 

FREE ADMISSION to National Parks THIS FRIDAY

It is the birthday of the National Park Service, so get out an celebrate at your favorite National Park with FREE vehicle admission.

10 FREE Trees from the National Arbor Day Foundation with Membership

Tomorrow is Arbor Day, so why not join the National Arbor Day Foundation (starting at $10) and get 10 free trees! You can get the trees for yourself, have them sent to someone else, have them planted in a rainforest or have them planted in a National Park. Your choice!

FREE Admission at National Parks THIS WEEK!

This week through April 23rd is National Parks Week!!! So, All Vehicle Admission fees are waived. A great time to go check them out!