Day 8

I woke up very early for some reason and decided to cook a large breakfast of pancakes and eggs. We let the kids sleep in a bit, and washed up and cleaned the car out a bit. After the kids got up and were fed we headed into Custer state park. Custer state park is a large state park here in South Dakota with a variety of beautiful natural vistas, views, and a large amount of wildlife including a wild buffalo herd. We started by driving in on the Needles highway. This highway is a narrow winding road that snakes its way through the granite rugged peaks in that area of the black hills and offers some spectacular views. We then stopped at the visitor center to get a junior ranger workbook for the kids. We got lucky and a gold panning demonstration was about to start. A park naturalist explained the geology of the various rocks and gold veins in the area and then demonstrated the technique of panning for gold. This was done in a creek that flowed past the visitor center. After the demonstration, everyone was allowed to try. We took of our shoes and waded in and set to work. It is actually pretty hard work and more time consuming than it appears in the movies. The kids had a blast and Grant would run up and show the naturalist every cool looking rock he found in his pan. Needless to say, we did not strike it rich and the foray ended up with Grant knocking Alex down in the cold water thus causing a meltdown. After we got Alex changed another demonstration began at the visitor center about the buffalo. The kids were interested and asked some great questions. We then drove the perimeter road of the park called the wildlife loop. We came across a wild herd of donkeys that have a penchant for begging. They caused a traffic jam as they shoved their heads into people’s vehicles hoping for a handout. We cruised around the loop and enjoyed the wildlife and scenery and headed back to camp. Tonight the camp staff gave rides of a vintage fire truck around the property. The kids thought this was great and were grinning from ear to ear. They then got their swimsuits on and headed to the waterslide and played for a bit until they got too cold. We drove into the nearby town of Hill City and had dinner at a local diner of Buffalo burgers and milkshakes. It was delicious. Some interesting local tidbits- The gunfight demonstration in Hill City that we had watched many times before when we were up here was marred by violence. One of the actors apparently had beef with another and loaded real bullets into his .45 and actually shot them during the gunfight wounding three people. On the radio we found a local Native American station and listened to some native Sioux dances and Native American political talk. During one of the local announcements they stated that school would be let out early today on account of the heat wave. It was 88 degrees.

Day 7

We packed up and got out of Estes Park at a decent time. The kids went to the Ranger station while I handled the trailer wastes and got another Junior Ranger badge. This time the park rangers made a big announcement at the visitor center and pinned the badge on the kids. They were ecstatic. We headed out of the mountains to meet up with the I25 corridor and headed up to Wyoming. Soon after crossing into Wyoming we exited the interstate and traveled some back highways on the way to South Dakota. The drive traverses rolling plains with plateaus in the backdrop. It is difficult not to imagine the long ago plains Indians chasing buffalo across this landscape that is now criss-crossed with barbed wire. Several hours into the drive the route takes you near Fort Laramie national historic site. This is the old fort made famous in Western history as a cavalry outpost, and a trading center for Pioneers and Indians. It is a great museum site to visit if given the chance. Many of the old buildings still stand, and many of the park rangers are dressed up in character telling tales of life on the old frontier. They even have an old saloon where you can by birch beer, or sarsaparilla. We cooked hot dogs in the RV and had lunch at the picnic area on the grounds. We packed up and headed on our way. We finally crossed into South Dakota and the rolling prairie gave way to the black granite, pine forested hilly landscape of the black hills. We arrived at the campsite with the sun setting at our backs. I set up the trailer, while Amy cooked, and Amy’s mom took the children to the playground. We relaxed and breathed in the pine scented air and went to sleep.

Day 6

We didn’t get a great start on the day, but headed into the park nonetheless for some more hiking. This hike was approx 5 miles round trip and ended at another alpine lake. It was quite rocky and steep in spots. It was a difficult hike but the kids did wonderfully. Grant hiked essentially the whole way himself. At the lake at the stop we took an hour break for lunch and watched a moose graze in the lilies that lined the lake. The hike down was much easier as it was downhill. After the hike everyone was exhausted. We decided to head into town and eat at a place called Wapiti’s Bar and grill. Wapiti is the Indian word for elk and this place sells elk burgers. We tried elk burgers, but we were not impressed. It was a very mild dry meat. Oh well, I can say that I have eaten elk now. We grabbed ice cream cones on the way back and took them to a playground to eat. The kids ran to play. And some lady ran up to us and demanded to know whether the ice cream had any peanuts in it. It was bubble gum and did not, but the woman let us know in no uncertain terms that her child had a severe peanut allergy and needed to know about all peanuts. I am not sure why you would bring such a child to a public park surrounded by restaurants if it would put his life in danger. We finished and headed back to camp. I took the kids to play put-put while Amy and her mother showered and cleaned up a bit. They had no idea how to play but had fun hitting and kicking the golf balls around the various obstacles. We went back to the trailer and let them watch a movie, while we secured things in the trailer, as tomorrow we head out to South Dakota. Tomorrow morning I will need to flush the black tank on the trailer. Not my favorite job.

Day 5

We got up early, made some breakfast tacos and headed to the park. We drove up to do a day hike in an area called Bear Lake. There is not much in the way of bears in Colorado anymore, but it was a very nice hike nonetheless. This park is very crowded and compared to other places we have been you do not really feel isolated, as you encounter other hikers frequently. The best part about it was the snow that was still there. Grant and Alex love to play and snow and stopped at every snowbank to make snowballs and peg each other and us with them. Grant found an area where someone had made a snow slide and had a blast sliding down on his bottom over and over again. We then hit the main trail which was about a mile and a half each way and led up to some beautiful alpine lakes. The steep terrain combined with the altitude wore the children out quickly. They made it up fine, but some deep snow prevented an easy hike. On the way down, Alex tired out and I ended up carrying her most of the way. For the afternoon I planned a drive for us along Trail Ridge road. This is a long narrow alpine road that winds throught the park and offers some magnificent views of the mountains. This seemed like a good idea until we began to ascend and clouds began to roll in. It began to rain and the temperature began to drop. This wouldn’t be a big deal except that the road is very narrow, winding and has no guardrails. There is no room for error and a small slip on ice could prove spectacularly fatal. We headed back down, and after some idiot passed us on a blind curve on the mountain roads, it cemented my reasoning for coming down from up there. We headed back to camp, and cooked two of the trout we had caught the day before while the kids played. We hit the sack tired from the days activities.

Day 4

We slept in. It was the first day not having to press on to another site so we relaxed. I had a surprise planned for Amy. At noon at one of the local mountain spas, I had gotten her a surprise mother daughter massage. I sent her and her mother to get a massage while I watched the kids. This was no easy task. Keeping track of all three is tough. We headed to town and walked around a bit. There was an old time candy store, so I took the kids in and let them pick out a small bag full of assorted candy. It so happened that this weekend in the town square was the annual Scandinavian festival. To celebrate the Nordic heritage of Colorado, performers and vendors from all over come and there is music and demonstrations. I took the children and walked around a bit. We came up on a face painting booth and both children wanted their face painted. Alex had hers done in pink and purple like a princess and Grant had half his face done as Optimus Prime. They were tickled by this and really seemed to enjoy it. I then took them for a slice of pizza for lunch. I was pleased they behaved and actually ate properly. We then went for ice cream cones and ate them at a local park. Amy and her mother were done by this time and met us at the park looking refreshed and relaxed. We headed to the National Park visitor center and got some trail maps to plan for some day hikes in the coming days. We then headed back into town to get some dinner. We ate Nepalese cuisine which was supposed to be good according to the tripadvisor review. The food was good; however the service stunk and put a scar upon the meal. We had noticed a little place called trout haven on the way to our campsite. It is one of these places with stocked trout that you fish and then pay for what you catch. We arrived and the children were very excited about catching fish. We arrived and asked how to get started. The gentleman that was there, after checking the people in front of us in, said they could not let us fish. They said that it closed to new customers at 7pm. It was 7:01. I could see the upset in the kids faces, so I pleaded with the man to let us in. He finally relented and we got started. Using line and bobbers baited with mealy worms, I soon hooked into a trout. I let Grant real it in and we added it to the bucket. After that I had trouble getting any more bites. There was a group of regular customers who fish there and apparently knew that the fish enjoy live crickets and had their own supply. They did not need any more fish and so they would hook one and let Grant and Alex reel them in. Those kids were on cloud 9. They were jumping around with excitement. Even though I had to swallow my pride a bit as a fisherman and fish a stocked pond, seeing the happiness on the children’s faces was worth it. The workers cleaned and put the fish on ice for us and we went back to the trailer with some happy tired children who were easy to put to bed. A good day.

Day 3

We packed up early and got a good start out of Colorado Springs. The plan was to stop on the way through Denver at the Denver zoo. This was a risky proposition, as driving a large trailer through the downtown streets can be tricky. There is also a question of parking at a busy zoo like the Denver zoo. We got there about an hour after it opened. It was a bit squirrelly maneuvering into the park area. We were lucky and a police officer directed us to a side street where we were able to park the trailer. We spent a good while at the zoo. The Denver zoo is a large zoo with quite a large variety of animals with very nice exhibits. It is set up in a loop pattern so it lends itself well to walking it with small children. The children enjoyed it but soon became tired about ¾ ways around. Grant as usual, made his crop of new friends and wanted to follow them around. We left the zoo around 3pm and planned to stop at a downtown burger joint called Hamburger Mary’s. We had eaten here before and they have some truly delicious hamburgers. This stop would require trickier downtown maneuvering. We looked at the map and charted a course that required the least amount of turns. Everything along the way seemed to be going as planned until I turned onto the last street. It was a narrow street between townhomes with parked cars and both sides. It was narrow but negotiable. It was negotiable until a large moving truck in front of us simply parked in the middle of the street. The mover got out, looked at me and went into one of the townhomes. He simply left the truck there idling. There was only a narrow pass on one side to try and get through. I tried, but it was impassible by a few inches. The man never returned. We were stuck on a narrow street with cars on both sides and a long trailer. People that tried to pass on the street jimmied their way past us, cursing and gesturing. There was only one way out. The trailer would have to be reversed out from this narrow street onto a busy main road. If you have ever driven with a long trailer, this isn’t exactly an easy proposition. I was not comfortable doing it, but Amy has some serious skill at backing up a trailer. She has the nickname “master helmsman”. She hopped into the seat and we grabbed our 2 way radios we use to communicate when maneuvering the trailer. Amy slowly backed the trailer up and I stopped traffic in a lane while she deftly backed the trailer into a single lane of traffic with one pass. I pumped my fists and ran up and hopped into the vehicle and off we went. We grabbed our to-go order of tasty burgers after taking a circuitous route and off we headed to the mountains. We arrived in Estes Park that evening at our campsite. Estes park is a little tourist type town at the foothills of the mountains that make up Rocky Mountain National Park. The campsite we stayed at was outside town and was a quant little place with a trout pond and stream that run alongside. We set up and let the kids play on the playground, while we watched other campers perform karaoke as it was the campground activity for the night. Tomorrow would be a day to unwind a bit.

Day 2

After a breakfast of breakfast taco’s we set out for our second long day of driving. The route took us from Amarillo to Colorado Springs. The first part of the drive through the Texas panhandle was mind numbing. Miles and miles of irrigated crop fields lay out as far as the eye could see. After crossing the border or New Mexico, the terrain began to change. It began to look more like the foothills of the Rockies. There is a small national park called Capulin volcano national monument along the route. I figured this would be a good place to stop for lunch. It is a long dormant volcano which still looks like a volcano and offers some nice views and some hiking. We made sandwiches and unhitched the trailer. The winding road to the summit did not allow trailers. We got the kids a junior ranger workbook and began a short hike followed by lunch. At national parks kids can complete a small workbook of things to find in the park. It is a scavenger hunt of sorts and after it is completed they are given a small junior ranger badge. They enjoy it, so we make an effort to do this at every national park. We finished up and hitched up and continued on our way. After several more hours of driving we arrived at our campsite in Manitou Springs Colorado. It was a small family owned place, close to town with a creek running through it. We were lucky as our campsite backed right up to the water. There is something about the sound of a babbling brook that relaxes the senses. We made a quick spaghetti dinner and ate next to the brook and enjoyed the weather. The hot Texas weather had given way to 76 degree evenings. Another RV pulled into the spot next to ours with a couple of children Grant and Alex’s age. The folks were extremely friendly and the kids played together for a bit. We then took a quick drive to see Garden of the Gods. This is a park just outside Colorado Springs that consists of these really spectacular formations of red rock. When the evening light hits it is breathtaking. We took a quick hike there and then drove into town to see the shops. They had a large arcade with many vintage games so we took the children in to play. They had fun but quickly tired. In Manitou springs they have several natural spring fountains scattered about where you can drink natural spring water. It has a unique taste, almost like carbonated water with a twist. We filled up a couple of water bottles and went home and put the very tired children to sleep.