Written by Nathanael Whisonant and Nicholas Whisonant

Damien at Custer State Park

We wake up at a campground in Custer, SD. We eat breakfast and leave for the day. First we go to the national museum of woodcarving.

My mom and dad go into the museum and come back to the car and said that the four older kids could get out. Ends up that just dad, Ryon, Alex, and I (Nathanael) get out. We go in and pay for us.

First we watch a movie about the woodcarving at the museum. It was very good. Then we go and look at the wood carving. Some of carvings could move and talk, others couldn’t. The carvings were awesome. After we looked at the carvings, we met a man who worked there and does handmade carvings. We talked with him and he showed us some really cool and funny carvings. One of the cool things was he took his belt and a wood tobacco pipe, he put the belt over the top of the pipe-shaped wood and put the pipe on my finger. You know what, it balanced on my finger. It was awesome. After that we went and saw a few people using little electric tools to make wooden birds. Finally we go into the gift shop and look around. They had some very good looking carvings and we ended up getting a cribbage board which is beautiful. If any of you ever go to Custer, I highly recommend going there.   (By Nathanael)

At the National Woodcarving Museum

At the National Woodcarving Museum

Then we went to the Mammoth Site. It was amazing. We learned that there were two different kinds of species, the Wooly and Columbian Mammoths. The Columbian was 4.3 meters high and the Wooly was 3.4 meters high. One of their predators was the Giant Short-Faced Bear. He could take out a Columbian. The Giant Short-Faced Bear could, if it stood on its hind legs and strained its arms, reach 15ft 4in tall, about to the shoulder of a Columbian mammoth. There was first a sinkhole, then it turned into a hot spring. The mammoths liked to get into the pool because it was warm, but once they got in they never got out because they drowned. However, their bones were preserved in it. Eventually the hot spring filled in and became a hill so the bones were preserved. Years later a man bought the land to build some apartments. The hill needed to be flattened. So when they were working on it a bulldozer turned over some bones and the owner immediately stopped work and sold it at cost to an archeologist who began to excavate the fossils. Eventually it became the Mammoth Site. I highly recommend it. As a matter of fact the sink hole is still being worked in. If you go there you might be able to see them work in it. Make sure you go in the summer or it is highly unlikely that you will see them working in it because in the winter they work in the lab on the artifacts and fossils found during the dig in the summer. (By Nicholas)

Our family at the Mammoth Site

Skeleton of Giant Short-Faced Bear

After leaving the Mammoth Site, we drove into Custer State Park and took some of the wildlife loop. This is a very large state park with long scenic drives. We saw elk and what I believe was a Yellow-Bellied Marmot along with mule deer and bison. I never thought it would be possible to not be excited about seeing a bison, but we sure have seen a lot of them in the past several parks. It is encouraging to see so many as we all know how close to extinction they became. I still love to try to get into areas in these parks where I can’t even see the road and just imagine what it was like for the Native Americans, trappers, pioneers, etc. when they first arrived in these parts and all the natural beauty that they saw.

Yellow-Bellied Marmot?

Prairie Dog – I had to work to get this good of a picture

The West is so full of National Parks, that it has caused me to wonder why we have so few National Parks in the East. Yes, I know that we do have some, and some people may argue that there isn’t such unusual beauty in the East, but I am beginning to think that much of the very natural beauty in the East was already gone way before the idea of National Parks began. A good bit of the East was settled long before National Parks were born. Many of the old-wood forests were already gone – the really huge Live Oak trees had already been cut for being made into ship masts and such. It is disappointing that so much of the beauty of the East is commercialized and/or privatized. You can’t easily go to many natural beaches in the Carolinas and just enjoy the natural beauty. I wish I could though. It would be nice to be able to have a glimpse of what settlers would have seen when they first came to the Carolina coasts – not just huge hotels or lots of houses with throngs of people covering the beaches. I guess for now I will just have to use my imagination (or pay a lot of money to travel to someplace like Cumberland Island, GA – at least I think it costs a pretty penny; I could be wrong). Fortunately, I can still find a good deal of beauty in the Carolinas, and I love to go drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway – what a blessing that place is!

Blessings,

Rebecca

Isaac’s 7th birthday on the road

We have a birthday on the road today; Happy Birthday Isaac! Isaac is 7 years old today! He has been such a blessing to our family. On this trip, we have been able to count on Isaac to be full of questions about what he is seeing, and he has been pretty well-behaved, although he does like to get into mischief sometimes. -Rebecca

Damien on the bus

Today it didn’t take long to figure out what we were going to do. We were going to go to the Horse Sanctuary to see wild mustangs. (It was real cool to see a bunch of old Fords running around.)😉 The Ranch was started back in 1988, by Dayton Hyde. Dayton went to D.C. with several men who were in high positions at his side asking for a grant for a large number of mustangs. With some persuasion he finally was granted 300 mustangs. After some time he finally found a place not far from Hot Springs, SD to let all 300 mustangs prance freely through pastures. He named the ranch IRAM (Institute of Range And American Mustang.) Today they have about 600 mustangs. Many of the newer horses were brought there to retire. IRAM originally had only several thousand acres, but over the course of the years it has grown to be about 11,000 acres. At least two movies have been filmed on IRAM. For one of the films they made a replica of what they thought Fort Robinson would have looked like, but today it has no purpose but to store a few items and for the horses to go in. I seem to have neglected mentioning that though these horses live on a ranch they are pretty much self-reliant and only moved to different pastures when in need of grass and at the change of the seasons. In the drier times they are also given water but other than that they are technically wild.

Wild paints

Ryon and AnaClaire. She was so excited about seeing the horses, but a little nervous about being close to one

Spanish mustangs

When we finally got to IRAM it didn’t take us long to find some mustangs grazing in the field. We drove on to the main building complex of the ranch where we found out we only had 20 minutes to eat lunch before we got on a bus tour to see the mustangs and different parts of the ranch. After we sat down to eat lunch we got on the bus. The first two places we got out were overlooks. The first overlook was of the building complex which includes the barn, the office and gift shop, a few small pens with turkeys roaming around in them, and a bunch of campers and RV’s for the employees and volunteers to live in with a river in the back ground. The second overlook was of the fort. The guide told us this story where a bunch of rocks used to be animals while others were part of an old huge mushroom grove. It really was quite funny how so many people have such huge imaginations (though the guide didn’t truly believe these stories any more than the rest of us.) We then went through a field with hundreds of horses (which weren’t supposed to be paints but there was one which everyone thought might be one which was placed with these solids.) (When I say “solids” I mean a horse with a solid color.) There was one horse there which used to be part of a Mexican rodeo who had had the tip of its ears cut off. No one could understand how this could help a rodeo horse work better or why it was done to the horse. When we got to a gate to get to another pasture, we saw a paint which was supposed to be with the other paints but had somehow gotten with the solids. We then went through and were able to go by where some Native Americans from the Lakota Sioux were setting up teepees and such for their upcoming ceremony called “The Sun Dance” which takes a total of four days to accomplish (I think.) We then went on to see some paints where we were able to see quite a variety of beautiful paints of all colors. Many were VERY beautiful and majestic creatures. We then went on and were quite fortunate to see some ancient petroglyphs on some cliffs which had many different shapes. One or two of them looked like a horse which mystifies many because at the time these were carved there weren’t any horses to be found in the Americas. The guide believes that the image of the horse was carved into the cliff at a later point in time. Then  there also were some other petroglyphs which looked like mammoths. They were super cool. We were all able to pet several horses while we were looking at the petroglyphs. We then went to yet another pasture where we were able to become somewhat acquainted with some Spanish Mustangs which were a smaller breed. I thought it was rather funny that the Native Mexicans thought that these small creatures with Hernan Cortez’s men were huge monsters with men riding on them. These horses really aren’t all that much bigger than a large deer. After this we saw an old homestead with the house falling down and the barn, well… there are only some signs left that there even was one. We then went by an old school which had been repaired and is now quite a beautiful old building.

Petroglyphs carved into a cliffside

Who can guess what these are? Dad, you seem to be pretty good at this!

One of the teepees and the “Tree of Life” set up for the Sun Dance

When we got back from this two hour+ tour we had a snack and went and bought some postcards. We then got in the van satisfied with a fun afternoon of driving through horses and learning about their history of how they got into these pastures. Out of all of us AnaClaire had to have had the most fun. She was sticking her head out the windows and squealing whenever we got close to horses. It took her a couple of times of getting close before she warmed up to the idea of petting one. I think it really enlightened Dad on many things, and so now finally we got him to say that he would at least entertain the idea of getting a horse if we do the research. He is now convinced that if he gets one it may be best to try to purchase one of these mares’ colts, as these are supposed to be good at quite a variety of different activities. If any of you ever plan on coming to southwestern South Dakota, this ranch is a GREAT family activity and is sure to send the little ones squealing and the older family members into great delight. Again this ranch is called IRAM.

Written by: First Man on Mars (keep reading, there is a bonus below…)

Alex, Annette, and Amelia on the bus

Isaac and Damien on the bus (pinching has been Damien’s favorite pastime on this trip!)

Damien deep in thought

An American Incite

Those poor English Ladies and Gentleman,

They all had to put up with such a pathetic Monarch, who was no true Man,

When they all heard of the land of the New Sunrise,

They all risked everything while others sold themselves to start on a new rise,

Crossing the ocean caused many to die while trying to insure another try,

When the survivors reached the land of the Sunrise,

They all knelt in prayer and thanksgiving to God for reaching the land of beginning,

It didn’t take long for these Ladies and Gents to figure out it wasn’t the land of the new Sunrise,

But the land of opportunity and New Beginning,

When these people started moving to the West Coast,

They all found a New Sunrise once more,

When they saw that risen sun they all remembered once more why they all moved to this land of opportunity,

That sun rising over the crested hills and coming out of the canyons caused many a man to kneel down and weep in thankfulness for their freedom and for their new chances which come with the sunrise every day,

The Sunset did the same thing,

It made them remember that even though that day may have been bad, the next day would bring new chances,

Today many take for granted the gift of the New Sunrise, forgetting that their ancestors came here for a new beginning which began with the New Sunrise,

Now the US needs to look towards the New Sunrise to remind it there is always a brighter day.

I wrote this while we were in the California-Oregon-Washington area

Composed By: First Man on Mars

[CW1]

Our family at Mt. Rushmore

Today we decided that Mount Rushmore was the top thing to do on our list. After an oatmeal breakfast (or bacon and fruit and nuts for Charlie and I), we drove over there. It was a bright, beautiful day and was already quite warm, so we tried to be prepared for that kind of weather. We made sure that everyone had hats, and we actually brought sunscreen with us.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore was different than many of the things we have done so far. I was trying to decide why it felt so different, and I believe that I arrived at the conclusion that this is one of the few man-made creations that we have seen. We learned a little about its creation, saw the monument, and took a trail that led us a little closer (that trail was a good workout – there were lots of steps). After the trail, we saw no reason to do much else. Everything was SO busy. We did stop by the gift shop of course, but after that we hurried back to the car so that we could go find a place for a picnic. We all decided that we were glad that we saw Mt. Rushmore, but it isn’t something we feel like we would ever need to come back and see again. The highlight of the day, at least for Charlie and I, was speaking with a Native American park ranger. He explained to us that he was a member of the Lakota Sioux and that he had just begun working with the National Park. His job with Mt. Rushmore was primarily to help educate visitors about the Native Americans. He is also working with the park system to put in some kind of outdoor Native American exhibit there at Mount Rushmore. He spoke with us about some of the history of his tribe and their difficulties with the American government in the past not sticking to the treaties that were made between the government and the Native Americans. He even mentioned that his tribe had been given the Black Hills in one of the treaties, but the government came and stole it from them. I do pray that one day our government can find a way to do right be the Native Americans.

The Black Hills

The South Dakota grasslands in Wind Cave National Park

We had our picnic and drove around for a little while (I even took a nap – no caffeine this morning). It was pretty warm, so we stopped to treat the kids to an ice cream. We eventually ended up at Wind Cave National Park and decided, despite our past experiences, to do a 1 ½ hour cave tour. We love to see caves, but in the past we have had several experiences where one of us has taken a baby out of the cave because they were too fussy. However, we decided to try again. All kids, except AnaClaire, did great in the cave. Poor Charlie ended up carrying Damien, asleep in his arms, through a large part of the cave, but while Damien was awake, he did well going up and down the stairs and was just amazed at so much of what he saw. AnaClaire fussed throughout much of the cave, simply because she did not want to be in the backpack or carried; she just wanted to get down and move. I did the whole tour with her anyway, but as soon as we were finished I put her down so that she could walk around, which she was much happier about. The cave is considered to be a dry cave, so you don’t have the stalactites and stalagmites that you often see in other caves. However, it did have something called boxwork formations that really looked like thin spider webs. It was very unusual, and the ranger told us that 95% of the box formations in caves throughout the world are found in Wind Cave. After the tour the older kids were asking the ranger all kinds of questions, so he ended up taking them to see the natural entrance of the cave. How special that was for them!

Boxwork inside Wind Cave

Back to the campground we went to fix dinner and settle in for a quiet evening. Ryon and I worked on a paper that he needs to turn in, and we all headed off for an earlier bedtime than we have been having.

Blessings,

Rebecca

This morning we drove into Lander to take a tour of Wyoming Catholic College. I had thought that we might as well see it while we were in the area as one of the kids may be interested in going there one day. It is a very small school (currently with about 150 students for the 2015-2016 year). It is also a very new school as it opened in 2007. They integrate a lot of outdoor activities in the curriculum (incoming freshman do a 3 week wilderness campout prior to the beginning of the term). We have heard great things about them from a South Carolina family we know well. Maybe this tour will lead to something for one of our kids one day.

After our tour, we picked up the camper and pulled out of Lander driving east. We will be home in less than two weeks now. It is hard to believe. We needed to do some grocery shopping, so we made a couple stops and then kept moving. It is a beautiful, warm day with bright blue skies. The kids are mostly in good spirits, although Amelia keeps falling apart on us over every little thing. She hasn’t been napping and is in desperate need of one.

Driving through Wyoming we see mostly just more empty high desert. For miles, we saw next to no houses. There are pronghorn antelope everywhere. We trained the kids early on in the trip to at least give a direction for what they were seeing, so we are hearing a great deal of, “Pronghorn on the right” or “Oil rig on the left.” The further east we get, we finally begin seeing a little more grasslands than just high desert. There are no trees. As we begin going north in Wyoming we see oil rigs, grasslands, a few ranches, lots of train tracks, and oil storage places. It isn’t completely flat here as there are plenty of hills, but it is so different from the forests of the East.

The vast open grasslands in Wyoming

While driving north on Wyoming Hwy 59, we see a lot of trains full of coal. I’ve seen this a lot in West Virginia and southwestern Virginia, but I had no idea there was coal in Wyoming. When we turn onto Hwy 450, we see one sign regarding the Thunder Basin Coal Mine and another sign saying Thunder Basin National Grasslands. At first we are admiring the grasslands, but then we begin to see big piles of dirt around big holes in the ground – a coal mine. They are literally moving the soil to the side to dig down and get the coal out of the ground, surrounded by National Grasslands. It did make me wonder, when I am in a grasslands area with no trees, why they are digging coal out of the ground when they could have solar panels or wind turbines sitting on top of the ground, probably not doing the destruction to the earth that the mining for coal does (sorry for that crazy sentence – hope it makes sense).

You can’t see it well, but there are HUGE piles of dirt around the outside with a big hole in the ground in the middle where coal is being extracted.

Trains full of coal

While we are driving, the kids do a variety of things. Most like to read on their Kindles (or play cribbage on them). There ia always a lot of conversation going on. Nicholas is trying his hand at some drawing. Sometimes they are going through a book on North American wildlife that we have. They beg me often to read out loud, books or blog comments. Of course, they all like to irritate each other at times. Alex has been having fun playing tic-tac-toe on the Magna Doodle with Damien. Charlie, of course, is always driving. Ryon writes in his journal at times and is trying to finish up some of his schoolwork. Some of the younger ones like to color with their colored pencils in their tablets (and then dump their colored pencils all over the floor and leave their drawings on the floor to be trampled on the way out of the van to the bathroom). However, for the most part, I hear a lot of happiness and curiosity about the world around them. I thank God for these days with my family seeing our beautiful, diverse country. I know that I will always cherish these memories (and the fact that I wrote so many of them down). I am so blessed to have the family that I have – a wonderful, devoted husband, 10 fantastic children, generous parents and in-laws, and countless other family and friends who love and care for us! Thank you all!

Blessings,

Rebecca

We began our day in a WalMart parking lot in Riverton, Wyoming. We decided to drive to Lander, Wyoming for Mass at Holy Rosary Catholic Church. When we drove into the town of Lander, there was a sign giving the population at 7000 +. It was my turn to be at the back of the church with any loudmouths that we have. I always stay in the back of the church until just before Mass begins so that I’m not wasting any quiet time AnaClaire may give me by sitting in the church waiting for Mass to start. Anyway, as I was in the back of the church waiting, I was watching the people come in. I was utterly amazed at the number of people coming in. I finally asked the greeter whether this church served a wide area or if there were really that many Catholics in the area. She told me that there are a good many Catholics in the area. Of course, this is also where Wyoming Catholic College is located, so I knew there would be professors with their families living in the area. She also explained that many of the students from the early graduating classes have remained in the area and begun raising families, so their Catholic population is growing. I saw a lot of young families. The Mass was beautiful. What I heard of the homily was great – Charlie said it was probably in his top ten homilies he has ever heard.

After Mass, we drove to a nearby state park called Sinks Canyon. There was a beautiful rushing river, and we found a very inexpensive campground to stay in right beside the river. We dropped the camper off and left for a day of exploring.

The first thing that we did was drive to the nearby gravesite of Sacagawea. She was buried in a Native American cemetery that is still active. She was the Shoshone woman who travelled with her French trapper husband and baby with the Lewis and Clark expedition. She later settled with the Shoshone people in a nearby area. It was really amazing to see her grave, as well as some of the older graves there and very new ones.

St. Stephen Mission Church

After leaving there, Charlie and I remembered seeing a sign for St. Stephen’s Mission, so we decided to go see what that was all about. Just before we left, we discovered another Catholic mission that was close to the cemetery he had visited. When we arrived at St. Stephen’s, they were just getting ready for Mass so we were able to slip inside to see the church quickly before Mass began and then walk around the grounds a little. This had been a Jesuit mission church also.

Beautiful artistry inside the mission church

The ceiling inside St. Stephen mission

Next we did a little grocery shopping and drove back to the campground to grill our burgers and hot dogs. This was only the second time that we have indulged in burgers and hot dogs, so they were a real treat. Charlie did such a good job cooking them. The kids played on the gigantic rocks for a while, and then we decided to go walk to the Wind River for a little bit. We were able to walk across the river on a swinging bridge. The kids loved it, but it made me a little nervous. We all made it over and back safely and decided not to hike too much more as it was getting to be dusk, and we really didn’t want to encounter some of the wildlife that might be out and about at that time of the evening.

The Wind River at our campground

On the bridge over the Wind River

After putting the kids to bed, Charlie and I went outside to see the stars. As the sky grew darker and darker, more and more stars were visible. It was magnificent! We didn’t have a huge sky to look at because we were camping in a canyon, but what we could see straight above us was a treat. It was such a beautifully clear night. We watched the stars for a while, pondering the beauty of God’s creations.

Blessings,

Rebecca

Isaac and Alex putting their hands in the water

As we drove through Yellowstone on our way towards central Wyoming, we stopped beside the Gibbon River to stick our hands in the water and see exactly how warm or cold it felt. Although I wouldn’t call it warm, it was certainly warmer than you would normally think mountain-fed river water would be at close to 7000 feet in elevation. Ryon was one of the first down there and immediately found a small snake. He detests snakes, so he was not at all happy to have found this snake. It was a grayish color with at least 2 yellow stripes running the length of the snake.

I have enjoyed Yellowstone because it is so different than many other places on this earth. It is one of only 2 hotspots in the United States, the other being Steamboat Springs, Nevada. However, evidently, Steamboat Springs tapped into the thermal areas below the earth to generate electricity, so much of their thermal features have been depleted. The one thing that I haven’t enjoyed about Yellowstone is that 80% of their trees are Lodgepole Pines. The way God created them to reseed themselves after forest fires was fascinating, but they sure are boring to look at. They aren’t visually beautiful trees in the slightest. I was so glad yesterday to venture into Grand Teton because they had more trees than just Lodgepole Pines.

Also, I have to tell one story from yesterday. We drove most of the way through Grand Teton National Park and had decided to stop at the Visitors’ Center just before leaving the park so that we could attend a ranger talk for the kids. I was so disappointed because this was the place I was supposed to be able to see a moose, and I still hadn’t seen one. I had even said a small prayer asking God to let me get a good view of a moose. We finally made it to the Visitors’ Center and parked. When we walked up to the Visitors’ Center, we noticed several people looking at something in the woods. Sure enough, it was a moose – a bull moose. He was lying down though and partially obscured by the trees, so we couldn’t get a great view of him. Well, I was glad to have gotten a look at one anyway. The next thing I knew, he stood up and slowly began walking towards us. We stayed a safe distance, but I was so excited because I was able to get such a wonderful view of him. What a magnificent creature! God granted my request in an outstanding manner!

The Chapel of the Sacred Heart in the Grand Tetons.

The stained glass at the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in the Grand Tetons.

We decided to take the route that would take us back through Grand Teton National Park. We stopped again at the Visitors’ Center at Colter Bay, just for a bathroom stop. However, it seems like those stops are never “just a bathroom stop.” I walked into the gift shop to see some beadwork that a Shoshone woman was selling. Then Charlie told me about a Native American artifact exhibit that I missed seeing yesterday. Next, we decided to see the film that they were showing about the park. Probably an hour after we arrived, we finally left.

We took a beautiful highway out of the park: US 26 and US 287. We made it up to an almost alpine elevation of 9544 ft. The mountains were amazing. After we descended the mountains we were quickly back in high desert territory, but the next thing we knew there were beautiful buttes on one side of the highway with high desert on the other. The buttes changed colors from being red and white striped to stripes of yellow, white, and dark gray, and then to a deep red. The buttes continued to change color just astonishing us at how quickly the landscape changed. We followed the curvy Wind River for a ways. This was such a gorgeous drive. I have been so pleased at the US and other highways that we have taken. Some of the interstates have been nice, but I have always been impressed with the scenery that we have seen when we get off the beaten path. We have even seen a good deal of pronghorn deer migrating up towards the Grand Tetons.

      Blessings,

Rebecca

Nathanael, why didn’t you want to leave here?

It is just beautiful. I don’t feel like we were able to see it all. My favorite part was the geysers. Old Faithful explodes approximately every 80 to 90 minutes. It was very amazing and beautiful. I think they have guided tours that you can take of various areas of the park. That would be really cool to take one of those tours. It would be cool to do a pack ride through some parts of Yellowstone or even one of the old yellow bus tours. It would be cool to do some rafting tours around here too.

Written by Nicholas:

 Today we went to the Grand Tetons by going through Yellowstone and seeing lots of animals. We saw snow covered mountains, which were the Grand Tetons, also the youngest mountains in the U.S. They are still growing too. John Colter also visited this area.

We first went to a visitor center with picnic areas where we ate lunch. Then we went into the visitor center which was interesting and Alex, Annette, Isaac, Amelia, and Dominic got into the Junior Ranger program. The visitor center had a back porch overlooking a lake and the Grand Tetons. Dad took AnaClaire out onto the porch to move around. She was walking very well except that she kept on falling down. I wish AnaClaire would walk more and not fall down so much, but she gets right back up and tries again. We bought some postcards and then we left. Next we headed to the next visitor center. When we got there, we saw a moose which was really cool. He was big, brown, but his antlers were not very big because he was still growing them, I think. At the same time we were caught in a thunder storm, so we went into the visitor center. While the storm was going on we looked around and went to a Ranger led program in the visitor center. After they finished with the program, they all got their badges. Then we headed back to the campground for dinner and bed.

My long-awaited moose

Nicholas, what do you like so much about Yellowstone?

This place is so cool! I really liked Old Faithful. It was really neat. Yellowstone is interesting because, unlike most volcanoes, it has 2 magma chambers instead of just one, making it more destructive. I also found it neat that there are thousands of hot springs, and 2/3 of the world’s geysers are found here in Yellowstone. Even though it is a supervolcano, it has no appearance of it. It just looks like a valley. The rivers, even though they are so far north, they aren’t going to be as cold because there are hot springs feeding into them. Old Faithful has an actual plumbing system. If it didn’t have the plumbing system, it would be just a hot spring. It has a special restriction in the plumbing that allows the pressure to build up. Geysers need four things: water, heat from magma, rhyolite, and silica. I also find it neat that there are so many trees in Yellowstone, and one day they are all going to be gone from Yellowstone for a long time because they will be buried or burned up from the lava and ash from the explosion of the supervolcano that is Yellowstone. The Lodgepole Pines here have reseeded themselves because the only way their seeds come out from the cones is when the glue in the cones is melted by fire. Much of Yellowstone burned in 1988, and many of those acres were naturally reseeded by Lodgepole Pines. The Yellowstone Canyon was cut by the Yellowstone River which eventually leads to the Missouri River. The yellow in the canyon comes from limestone, which is a soft rock allowing itself to be more easily carved by rivers and glaciers. The rim of the caldera is growing. The caldera was created by the volcano, after erupting, collapsing in on itself. The last major explosion at Yellowstone was 640,000 years ago. When Yellowstone last exploded it left 1000 cubic kilometers of ash. When Mt. St. Helens exploded in 1980, it only left 1 cubic kilometer of ash, much less than Yellowstone.

The cubes of ash. the little one all the way on the left is Mt St Helens.

(This last part, I began typing out because Nicholas just began gushing forth information and what he loved about Yellowstone.  I just had to get it written down.  -Rebecca)

All of us at Old Faithful

Another day in Yellowstone. Getting a decent internet connection, even in our campground, is difficult, so I am having a hard time getting blog posts out. Not to mention, there is the fact that every time I try to type something while I am riding in the car, I’m scared I’m going to miss seeing a moose or some other spectacular piece of wildlife that you really have to keep an eye open for.

Waiting on the eruption of Old Faithful

Our top item on the agenda today was Old Faithful. We went straight there this morning. When we arrived, we had just missed the eruption, so we were able to get some great seats on the benches for the next eruption, approximately 1 ½ hours later. I took kids into the Visitors’ Center there to, you guessed it, go to the gift shop, while Charlie and some others held seats. Eventually, we were rewarded with a magnificent site in the eruption of Old Faithful.

Old Faithful

After lunch, we went for some scenic drives around the park in the high hopes that certain crabby children would take some good naps. Although some got a semi-decent nap, others who needed one refused to sleep the whole afternoon and by the time we got home we couldn’t wait to put that particular two year old to bed. He was crying over everything.

Nathanael and Annette at Fountain Paintpots

We kept hoping to go on a nice hike, but the sky looked as if it was going to open up with a huge thunderstorm at any point in time, so we opted to walk around the Fountain Paintpots as we wouldn’t be too far from the van should a storm begin. The colors were amazing, but most amazing was the bison that walked up out of a distant meadow to stand just beside a hot spring with fumaroles around him and be very close to us on the boardwalk. We kept a good eye on him and snapped lots of pictures.

One of the mudpots at Fountain Paintpots

One of the hot springs at Fountain Paintpots

We finally decided to head back to the campground a good bit earlier than we usually do. Our campground had an indoor pool, and the kids have been begging us to go swimming, so we took them swimming for a while. Then we went back to the camper for dinner. The kids pooled their money to rent a four person “quad cycle” thing and rode around the campground for a little while. Poor Damien melted into a pool of tears each time he had to let someone else have a turn. He was asleep within about 2 minutes of finally putting him into his pack n play. It was nice to have an evening of just play at the campground instead of being out doing stuff so late every evening.

Blessings,

Rebecca

Kids’ Corner:

Dominic, what did we do/see today (6/4/15)?

We saw bison. We saw Old Faithful. We saw elk. We go hiking. We saw geysers explode. Went and saw waterfalls. We go to a museum and buy “Stickers…Stories…Bugs

What was your favorite thing we did today?

My favorite thing we do today was see the bison. So… I saw a bison get really close.

Author: First Man on Mars

Dictated By: Dominic

 We finally pulled ourselves out of bed and drove back into Yellowstone. The kids have all been so excited about coming here because a man named John Colter is considered the first white man in Yellowstone. My grandmother Worley’s maiden name was Coulter. My Grandfather Worley thoroughly enjoyed genealogy as a hobby, so I asked him one time if John Colter was related to us. His response was, “Well, we like to claim him.” Needless to say, I have no idea if we are actually related to John Colter, but that has given us a personal connection to Yellowstone which has made it all the more interesting.

So, the first thing we decided to do was to go to a Visitors’ Center with an exhibit on the people who have been involved in the history of Yellowstone. It wasn’t actually our first stop, but it was a nice exhibit from which we learned a great deal. It had just a small part on John Colter (who has a very interesting life as he was part of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery and was the only person given permission to leave the Corps of Discovery on its return trip so that he could go explore even more. I purchased a book about him and look forward to reading it, probably after my dad finishes it 😊.)

Mammoth Hot Springs

Our family at Mammoth Hot Springs

Our first good thermal views were of Mammoth Hot Springs. They were beautiful. We had a great time walking around the boardwalks and viewing the many hot springs and various colors that were made from different minerals in the earth. And oh the smell of sulfur, yuck. That rotten eggs smell wasn’t pleasant, but it was worth it to see the beauty.

Nicholas and AnaClaire

We primarily spent the day driving around seeing the park and wildlife. We did stop at another Visitors’ Center to get a better understanding of the geology side of Yellowstone. They had great exhibits on the volcanic history of Yellowstone. I particularly loved one part where they had large cubes of ash. One cube was showing the amount of ash generated from Yellowstone’s eruption 2.4 million years ago. The next cube showed the ash generated from the eruption 1.2 million years ago, and the third cube showed the ash generated from the eruption 640,000 years ago. These cubes were different sizes but all relatively large (I am dismayed to discover that I have totally forgotten the numbers that were in my brain regarding this, so you won’t get the full effect unless you actually see this part of the exhibit). But the thing that amazed me the most was the 1 very small cube that represented Mt. St. Helen’s eruption in 1980. The amount of ash generated from Mt. St. Helens was miniscule compared to the ash generated from Yellowstone’s past eruptions. It does make you wonder the effects on the entire country and world if Yellowstone erupts again.

Geese and goslings

I have been excited about the wildlife that we have been able to see in Yellowstone. There are bison everywhere. We have seen several elk, and today we were able to see a black bear. I was even able to get a glimpse of a mother black bear and her two cubs, but they all quickly moved into the dense forest where we were unable to see them from a safe distance. I am still awaiting a moose. That has been the one thing I have wanted to see the most of this trip, and so far I have come up empty-handed. Of course, our visit here is not yet complete.

At the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Just before heading back to the campground, we stopped to see a thermal area called Artist’s Paintpots. We saw hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pots. The colors in some of these thermal areas were unbelievable. Unfortunately, my camera gave me no warning and the batteries died before we were able to get many pictures. (I did have spare batteries, but I had left them in the camera case in the car which would have been too far to walk back.) We really enjoyed seeing this area of the park.

As it was close to 9:00 when we made it back to West Yellowstone, we stopped at a local restaurant called Gusher for dinner. They had a special on all-you-can-eat spaghetti, so you can imagine what our big boys got. I did too, though I only had one plate. The littles enjoyed their pizza, and Charlie chose a hamburger patty. It was good food, and everyone went straight to bed when we got back to the camper.

Blessings,

Rebecca

Kids’ Corner:

Q:  Amelia, what has been your favorite stop so far?

A:  “The Grand Canyon.”

Q:  What did you do/see there?

A:  We played with my friends. Played on a playground. I played in the sand. Played in the back of the house. Played on the ground. Played games like “dolphin tails.” I bought things. Watched a movie. I ran on the concrete. I climbed trees. I fell. I saw about 30 elk I think. I saw a river at the park in the Grand Canyon. I saw butterflies. I saw trees, cars, airplanes, water, bags, rocks, cooler, and Noah. Everybody else built a fire. Us went to a beautiful Church. I saw a rainbow. We cooked lunch and breakfast on the fire.

Q:  What was the weather like?

A:  Weather was like cold. 1degree. It was sleeting, snowing, raining, misting, cloudy, and foggy.

Author: The First Man on Mars

Dictated By: Amelia

Note from Rebecca: I gave Ryon a hard time for embellishing so much on Isaac’s Kids’ Corner, so he wrote Amelia word for exact word. Kids…sometimes I don’t know what to do with them – just sigh, smile, and keep going.

Charlie making dinner with AnaClaire and Dominic

Last night as we were driving into Butte, Montana, we noticed something white up on top of the mountains. I had seen something about Our Lady of the Rockies, so I looked it up and discovered that what we were seeing was a beautiful, 90 feet tall, white statue of a woman. The statue, sitting atop the continental divide, was completed in 1985, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and named Our Lady of the Rockies. The website says that the statue is nondenominational and is in honor of mothers. I started looking into how we could drive up there to take a good look at her, only to discover that it appears that you need to take a private tour bus to the top of the mountain, that it is a two hour drive, and that it costs $20 per person. Oh well. We certainly didn’t have that kind of time. We did stay in a WalMart where we could see her looking over us.

The boys’ bunk room in the camper

Nicholas, Dominic, and Isaac hanging out in the camper

The next day was our drive to the Yellowstone area. We decided to approach Yellowstone from the west entrance. We went south on I-15 first and had the most bizarre experience. While we were going 60 mph down the interstate, we saw a man standing in the middle of our lane up ahead. We honked at him, and Charlie tried to change lanes. However, when we changed lanes, he just got in front of us in that lane too. Charlie finally slammed on his brakes, skidding some, and the man finally stepped out of the lane screaming at us in bad language that he needed a ride. Of course, we didn’t stop, but I felt bad for him, wondering what circumstances he could be experiencing to behave in such a manner. I said a prayer for him as we continued on our way.

Damien sleeping

We finally got off the interstate and made our way to Yellowstone along some highways. We were driving a lot in the high desert again. I had no idea how much of the West is desert! Whenever we saw any green grass, it was all irrigated. Anyway, we eventually came to an area where we were driving by the beautiful Madison River. I have been so surprised at how fast some of these rivers flow. They look like they would be so much fun to tube or whitewater raft down. Then we saw signs about a Visitors’ Center regarding earthquakes. Since we have studied a lot about earthquakes this year, we pulled in to see what it was all about. It turns out that there had been a major earthquake in that area in August 1959. The earthquake had caused a massive landslide that dammed the river and created Earthquake Lake. We had just been wondering why there were so many dead trees in the river, and I had theorized that something had happened that changed the course of the river. Well, that had been the earthquake. The region was devastated and the earthquake affected Yellowstone National Park too. 28 people were killed. It was amazing to see the landslide that created so many of the problems, and the Visitors’ Center had a wonderful exhibit and moving explaining everything that had happened. We have learned so much to add to our Earth Science this year from seeing volcanoes, canyons, mountains, and earthquakes up close.

Bison crossing a river.

After arriving in the town of West Yellowstone, we found a campground that we liked, unhooked the camper, and headed into the park. It was into the evening already, but I wanted to make sure that we received our park map and newspaper so that we could at least get back to the campground and decide what we wanted to do the next day. We drove a little further in and were rewarded by seeing a bison up close as well as bison herds across the river. We were even able to see several bison walk across the river, which the kids absolutely loved. We drove a little further and took a little scenic side road down into the Firehole River Canyon where we were able to see a waterfall from the road and find out the volcanic history of the cliffs around us. The canyon was beautiful! Back to the campground for dinner and bed.

The falls at Firehole Canyon.

We are so blessed to have these national parks. They are one of the things I believe most people would agree that our government has done right. What a treasure they are for the people of the United States, as well as those around the world. I have been truly amazed at how many foreign languages I have heard on this trip. I pray that many of you will be able to visit some of these gems, especially if they are close to where you live. 2016 is the 100^th anniversary of the National Park System, and during the 2015-2016 school year each family with a fourth grader can receive a free annual National Parks pass which will give them free entrance to any national park or national recreation site for a whole year. That is an $80 value. Get out there and enjoy this wonderful country that God blessed us with!

Blessings,

Rebecca

Kid’s Corner:

Isaac, what has been your favorite stop so far?

“The Beach on the Oregon Coast was my favorite.”

What did you do/see there?

The beach we went to is about 20-30min away from the town where The Goonies was filmed, which all the older kids were simply awed by. Some of my siblings and I got into the shallow water and splashed around as well as climbed on as many rocks as we could while the younger kids played in the sand. We also saw only but a million starfish laying around on rocks and in shallow water, then there were like a billion Sea Anemones sitting around where the tide had been only minutes before. It was so cool being able to touch all the different sea life and even just to see all of them. Nathanael supposedly found a whole sand-dollar, but the rest of us don’t believe him. Ryon found an old crab claw about 2-3 inches long which was about 1 ½ – 2 feet deep which he was able to fish out and show everybody. It was quite fragile and broke from Mom not being careful. There was one tidal pool that had shallow water with sand at the bottom that all us little kids thought was quicksand. All the older kids as well as Mom and Dad thought that that was rather funny. I accidently fell into it and I came out soaked and sandy. Ryon as always had to do something stupid, he climbed up at least 20ft on a cliff and then just stopped and looked around before being called down. I think it really was a stupid decision to climb up with sandals on and black sharp things which covered a whole five feet at the base of the cliff. I also climbed up on it but only at the base to cross over to a smaller beach on the other side where we saw several starfish, and where we also found the crab claw, as well as a bunch of Sea Anemones. It was so cool to be able to see waves hit the cliffs and send a spray of water everywhere. The waves were larger than many of the waves that come up on an average day on the East Coast. The waves were however large enough for a large number of surfers to show up, even in such cold water. Most of the beach to our surprise was actually sand while when you got up towards the top of the beach it was rocks. The beach itself was surrounded on either side by HUGE boulders just lying in bunches of hundreds. I think over all this has been quite a beautiful and majestic beach.

Author: The First Man on Mars

Narrated Ideas: Isaac