Wyoming road trip

Ok, so last week we went to Wyoming for my brother and sister-in-law's graduation from the University of Wyoming. But we stayed there for a little over a week and had the opportunity to take a road trip through the South Dakota Black Hills and a major portion of Wyoming. So I thought I'd share some of the things we got to experience. Reference the map for the locations of the pictures you're seeing.

Here is some of what we saw as we headed out on the first day... yes, that is snow in May.

Here we are entering South Dakota. On our way to see the Black Hills, Crazy Horse, and Mount Rushmore.

Then we made it to the Crazy Horse monument. They are obviously still working on it. The thing is HUGE! They say all of Mount Rushmore could fit into Crazy Horses' face alone. The sculpture you see is what the finished product is supposed to look like.

Then we headed over to Mount Rushmore. It was only a few miles away. It was very cool. We were also able to get a lot closer to Rushmore than we were able to at Crazy Horse.

After staying the night in a cabin in South Dakota (and eating a good steak) we headed out for Wyoming. Devil's Tower was our destination. It was awesome. Pictures don't do it justice. The thing is huge! It is our nation's very first national monument. There was also a really cool hiking trail that circled it's base. We hiked it in the rain.

Once we finished the hike at Devil's Tower, we headed west to the Bighorn Mountains. They were easily my favorite part of the trip. We stayed the night at Bear Lodge which sits at an elevation of about 8300 feet. From our window we could see Cloud Peak - elevation 13167 feet - the second highest peak in Wyoming.

Here we are heading into the Bighorn National Forrest.

Looking down on the way up into the mountains.

This is what we woke up to after staying the night in the Bighorns.

We found this amazing canyon on our way down the other side of the Bighorns.

Here we all are in the car... beautiful shot, dog and all.

After we saw the Bighorns we headed south to the city of Thermopolis (yes, a real city) - the home of the world's largest mineral hot spring... unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. So after that we headed further south to Sinks Canyon, where a the Popo Agie river runs straight into the side of a mountain. It later comes back up to the surface about 1/2 mile away.

Once we finished at Sinks Canyon we headed back to the house. We did, however, stop in my hometown, Rawlins, WY, and eat some incredible Mexican food. Also, at some point during the week, Brooke made some amazing strawberry muffins...