June 18-19

Miles Traveled: 835
Total Miles Traveled: 10823
We got home early Friday morning at about 12:30 am, it is nice to be home again and have our own beds back =D. Troughout all of our travels we kept count of all the different state license plates that we saw, during the whole trip we saw all the states but Hawaii, and in Yellowstone alone we saw all of them but Hawaii, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and West Virginia. During the trip we also saw Washington D.C., Guam, Mexico, and Canadian provinces Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Soctia, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. We also drove through 21 states, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York. The states that we went though going and coming were Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. When We got home we saw this sign:

June 16-17

Miles Traveled: 597
Total Miles Traveled: 9988
We left Salem, SD and headed for Jon's cousins' house in northern Illinois. We had a monotonous day of driving and stopping for gas, except for the time we didn't make it to the gas station. We didn't think about us having a strong headwind that was cutting our gas mileage. We traveled through Minnesota and Wisconsin and arrived at Bill and Judi Thompson's house and hour south of Rockford Illinois. We enjoyed the relaxing day we spent with them The Thompsons went out of their way to make us feel welcome and we had a fun and relaxing day with the whole family. Kids and adults alike enjoyed catching up with our good friends.

June 15

Miles Traveled: 411
Total Miles Traveled:9391

We left Custer State Park and headed for the Badlands. It felt rally hot like 90 but it was really only in the mid 70's. The Badlands were full of what looked like sedimentary stone formations. When we took a walk among them we found that they were cracked and soft more like dirt then rock. After lunch, we traveled across South Dakota and camped in Salem (west of Sioux Falls)

June 14

Miles Traveled 70
Total Miles Traveled 8980

We started out moving our camper to another site so we could stay another night. After Dad did a church service we drove through Custer State Park on the way to Mt. Rushmore. On the way we saw Bison, Pronghorn Antelope, Whitetail Deer,and we fed wild Burros that came to the car window begging for food. After many miles of turny twisty roads that contained 4 scenic 1 lane tunnels and Pigtail bridges we finally arrived at Mt. Rushmore. The monument was big and impressive. The new visitors complex was also impressive and includes a walkway on which we could walk up to the base of the Mountain.

June 13

Miles Traveled 586
Total Miles Traveled 8910

Today we left West Yellowstone and headed toward the Black Hills of South Dakota. We traveled through Yellowstone Park and had some nice views of beautiful Yellowstone Lake. We slowly climbed up over the Bighorn Mountains and in a high meadow stopped to watch a moose and her small calf. At Rapid City we saw a beautiful red sunset. We saw quite a lightning show on the way to Custer State Park. It was very late, dark, and raining when we varied at the campground.

June 12

Miles traveled:143
Total miles traveled:8324
Today we did the north loop of Yellowstone. We started at Mammoth hot springs,there were huge mineral formations that were being formed by the many large hot springs. The area is constantly changing, the active hot springs are wet, colorful, and steamy, whereas the inactive ones are dry, and whiteish or gray. The colors that you see in the active hot springs come from different kinds of bacteria that thrive in hot water. while we where traveling we saw a total of 3 grizzly bears and 3 black bears, we got to watch a mama black bear give its cute tiny cub a tree climbing lesson. Later in the day we went big horned sheep "hunting" along some cliffs near the north entrance of the park were a park ranger said we might see some. After stopping at several pull offs and glassing the cliffs, we were rewarded by getting to see a whole herd of big horned sheep consisting of ewes and little lambs perched on a steep cliff the same color as their coats. The lambs were jumping about while thier mamas were laying down nearby. A little farther on up the road, we got to see a ewe right next to the road and watched amazed as it easily scampered up a cliff that seemed totally unscalable to us.

June 11

Miles Traveled: 69
Total Miles Traveled: 8181

With Rachel at the wheel, we toured the 3 main geyser basins today. As usual, there were bison everywhere, but no bighorn sheep or bears :(. We took many short walks through the geyser and hot spring fields. Although there were numerous of these sites, we were impressed by how each had very unique characteristics. The kids said that the hot springs were "cool". It was odd to be wearing sweatshirts, and walk amongst water boiling on the ground. Several of the hot springs were clear and deep, and a beautiful aqua color. The Grand Prysmatic Spring, and the Exelsior Geyser Crater were colorful and impressively large (Prysmatic is the biggest hot spring in the world). We saw several geysers erupt, including the Great Fountain Geyser, Jewel Geyser, and of course, Old Faithful (twice). One of the geysers was like a sink that repeatedly kept filling up and boiling over, then draining out. At an appointed time, we all stood in front of Old Faithful and waved at the web cam, so that Grandpa and Grandma Snyder could see us. We had cell service so we called them at the same time. Tomorrow we head north to Mammoth Hot Springs, and Bighorn Sheep "hunting".

June 10

Miles traveled 66
Total miles traveled 8112
We woke up to freezing temperatures, and a covering of snow. After packing up the camper we toured the southeast and central areas of Yellowstone. We visited the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron, as well as the Norris Geyser basin. The kids got their first “taste” of sulphur-smelling mudpots, fumaroles, hot springs and geysers. Very hot, very smelly,very interesting, and all very unique. Steamboat geyser, the tallest in the world, hasn't had a major eruption since 2005, although we did see several minor eruptions (15 feet, vs 300-400 feet for the 2005 eruption.) We also visited the Yellowstone Grand Canyon, and both of the beautiful Upper and Lower Falls. There is a lot of water flowing now, and from the brink of the upper falls, we could really feel the power of the surging water.The wildlife was plentiful again today. We ended the day at a campground in West Yellowstone, Montana.

June 8-9

Miles traveled 993
Total miles traveled 8046
We left the Olympic Peninsula, and headed for Yellowstone. In eastern Washington, we stopped along I-90, and saw a herd of iron horses galloping on a ridge above the Columbia River. Dad hiked up to them for a closer look at the statues. We stayed overnight at a Walmart in Smelterville Idaho. After getting an oil change in Missoula, Montana, we drove through Montana, and into Yellowstone National Park. While driving 56 miles through the park to get to a campground, we saw antelope, elk (both cows & bulls), lots of bison, a moose, and mule deer. At one point, traffic was stopped to allow a herd of bison to cross the road. There were approximately 20 small calves with them. Very cute. The campground we had reserved, did not allow any canvas parts (like our camper has), and so we had to move to another one without electricity for the night. That night we went to a talk by a park ranger on the history of many of the names of things in the park. Very interesting and well done.

June 7

Miles Traveled 141
Total Miles Traveled 7053
After Dad did a church service, we packed up and moved to the northern edge of Olympic National Park. We camped at a beautiful campground on the strait of Juan de Fuca. Mom thought it was named after some lady named Wonda Fooka, until she looked at the map and has been a joke ever since. We set up had lunch and headed for Hurricane Ridge. It was a curvy windy trip up the mountain even though it was completely foggy it was still interesting because of the snow, Black Tail dear, wild flowers, and the fact that Rachel was driving. The highlight of the day was the sunset looking across the strait of Wandafooka:-) with the mountains of Vancouver in the background.

June 6

Miles Traveled 104
Total Miles Traveled 6912
We drove to Hoh Rain Forest. Surprisingly it didn't rain. It was crazy it rained when we were in the desert, and not when we were in the rain forest and they measure the rain in feet! We went on 2 short hikes through the rain forest. The trees were covered with Club and Saginplla moss. We found it very different and interesting. After lunch we drove to the beach and took a hike along the beach to rock formations named "split rock" and "hole in the wall"



Split Rock
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Hole in the wall
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June 5

Miles Traveled 215
Total Miles Traveled 6808
We left the Mt. St. Helens area and traveled to the western side of Olympic national park. We camped at a campground on the beach in La Push Washington. After we set up camp, we went to the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon digging canals and building sand castles. The beach had lots of smooth, different colored stones along the shoreline and huge, driftwood logs. The water and air were cold, but that didn't stop the Bald Eagle from coming out to fish.

June 3-4

Miles Traveled:449
Total Miles Traveled:6593
Wednesday we traveled from Stewart State Park to Mt. St. Helens Rv Park in Castle Creek, WA. Thursday we drove out to Mt. St. Hellens. On the way there, we drove up the Toutle River Valley. This area was buried under an average 100 ft of ash from the 1980 eruption. There was an abundance of spring flowers in bloom. Both the State and National Visitor centers were very informative, as was the Mt. St. Helens Creation Museum. There was an excellent film at the Johnson Ridge Observatory. We were impressed by the many different geologic formations (such as layered sedimentation, deep canyons, and petrification) that the 1980 Mt. St. Helens event produced in a short time. Many scientists thought that these formations took a long time to form.

June 2

Miles traveled 278
Total miles 6144
Happy Birthday Rachel! We left the Redwoods and headed to Crater Lake, Oregon. On the way we stopped in Medford, OR for lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate Terry and Rachel's birthdays. ( Terry's was June 1st ) All enjoyed the delicious meal and Drew was actually full when we left. :-) We continued on to Stewart State Park, where we set up camp. Then we headed to Crater Lake. We stopped at the visitor center and when we were leaving the ranger asked the kids to help him with the flag lowering ceremony. We were surprised at the amount of snow still on the ground, in fact only about 9 miles of the 33 miles of rim were plowed yet! This volcanic mountain erupted several thousand years ago and the top collapsed leaving a crater six miles across. Over the years the crater has filled with water from snow melt and rain to an average depth of 1000 feet and at the deepest over 1900 ft. It is one of the clearest and purest lakes in the world. Even though it was stormy and cloudy on the day we were there we could tell it is extremely blue. Even though it was 39 degrees and windy and rainy we were impressed.

June 1

Miles traveled 69
Total miles 5866
We got up late and had a brunch of eggs and pancakes before heading out to explore the Pacific Ocean and the Redwood Forest. We were anxious to see the ocean so we headed there first but it was overcast and foggy so we decided to come back later. One of the things that stood out to us about the Redwoods was it was just Redwoods in the forest compared to the Sequoia's that were mixed with fir and pines. They seem incredibly tall driving next to them but walking among them was even more impressive. We took several easy hikes. Then we headed to the beach. It was still overcast so we had the beach to ourselves, but we didn't mind. It was gorgeous with sharp cliffs not far from the shoreline. We had fun taking some pictures and exploring the beach of smooth stones and driftwood. The water was frigid but it was exciting to have made it from “sea to shining sea”. We drove up the road next to the beach to Fern Canyon and saw 4 bull Elk in velvet right between the road and the beach. One 5X5 and three 6X6's.

May 31

Miles traveled 542
Total miles 5797

Today we left Groveland, Ca near Yosemite and drove toward the Redwoods in northwest California. This morning Jon discovered that all the camper tires had excessive wear and one in particular needed replaced ASAP. So, once we had service we surfed the web and made calls to find a place that was open and had our camper tires in stock on a Sunday. We finally found a Goodyear tire center in Sacramento that had our tires in stock and we had no wait when we got there. We then headed west and took the Redwood highway north and it was after midnight when we arrived at our campground in Klamath River.