The Road Less Travelled on our Way Home

A few of our stops as we drove west. First, we found a few things in the very wet Minnesota.

A distant view of the Split Rock Lighthouse in Minnesota. I didn't want to spend the money to enter the state park & actually hike to the lighthouse, so we stopped to get a roadside view of it.

The home of Paul Bunyan

Ryan and I got out for a few pictures in the rainy weather. Sadly, the museum was already closed by the time we got there.

 As we drove west, and entered into North Dakota we were so grateful to see the sun even if it was as it was setting.

My photo with proof of the rain we'd been driving through for so long.

Oliver's photo showing the bright spot in the distance. 

 We had a rough time of finding a campsite once we got into North Dakota. It was late, and the place I had looked up we couldn't find and then was closed once we finally did find it. That meant we had to find another place. Once we did, we were so blessed. It was the Bismarck KOA and the manager came out as we drove up. Because it was so late and we were only staying one night, leaving early in the morning, he gave us a discount on one of their cabins. It was pretty great to not have to pull out our tent and try and get everything ready to go to sleep. Instead we just had to carry things into the little cabin. I'm so grateful for that man and his ability to be generous to us.

 I enjoy finding random beautiful things along the way, natural and man-made. This is the Enchanted Highway. If our journey had been shorter, I would have made Oliver drive this highway further, but while it started on the interstate, it then headed south for many miles out of our way. We only went about 5 miles to see these 3 giant sculptures.

Geese in Flight

This is right off I-94 with a long drive leading to it with a bunch of these geese lining the drive. Ryan wanted to also be a goose in flight.

Deer Crossing

Grasshoppers

Close up-you can see the rope lights lining this. I wonder what it would look like at night.

Hard to see, but Ryan was enjoying the sculptures in his own way.

Oliver was awed by the straight, flat road in North Dakota after our hike to White Butte.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands

We went on a hike in Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the Wind Canyon Trail.

 

Evan did great hiking, even if he doesn't care about stopping to enjoy the view.

We were all enthralled by the prairie dog towns. 

 And then we made it to Mt. Rushmore again. We got to see it this time! Hooray! The last time it was so cloudy/rainy/foggy that the only view of the mountain we got was the picture on the vending machine in the parking garage.

Wearing the Mt. Rushmore t-shirt that says "Original Rockstars" while visiting the original rockstars.

After Mt. Rushmore, we stopped at the Wind Cave National Park as well before heading home so we could celebrate Ryan's birthday at home. We eventually got Ryan and Evan tired of driving in the car for so long-Evan started picking on Ryan at the end so we were all glad to get home. But we sure love going on our adventures too.