Join us on our adventure out to Rocky Mountain National Park, Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in 2020.
Day 1 - Sunday, June 14
Departed home at 7:20 a.m. to head to Yankton, SD. We made good time and stopped in Sioux Falls for lunch at Mackenzie River. We arrived in Yankton around 2:15 p.m. We stayed with two of our friends we knew from college. The kids had a blast playing in the backyard with their pool, water table, and sandbox. We had burgers for dinner, and they were really good. We had a lot of fun catching up with with our friends.
Day 2 - Monday, June 15
The next day we got up and went to Gavins Point Recreation Area to go swimming. We swam for a while, then left to eat lunch. After lunch, we left Yankton and headed to North Platte, NE. The drive to North Platte had us zigzagging across the state. It was hard because T had to keep stopping to use the restroom, which were hard to come by! If we were to drive from Yankton to North Platte again with that small of kids, we would take a longer way, that would have more stops available. We stayed at the Ramada by Wyndham. We had a room with two rooms, which was nice. We had dinner at the hotel as we were all tired of being in the car. The kids stayed in the front room and slept on the pull out couch.
Day 3 - Tuesday, June 16
We got up the next morning and grabbed the grab-in-go breakfast. This was a bag with cereal, an apple, and a breakfast bar. They also had milk we could grab. We then made our way to Rocky Mountain National Park.
At one of our stops V spotted some stuffed animals. She picked up an owl for herself. Then she picked up a narwhal and said “Lala”, which she called P. Then she picked up a lion unicorn and said “T”. It was so cute, and the kids had been doing pretty well, so I let her carry them to check out. I paid for them and gave them back to her. She carried them to the van and handed them out. P and T loved their animals. They loved playing with them throughout the trip and they have become a camping staple. We will make up stories about these animals at bedtime.
We had lunch at Mountain Home Café in Estes Park. The food was good, and we were able to sit on the patio which was nice. There was a line to get into the park, but we didn’t have to wait too long. We had to purchase a week park pass. We got to our campsite - We were staying in Moraine Park Campground. We were in B208. This was a nice campsite for how close it was to water and the bathroom. It was really far from the water dump site, which wasn’t good.
We spent the afternoon setting up, and playing by our campsite. In the tent, we had put T on the outside, I was next to him, then V and Marcus, P was at our feet. We tried to go for a short walk, but the kids weren’t having it.
That night for dinner we had tacos. They were really good! At bedtime Marcus relaxed in the hammock while I went into the tent with the kids. I told them a made up story about their animals, which they loved. Marcus came in a bit later. T and P fell asleep fairly quickly. Not too long after, Marcus was snoring as well. V continued to run circles around the tent. V ended up falling asleep at my feet. I picked her up and put her on her sleeping bag.
I should have put her in her sleeping bag as that was our coldest night. She woke up in the middle of the night, and Marcus ended up snuggling with her.
Day 6 - Wednesday, June 17
The kids woke up early. It was a chilly morning. We got out of the tent too early! The kids were cold while we were getting breakfast ready. They ran around while we made breakfast. We ate breakfast, then we got in the car and headed to the other end of the park. We made a wrong turn and ended up at the Aspenglen entrance. We saw a bighorn sheep there, so not all bad!
It was cool to see all o the snow still on the side of the road. We saw a moose by the side of the road. We stopped at Rainbow Curve to take some pictures and a bathroom break. We also stopped at the Kawuneech Visitor Center to use the restrooms, though the visitor center was closed.
We left the park at Grand Lake. We parked and hiked along Shadow Mountain Lake. It was really pretty and we enjoyed the hike. We had talked about going on to Lake Grandby, but decided it would be better to head back into the park.
We drove back to Rocky Mountain National Park. We stopped at Harbison Meadows Picnic Site for lunch. We then moved on to Holzwarth Historic Site and checked out the old Dude ranch. The kids really thought that was cool. After that, we stopped at Milner Pass so the kids could walk on some snow! Though we are from Minnesota, the kids don't get to see snow this late in the year, so they were excited about it.
We drove on to Gore Range. The kids were asleep, so Marcus and I went out and checked out the view.
We continued driving back to our campsite. The parking lots were getting really crowded at this point, we thought we would come back the next day, so we were okay skipping a few things. Back at the camp, the kids loved playing at our campsite. They would go explore and they made a collection of things they found. They would walk up the hill behind our campsite. They found a bit elk herd off in the distance. It was neat to be able to check them out right from out campsite.
That night for dinner, we had hot dogs. After playing more, we wiped down the kids and got everyone in the tent for bedtime. V was still the last kid to fall asleep. This time, I made sure to put her inside her sleeping bag.
Day 7 - Thursday, June 18
V and T were the first two kids to wake up, and they’d wake up so happy. T always woke up with the biggest smile on his face, it was so sweet. P, on the other hand, would always ask why they were being so loud.
That night was a lot warmer. Kids didn’t complain about being cold once we got up and out of the tent. That morning, we had breakfast, then headed to Glacier Gorge Trailhead. We hiked to the Alberta Falls. They were so beautiful, and the P and T loved seeing the falls, V was asleep in the backpack carrier.
Then we started hiking to Bear Lake. At this point the kids got tired, so Marcus started back with them. I finished hiking to Bear Lake. Marcus brought the kids to the van, and picked me up at Bear Lake. One our way out, we saw a big elk.
We then headed to Estes Park. We got more ice, then parked along the main stretch to shop at some of the shops. We walked to a playground to let the kids play a bit. We ate our lunch at the park, then got back into the car and headed back into Rocky Mountain National Park. The kids fell asleep on our way back. We headed back to our campsite as it was starting to sprinkle. We set up the tarp over the picnic table. It started to rain harder. Marcus had suggested we head up the mountain after dark to look at the stars, but now it was raining a lot. We had hamburgers for dinner under the tarp. The tarp was really low, we could only sit on one side of the table. P said they were the best hamburgers ever, and that it was the best dinner ever. It is one of the fondest camping memories our older two kids have. The pictures of us all smiling, while eating dinner under the tarp while it was raining so much are some of my most treasured. After dinner, we got the kids in pajamas. We also loaded the van as much as we could.
We gave kids glow sticks and loaded up the van. We started driving in the rain. The temperature started dropping as we drove higher. The rain starting changing over to snow. I started to get worried the higher we got, though there wasn't many places to safely turn around. The snow wasn’t stopping, and it started to accumulate. We were going through the clouds, but we were losing visibility between the snow and more clouds. P was awake to see the snow, but the other two were asleep. The temperature had dropped down to 32 degrees and probably would have kept dropping the higher we drove. We decided to turn around at the Forest Canyon Overlook. Marcus hiked out to take a look.
We were a little worried about how cold it would be in the tent for the kids. Especially with how it was chilly the first night (though we didn't know the temp the first night), so we rearranged things when we got back to the tent. We put Marcus on one side of the tent and me on the other. Then we put all of the kids in between the two of us. We then put the unused picnic blanket and towels over them. It was still raining down in our campsite. I got up to use the bathroom at one point, and T had his arms out of the sleeping back straight up over his head. I tucked his arms in and realized he was sweating, so I took the blanket and towels off of him. I had also gotten a little warm.
Day 8 - Friday, June 19
Everyone woke up. The blankets and towels were all off the kids. It was still raining. As usual, that makes for an interesting pack up. We kept the kids in the tent as we continued to pack up stuff. We packed up everything in the tent, then put the kids in the car packed the tent and headed out of the park.
We started making our way to Mount Rushmore National Memorial! Things cleared up once we left the mountains. There wasn’t a lot of places to stop for lunch, so we decided to just push on. We made it to Custer, SD, and filled up on gas. We had snacks, but we were all starting to get hungry. We were going to drive right past Crazy Horse Memorial and didn’t want to backtrack, so we stopped to check it out. It was really neat. I wish we could have spent more time at the museum and other buildings. We then took the bus to the base of the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was raining off and all the entire time we were there. Everyone was starting to get really hungry at this point. We headed out to our campsite.
We were staying at Mount Rushmore KOA at Palmer Gulch Resort. When booking this place, I thought the kids might get a change to go swimming, and play at the playground. I also thought it would be nice to get a shower that day. We didn't swim or play at the playground.
The KOA was insane! It was completely booked and huge! There were so many people there! I quickly set up the tent while Marcus made lunch/dinner. It sprinkled a little bit, but not too much. The bathrooms were far away, but clean. We left right after we ate so we could go to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We got to Mount Rushmore without a problem. We first went to the gift shop to get a few things. We saw that the Avenue of Flags was blocked off. I was so bummed, then someone told us about the Presidential Trail. We hiked that trail to get closer. There were over 150 stairs. V wanted to walk up and down all of them, and didn’t want any help.
The kids noticed that there was a recent fire. We asked about it and they told us that they did a control burn in April. We left and headed back to our campsite. We all took showers, and headed to bed. There was a really loud group next to us and I ended up telling them to go to bed at 12:15 am and they finally went to bed at 12:45 am.
Day 9 - Saturday, June 20
Marcus and I got up early. We saw the sun rise, which was beautiful. We started packing up and got the kids up. We loaded everything in the van and headed on our way. We stopped at Wall Drug as Marcus hadn’t heard of it before. It was quite the experience! Marcus wondered around with the kids while I got donuts and coffee. I met up with them and we ate. We saw the big dinosaur with the load alarm going off. T was terrified and ran out of that building as fast as he could! We let the kids pick out a toy. Then we headed back on the road. We made pretty good time on the way home. We stopped at an Arby’s for lunch. And were able to sit outside on a picnic table.
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