Lil Devil's Geocaching Pages

We got up today and headed straight for Mount Rushmore, just a few miles from camp. I was here about 20 years ago and I remembered a small, weathered visitor center and wooden viewing platform. Today there is a huge elaborate granite visitors center, parking garage, and a paved viewing trail that takes you right to the base of the carvings.

As we approached the visitors center, we spotted a sign advertising self-paced audio tours. Angel went to check that out while I snapped some pictures. Surprisingly there were no virtual caches there

After what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time, she returned. Turns out the audio tours were a brand-new feature and she was the very first customer! They do need to work on their procedures, though, because it took almost a half hour at the counter and she practically had to sign her first born away

We had a lot to do today so we got an early start and were on the road by 9am. That's early for us

Our first couple of stops were for geocaches along the road. Our third stop was more exciting: Devil's Tower in Wyoming. I love any place with the word "devil" or some variation in the name. I even have a waymarking category to collect them. We took a walk all the way around the tower and found a virtual cache along the way.

Then we were off to our next stop: Mount Rushmore. By the time we got in the area it was almost 5pm so we just headed to the Rushmore Shadows campground and rested for the evening.

We got up around 8:30 this morning, which for us is early. Usually it seems to be 9:30 or 10am by the time we get moving. We packed up the rig for another day of driving, and were on the road by 9:40. The plan was to drive around the northern loop of the Yellowstone figure eight, then leave the park at the northeast exit and drive through Wyoming and possibly up to Montana before stopping for the night. It's good to have a plan, but too bad plans don't always work out.

We were trying to decide whether to go the long way around the northern loop, to see more of the park, or the short way, to get going faster.

We got up early today and packed up the trailer and drove a few miles up to Yellowstone National Park. We headed straight to the campground and set up camp, which didn't take long. We're getting good at this. Then we went for a drive...

The roads in Yellowstone are in basically a figure eight. The RV campground is to the east of the center, and Old Faithful is to the west. We started at the campground and drove south and west around the bottom of the loop. We stopped for several virtual caches and saw lots of elk and buffalo. Then we got to Old Faithful. It was really cold and a wind was blowing so we bundled up and walked over to where a crowd was gathering. We stopped to read a sign that said, on average the geyser blasts off every hour to hour-and-a-half. The intensity of each blast dictates how long it will be until the next blast.

There's few things more beautiful than the sight of fresh snow in the morning. About a half inch fell over night.

Unfortunately it was all gone by noon. :sniff:

We decided to spend the day driving around the Grand Teton National Park finding virtual caches and just having fun exploring. This meant staying another night. Darn.