Yellowstone: Setting Up Camp

We drove from Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and it took us about 8 hours I think. We were feeling a little rushed, because we wanted to get there in time to set up camp before it got dark, but we made it just in time! All I know is I was GLAD to finally be out of that van! This definitely was a beautiful part of the country to drive through though. What I didn't realize is how BIG Yellowstone is, even once you're inside the park. I'll write more about that later, but even once we got to Yellowstone, we still had over an hour drive inside the park to get to our campsite. It was very exciting when we saw this huge Elk right on the side of the road though! We were all keeping our eyes peeled for animals after that. 

We were in the Grant Village campsite, on the southwest side of Yellowstone Lake. It cost us $31/night to tent camp there, and we stayed for 3 nights. After checking in and buying firewood, we started setting up camp! Uncle Clint let us borrow his really nice tent, and it was awesome! The girls really wanted to sleep in their "own" tent, so we set up a little tent for them right beside ours. I was a little nervous about this, thinking about bears and all, but they were literally just steps away from us. Jonah slept with me and Daddy in the big tent! Let me just say...it takes a LOT of stuff to go camping like this! I'm amazed that we fit everything we needed in the van! (Only because Brian can pack like nobody's business!) After we got everything set up & the fire going, we started our camping trip the way every camping trip should start...with hot dogs and s'mores of course! Jonah even played us some songs on his harmonica...and by the end of the night, I was thinking camping wasn't all that bad after all! It was definitely chilly, but we stayed nice and warm tucked into our big double sleeping bag that we got Brian for Father's Day! We were originally planning this trip with Grandma & Grandpa Baldwin and Danny & Amy's family, but they weren't able to come. We would have had a great time with them, but I also loved it being just our little family. After the craziness of summer, this peaceful time away together was just what we needed! 

We loved our camp site! It was perfect!!

This is how we were feeling by the end of our drive...

Amazing scenery!

Best Travelers Award goes to the Baldwin kids!

Happy Little Campers!!

I took some really great pics on this trip! 

I can't believe this little boy is going to be 6 years old next month!!

Daddy took great care of us on this trip!! He made camping as easy as possible!

Is this the absolute cutest, or what?! 

I made sure we had all kinds of good food to eat! I'm glad I packed all that before we got there...there was definitely no McDonald's or Wal-Mart to be found for hours.

Jonah really wanted to sleep with the girls, but there just wasn't room in there with them, so he had to settle for the big this...

Definitely...

Mount Rushmore

We made it to Mount Rushmore (Mount Rush-A-More, if you ask Jonah) just before dark, after driving for 13 hours. We weren't planning to go there until the next day, but while we were driving, we discovered that you can actually go in the evening and watch a show where they light up the monument at night. Since we were getting there in time, we decided to go ahead and go! It was neat, but we were COLD!! (We were still wearing shorts and sandals, because it was hot in Oklahoma when we left that morning.) We spent the night at a little hotel about 30 minutes from Mount Rushmore. The next morning, we got up and drove back again so we could see it really good in the daylight. It really was a cool thing to see in person! We explored a bit, took a bunch of pictures, bought some souvenirs (of course) and ice cream, and then loaded up to drive 8-9 more hours to Yellowstone. It was another long day of driving...

I would have loved to have more time in Keystone, the little town you pass through just before getting to Mount Rushmore. It reminded me a lot of Silver Dollar City...it was like a step back in time. We just drove through and didn't have time to stop, but there were all kinds of fun things you could do there.

Brian's always talking about how he likes to see new things and travel to places he's never been before. And he's right! It is fun to experience things for the first time! 

These was our first (wild) animals to see, along with the cutest little chipmunks you've ever seen, and it was pretty exciting!! This baby was the sweetest!

Those are some big faces! It's pretty amazing that they were carved out of the side of a mountain like this!