South Dakota Recap

Here is a link to each day of our road trip.  Enjoy!

Mileage:  2175 miles

(click on the day to see the daily recap)

Day 1 -- Casper, WY

Day 2 -- Spearfish, SD

Day 3 -- Blackhills, SD

Day 4 -- White Lake, SD

Day 5 -- White Lake, SD

Day 6 -- Mitchell, SD

Day 7 -- Mantua, UT

Around the Town

Have you ever been somewhere so many times it's like a second home?  I have family that lives in Cody, Wyoming and I've visited the town almost every year of my life, some years more than once.  This trip, I realized I didn't have any pictures of the town and figured it was about time.  From the Irma Hotel to the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum.  I wish I'd taken more pictures over the years but why would I have?

So today, I post pictures from my afternoon around Cody.

The famous Irma Hotel, built by none other than Buffalo Bill Cody 

Buffalo Bill Cody -- the town namesake

Although I've never been, I hear that the nightly rodeo in Cody is the best around. 

You can't pass through Cody and not stop at the museum. 

Buffalo Bill State Park and Reservoir

 A trip to Cody wouldn't be the same without seeing a line up of motorcycles.

And finally....my mom's alma mater

Wild West Balloon Fest

The Wild West Balloon Festival is in town and Grandma and I went to the "glow" last night which was rather disappointing as they didn't inflate the balloons and just had four baskets burn for a few minutes.  It was interesting to say the least.

This morning we went to the balloon launch at 5:30 a.m., it was EARLY but boy was it worth it.  There were 16 balloons participating in the launch and we watched each and everyone launch and head northeast over the city.  Uncle Sunny and Norma joined us last night at the burn and this morning Uncle Sunny joined us for the launch.

Here are a few pictures and here is a link to a slideshow of more pictures.

Hollyhocks Blooming

Our hollyhocks are blooming.  I have always loved hollyhocks, they remind me of my great-grandmother's house in Burlington, Wyo.  We have them along a fence in our yard. We hope that they will spread throughout the hatchery!

Brigham City Temple

The Brigham City Temple is located at 250 South Main Street in Brigham City, Utah.  Construction has been going on for about a year now.  Today was a much anticipated day for the town as the Angel Moroni was lifted up to the top of the temple.

The event closed down a four block radius around the Temple (including main street).  It was to begin about 12:00 noon.  however the rain and wind did not cooperate.  It ended up going up about 1:30 this afternoon.

Willow Park

Quent and I went on a Sunday drive from Mantua to Logan, from Logan to Tremonton and from Tremonton to Mantua.  I'd never been over the road from Logan to Tremonton so we decided to take the long way home, in a raging rain storm I might add.

We stopped at Willow Park in Logan and took a leisurely walk around the Willow Park Zoo, they have an American Bald Eagle with a broken wing, it's on a perch and can't fly. I had also never seen a peacock with the feather's all fanned out.  Something spooked this poor peacock and he was squawking, squawking and squawking. A beautiful site.

Client Site Finished

I wrapped up another client's site this week.  I designed the website and took all the photos.  It's kept me busy the last week or so.  Take a look at what my friends down at Salon 89 have to offer!

Poppy Field

I finally went over and took pictures of the poppy field.  This field is located over by the federal campground and is full bloom!  We had nasty winds the past two days (gusts over 50mph) some of the flowers took a major beating.  Luckily the field wasn't too torn up and I was able to get some pictures.

Yellowstone

As you can imagine I took over 800 pictures of our 2.5 days in Yellowstone.  We were fortunate to see three bears and were in the area of three more (to be seen with only a spotting scope).  With the late run off and all the snow Yellowstone got over the winter the park has not quite hit it's summer stage yet.  In some areas of the park there are snow banks over 12 feet tall, ice on lakes and soggy meadows.  In other areas there are spring flowers, animals and lots and lots of green meadows.  It was the perfect weekend to be in Yellowstone.  We drove to Old Faithful on Sunday afternoon, drove the upper loop on Monday and then took the lower loop from Canyon to West Thumb on our way home on Tuesday.

Here are a few of the highlight pictures...

We finally saw a moose on our way our of Yellowstone, in Teton National Park.  Unfortunately it was sitting down so all we saw were the antlers but we saw a moose!  We also stopped by the Moulton Barn on Mormon Row in Jackson so I could get more pictures of the barn.