August 6- Our first stop this morning was our last gasp in the Black Hills- Mt. Rushmore. I have to say, after all the hype, it was kind of smaller than I was expecting. Yeah, the sculptures are really cool, but believe me when I say that I felt a lot more love of our country in Yosemite, Yellowstone, or any one of the amazing places we've been to this trip. Honestly, our fundamental impression of Rushmore was annoyance. First of all, after seeing so many of the ...

August 5- Got up early in order to get to Sylvan Lake, one of the most popular recreation areas in the Black Hills, in time to get a parking space. Our plan for the day was a hike to the top of Mt. Harney, the highest point in South Dakota—and according to the sign at the top, if you travel east from there, the next time you reach a point as high is in the Pyrenees. You couldn't see quite that far, but the summit does offer an amazing 360 of the Black Hills reg...

August 3 - I don't normally blog the travel days, but we had a really neat one yesterday. We had an inauspicious start - it took three hours to go the 100 miles from our campground near the south entrance of Yellowstone, through the park and out the east entrance, to the town of Cody. In addition to regular park traffic, there was a bad accident in the Park (I now know what an overturned camping trailer looks like, and it ain't pretty), and western Wyoming seems ...

August 1 - Well, it only took till about 10:30 AM for us to regret having told Kieran the translation of "Grand Tetons" (hint: the name was conferred by French trappers, presumably long deprived of the company of women, upon seeing the mountains from their less rugged western side.) Snickering aside, we are loving it here. I have seen most of the Colorado Rockies, the Canadian Rockies in Banff, the Sierras, the Cascades, and a fair bit of the Alps, but ...

July 31- 5 AM rolled in way too quickly, but the prospect of more wolves got us out of bed right on time. We headed straight to Slough Creek this time, arriving by 6 AM, and were rewarded with views of the four pups frolicking and playing, plus a good look at the alpha male, who is black. It was good we got there early, as shortly after light hit the hillside (around 7), they all retreated back to the den. We took another "quick" drive down Lamar Valley...