August 21

Spontaneous veer to the north has landed us in Hamilton, Ontario for the night. Tomorrow Niagara Falls to cap off the summer. Good way to end.

August 20

Sudden decision to have a big day after rangering-up at the Badlands visitor center. Booked a hotel in Elkhart, IN (975 miles away) and put kids' seats back and our heads down. Guess we were feeling the draw of home pretty strongly in that moment, but you can't call this a particularly wise choice. Pulled in happy enough, though, but obscenely late even discounting the two hours we lost today due to time zone changes. Halfway home, though. Phew!

August 19

Rushmore in the morning, Needles in the afternoon, then evening in Badlands. Busy day, no? Especially sincebison wandered all over the road again onthe Needles Highway and stopped us short for a while. Too bad to be blitzing through South Dakota, especially with so many rocks to climb on. Speaking of which, check out Liz on the famous Thimble boulder. She didn't top out. Short visit but full -- two ranger badges in 24 hrs for kids!

August 18

Terrific bacon-and-eggs, lounge-around morning looking up at that great fireplug of a mountain. We needed some easy hours.

A trip around the prairie-dog town next door, then up to the park to hike around, gape up at climbers, ranger up, then head out towards Mount Rushmore.

Pulled up just a little shy of our goal and decided to camp at Rushmore Shadows, which turns out to be just the ticket. A pool, hot tub, internet access . . . this is our kind of late-in-the-trip camping.

August 17

Up creaky and cranky from the night in the car to find we were in a very pleasant spot. Wish circumstances had been a little different. Today up and overBeartooth Pass, elevation 10,947 feet. Wow. Scenery goes beyond description. Brief snowball fight, then down, down, down into Red Lodge, MT (lovely town) and beyond. Ajarring switch from winding high curves to open 75 mph highway, but we welcome the chance to make miles. Pull into Devils Tower National Monument at dusk and the place just breathes peacefulness. So glad we didn't book the noisy KOA we can see and hear across the meadow.

August 16

Sad to know this is our last day in the park, we packed up in the morning and then headed south. Drove back past Old Faithful, then followed the Grand Loop Drive alongside Yellowstone Lake (more fruitless fishing, but a nice picnic) and on up north toward the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. So happy we decided to take a pit stop at the campground near West Thumb because suddenly we were in the thick of a bison brigade in the parking lot! The ranger in charge of keeping us at a distance said he'd never seen the whole herd (dozens of them!) tramp right down to the boat launch. Felt lucky to be there.

North toward GC of the Yellowstone but caught in 2 hr buffalo jam. Cars should be equipped with those cow-catchers they used to put on trains. Or tourists should have their cameras taken if they block progress for more than two minutes!

Great visit to Yellowstone Falls when we finally arrived. Breathtaking really. Walked the 300+ steps down Uncle Tom Trail to the platform below Upper Falls and felt like we were right in the middle of it all.

Much later than

expected out the Northeast Entrance of

the park, but that meant we got to see several hundred more bison (ho hum) and one of the most spectacular sunsets ever.

Refreshing break from the mobs of people we sometimes encountered at the real hot spots in Yellowstone. This feels like wild country, big and open and beautiful. No room at Pebble Creek, the last campground in the park, then consecutive disappointments at four national forest campgrounds outside the park (first in Montana, then back to Wyoming). One was closed outright, then three had signs up saying no tent camping was allowed due to bear activity. What could we do, at ten o'clock and high up in the mountains? Yep, we pulled all the gear out, folded up seats and bunked up all in the car. Some of us actually slept a little, I hear tell. We'd find out in the morning from the campground hosts that the severe response was from the National Forest Service. They've prohibited tent camping in a large radius around the Northeast entrance to Yellowstone after a bear incident earlier this summer that resulted in a fatality. Yikes. Now kind of glad we haven't been following the news.

August 15

Off for a hike today! Drove north from Madison Campground to take off into the wilderness for a few hours, figuring out a route on our way toward Mammoth Hot Springs area. All great, but a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right . . . Figured it out before too long -- we'd left our camera by the Madison River the evening before while fishing. A camera would be enough to lose, but this had two or three hundred great photos on it too, so very concerning. New plan: Clare and kids set off on to hike from the Ice Lake trailhead and take the Howard Easton trail into Norris Campground (4.6 mi!) while Dan drives back to go camera hunting. An hour to travel the 15 miles back (construction -- all your stimulus dollars hard at work!) to strike out, as expected. No camera turned in, no trace of it by the river. Oh well. Did what we could. Back up another hour to rendezvous with family, whose excitement at successfully navigating through empty territory made up for a lot of the disappointment.

Still enough afternoon left to get up to Mammoth Terraces and have a touristy dinner in the town and to make it even better we saw

our first bear on the drive, and our second bear on the way home. Oh yeah, and there were a couple of bison in there too -- imagine!

Post-script:  Next day camera shows up -- turned in by one of those good people we all ought to know are out there. Giant PHEW and a thanks to that anonymous Samaritan.