We thought you kids would like to see a video of all of the pictures we took of our animals while on our trip.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Great Basin National Park (and Lehman Caves)
Today, we visited our tenth national park of the trip - Great Basin National Park, in Nevada. At Great Basin, there is another cave.
This cave - Lehman Cave - was quite different than the cave we saw at Wind Cave.
Once we were inside the cave we saw the differences between Lehman Cave and Wind Cave. Lehman Cave was gothic-looking, filled with stalactites and stalagmites (which gave us a chance to test our memory of the saying we'd learned from Ice Cave about which is which). Lehman Cave also has mitey-tites, where stalactites and stalagmites meet up with each other.
After the cave, we drove up to the top of the mountain in Great Basin, had lunch, and drove back down. We stopped at a few spots along the way for scenery, and then went on a short hike, where we were on the hunt for flowering cacti.
Our experience at Great Basin taught us that Nevadians have a sense of humor. On our way into the park, we were greeted by several statues. 
Mesa Verde
Today we headed to Mesa Verde. While there, before we even saw any cliff dwellings, we learned: (a) we should keep wild life wild, (b) we should both bring water and not bring drinks on our walk to the first cliff dwelling we went to, and (c) there's something called Mormon 
Tea that grows in the area (we thought 2L might enjoy the sign).Next, we hiked down to Spruce House, and were able to walk around parts of that cliff dwelling.
In addition to seeing Spruce House up-close, we were also able to see Cliff Palace (the largest cliff dwelling) from a number of vantage points along a drive through the park. We also got to see several other cliff dwellings from afar, and we were amazed at how many there were.
In addition to these kinds of dwellings, we saw several wild flowers. We have no idea of what these were.
Tonight, we're in Delta, UT, which, according to the front desk guy at the motel here, is in the middle of nowhere. Tomorrow we venture to our bonus park of the trip: Great Basin. (This also gives us our ninth, we think, national park of the trip.)
Black Canyon... of the Gunnison
Sadly, our hotel last night had no internet, so we couldn't update things until tonight. Yesterday, we ventured to Black Canyon of the Gunnison.
In any case, this was an area with amazing scenery that some brave souls (not us) hiked down into -- hence signs such as this one, warning people not to throw things into the black canyon, as those things might fall on said brave souls' heads.
We stuck to paths off the main road to see different views of the black canyon, as well as flowers.
Our animals enjoyed the scenery too, and even did some rock climbing.
After leaving Black Canyon (of the Gunnison), we headed toward Mesa Verde. On the way, we passed through a town with some fun statues we happened to see.
Big Things in Denver
The title of the post (not to mention the first bullet point) refers to the huge variety of large things there are in Denver. As we drove around , we seemed to find more and more large objects on every street corner. (Well, it was usually just one object per street corner, but more and more street corners seemed to have large objects.)
After the tour of large objects in Denver, we headed to Fort Collins. On the way, we stopped by a yard filled with statues of all sorts of dinosaurs, swans, trucks, flowers, and other objects made out of car parts. We were expecting just a few statues, but there was a never-ending field of them. The video is a little long, since the park amused us so much, so either bear with us, or stop it after you get the general idea.
On Wednesday, we headed to Rocky Mountain national park, where we saw not just huge mountains and great scenery, but also a decent bit of wild life.
On Thursday, we left Veena and Jerry's and headed to Great Sand Dunes.
After the tour of large objects in Denver, we headed to Fort Collins. On the way, we stopped by a yard filled with statues of all sorts of dinosaurs, swans, trucks, flowers, and other objects made out of car parts. We were expecting just a few statues, but there was a never-ending field of them. The video is a little long, since the park amused us so much, so either bear with us, or stop it after you get the general idea.
On Wednesday, we headed to Rocky Mountain national park, where we saw not just huge mountains and great scenery, but also a decent bit of wild life.
On Thursday, we left Veena and Jerry's and headed to Great Sand Dunes.
CarHenge
We started the day with anticipation, looking for Carhenge - that Stonehenge of the west, made out of old cars. Sadly, the cars had been painted gray, which was designed to both stop rust and to make the cars look more like, well, stones. However, despite the gray paint, Carhenge did not disappoint.
After finishing our tour of Carhenge (where the animals posed on a car, on the station wagon, and in the belly of one of the dinosaurs), we headed to CO. We will spend several days in CO.
After finishing our tour of Carhenge (where the animals posed on a car, on the station wagon, and in the belly of one of the dinosaurs), we headed to CO. We will spend several days in CO.
Badlands
Today we started out by braving the Badlands again. We learned that, millions of years ago, there was an ocean covering South D. Over time, the Black Hills and Rocky Mountains kept rising, and the ocean was shoved out of the way.
In the more prairie-esque portions of the Badlands, we found some more prairie dogs.
Other wildlife we spotted on our way through the badlands were birds, a rabbit, and some bison (they seem to be all over this part of the country). Check out the collage below to see the cool bird we saw, to see the baby bunny, the prairie dogs, and the bison that roam Badlands National Park.
Once we'd finished with the Badlands, we headed to Wind Cave, another national park in SD. e entered through the tiny hole you can see in the cave pictures. ent possibilty). While in the cave, we saw what was called popcorn on the walls and ceilings, as well as box work.
In the more prairie-esque portions of the Badlands, we found some more prairie dogs.
Other wildlife we spotted on our way through the badlands were birds, a rabbit, and some bison (they seem to be all over this part of the country). Check out the collage below to see the cool bird we saw, to see the baby bunny, the prairie dogs, and the bison that roam Badlands National Park. 
Once we'd finished with the Badlands, we headed to Wind Cave, another national park in SD. e entered through the tiny hole you can see in the cave pictures. ent possibilty). While in the cave, we saw what was called popcorn on the walls and ceilings, as well as box work.
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