June 2015 – Our RV Trip

Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park

By Jennie Simpson | June 30, 2015

This is the sign that greets you at the beginning of the hike to the entrance of the Lewis & Clark Caverns cave and let me tell you…it’s a doozy of a hike! You gain 300 vertical feet in less than a mile. Now, that might not sound like a big deal and to someone used to an altitude of close to 5,000 ft, it’s probably not a big deal at all, but we’re used to something a little closer to sea level. We huffed and we puffed our way up to the entrance and I think by half way there we all thought we were gonna die right there on the trail! It was a beautiful sunny Montana afternoon and I thought seriously about just laying down right there on the trail and telling the boys I’d meet them back at the visitor center…until I remembered we happened to be in rattlesnake country. So, I forged ahead and we finally dragged ourselves to the entrance of the cave. Believe it or not we weren’t even the last ones in our group to arrive so we got to appreciate the view and catch our breath once we got to the top.

And oh, what a view it was!

Once our entire group got there (we had to wait for a couple that decided to go at the last minute and who showed off by running up the entire path while the rest of us were still trying to recover) we started on our cave tour. It felt amazingly good in that dark cave! It was around 80ish degrees outside and a steady 50ish inside the cave! The cave entrance sits at about 1,400 ft above the Jefferson River. I don’t know why it’s called the Lewis & Clark cave, they didn’t even know it was there when they passed by this area back in 1805. Two guys from a nearby town found it. Tom Williams and Burt Pannel found it in 1882 and in 1911 it became Montana’s first state park.

We walked in and walked down a couple hundred stairs and then we started to see some of the formations the cave is known for. The stuff you can see in the right photo above is called cave popcorn. I don’t know… I think I would’ve called it cave cauliflower or something. It doesn’t look much like popcorn to me. I’ll apologize now for the shoddy camera work. I am by no means a professional and this cave was really dark and we weren’t allowed to use a flash, so I was working with the tiny bit of light that was available.

Do you see the rock formations running down the side of the wall in the picture above? That stuff is called bacon.

Yup, bacon.

You’ve got to wonder how they come up with the names they do. What about this looks like bacon?

We didn’t actually get to go into the room in the picture above, but I snuck a picture of it anyway. I love the formations in it! The tour guide said the name of this room is the Princess Room. There’s a separate tour you can take (at night) that allows you access to other parts of the cave and this room is part of that tour.

When that sign at the beginning of the trail warned of having to bend and stoop to get through the cave it forgot to mention you also have to slide down a rock slide too. Look at all of those lovely layers in that rock! We were smart here and went last on the slide so everyone else cleaned and dried it off for us! The boys…who am I kidding…we all had fun sliding down the rock slide in the cave!

And just like with all cave tours…the guides take great pleasure out of scaring the buh-jeez-us out of all of us by turning off the lights to show us just how dark it really is in the cave. All I could think of after this part was how glad I am we all have phones with flashlights on them now!

This room was called The Garden Of The Gods Room. Everything in this room was pink! The lights were still white. I looked. Not only was this room colorful it was also the room with the biggest formations in the cave. It was impressive!

When our tour was over, we were spit out of the mountain a half mile from the visitor center, we were all glad we huffed and puffed up that trail. The guided tour covers 2 miles, is 2 hours long and you travel 600 or so stairs in the cave. It was all worth it. The formations were amazing, the tour guide was entertaining, and the time spent learning something new with our boys was definitely an afternoon well spent!

If we ever get to go back for a second visit, we’ll try to go earlier in the day and do one of the several hikes that are available outside of the cave. The whole area is beautiful with postcard worthy views!

See y’all down the road!!

There’s Gold In Them Thar Hills!

By Jennie Simpson | June 27, 2015

There’s gold in them thar hills!!

That’s what we were told anyway.

One of the things I was looking forward to doing in Montana was visiting Virginia/Nevada City. Online it looks so…western! In the pamphlets it all looked like such a unique experience! Well, I was less than impressed with Virginia City or Nevada City. There were a few highlights of the day and I’m glad we went just so we can say we went, but I don’t imagine we’ll ever want to go back.

Virginia City was founded by William Fairweather back in 1862 when he and a group of his buddies found gold in Alder Gulch. Within a few months of the first person finding gold, over 10,000 gold miners flooded into the 14 mile stretch of land seeking their own claims. The town drew prospectors, but also drew merchants and outlaws. Every social and economic class was represented in Virginia City. While it all sounds exciting, human comforts were few and far between.

Here’s a picture of some original buildings along the main stretch in Virginia City. Most of them are kind of like a museum where you can walk into the doorway and stand to look at the display. The old buildings line a board sidewalk that is mostly original to the town. I’ll admit…it was kind of neat to imagine the cowboys and miners and their families all walking the board sidewalks, living their lives on this huge adventure they’d decided to go on.

Some of the displays, like the ones above, are nice and organized while quite a few of them were more like items shoved into an old building and forgotten. I was disappointed with the shops that were actually open for business. The merchant shops were just as rundown as the original buildings and the items they were trying to sell weren’t much better. Definitely a tourist trap type of thing.

Today, Virginia City is a National Historic Landmark. The buildings that have been preserved in large part due to Mr. Charles Bovey. I’m not going to go into the full details of it…he was an heir to the General Mills Corporation and had a love for history… I do appreciate that people with the means make an effort to preserve our history.

We drove around and found the exact location Mr. Fairweather found the first gold in the area. There was actually someone panning for gold in the creek!

There’s a little train that runs between Virginia City and Nevada City. It’s a 25 minute ride where they point out some rocks and tell you a few interesting facts. We rode it both ways and then drove our car to the little pond you see in the picture above to have a picnic lunch. I’m too cheap to pay $20 for a bison burger.

We somehow lucked out and actually found a shady spot with enough room for all five of us to sit and have lunch! The weather was fantastic!! After lunch we headed toward Nevada City.

I spotted these orange flowers while we were on the train. I love them! They’re so bright and vibrant!! Maybe one day when we have a yard I can plant some poppies in it!

We also stopped to pan for some gold! I mean, we were there to learn about the gold rush so we had to give it a try! They gave us a lesson first, then turned us loose to find our own treasure. I’m not the most patient person…panning for gold takes a lot of patience and hard work.

I rushed through mine (I found some very pretty and very small garnets and amethysts) and then took some pictures. We didn’t find gold, but we will always remember trying and we all walked away with a little vial of amethyst and garnet chips!

While Virginia City is an authentic town with the original restored buildings, Nevada City is a fictional historic town or a “living museum” where on weekends costumed interpreters bring the city to life. There’s a fee to get in and it’s not too bad. We got the Family Package that included the train, panning for gold, and entrance to Nevada City.

The buildings along the highway in Nevada are original, but the “living museum” is what you have to pay to see. The Star Bakery is one of the original buildings. The buildings in the museum part of Nevada City were all brought in from other parts of Montana and restored.

Some are less restored than others, but give the museum a feeling of authenticity.

We didn’t stay long in Nevada City. We got there kind of late in the day and were the only ones walking around and to be honest…it kind of creeped me out to see the interpreters walking around in costume. I kept thinking about those movies where the unsuspecting tourist goes to a town and gets trapped there. I’m a dork.

We ended our tour of the area with a trip up to Boot Hill Cemetery.

You can see the graves of five men who were hanged in Virginia City at Boot Hill Cemetery. You can also see the post where they were hanged in the Hangman’s Building.

All in all, it wasn’t a horrible day. The drive to get there was beautiful and the picnic lunch along with the panning for gold are all great memories!

See y’all down the road!

Helena, MT

By Jennie Simpson | June 23, 2015

Our first impressions of Helena is that it’s kind of small and the city is laid out weird.

We went to the Capitol Building…it was a lovely dome building! You can see a picture of the inside of the dome in the left photo above. There were several stained glass windows, which were very pretty! A dome and stained-glass…It’s such a great combination! It seems to be a very popular theme with the State Capitol Buildings.

After we got our State Capitol Building stamp, we headed over to the Cathedral of Saint Helena. It was worth the trip to Helena just to see this cathedral! It was absolutely stunning inside!

And the stained glass…it was amazing! We walked up and down each side looking at each window. I could have stayed a couple of hours just looking around, but there were people trying to pray so we made a quick tour and headed out.

While we were trying to decide on what to eat we found this fire tower and after several passes around the block figured out how to get to it! We couldn’t go up in it, but it was neat to look around it and the view of the city wasn’t anything to complain about.

Helena was a neat place to spend an afternoon. We moseyed through some of the shops and down a very cool (I’m bummed I didn’t get a picture of it) brick street!

See y’all down the road!

Alaska Bound

By Jennie Simpson | June 21, 2015

Today we cross the Canadian border and head to Alaska where we will spend the summer! We have been planning and preparing for this portion of our RV trip for the past year. I’m not sure how often we’ll be able to keep y’all updated on our trip. We’ve heard from several people that wifi throughout Canada and Alaska can be a bit dodgy and sometimes it’s just not there at all. We’ll post as often as possible though and do our best to keep y’all up to date with our adventures! It’s easier to do quick posts to Instagram so that will be the best place to keep up with us. If you’re not following us there, head on over and follow us!! You can follow the link in this post or go to our blog and there will be a button to follow us on the right hand side.

We each have our own must see list when it comes to Alaska. Personally, the things I’m looking forward to are the mountains, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog stuff, and seeing glaciers.

Nicholas, of course, is looking for a pizza place, getting more Junior Ranger Badges, and seeing a bear…from a distance.

Alex is looking forward to fishing, looking for wildlife and getting another Junior Ranger badge.

Charlie is wanting to fish (so he can eat fresh salmon), trying reindeer sausage, and having Alaskan King Crab. Notice his are all about food. He’s fourteen. He’ll actually turn fifteen while we’re in Alaska!

Jerl is looking forward to the scenery, smoking some salmon, and the wildlife. We have a list of all of the wildlife we’ve seen.

Y’all know I’m a planner. I’ve been planning Alaska for over a year now. We’ve plotted our course to Alaska, in Alaska, and back from Alaska. Here’s what it looks like.

Our plan is to take one road up and take a different road back so we can see as many different areas of Canada as we can. The little blue squares indicate something to do or see, the tents indicate a place to stay, the fork and knife are places to eat we don’t want to miss, and the suns mean there’s a day trip there. While we have a list of what we want to do or see, it’s forever changing. We find new things or someone tells of a “must see” place and that’s awesome! We love insider’s tips so if y’all have one let us know!!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

7th Ranch RV Park

By Jennie Simpson | June 19, 2015

Hey Y’all! I don’t normally post about the RV parks we stay at, but this one is my favorite so far! The owners were super nice and so helpful with things to see in the area and bonus…we got free ice cream when we arrived!!

Besides being one of the cleanest, best organized parks I’ve seen, it’s also a working ranch!

There were horses! You could take a riding lesson or just hang out with the horses. The horse above was thoroughly convinced my camera was really an apple meant for him. He nosed me a couple of times and followed me until he realized I didn’t have anything for him.

There was a great little playground for the boys to spend their days in. And some hiking trails for the evenings. One hiking trail leads up to a hill behind the park where I snapped the left picture above. If you look really closely, you can spot our home on wheels!

Some of the other details about this place that make it so great are the tipi we got to watch them put up and then explore, the community fire pit (that for some reason reminded me of the Flintstones), and the wonderful landscaping!

I’m a sucker for pretty flowers.

The view from our door wasn’t bad either.

With all of that in mind along with the cleanest bathrooms I’ve seen so far and you’ve got yourself a fantastic little RV park!!

See y’all down the road!

Montana Flowers

By Jennie Simpson | June 17, 2015

Hey Y’all!!

I just wanted to do a quick post to share with you all of the beautiful flowers I’ve been enjoying while here in Montana. I don’t know their names…sorry. I’ve got quite a few pictures and in the interest of not bogging down everyone’s internet connection…I’ve put the pictures into two collages.

If anyone knows the names of any of them I’d love to know!

I’m aware that there are two weeds in the picture above, but I couldn’t resist them. One was so perfectly round and the other was so stinkin’ big! Some of the flowers are wild flowers and some are not.

Anyway, there are some of the many flowers I’ve been enjoying while we’ve been traipsing around Montana! Hope y’all enjoyed them and let me know if you know any of their names.

See y’all down the road!

Billings, MT

By Jennie Simpson | June 15, 2015

We recently spent some time in Billings, MT. Billings isn’t a huge metropolis…it only has about 100k residents…but after the teeny tiny towns we’ve been staying in, Billings felt like it was huge!

We found an excellent burger place to eat. Although the burgers looked amazing, I opted for one of their house salads. It was big enough for two people! I got mine with pepper jack cheese melted on a burger with spicy ranch dressing. I think I could eat there a couple of times a week and not get tired of it. For all of you who know what Five Guys is…Mooyah is a similar set up except they have more options and…they have shakes too. Even if the food wasn’t as stellar as it was, they would’ve had me with their sign.

After we filled our bellies with some top notch food, we went out on a hike above the city in search of some top notch views. Billings isn’t big, but boy does it have some nice views!

We walked along the bluffs appreciating the views, playing on the rock formations.

I took a ton of pictures of the prettiest flowers growing there! I won’t bore you with all of them…I’ll just post up a few of my favorites! The purple flowers were everywhere! I think I spent more time looking at the flowers than looking at the view.

We found a Scheels! It’s like a combination of a Bass Pro Shop and an Academy Sports store. It’s probably one of the biggest I’ve seen. The prices weren’t bad and they had fun things to keep the boys entertained while we shopped. And…they have a Ferris wheel in the store. Along with these fun photo ops set up! We got there an hour before they closed and had a great time looking at everything. We even walked out with some great deals! I think we could have spent several hours walking around.

We enjoyed Billings! It was the first big-ish town we’ve come across for awhile with some of the stores we’ve come to miss.

See y’all down the road!

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

By Jennie Simpson | June 10, 2015

We we arrived in this area, we had no intention of going to Little Bighorn Battlefield NM. To be completely honest, I didn’t even know it was close to where we were staying. The owners of the RV park we were staying at highly recommended it so we decided to go check it out.

The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument was a lesson in history for the boys. The Rangers do a great job retelling the story of what happened and the museum has some amazing artifacts. We spent close to five hours here walking the trails, listening to a Ranger Talk and learning about Lt Col. George Custer’s Last Stand.

The museum was our first stop. Nicolas and Alex didn’t waste any time getting started on the Junior Ranger Field Guide.

We’ve all heard the story, but walking the paths while reading the descriptions at each tour stop really illustrates what happened here. You can read it in a book, but to stand in the place it happened…it gives you a new understanding of what really happened.

This National Monument memorializes not only Custer’s last battle and the loss of hundreds of soldiers, but it also memorializes the Northern Plains Indian’s fight to preserve their ancestral way of life. The NPS unit does a good job at telling both sides of the story without trying to sway you one way or the other.

The right picture above is Last Stand Hill. It’s the final resting place of not only Custer, but nearly 40 other soldiers who fell during the battle. There’s a memorial at the top of the hill dedicated to the hundreds of soldiers who lost their life in the battle.

There’s a headstone like this for every soldier and Native American who lost their life during the battle here. They’re placed where the soldier or Native American was found. They look like ghosts dotting the landscape.

Several different signs reminded us that we’re in rattlesnake country. The boys kept asking if each sound they heard was a rattlesnake. We’re all jumpy at the thought of running into one of these nope ropes.

There is a wonderful Indian Memorial there as well. You can see the Soldier Memorial through a slit in the wall. in the bottom right photo above is a picture of nine remaining Warriors that gathered together back in 1948.

The battlefield looks so peaceful now. It’s a beautiful area.

Alex and Nicholas finished up their Junior Ranger Field Guides after speaking with a Ranger. They’re up to four badges now and they’re learning so much!

We all walked away with a better understanding of what really happened during the Battle of Little Bighorn. And…we’ve decided the battlefields should definitely be added to our list of places to go! We all enjoyed it a lot more than we thought we would!

See y’all down the road!

Historic Graffiti

By Jennie Simpson | June 6, 2015

Pompey’s Pillar National Monument is the only place you can be assured to stand in the footsteps of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Clark carved his name in the rock…I guess you could call it historical graffiti. This carving is the only remaining physical evidence of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition still around today. They’ve taken measures to protect it because there are tons of other names carved into the rocks around it, but you can clearly see his name under the glass.

Clark named the pillar “Pomp’s Pillar” using his nickname for Sacagawea’s son.

You can walk all the way up to the top using the 200 or so stairs. It’s worth it…the view is great and there are benches up there you can use to rest up for the trip down if you need to. Nicholas and Alex utilized the benches to work on their Junior Ranger Field Guides. You can also see our tour guide to the left of the left picture.

Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and volunteered to take a picture of all of us.

He also pointed out a family of marmots and showed us a rock that looks like a mountain lion!

There was a short, paved walk way that went down by the Yellowstone River. It was a nice leisurely stroll with some educational signs along the way.

We spent some time in the museum learning about the Lewis and Clark trail and some of the hardships they endured. There were replicas of boats they made and some rawhide clothing the boys could try on.

The visit didn’t take long and it was very educational for all of us. It was well worth the small entry fee.

See y’all down the road!