A few life lessons:

1.  Spending the night in a Walmart parking lot is not much different than a campground.  You are among a sea of fellow travelers.  But I will say I prefer a campground.

2.  Snow does not look pretty when camping in a Walmart parking lot.

3. 29 degrees doesn’t feel so bad when you have a killer view to go with it.

4.  There is no such thing as a quick game of UNO with 6 people.

5. Puzzles and moving RVs, not a good combo.

6. Tracking down a UPS store in the middle of WY to pick up our van mirror replacement is not as easy as you may think.

 

Top of the Bighorn Mountain Pass and our first encounter with snow.

Top of the pass	Sculpting
Using the good utensils to chip away ice.	Excitement over doing donuts with an RC car on ice.
Looking for fresh snow to make ice cream.	Who needs ice cream?

 

I think Freya wants some.	Mountain made chocolate ice cream.

 

I didn’t supervise this ice cream project.  I was outside helping Jeff replace the van mirror.  I do know that the sugar container was practically empty when I found it.

 

The views during this drive were spectacular!  There are 2 passes over the Bighorn Mountains and apparently this is the less scenic of the 2.  After being quite impressed with this one I can’t wait to someday see the other one.

I took entirely too many pictures of this A-M-A-Z-I-N-G place!  It’s one of those places you can’t take your eyes off. 

 

Can you spot the camera crew?  Today they were filming an IMAX movie here.  It is also not uncommon to see climbers on this tower.

I’m not sure why there was a chalk board in the men’s bathroom.  My girls felt a little gypped as we had nothing special.   Korben used this chalk board to write an advertisement for his youtube channel.  Love the entrepreneur spirit of this kid.

This is the town where The Sundance Kid got his name.  My kids asked who is this Sundance Kid, whose name is all over town and who the campground owner mentioned?  I had to explain to them that he is famous for things like... well, let's see... bank robbery, murder, and stealing.

Why is he famous for things like that?
Umm... well... Because he was really good at it.

This small town is very proud that Harry Longabaugh took his name, The Sundance Kid,  from their town.  At the center of town there is a statue of him and I must have had 3 people tell me not to miss it.

The Crook County Museum (yes, that is the real  me of the county) is free, so after we saw the must see statue of The Sundance Kid we headed there.  It was a nice museum.  The man who runs the museum is a wealth if knowledge on WY history.  As I was leaving he was following me out to give more maps and things to do while in Sundance.  The only problem is that there isn’t much to do in Sundance and everything he recommend was about an hour to 2 hours away.  But I appreciated his lively spirit, especially when talking about the history of the west. 

What we liked the most  about the museum was learning about the Vore Buffalo jump (which was right down the road).  Before the Indians had horses they would stampede the buffalo off the edge of a sinkhole.  The buffalo either died immediately or were killed by the Indians right after they fell.  In these pits are the remains of hundreds of buffalo bones.  The Vore Buffalo Jump tours were closed for the season but we did get a glimpse of the pit when riding by.  We have this on the list of things to do next time we come around.

If I could change one thing about this museum it would be the height at which they hang their buffalo heads.  I hit my head so hard on a low hanging buffalo head, I was seeing stars.  We’ve seen a lot of buffalo in the past few months but I never quite realized how big their heads were until I came face to face with one, literally.  In spite of the dreary weather outside, we had a fun day.  We also had our first sighting of a magpie.  This may be one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen.

How could I have forgotten to mention this fantastic place in Hill City, South Dakota?

We were returning from one last quick evening stop at Mt. Rushmore. Kenzie loved Mt. Rushmore (who doesn't) and she wanted to get back one more time to buy something at the museum shop.  When we were leaving someone mentioned stopping for hot chocolate.  Sounded like a plan.  When we arrived in Hill City most of the shops looked closed, except Mountain Treats. They were just about to close but we caught them in the nick of time.

Well we got our hot chocolate and a whole lot more.  This shop is owned by couple, Grandpa Dave and Shelley.  This couple…how can I describe them?… are two of the friendliest and the most authentic people I have ever met.  You are immediately drawn to Grandpa Dave by his wit and humor.  And Shelley makes mean salted caramel fudge.  After talking to them for just a few brief moments you are captured by their zeal for life.

The kids learned so much from Grandpa Dave, about kindness and laughter.  He also introduced us to the beautiful art work of Bev Doolittle.  Check out her work. Her use of horses in her art is truly stunning.  This is my favorite: Hide and Seek Composite. Can you see the horses in each one of the squares?

 

 
Grandpa Dave also writes a Proverb a day and posts it in the shop on a yellow note pad, nothing fancy. Each morning he reads a Proverb and then writes his spin on it.  He shared many with us and we laughed right along with this wonderful couple. What a treat (no pun intended) it was to share some of our last moments in South Dakota at Mountain Treats.

 

If you ever find yourself in Hill City, SD be sure to stop here, you won’t be sorry.