Long Gone: June 2015

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

The Storm

Here's the video of the storm we mentioned in our last post. Pretty crazy night!

The Great Storm in The Black Hills

After spending a few days in Montana for Andrew's brother's wedding (Congrats again, Josh and Janice!), we have finally begun heading East! We had our first weather disaster a few nights ago at Devil's Tower, Wyoming. We got caught in a huge lightning storm, and our tent was basically totaled. We made a video about it below for you to experience it! Thankfully we have another tent from some kind strangers and all is well!

From Devils Tower we ventured into South Dakota where we visited Jewel Cave, Mount Rushmore an Wind Cave. We also took a ride on the President's Alpine Slide in Keystone, SD. We saw Bear Country, a super cool wildlife park with a ton of bears and other neat animals on our way out.

We're currently in the Minneapolis, MN area visiting with some awesome friends. (Thanks Courtney, Chase, and Catelyn!)

Photo by Noah Childs

Photo by Bowen Childs

Thursday, June 18, 2015

A Farewell to Utah and Hello to Wyoming & Montana

We spent a couple days near Moab, Utah camping in the desert and exploring Arches and Canyonlands. From there, we ventured up into Wyoming. We spent a night in Grand Teton National Park, where we hiked up to Hidden Falls. It was nice to see so much water and trees after spending the last 3 weeks in the desert! We finished our time in Wyoming exploring Yellowstone for two days. Yesterday we drove up to northern Montana and we're spending some time at Andrew's grandparent's house.

Photo by Noah Childs

Photo by Bowen Childs

Friday, June 12, 2015

Casinos, Canyons, and Cliffs

Sorry this update has taken so long, we haven't had internet access for a while. We've definitely had an adventurous week. After visiting some friends of Noah and Bowen near Prescott, AZ, we drove up to Las Vegas--stopping at Hoover Dam on the way. We stayed at the Luxor hotel and spent some time looking around the strip.

Photo by Noah Childs

Photo by Bowen Childs

Photo by Bowen Childs

On Monday we visited Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada on our way to Utah. Tuesday and Wednesday we explored Zion National Park. The canyons were absolutely breathtaking. We hiked Angels Landing, a famous hike with 1,000 ft. drop-offs on both sides. The views were spectacular!

Photo by Bowen Childs

From there we went on to Bryce Canyon National Park. We got caught in a thunderstorm but were able to hike around a little to see some of the park's unique sites.

Photo by Noah Childs

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Isn't it grand?

The last week on the road has been awesome! We stopped at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and took a tour of Cliff Palace (an old Pueblo cliff dwelling).

Photo by Bowen Childs

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon. It is truly breathtaking and it's easy to see why it's a wonder of the world. Our first day at the canyon we hiked for about 8 miles along the rim, and our second day we hiked 3 miles into the canyon and back--where we saw the bighorn sheep. We were able to watch the sunset and got up at 4:30am to watch the sunrise. It was well worth getting up early for!

Photo by Bowen Childs

Monday, June 1, 2015

First stop: White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns

We made a quick trip down to Cloudcroft, NM for a wedding for Andrew's good friend. From there we traveled to White Sands National Monument and Carlsbad Caverns. Tomorrow we're off to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado and Four Corners!