This week we were in the Black Hills, South Dakota. We stayed in a place called Custer State Park.

Our first day there was on a Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur, so we joined a congregation of about twenty people. In the afternoon, we walked to the visitor center at Custer State Park and saw a whole bunch of wild turkeys. Afterwards, we went on a scenic drive in Custer state park. First we saw a couple pronghorn antelope. Then we encountered a whole herd of bison. One actually was sniffing the car! It was literally touching the car. Later we also saw lots of white tailed deer.

The next day, we drove to Mount Rushmore. It was very cool. I became a junior ranger there. We went on a small hike to the base of the mountain, and also saw the sculpture’s studio with a scale model of the mountain.

Then we went to a small lake in the state park. We took a one mile long hike around it. I was running ahead and climbing lots of rocks. On the way back, we saw something amazing    – big horn sheep! At first glance we thought they were deer, but we soon saw their horns. It was awesome to see the animals that we had heard about for a long time.

The next day, we went to Devil’s Tower, in Wyoming. We went in the toad, and it was a very long drive. When we got there, we went on a three mile hike. It was beautiful. Afterwards, we went on a short hike through the boulder field. I climbed a lot of boulders.

Yesterday, we started the morning with an unexpected surprise – a whole herd of bighorn sheep in our campground! The herd stayed around for the entire day. In the afternoon, Pa and I went cross country out in the hills. We didn’t see any animals, but we saw the exo- skeleton of some freaky bug and lots of beautiful scenery. When we got back, the bighorn sheep were jumping the fence to leave. One little baby couldn’t do it, so we opened the gate to try to get it out. After a lot of time and a little herding, we finally got the baby back to the rest of the herd.

Today, we went to a national monument named Jewel Cave. Ma and little kid went on a short tour of cave. Then Pa and I went on the long tour. It was really cool. There were stalactites, columns, thin, hollow stalactites called soda straws, and beautiful crystals. Back above ground, we ate a picnic lunch. Of course, then I did the junior ranger program.

Tomorrow we will head to Nebraska.

After our short stay in Montana, we headed to North Dakota, the fastest growing state in the US. We drove through Watford City, an oil boom town with lots of oil trucks. Then we continued driving to Theodore Roosevelt national park. The next morning, we were surprised to look outside and see a whole herd of bison – in the middle of the campground! There was one really big one, a couple half grown up calves, and many others. We counted about fifteen in total. After carefully going around the bison to escape the campground, we went to the visitor center where  I got my junior ranger program. That afternoon, we went on a very windy hike to a point were we could see the Little Missouri river winding its way down the valley of rock layers.

The next day we hiked to a prairie dog town. We got really close to them. Once I was sitting in the bushes watching them. I tried to stand up and walk towards them, but the whole town started “barking.” I sat back down, and they all settled down. Then I walked into the town to watch them, and a prairie dog started coming out of the hole I was standing right next to. It was so cool!

We then moved to the south unit for one night. We took a drive in the park and saw some wild horses. Coming back, we had to stop for wild turkeys in the road.

To get there, we took the Enchanted Highway, a highway with the world’s largest metal sculptures. We saw a giant eye, a giant cricket sculpture, giant fishes, a sculpture of some huge hens, and giant farmers. It was super awesome.

This week, we were in a town named Drumheller, in Alberta, Canada. Drummheller is known as the dinosaur capital of the world because it has a great dinosaur museum, and lots of fossils have been found there. It has the world’s largest dinosaur statue.We climbed the 160 steps to the top. Afterwards, we went to a splash park because the hot temps finally returned.

The next morning, we went to an old suspension bridge that was used for miners to get to a coal mine. That afternoon, we went to a canyon named Horse Thief Canyon. It was named that because horse thieves hid horses there and rebranded them. We hiked into the canyon.  There were lots of small underground tunnels. We had lots of fun hiking. I climbed to the top of a hill and had great views of the canyon.

We went to a cool museum called the Royal Terrell Museum. There were lots of different fossils, mostly found in the area.  It was super awesome. The next day, Pa and I  returned to the museum for an activity. Everybody hiked to a little field of rocks and began searching for fossils. Pa found  part of a dinosaur tooth, and I found an imprint of a seed cone. We both found lots of petrified wood. It was super fun!

That night, Ma and I went to my first ice hockey game. Hockey is very violent! The Drummheller dragons won with a score of two to one. I want to go to another hockey game!

This week we went from Dawson City to Dawson Creek (1950 km) on the Alaska and Klondike highway.

One of the things we stopped for was the Sign Post Forest, at Watson Lake. The Sign Post Forest is what the name says: a forest of sign posts! The Sign Post Forest was started by a U.S Army soldier working on the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942. He was staying in Watson Lake because of an injury. An officer asked him to repair and put up  the directional signposts, and while completing the job, he added a sign that said the direction and distance to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. People continued adding signs. Now there are over 77,000 signs. We made and added our own sign.

On the Alaska Highway, we encountered something unusual for September: snow! During a lunch break, I had a snowball fight with Pa, made snow caves, and froze my feet. A little later we saw a black bear with a cub. The cub was so cute. It stood up a couple times and once it shook like a dog. Also, we saw a lot of bison up close and a caribou.

A couple days later, we drove while it was snowing again. When we stopped, I went walking in deep snow and came back wishing I had snowshoes. Pa was kind of freaked out by the snow.

Now we are at mile zero of the Alaska highway, in Dawson Creek.

A couple days ago, we were at Chena hot springs, outside Fairbanks. Chena’s hot springs were discovered by Robert and Thomas Swan in 1905. They made a resort there, with twelve small cabins and a bath house. They also made a trail to Fairbanks that was used for horses to bring people back and forth. The actual traveling time was twelve hours. Later the resort was improved and the lodge was added.

While at Chena, we went swimming in the indoor pool. It was super fun. Little Kid quickly got cold, but he was soon ready to go back in. I had a lot of fun diving for rings, wearing flippers, and playing with Little Kid. Ma later got some time to soak in the hot springs.

On our last night at Chena, we saw something very exciting – the northern lights! Ma and Pa stayed awake to see them, and when they did they woke me. We went to the resort’s airstrip and had a spectacular view of the northern lights. First there was a horizontal streak,  then it vanished and another one formed. My favorite part was a vertical one that grew brighter and brighter.   All the   northern lights we saw were green. The northern lights are created by solar wind particles trapped in the atmosphere by earth’s magnetic field. The particles interact with gasses in the air and create the colors.

The next day, we left Chena, did our town stuff in Fairbanks, and started on the Taylor highway.