Michigan- upper peninsula- September 3-4, 2017

Sunset over Lake Superior: 9/3/17

Munising, Michigan- the water was soooooo clear that I could see the sandy bottom of the lake: 10, 20 feet below my kayak! Did not see any fish or other wildlife besides a couple of loons.

 9/4/17: We wanted to kayak near Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but unfortunately there was a small craft advisory due to high wind and waves so it was not safe.

Instead, we went into Hiawatha National Forest to 'Bruno's Run'.  This was an excellent mountain bike ride, single track through the woods by lakes and rivers with great flow to the trail: basically the 'perfect ride'.

Gorgeous beaches in the Upper UP- this one was was right off route 28.

Wagner Falls

Munising Falls

Minnesota/ Wisconsin/ Michigan: August 29- September 2

 Minnesota: the Land of 10,000 Lakes

Kayaked and camped on Hill Lake:

Afternoon break on Leech Lake:

Our Harvest Host site on the peninsula of Sunday Lake, Wakefield, Michigan.

It was so nice we stayed 2 nights: free site with lake front, water, electricity, hot shower, washer and dryer!  I was so happy I made the owner cookies! (Sept 1-2)

 Gorgeous sunset over the lake!

North Dakota: August 26-28

Ken had his own Den @ Bowman Lion's Club Campground

We toured the scenic route around Teddy Roosevelt National Park, South Unit with Lynn and Joe.

The Badboys in the Badlands

Magnificent Wild Horses!

The Bison- eyeing Ken 

 Yeah- I wouldn't mess with that look

This Bison walked right by us on the road!

Ok, so this was my favorite part of Teddy Roosevelt National Park:  Prairie Dog Town!!

Look at the love in this town!

Lynn generously bought me a book on prairie dogs.  They are so smart! They have a whole language-  one thing I learned was the jump-yip leap backwards in the air with two fast, high-pitched tones which indicates predator birds.  While I was watching them, I saw a prairie dog do this signal, so I looked up and saw a hawk flying directly overhead!

This is one of several villages in the park:

Ok we've seen many billboards across the country- but this was the best!

Several beautiful sunflower farms across the Dakotas.

South Dakota: August 22-25

 Mount Rushmore

We toured the Badlands with Lynn & Joe Tostado

Bighorn sheep walked by the car!

Lynn, walking the badlands!

 Lynn & Joe have been on a quest to run a race in all 50 states in the US!

This was state #46!  A 5K trail race in Spearfish, South Dakota.  We drove the White Wizard down 12 miles of gravel roads to get to this remote location and stayed at Iron Creek Campground.

2 days later they ran a half marathon relay in Dickenson, North Dakota for state #47!!

They only have 3 states left to go to accomplish their goal!

Cows hanging out in the parking lot!

Pronghorn Deer

Crazy Horse, with a couple of guys hanging off his head working on  him.

Wyoming: Grand Tetons/ Solar Eclipse: August 18-21

Grand Teton National Park

August 21st-we spent the weekend at this beautiful free camp spot on a hill in the Grand Teton National Forest with a perfect view of the Solar Eclipse, and a professional photographer from Germany on our left and friends from the Netherlands to our right.

 We had 2 minutes of totality where the sun was completely covered by the moon.  During the 1.25 hours of partial eclipse leading up to this time, it slowly got darker and colder.  I had to go get a sweatshirt on.  During the 2 minutes of totality, the lighting was very strange- almost like sunset, but not really (see picture below).  Our friends from San Diego said that the knats came out for those 2 minutes, and then immediately left afterwards.

This was our friend burrowing on our campsite:

 Got a great shot of this bear before he noticed a bunch of us staring at him with cameras- then he bolted, thankfully in the other direction!

Hell's half acre:

Yellowstone starts in Montana and goes south into Wyoming- never saw a sign in Yellowstone, so took a picture on the way out!