Independence Rock

I'm nearing the end of our travel reporting. I think I only have a few post's worth of pictures left. It's only taken me 5 weeks or so--that's not too bad :)

We took two days to get from Spokane to Denver, stopping to spend the night in Billings. We got to eat one last time at MacKenzie River Pizza (thanks for the recommendation, Katie!), our new favorite Montana restaurant, with the possible exception of Lindy's in Seeley Lake. The second day of driving was primarily Wyoming, which we think is beautiful. We took about a two-hour detour to go check out Independence Rock, which is pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. I can't imagine being a pioneer crossing that rocky prairie in a wagon.



The rock is meant to be climbed, though maybe not with a baby and a toddler. Nevertheless, we all made it to the top, though I had a few paranoid "mom" moments as were climbing the side.



Back down on solid ground, the kids did some cute posing for pictures:


We had climbed up the front of the rock and climbed back down the back of it, so we had to walk around the rest of the rock to make it back to the car.

David and Carver decided that they wanted to climb up one more time to get back to the front, but the girls and I stayed down where I could count on my next step being level. We met them at the front, and Ellie climbed up a little to meet them.


Reunited at the bottom, the big kids tried to help Laura navigate some of the rocky footing:


Here's Laura, playing with the water pump back at the car, looking super cute right before I realized that she had dropped the my keys somewhere in the grass.


And our last driving-away look at the area (the actual Independence Rock isn't in this shot, but off to the left).