On my birthday we toured around the area and did some exploring.  We came across the Duck Creek area and even found a cute little visitor center. We had seen signs about Mammoth Caves and inquired within.  The gentleman there gave us this great map and we were off. The “road” through this area was questionable at times.  The recent rains also had us a little nervous.  One thing we don’t have on our van is 4-wheel drive.  And we won’t mention all the turns that weren’t on the map.  Thankfully they kept putting out these signs to keep us moving forward. We loved seeing these Pronghorn roaming around.  There was a little heard of about 7 of these guys grazing. We finally made it!  We had a nice little walk round the area before heading into the cave.  Ok, I’ll be honest.  We are apparently directionally challenged and were searching for the huge hole in the ground.  Yes, that one you see below.  The one we could have thrown a rock into from our car.  Thats the one.  Oh well, it made our trip just that much more memorable.  And we saw some great views from the edge of the mountain. ‘Mammoth’ in this case did not refer to the height of these caves. The shorties of the group were able to go in with no problem but those over four feet had some trouble.  Especially with the additional baby on the back.  So, the spelunking adventure was a little shorter than expected but, still fun memories. We headed back to the hotel for some teriyaki chicken and cheesecake Thanks a lot honey…  🙂 See you next time!

On the road to Bryce Canyon we came across this little place.  It was a fun, quick stop to get out and stretch our legs. It also gave us a taste of what we would encounter later.

At each of the parks the kids would get their Junior Ranger books and work toward earning their badges.

The ranger at this stop was great.  He was so excited the kids were working on their books and went through each step with them before giving their badge to them.