Revelation 12:11: Snow in July?

Yes, that's right. Along with many, many amazing sights we saw today, we did get to experience snow in July. But more on that later...

Our fourth day of our trip started out very well. We got up at the campground in Custer, SD, packed up, and drove to Rapid City to pick up Layla at her kennel. She was soaking wet when we got her as she was playing in the kiddie pool with the other dogs! Looks like she had fun! But we missed her, so I was glad to get her back :)

Our destination today was Thermopolis, WY... about 300 miles from Rapid City. As we entered WY, we started talking about how we should go see Devil's Tower, even though it wasn't on our itinerary for the day. But it was only 30 miles out of the way, and we decided to do this trip with no regrets! It was really awesome to see, and once again, we were able to use our free national parks pass, so even better!

We stopped for lunch in Gillette... and by stopped, I mean we ate picnic sandwiches on this small grassy patch at a gas station/grocery store. We're getting used to just pulling over where need be. Layla enjoyed some nice time in the shade while we ate. Oh yeah, our good friend Susan grew up in Gillette... now I see why you were so glad to get out of there! Haha. Not much to see! (Love ya:))

So as we're continuing our climb into the mountains we come upon this huge patch of snow on the left had side and we see a bunch of people sliding down it! We jumped out with Layla and explored a little. You'll see in the pictures how deep the snow was... so cool. And I thought I'd have to wait to get to Alaska to see wintery conditions in the summer!

Then we drove, and drove, and drove around these mountains to get down to Thermopolis. Jordan and I discovered small little western towns freak us out and we're much more comfortable in places with a larger population than 302! But alas, we're staying in a Super 8 tonight and just got done soaking in the hot springs at Hot Springs State Park. It was very relaxing and we could NOT get over how boiling hot the natural water is! Thank goodness they cool down the stuff they actually let you get in. Very cool experience.