Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Lewis & Clark Caverns

We made it to the Lewis & Clark Caverns in Montana and had such a great time. We left Friday night after work. It took us over an hour to get across the border. The line-up was so long. We didn't have any food that they could take from us, but we did have dog food that they made us give up. Why the heck can't I take dried dog food across the border? Anywho, we stopped driving at 2am and parked at a weigh scale and slept there. Yep, total class. That's how we roll. We got up early Saturday morning and drove the rest of the way to the campsite at the Caverns. Dad, Mom, Kimmy, & Brendan met Tim, Trent, Tara, & I at the campsite. We did the Cavern tour Saturday afternoon. Monday afternoon we went swimming at the Hot Spring in Fairmont, MT. We love the hot springs in Fairmont, BC but it was fun to try these ones out. And of course we threw in some Montana shopping.

Well here are some pictures of the trip:

The group (Tim & Ashlee, Dad & Mom, Kimmy & Brendan, Trent & Tara) at the opening of the caverns. I almost had a heart attack climbing up to it. Right behind Tim is where the campsite is. We could zoom in with our video cameras and see Diesel & Dex (our dogs) hanging out at the site.
Tim & I at the cavern opening.
My sister Kimmy with her husband Brendan inside the caverns.
Tim, Tara, & Trent ducking through a low spot.
Trent & Tara posing for a photo.
Tim & I looking super hot (actually it was very chilly in the caverns).
Me crawling through another low spot. There were a ton of low spots and we bonked our heads a few times. Dad actually drew blood and then had a scab on the top of his head. I bruised my tailbone, but that's a story for another day.
There's Tim!
Me, Mom, & Dad. You can see that some of the formations are broken. I guess back in the day when they did the tour through the caverns by candle light the tour guide would encourage people to take pieces of the formations home. And now, your not even supposed to touch the stuff cuz the oils in your hands will appartently destroy the formations. So don't look too close at our pictures cuz there seems to be some hand touching stuff going on. Some parts of the tour you couldn't help but touch cuz it was such a narrow passage.
And the group (minus Mom the photographer) at the cavern exit.
And here's a photo of our RVs and Diesel & Dex in the back of our truck (with Tim sneaking in the picture).
Our tiny trailer is about the size of Mom & Dad's slide-out on their 5th wheel trailer. But we made it to the caverns. Yep, 14 hours of driving, over an hour at the border, 6 tanks of gas, wind, rain, snow (yep we drove through a crazy snow storm), and no dog food. We had a blast! I'd do it all over again in a second.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went to those carverns when I was a kid. It was fun times. We're going to Montana tomorrow for a few days, but I think we will stick with the malls mostly this time.

moosh in indy. said...

At least I know what a cavern is, eh? Dog food down here was laced with some drug that kept killing off animals (livestock, dogs, et all) that's why poochies had to surrender their dinner.
I miss Trent and Tara...why don't they have babies yet?

Skye said...

man you guys are brave. I think i'd die of clostrophobia in there. I'm sure that's not how you spell it, but you get what i mean!