This is located at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota. It is an active, educational dig site. This is nearly an entire skeleton of a wooly mammoth.

The front bones are the jaws. At the rear of the jaws are the teeth - they look like the sneaker treads. Behind is a tusk.

A larger view of the dig site. It is astounding how many animals they have found in just this one site.

A great angle on the tusks. The tusks are about five feet long.

A real size complete mammoth. They were HUGE!

The cardboard picture of the elephant is just to show you what kind of animal belonged to the bones above the head

I thought this was so cool. If you look closely you will see that the sides are made up of actual rib bones and the portion that sits on the ground is the vertebra.

This is at the Mammoth Site, Hot Springs, South Dakota. It is absolutely amazing how many wooly mammoth remains they have found at this one site. Ironically, all of the remains they have found so far are male. They still have dozens of feet still to excavate. Makes you wonder what else they will find.

This is the bronze of the famous Russell sculpture of two horses fighting.

The outside version!!

The bronze sculpture of what the Crazy Horse Monument will look like when completed. Interesting side note: the original sculptor was rather anti-government and decided that the entire Crazy Horse Monument would be completed using only donations - no grants, loans or government funds. He has since died and his son is now running the show. They still only use donations to finance the monument.

The working model and the real one in the background

You can see they have already drawn out for the horse's head on the mountain

An absolutely gorgeous display of coloring in the walls of the canyon.

Would hate to go down this river in a raft!

Mom and daughter trip out to Yellowstone!

The "smoke" is actually steam coming off the thermals at ground level

Part of an entire herd that crossed the road directly in our path. Stopped traffic for quite a ways!

This is only a portion of the herd that stopped traffic while crossing the road

Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Something that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. An awe inspiring sight to behold especially when one realizes what time period this was sculpted. No modern tools. Just basically dynamite and hand tools.

The memorial has a walk of state flags with the date the state was officially part of the country.

The changes in the available light give a quite different picture of the faces

Sheila on the boardwalk to Mount Rushmore

Chris and Sheila on the boardwalk around Mount Rushmore

This is one of the thermal sites in Yellowstone. We were lucky enough to see this one and its neighbor shoot up into the sky for several minutes. This is not Old Faithful.

Another thermal pot spouting off for all to see

Always difficult to see in a picture but this entire "pond" is boiling. Horrible smell of sulfur.

This is the infamous Old Faithful of Yellowstone National Park. It truly is a sight to behold but I must admit after seeing some of action of the other thermals I guess I just expected more!! It is still just as faithful as ever but due to several different reasons (climate, erosion, time, etc.) it doesn't spout as high as it used to.

The view from the Yellowstone Lake Lodge

The antique touring car is still operating and still in use. There are about twelve of these cars making the rounds on a daily basis during tourist season. Our guide told us that the present company running the tours paid about $40,000 for each vehicle. They then went to Ford and Ford agreed to restore the vehicles, put in a modern engine and put in the window panes (the originals were not equipped with the window panes). Ford charged about $300,000 per vehicle to restore them.

This photo was taken along the drive around the Cody dam area.

It goes for miles and miles...

The breathtaking view from the front window of the Episcopal Chapel of the Transfiguration - one of the first churches built in the Jackson, Wyoming area.

Chris standing near a bronze moose outside the Cody Museum

Sheila standing underneath one of the four antler arches downtown

Chris standing underneath one of the four antler arches in downtown Jackson, Wyoming

A herd of elk passing us on our travels

No descriptions really necessary

We went on a river float trip while at Jackson Lake. Got many wonderful shots of bald eagles.

A bald eagle flying by us on our river float trip

Lucky enough to have a good camera to get some great shots of these beautiful creatures

A juvenile bald eagle. We got within about fifteen feet before he took off into the sky

Taking off!

Just happened to pass by this bull moose while on the river float trip

For anyone planning on going to this area I strongly advise you plan ahead and allot enough time/money to stay at the Jackson Lake Lodge. While eating in their dining room the windows look out over a valley floor about two miles by four miles. Especially in the morning the animals cross that field. We were lucky enough to see pronghorn, moose and elk in just a 25 minute period.

The bull moose has found a cow. This is Jackson Lake Lodge.

A truly awesome sight. It is the only uprising in a vast area of flat land surrounding the tower. Imagine the Giant's Causeway all fused together and standing about 3/4 of a mile high

A red squirrel on the short walk around the Devil's Tower

A view from about a mile away

Located in the Rapid City Airport. If you look closely you will see that the wings and feathers on the upper legs are made out of forks