Through My Lens: My Favorites from June

Tim and I took his dream vacation in June. I say "HIS" because we crisscrossed eight states to see not only places he'd wanted to go for thirty-five years, but also visit with his family. It was a whirlwind 17 day, 4200 miles and 100 hours in our truck. We loved practically every minute, had beautiful weather and met awesome people.

DAY ONE -- Back in Dalhart, Texas

We've been to Dalhart and Texline before while researching SHOTGUN JUSTICE, Texas Rangers: Elite Troop #2.  It was a clear, clear day.

We left early enough to arrive in Littleton, Colorado to have dinner with friends and see their hometown.

DAY TWO -- Red Rocks & Estes Park, Colorado

Seeing Red Rocks was impressive. But I've gotta tell you...seeing all these people using it for their workouts was exhaustive. Man, my knees hurt just watching them. Our friends told us stories of how they climbed the rocks to hear concerts when they were younger. See more pictures here.

Estes Park.

Beautiful.

Pictures will never do it justice.

DAY THREE & FOUR -- Hiking & Driving through Rocky Mountain National Park

Shorts & Snow.
Climbed to 13,319 feet.
See more pictures here.

And the wildlife was amazing. 

See more pictures here.

DAY FIVE -- Miles & Miles of Montana

We took our last hike in Rocky Mountain National Park and then headed through the openness of Montana.

NORTH

PLATTE RIVER

...finding a beautiful sunset near Lusk, Wyoming.

DAY SIX -- Circling around to South Dakota

Crazy Horse.

Recognize this shot? It's like a scene in North by Northwest. You can see Mount Rushmore through the windows. It was pretty good food too ... and really good ice cream.

A bucket-list item for my husband...Mount Rushmore. If you have the chance to see it in person, time it to spend the night in Keystone. Seeing the lighting ceremony was amazing...

DAY SEVEN, EIGHT & NINE -- Deadwood, South Dakota


WILD DEADWOOD READS
It was fun catching up with the authors of the charity anthology Wild Deadwood Tales (you can still get a copy here) and readers who traveled to Deadwood to visit. See more pictures here.

The PBR was HUGE fun. You can see more of those pictures here.

100% donated to
Western Sports Foundation

DAY TEN -- Spearfish, South Dakota and Devil's Tower, Wyoming

Seeing family and hiking to the falls was an awesome day. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cold water. Not to mention the getting to share the exploration of kids...that's always special.

And of course, the number one thing on Tim's bucket list since Close Encounters of the Third Kind was released in 1977. Again, it was a beautiful day and timing. "Golden Hour" (a photographer's perfect light) at Devil's Tower.

We hiked around the base. This isn't a drive-by stop. If you're close...you should definitely experience it.



DAY ELEVEN -- Montana, Wyoming and rain

The first real rain we experienced was on our long drive to our next stop: West Yellowstone.




The mountains hid under the rain clouds and every bridge we crossed was swollen from the rain.




But by late afternoon, we'd outrun the rain and reached Tim's third bucket-list stop.

























JOIN ME Monday for days TWELVE through SEVENTEEN of our bucket-list trip through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Yellowstone, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and back home.

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