Mount Rushmore, Custer State Park & Wind Cave National Park

I definitely underestimated the Black Hills area of South Dakota.  Wow, it has a lot to offer!  I mean look at that post title!  So much in just one day within a couple dozen miles of each other.  And it’s not just busy things or man-made attractions, it is beautiful country.  

I have to admit that I started the day a little grumpy and run-down after a couple not-so-great nights of sleep and let’s be honest, just all-around travel weariness at this point (mostly due to the repetitive nature of the minivan misbehavior by a certain couple kiddos).  Anyways, throughout the day my mood was turned around by our experiences.  The outdoors, creation and laughable moments are certainly good for the soul!

First stop this morning was Mount Rushmore!  I was here on our cross country trip as a kid and it has definitely been built up.  I do not remember the concrete parking garages or the stone entryway and aisle of flags leading up to the view of the mountain, there’s an amphitheater beneath the great stone faces now too.  It wasn’t necessarily ugly or bad, but I remember it more simply as a park amidst tall pines and a walk through the woods to the viewing area (or am I just recalling this from the scene in North by Northwest?).  Here’s our first glimpse…

And then I took a picture of the boys under the New Hampshire flag.  We were actually all quite excited to see a piece of home!

We got a family picture of course (well, almost all of us)…

And then we walked the 0.6 mile “Presidential Trail” for all sorts of great views…

The trail leads you to the sculptor’s studio where a ranger did a very interesting talk about the whole process of bringing the monument to fruition (and how it remains unfinished to this day).  Here’s a picture of the actual model they used to base the monument off of.

After finishing the trail and checking out the exhibits in the Visitor’s Center we loaded back in the van and on to our next stop…Sylvan Lake (which we didn’t realize was actually in Custer State Park, but we are so glad it was!).

At first, I thought this might be a miss.  It was hot, we had to walk to find a picnic spot and it wasn’t a great one.  A sunny piece of dock.  Koen jumped in, Doug jumped in.  Everyone else baked for a bit.  I hid in the shade making everyone’s lunches.  A fish died.  The boys named it Greg.  And then they keep talking about it as we ate.  Gross.  So at this point, mood hasn’t improved.  But, wait!  Time to walk and explore.  Things do get better!  This lake spot is so cool.  Boulders just rise up out of the water.  There’s a hiking path all around the lake.

We heard rushing water and lo and behold…a waterfall in the crevice!

And look at this cool tunnel we walked through!

I pointed out this hole in the rock to the boys.  I asked Penn to check out if it was possible to crawl up behind and peek through.  He (and all the brothers) quickly checked it out.  Mission accomplished!  If you zoom in, you can see all four little heads in the hole!

So pretty!!

After hiking around the lake to the beach, all jumping in and swimming for awhile (this was a huge boost for me, I worked up the courage to get in the cold lake and swim around some big rock structures and it was so energizing, game changer!) and then getting ready to go, we took off down the Needles Highway through Custer State Park.  Doug had measured the van just to make sure we could fit on the roadway and its tunnels.  But before we got to the first tunnel we were stuck behind a Jeep.  I jumped out to see what the wait was about.  It was because a huge tour bus was coming through the tunnel!  I wish I had gotten a picture.  There was about an inch on every side of margin.  Craziness!  That made me fully confident we would be fine (especially with Doug at the wheel).  Here we go!  Still a tight-feeling squeeze!

And another tunnel about 15 minutes later.  A little less intense, but still, not for the faint of heart!

Best part of the day right here.  Absolute turnaround for me…this was a great day!  A bison traffic jam!  We saw them all gathered in the field and then spotted about eight cars stuck on the road.  Nowhere to go but through it all so we just embraced it.  It was amazing!  Up close and personal!

Eventually Doug couldn’t stand the fact people were just OK sitting around forever waiting for the bison to move, so he started maneuvering through the crowd of giant animals and around the stopped vehicles to make a way for us.  Talk about alpha male!

In this next picture the calf is nursing!  We saw this happen multiple times.  So cute!  And one time it was right next to my door.  I could see milk running down the calf’s lip!

But we did eventually make it through.  It must have been at least 200 bison and a 30 minute process or more (which no one else but Douglas was trying to get going).  Next stop, Wind Cave National Park.  Doug’s not really into caves, a tad claustrophobic!  So this was more of a quick stop park.  But it was still interesting.  A highlight (which I don’t have a picture for) were the adorable prairie dogs everywhere.  We did stop at the Visitor’s Center to learn about the history of the caves.  Very cool!  Doug couldn’t handle being in the basement with displays about how tight the cave crawls are, so he disappeared pretty quickly. I, of course, read lots of historical and geological info to the boys from the exhibits.  Poor guys!

After all these adventures we drove back to our cute cabin and had dinner, finished a movie together and got to bed.  A good day. Thank you, Lord, for working me through that rough start to some pretty amazing memories!  Tomorrow, moving on…again.