We’re back! After a crazy year filled with work, school, family, and a frigid Minnesota winter, we are ready to do some more traveling. We decided to stay domestic for now and take an epic road trip this July.
Day 1 was a driving day. Boys were great! We stopped for lunch in Sioux Falls, SD and to see the famous Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Mason said that he wasn’t impressed with the Corn Palace. We also had to stop at a gas station to wait out a crazy storm. All in all a good day!
Day 2 was more driving from Murdo, SD to Custer, SD. We decided to get on the road early. We were on the road by 7am. Then about 10 minutes into our drive, we crossed time zones. It was now an hour earlier. Oops!
On our way in to Badlands National Park, we stopped to see the prairie dogs. They had peanuts to feed them and although we didn’t buy them, some other visitors gave us some of theirs. Mason said they tickled his hand.
We headed to Badlands National Park. It was a bit muddy, but the views were so nice. It was fun to see all the layers of earth. We saw what levels dinosaur fossils had been found in and what the land looked like long ago….it was an ocean!
We made a quick stop at Wall Drug because Chelsea and the boys had never been there. Tom got his photo with his family legacy deer replica of the Jordan Buck.
Later that afternoon we arrived at our good friends cabin in Custer State Park. A special thanks to Tim, Nan, Jason and Tarsha for letting us stay at their amazing cabin for 3 days!
That evening we went to a nearby rock quarry. The owners of the land, who also own a rock shop in Colorado, said that we could come take rocks from the ground. The rose quartz were beautiful and the cave that was created by blasting was impressive.
On Day 3, we headed out to see some of South Dakota’s most well-known monuments. After a winding drive and a pass through Needle’s Eye Tunnel, we arrived at Mount Rushmore.
Crazy Horse Monument
In the late afternoon, Jason took us down to the creek behind the cabin to catch crayfish and pan for gold.
On our final day in South Dakota, we finally saw the Buffalo! Custer State Park has a game loop where you have the best chance at seeing wildlife. We ended up seeing Burros, Antelope and the herd of Buffalo.
After a quick picnic lunch at Stockade Lake, which to everyone’s disappointment was closed for swimming due to bacteria, we went to Legion Lake. It was a hot day, so a swim, some sand castles, and some milkshakes were a great way to spend the afternoon.
After dinner we all took a walk down to the near by bridge where the kids chucked pinecones they had collected along the walk into French Creek for Bentley(Tim and Nan’s dog) to retrieve.
Our family had a wonderful time in SD and had fun seeing a few of the many amazing things that SD has to offer. We all agreed that our favorite thing was just hanging out with friends at their cabin. Our boys get along so well with their friends Zoe and Olivia. They had the best time running a pretend restaurant called Dominic’s and just running around outside.
Amazing! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a completely different topic but it has pretty much the same page layout and design. Outstanding choice of colors!