We arrived around 9PM after enjoying a sit-down restaurant dinner (one of our only ones like this but we were tired of eating out of the cooler or paper wrappers. I immediately started laundry while Andy took Alex and Charlotte to the pool--mainly so he could go into the hot tub and rest his sciatica. They had a whopping 30 minutes there before closing and arrived wet and cold back to the room. Everyone just vegged out while I worked on laundry and prepping for the next day. I was up late working on the blog and catching up on other family tasks--I find I don't need as much sleep as the rest of the family and it's easier to get work done when it's quiet.
After breakfast the first morning, the kids went back to the room while Andy and I worked in the dining area of the hotel until around 2PM and then left to explore the sights. We concluded that all the bison have moved to Yellowstone. We were looking forward to seeing the large herds of bison at Custer State Park but by the time we exited the park, our final bison count was only 9. We did see some other new animals and learned a lot about them, so all was not lost. It's a lovely place and we're glad we did it. Here's our final animal count:
Antelope: 10
Horses: 49
White-tailed deer: 10
Burros: 7
Wild turkeys: 1
Prairie dogs: 17
Bison: 9
Mule deer: 18
Chipmunks: 2
Mountain goats: 1
Bird repeating Andy's made-up mountain lion whistle: 1
Motorcycle "hogs": 17
Dead birds after slamming into our windshield: 1
After seeing all kinds of wildlife and cruising the park for a few hours, we headed for Mt. Rushmore for an evening view and to watch the illumination/national anthem/flag folding ceremony. Alex was really looking forward to this stop almost more than any other because he's a fan of the Berenstain Bear books and they go to Mt. Grizmore and he loves that book. At one point he told us, "I'm so excited about this I can hardly contain myself. I have always wanted to see this with my actual eyes!"
There are 6 or so mule deer in this photo. |
The Teletubbies might be serving Tubby Custard here. |
Sarah thought this hill looked like a Windows start-up photo |
Prairie dog hole |
Charlotte hand next to a prairie dog hole |
The road to the actual monument is winding and goes to quite an elevation. It has carved tunnels and old-fashioned bridges.. At one point, Mt. Rushmore is visible through the trees from several miles away and it's really pretty. We snaked our way to the monument. It was stunning. The girls and I shopped for souvenirs while Alex and Andy headed for some seats to watch the show. There was gallery-style, bench seating to watch the 9:00PM illumination and by 8:00PM, most of the seats were taken. Fortunately (?), because Andy was having such a difficult time walking and needed to sit down, he secured our seats right away and we had a front-row view of the impending illumination.
To pass the time, these goofballs were editing weird photos of each other. |
They were having a blast! |
It's impossible to tell in this blurry photo how much it was raining. The wind was also really blowing and people were high-tailing it to the parking machine. All the people, that is, except us. :) |
We had no phone signal for most of the day for directions and this time of day was no different so we had to follow rudimentary street signs. It made us wonder more than once: How did we get anywhere before GPS? But we did make it back to the hotel and we all fell into bed knowing that the next day would bring another long drive to MN to visit our friends. Alarm was set for 5:50AM. Lights out on South Dakota.
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