Black Hills-Day 3 Crazy Horse, Bear Country & Mount Rushmore

We set up camp in Custer at the Holiday Inn Express, which was lovely because we had a two-room suite. Girls in one room, Brian and I in the other. Well, at least for a few hours and then Natalie decided she'd be more comfortable between Brian and I. Not a big deal cause both beds were King size! We had a hearty breakfast, packed a lunch and headed out to our first stop, Crazy Horse.

The Crazy Horse memorial hadn't changed much from what Brian and I remembered from the last time we were there as kids and don't expect it to be finished in our lifetime. :) The highlight from this leg of the trip wasn't the memorial but instead the gigantic temper tantrum Natalie threw. All I can say is the kid is very stubborn.




As you'd expect, Natalie was exhausted from her tantrum so we headed to the car in the hopes she'd fall asleep and we would find a nice peaceful picnic area. We headed out of the parking lot and found a nice shaded spot perfect for our lunch. That took about 30 seconds and Natalie was fast asleep, missing lunch, which none of us cared about. :) After lunch we headed to Bear Country (about an hour drive-perfect for a quick nap)
Big Horn Sheep

Bears that were "wrestling" each other ;)



The bear cubs got birthday cake for a treat
After Bear Country, we headed to Mount Rushmore in the hopes we could mark off our remaining states we were missing and of course to see "The Heads". Oh, did I mention that Natalie had a temper tantrum at Bear Country too? How could we forget! She didn't want to ride in her stroller, she wanted to push it herself. And when that didn't happen she let us know she was not happy. Two year olds.....

So back to Mount Rushmore. We were able to find New Hampshire which was almost impossible to find. So we were starting off the trek on a good foot. Things sure looked different to Brian and I. It's amazing how close you can actually get to the memorial now. We started on a quick tour but found Natalie was not really into the facts of Mt. Rushmore so we meandered off on our own for the remaining tour. Back at the museum part, we watched a short video, which Natalie didn't feel like staying for either. I took her out but she was not happy and threw an even bigger fit than at Crazy Horse. Ok...this is her 3rd tantrum of the day. Starting to really wear at my nerves. But I stayed calm and brought her out by the amphitheater and let her scream. It must have annoyed the two ladies closest to us because they made a short glance my way and proceeded to move to the other side, which didn't matter because I'm pretty sure people back in MN could hear her! About that time Brian and the other girls came out and figured it was probably a good time to leave. We were getting hungry and obviously tired so we headed back to Custer. As we were almost out of Custer State park we saw a huge Buffalo on the side of the road. Pretty cool!