Our last full day in the beautiful Black Hills of SD takes us thru Custer State Park via the scenic Needles Highway and then down the Wilderness Loop. We also went thru the narrowest tunnel which was 8'4"-pretty cool! The girls had a great time climbing rocks and being adventurous. Emily led us down a pretty cool gorge-the bad thing was we had to climb back up! There were a couple rock climbers-these people are crazy! We also saw what happens when you misstep and take a header into a rock. A little boy did just that and had quite the bump on his head and scratches down his nose and lips. We came prepared for injuries so we lent them some neosporin and band-aids!
After we were done on the rocks we headed toward some wild life. Our first animal we spotted was a pronghorn. I thought they were pretty cool looking. Then we came up to a bunch of vehicles stopped on the side of the road and quickly realized what they were looking at. A bunch of Buffalo and even a few baby buffalo. They are huge! Then driving a bit more we came across some "wild" mules and they came right up to the car in front of us-I believe looking for a hand out and when they got nothing they headed to our vehicle. I rolled down the window and he put his head right in. I was freaking out!!!! So we thought this was a pretty cool experience until we drove down the hill and found a bunch in the field along with about 20 people who were standing right next to them feeding them and petting them. So much for being wild! And it clearly states as you enter the park-Do NOT feed the animals!
Our next stop is Mammoth Site in Hot Springs which is a bit of a drive but we figured it wouldn't take long. Except Custer State park is huge and lots of curvy roads that you can only go 35 mph on. We had to be to Mammoth by 2pm for the kids to participate in a dig. Well, it took only a while to realize that we wouldn't get there an hour before the dig like they asked us to instead we got there 30 minutes prior and the line to get in was long and only one person working tickets. Needless to say we missed the tour that we were supposed to take before the kids dug and ended up just going straight to the dig. It actually worked out great-Natalie was sleeping and we didn't have to do the tour if we didn't want to. The girls had a great time digging for their mammoth bone. It took about an hour and the "teenagers" in charge actually did a great job with the kids. We did end up taking the tour which was pretty interesting. After the fun here Brian got out his camping gear to make us a gourmet meal of mac-n-cheese right on a picnic table at Mammoth. We had to eat pretty quick because we would be touring the Wind Cave next.
The final leg of the trip would be Wind Cave. We took a 1-1/2 hr tour that took us 300 steps down narrow passage ways into really cool rooms that had boxwork on the ceiling. It basically looked like spider webs. This was a dry cave so no stalactites or stalagmites. It's amazing to me what the first explorer into the cave must have thought and why he continued on instead of going back. To me there is nothing exciting about crawling in itty bitty spaces using only a candle and using a large twine of string to find the way back. CRAZY!!!!!! The girls thought it was really cool and Natalie did surprisingly well. I was happy to be done with the tour though and see daylight again.
We were done with our site seeing and ready to get back to the hotel. When we got back into Custer, Brian stopped at this cute pie place called BobKats (the names of the owners put together) It was painted pink and purple and Rachel thought this was really cool. Brian and I had the best pie ever (Natalie was asleep!) and the girls had yummy ice cream cones. When we got back to the hotel Brian took the older 3 girls swimming while I stayed back with Natalie, who was still sleeping and would be for the rest of the night, and enjoyed the last night in peace and quiet watching a little HGTV.
The car ride home was pretty uneventful - except for missing our turn and driving thru Rapid rather than around it, which added time to the trip. Not what we wanted! We managed to get 47 states marked off our sheets. The only ones missing were Vermont, Rhode Island and Hawaii. Not bad. :) The girls enjoyed a couple movies, we stopped for a quick bite at the DQ and our last stop was the rest stop right as we entered MN. As we stretched our legs and let the kids run around a bit, grab a snack, and clean out the garbage out of the car, Rachel took a huge tumble on the sidewalk and scrapped up her knee, stomach and elbow. Thank God we still had a few band-aids left and good 'ol Neosporin. The last 2-1/2 hours were very quiet and that was icing on the cake! All in all it was a FUN, successful family trip to the Black Hills!
After we were done on the rocks we headed toward some wild life. Our first animal we spotted was a pronghorn. I thought they were pretty cool looking. Then we came up to a bunch of vehicles stopped on the side of the road and quickly realized what they were looking at. A bunch of Buffalo and even a few baby buffalo. They are huge! Then driving a bit more we came across some "wild" mules and they came right up to the car in front of us-I believe looking for a hand out and when they got nothing they headed to our vehicle. I rolled down the window and he put his head right in. I was freaking out!!!! So we thought this was a pretty cool experience until we drove down the hill and found a bunch in the field along with about 20 people who were standing right next to them feeding them and petting them. So much for being wild! And it clearly states as you enter the park-Do NOT feed the animals!
Our next stop is Mammoth Site in Hot Springs which is a bit of a drive but we figured it wouldn't take long. Except Custer State park is huge and lots of curvy roads that you can only go 35 mph on. We had to be to Mammoth by 2pm for the kids to participate in a dig. Well, it took only a while to realize that we wouldn't get there an hour before the dig like they asked us to instead we got there 30 minutes prior and the line to get in was long and only one person working tickets. Needless to say we missed the tour that we were supposed to take before the kids dug and ended up just going straight to the dig. It actually worked out great-Natalie was sleeping and we didn't have to do the tour if we didn't want to. The girls had a great time digging for their mammoth bone. It took about an hour and the "teenagers" in charge actually did a great job with the kids. We did end up taking the tour which was pretty interesting. After the fun here Brian got out his camping gear to make us a gourmet meal of mac-n-cheese right on a picnic table at Mammoth. We had to eat pretty quick because we would be touring the Wind Cave next.
The final leg of the trip would be Wind Cave. We took a 1-1/2 hr tour that took us 300 steps down narrow passage ways into really cool rooms that had boxwork on the ceiling. It basically looked like spider webs. This was a dry cave so no stalactites or stalagmites. It's amazing to me what the first explorer into the cave must have thought and why he continued on instead of going back. To me there is nothing exciting about crawling in itty bitty spaces using only a candle and using a large twine of string to find the way back. CRAZY!!!!!! The girls thought it was really cool and Natalie did surprisingly well. I was happy to be done with the tour though and see daylight again.
We were done with our site seeing and ready to get back to the hotel. When we got back into Custer, Brian stopped at this cute pie place called BobKats (the names of the owners put together) It was painted pink and purple and Rachel thought this was really cool. Brian and I had the best pie ever (Natalie was asleep!) and the girls had yummy ice cream cones. When we got back to the hotel Brian took the older 3 girls swimming while I stayed back with Natalie, who was still sleeping and would be for the rest of the night, and enjoyed the last night in peace and quiet watching a little HGTV.
The car ride home was pretty uneventful - except for missing our turn and driving thru Rapid rather than around it, which added time to the trip. Not what we wanted! We managed to get 47 states marked off our sheets. The only ones missing were Vermont, Rhode Island and Hawaii. Not bad. :) The girls enjoyed a couple movies, we stopped for a quick bite at the DQ and our last stop was the rest stop right as we entered MN. As we stretched our legs and let the kids run around a bit, grab a snack, and clean out the garbage out of the car, Rachel took a huge tumble on the sidewalk and scrapped up her knee, stomach and elbow. Thank God we still had a few band-aids left and good 'ol Neosporin. The last 2-1/2 hours were very quiet and that was icing on the cake! All in all it was a FUN, successful family trip to the Black Hills!
No comments:
Post a Comment