We started our expedition shortly after midnight on Saturday. We decided at the last minute that we would leave at night to limit the amount of "awake time" the kids had in the car, and I had plotted a course that avoided interstates and backtracking as much as possible. We dropped south from Horace to State Highway 46 and made our way west to US 281 then south to Aberdeen, SD. Between home and Aberdeen, I think I saw two cars. We cut west on US 12 across South Dakota and saw just a handful of semis hauling cattle until we reached US 83. A short jog south to Pierre, where we stopped for gas, coffee, donuts and a much needed restroom break. As the sun came up we continued to I-90 for one of the few stretches of interstate on the trip. We pulled into Badlands National Park at about 8 am and let the kids do some exploring in their pajamas.
Just before we left the park, we came across a small band of bighorn sheep. This ewe was grazing beside the road until she decided to leave in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the group.
We left the park and had brunch at the (in)famous Wall Drug. What more to say about Wall Drug than "Well, we got that out of the way."
After we left Wall Drug, we continued west to Rapid City and stopped at Reptile Gardens for a while to let the kids run. It was a fun stop, but it wasn't our main destination.
The real focus of the trip was Mount Rushmore. Alison has been pleading to go to Rushmore for nearly a year, and we decided that Memorial Day weekend would be a good time for a road trip. As we made our way up US 16 to the monument, she caught her first glimpse of the faces.
We paid for our parking pass and made our way up the stairs of the parking garage to the memorial. Alison was grinning from ear to ear and doing a funny kind of run/dance/skip/walk as she tried to get to the monument and expend 9 hours of energy simultaneously.
We wandered around Rushmore for a while, then loaded up again so we could finally check in to the hotel in Hill City.
On Sunday, we drove to the Crazy Horse memorial in the morning, then had a picnic at Sylvan Lake. There's at least a face at Crazy Horse now, but other than that, it was just so-so. For next time, just a drive by on the highway would be enough for us. After we finished our quick picnic, we went back to Hill City and road the 1880 Steam Train from Hill City to Keystone and back. The train was definitely Eli's high point of the trip.
Later that night we headed back to Rushmore to watch the evening show and lighting of the faces - yet another late night for the kids!
On Monday we set out early and drove the Needles Highway south from Hill City through Custer State Park. We saw pretty much all the animals we needed to see, and had a great drive.
We had loaded two coolers full of food and drinks and planned to picnic as much as possible on the trip. After we had finished the Needles Highway, we stopped at a little gift shop in a campground and got suckers with stuffed bison attached for the kids. We finally caught up with a bison herd at a visitor center in the park and stopped for our picnic there.
We made our way back to Hill City on the Iron Mountain Highway - a nice little scenic byway that we hadn't planned on.
Once back in Hill City, we went to the Black Hills Institute museum, a great little place with a ton of fossils in it. Definitely worth seeing!
After the museum, dinner, more ice cream and a wild west show.
On Tuesday we headed down to Hot Springs, SD and the Mammoth Site. Before the museum, we stopped at a surprisingly good chinese buffet in Hot Springs for lunch. At the Mammoth Site, we were amazed at how much has been discovered there. Alison got to be a junior paleontologist for the afternoon and had a great time unearthing a mammoth molar.
On the way back from Hot Springs, we stopped by at Bismarck Lake for a quick snack and a break from driving. What a great little lake! Definitely need to stop there again with a fishing pole.
On Wednesday we said farewell to the presidents and made the long drive back.
We stopped for a short time in Aberdeen at Storybook Land, had dinner, then drove the rest of the way home.
Next post: The wedding!
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