My mother and I decided to take an “early” vacation out to the Black Hills of South Dakota with my two young daughters in tow. And by early, I mean before the Memorial Day crowd. For years I’ve worked in the tourism industry yet I myself have not REALLY experienced the “tourist” feeling out in the hills so this was an opportunity to spend some time with my mom as well as my girls in the state I now call home. I had been there a handful of times throughout the years usually for work or some other unrelated trip and the last time I saw Mount Rushmore was in the cold of March back in 1996 when I showed off my mad snow skiing skillz on Terry Peak with my college friends.
Needless to say it was time. So we packed up my Ford Edge, charged up the iPad and Nintendo DSs and headed for Rapid City. Now I live in the Glacial Lakes region of the state so my best route isn’t down to the interstate, it’s meandering through Redfield and over to Pierre. Our first night was in Fort Pierre since we had to leave after my daughter had finished school and in all honesty it was a test to see how far the girls could stand it in the car. (Or maybe how long I could stand it!) If you have never been to the Capitol building in Pierre, it’s quite impressive. We drove by it during Friday morning rush at 8:00am and between kids getting to school and employees off to work, it was neat to see such a bustling group of people off on their missions on just a normal day while WE got to go on vacation.
So these next few posts will be photos of our journey and some of the sites that we saw. Overall it was a wonderful experience even if my daughters will barely remember it! Enjoy the photos in the following posts.
Day 1 Blog Posts
1880 Town
Badlands National Park
Wall Drug
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Day 2 Blog Posts
Bear Country USA
Black Hills Forest
Crazy Horse
Dinosaur Park
Hill City
Old MacDonald’s Farm
Day 3 Blog Posts
1880 Train
Mammoth Site
Prairie Berry Winery
Rock Shop
The Needles/Sylvan Lake
Wind Cave National Park
Day 4 Blog Posts
Jewel Cave National Park
Bobcats Ice Cream
Mount Rushmore Revisited
Pirate’s Cove Mini Golf
Day 5 Blog Posts
Black Hills Institute
The Cosmos
The Journey Museum
Day 6 Blog Posts
Reptile Gardens
Lake Pactola
Deadwood
Mount Moriah
Adams House
Tatanka: Story of the Bison
Day 7 Blog Post
Ironside Scenic Drive
Custer State Park
Rushmore Cinema