day 5: badlands national park, mt. rushmore.

I’ll start this post with a familiar sight: David patiently pouring hot water for our drip coffee in the mornings before we leave the hotel.

 

 

We brought coffee, an electric kettle, and an Aeropress from home, but Cathy changed everything by giving us two bags of Kuju single serving coffee. It’s much easier and also delicious. We’d never heard of it before but as David said, “We won’t travel without it again!”

 

Badlands National Park

We got an early start because we knew the sun would get hot in the park. It’s dry heat here, so it feels wonderful in the shade, but gets very hot in the sun. There were a couple of small hikes/walks we did first thing, then hiked about an hour on the Castle Trail and back out. We’re so glad we did it, because we saw bighorn sheep! They were regal and peaceful.

After that, the rest of our time in the park was spent driving through the park and stopping at lookouts, and hitting up the visitor center for a stamp in our National Parks passport book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw lots of wildlife in the park. Besides bighorn sheep, we spotted rabbits, chipmunks, a variety of birds, and lots and lots of prairie dogs.

 

 

 

 

Noah asked, “Can’t we move to Badlands National Park?” When asked if he’d get lonely far away from people he replied, “No! The animals can be our friends.”

 

 

 

That’s our almost-14-year-old way out on the ridge above. When did he get so brave and so strong??

 

 

 

At one of the overlooks, David and I saw this couple and said, “Let’s be just like that one day.” Relaxing with our camping chairs and coffee, taking in all that splendor.

 

Mt. Rushmore

We planned on seeing Mt. Rushmore on Day 6, but we got finished in Badlands so early that we drove straight there on Sunday.

Depending on which entrance you use to Badlands, several places are within about 40 miles: Custer State Park/Black Hills National Forest, and Mt. Rushmore. Now that we’ve seen all of these places, we’re amazed at the diversity of landscape. There are prairie grasslands, desert, and the rocky, Ponderosa-pine-covered Black Hills.

We enjoyed seeing the marvel of 60-foot president’s faces carved into the side of a mountain, but that’s really all you can do at Mt. Rushmore. Pay to park, follow crowds of people to a lookout to take pictures, take a very short nature trail to get a closer look at the monument, and read descriptions of the process.

Still, we’re glad we did it.

 

 

 

There’s a funny little tourist town right outside of Mt. Rushmore, Keystone, that we drove through as we left, but we actually spotted a cute-looking place to stop for coffee before heading to our hotel.

It turned out to be a perfect oasis in the midst of western-themed souvenir shops, saloons, presidents’ wax museums, and motels. They had not only coffee, but wine! And games like corn hole, chess, and foosball, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed while David and I relaxed on a loveseat in the shade.

 

 

 

We checked into our hotel, then headed out for Amie’s official birthday dinner, a day late. David found two restaurants that got great reviews and let her choose between burgers and Mexican. She chose Mexican and everyone was thrilled. It was delicious.

We love South Dakota!