This year we decided to take the long drive out to Mt Rushmore.
Everyone was loaded up and ready to roll. 
Our first stop was in Sioux Falls South Dakota. Of course we had to head down to see the Falls.
Of course when we got there...the entire place was roped off with yellow ribbon.
Turns out the recent rains forced the city to dump all of their raw sewage into the falls. Not the best start to our vacation...
The drive to Rapid City was veeeeery long. It was punctuated by these odd sculptures and lots of signs for Wall Drugs.
We made a stop over at the Corn Palace. It was less exciting in person than in the literature.
Of course there was a big store there with this really cool fake hair that everyone had to try on.
Even Dad...
There were lots of "corny" things to pose with also. 
This guy was creepy. These fake people were everywhere.
If you are ever in Mitchell South Dakota...well...here it is...
Nuff said...
Moving on to more driving and more signs for Wall Drugs.
Definitely not what I expected. Just a big tourist store. But the kids had fun after sitting in the car for 5 hours.
Love them!!
And him...
Not so much the big fake dinosaur...
Bison are cool...according to my children.
Strange.
Even stranger...a jackalope.
Of course Austin found the "Sue" head to pose with. Love the face.
And then it was time to mine the fake mines...that was after the candy that is all over her face.
Cute!
Sexy!!
They loved it of course.
I had a little stop over in the chapel.
And finally...we got to Rapid City and the hotel. The pool was fantastic.
Complete with a water slide!!
It was love at first sight for the kids.
And the biggest kid of them all...LOL
The coolest tunnel.
The first day it rained so we skipped Mt Rushmore and hit the fun animal places.
If your kids love animals as much as mine do...this is the place for you.
There were so many neat critters. (including these 3)
Hmmm...interesting...
A 100 year old turtle. Needed a pedicure!
And then it was on to Bear Country U.S.A.
We drove through the place and saw all kinds of wild animals up close.
Push Bubs...
We finally made the drive out to Mt Rushmore. Welcome to Keystone SD.
Almost there...
And suddenly...there it was!!
Then we headed over to the Crazy Horse Memorial...at least what there was of it.
There was a neat history area with very interesting artifacts.
And this guy...
We visited a gold mine where we were able to go deep into the earth and pan for gold.
It was so cool...
Another very cool bridge...all wooden.
One day we took a drive out to Wyoming. Tim thought he might like to live here...
We wanted to see this...
If you are into giant rocks sticking straight out of the ground...it is worth the drive...
It was hot that day!
On our way out of town we found this prairie dog village. It went on for miles. Very cool.And then it was on to Deadwood...
We visited the cemetary where Wild Bill Hickok was buried with Calamity Jane.
I loved that cemetary...even though I almost had a chest grabber getting up to it.
Everything in this town is straight up hill...I would never go anywhere.
It is a beautiful town...but mostly a gambling venture now.
Most of the town was buried at one point so the buildings are not original to the time of the TV series. I guess that Deadwood is 8 ft under.
But it was neat to see anyway. We ate at the Gem Saloon.
They told us it was the best in town...yikes!!
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Military cemetary. 
So much sadness...so much beauty...
No comments:
Post a Comment