Wednesday, May 29

This was the day the kids were most excited about - seeing Mount Rushmore! They had been talking about it for a while, so they were excited to finally get there. The weather was gorgeous that morning, cool and sunny, so it was fun. We took some pictures, walked the trail that goes around up next to the monument, down to the Sculptor's Studio and back around. The kids were full of energy, running ahead of us and reading all of the plaques and things posted around. It was fun!

 

 

 After we finished at Mt. Rushmore, we drove off through Custer State Park to see all the rest of the Black Hills. Pretty scenery. We got out often and walked around. We had to give Xander some Dramamine to make it though the twisty roads without getting car sick. At one point, Brian drove us up this precarious dirt road to the top of a bluff just to see the lookout point (we ended up being about 5000 ft. above sea level)

 A nice lady took our picture at the top of that lookout point. Nice view!

 

After a lunch at a restaurant in Custer State park, we did the thing that Brian and I thought was the coolest of the trip. We paid a visit to Wind Cave. You should read about it if you're not familiar with it, but this is a very amazing place. It is the 6th longest cave in the world, with about 140 miles of cave discovered so far. They think that's only about 5% of it, though. Amazing! We went on a tour where you walk down several hundred stairs on a path through it. It was just so huge and never ending! There was another cave close by called Jewel Cave, which we didn't go to, but is actually bigger! What an amazing place with a cool history. A must-see in South Dakota if you go!

This was one of the biggest rooms of the cave we were in. The small kids make it look bigger. But don't be fooled, there were some small spaces to fit through.

 

After the caving adventure was over, we got in the car and hit the road for our hour drive back to Rapid City, tired but amazed at the cool things we did that day!