Black Hills South Dakota
After leaving Devil’s Tower we ate dinner at some local small own resstaurant then drove into South Dakota and the parking lot of jewel Cave National Park and spent the night there. I slept under the cap lie the old days while the girls stretched out best they could in the cab, in the morning we decided it would have been better to pitch the tent. And it was f%^$ing cold, we made a hot breakfast until the park shuttle van came and collected us and took us to the visitors center.
We warmed up and worked on our Jr Ranger badges and took a quick tour of the cave’s big room, opting to take the longer tour at Wind Cave NP in the afternoon.
Jakobi and her patch
We headed into the Black Hills, past the Crazy Horse Mountain carving which doesn’t look any different then it did 22 years ago when I last saw it and up to Mt Rushmore. Our park pass was not accepted so this is the view we got from a pull out.
…and later on we got this view from what we are now calling the ‘puke loop’ scenic drive.
Jakobi b4 the puking began, the twisty roads thru Custer State park got to her and to her credit she caught her puke in her hands, we let her sit on Colleen’s lap upfront and the pukiness went away.
Wind Cave National Park
We arrived at Wind cave National Park in time for the 3pm cave tour which was awesome.
It was an hour beneath the earth in tight twisty caverns with a cute tour guide who had lots of interesting facts and stories about the cave,
After we collected our 3rd Jr. Ranger Badge in 2 days we headed south in search of Bison and found some just before exiting the park
Now I am listening to Dan Simmon’s Black Hills about a Lakota boy who absorbs Custer’s ghost at the battle of Little Big Horn. It takes place at all the places we are visiting and is a good listen jumping back and forth in time with great details about the battle, Chicago’s White City World’s exposition in 1893 and the carving of Mt. Rushmore.
