South Dakota Trip

Since Steph and I have birthdays one day apart, we like to do something to celebrate together. This year was a road trip to South Dakota! It was so fun! It was about a 9 hour drive to Mount Rushmore, and that was our first stop. 

Road trippin' with the best crew!

We saw 3 moose while we were driving by Grand Teton Park.

Mount Rushmore:

Steph had never been to Mount Rushmore, so it was a 'must see' on our trip. We timed it perfectly so that we could see it during the day, and also when they lit it up in the evening. We walked the Presidential Loop, saw the Avenue of Flags, and had Thomas Jefferson ice cream from Carver's Cafe. 

The Jefferson family had the first vanilla ice cream recipe in the United States. They still serve it at Mount Rushmore, so that was our first order of business. It was actually quite tasty.

It was fun celebrating my 50th birthday with these guys.

Steph and Eric

The birthday girls partying with the Presidents.

💗💗💗

I sure love these people!

The Avenue of Flags with the Presidents all lit up was really cool to see.

Custer State Park:

We spent our second day at Custer State Park. The only one of us who had been there before was Eric. I loved it! We started off with the Wildlife Loop. We found the wild burros, saw the herds of Buffalo, and also saw lots of deer and pronghorns. Next we drove the Needles Highway, and did a hike to South Dakota's highest point. We finished it off by driving the Iron Mountain Road.

Custer State Park

All I wanted to do was find the wild, feral burros in the park. We found them, but they weren't very wild or feral. They were so freaking fun! I loved all of them, and could have spent all day playing with them. 

I had an apple, and was biting off pieces to give to the burros. Clearly I wasn't fast enough, so I got some help. 😂

I love them!

My whole day was made!

This mama and baby were the sweetest!

Baby burro hugs! 💙

They would go from car to car, sticking their heads in the windows for pets and snacks. 😆

There were big herds of buffalo. 

So many pronghorns in the area.

We saw lots of deer!

The Needles Highway is so pretty, and has two or three tunnels you have to drive through.

The Iron Creek Tunnel.

The Needles Eye Tunnel.

We started a 7 mile hike from Sylvan Lake. The hike was called Black Elk Peak, and it was to the highest Point in South Dakota. There was a cool castle fire tower at the top.

Sylvan Lake

Fall had definitely arrived!

The cathedral area.

The fire watch castle.

The highest point in South Dakota.

We made it! It's nothing like the mountains we climb, but it's always fun to see different landscapes.

Mount Rushmore is one of those rock areas to the left of us.

On our way back on the Needles Highway, we stopped to see a mama and baby mountain goat. They were so cute!

I love mountain goats. They always look like they are smiling.

Pretty mama.

Cute little fluffers!

The baby goat was walking right to us. Yes, that is me asking if I should hug it. 😅

We left the park via the Iron Mountain Road. This road had 3 more tunnels, and a few really cool pigtail bridges.

We stopped at a cool wood carving place to get our picture with Sasquatch.

That night we had birthday pie!

The Badlands:

I was so excited about day three! We spent the day at The Badlands. I remember thinking it was super cool when we went there years ago with the kids, so I was excited for Steph to see it. We did some awesome hikes, stopped at all the viewpoints, and fed lots of prairie dogs.

We had to stop at the famous Wall Drug.

Before heading into the park, we stopped at a place right outside the entrance where you can buy bags of peanuts and feed the prairie dogs. Mark bought five bags of nuts, but the prairie dogs weren't very hungry. We saved most of our peanuts, and ended up using them at Roberts Prairie Dog Town in the park. So cool!

😂😂😂

They were so fat!

Cute little guys!

Entering The Badlands!

The Big Badlands Overlook.

The Door-The Window-The Notch:

The Door Trail was cool, because you have to follow numbered poles to get to the end of the trail.

I took this same picture of the kids years ago.

The Window is just a short walk to look at the view through the 'window.'

The view from the Window.

The Notch is my favorite hike in the park. You get to explore off trail, and there is a cool ladder you have to climb.

Eric and Mark

Climbing the ladder.

I love being in places that have a way of making you feel very small.

The viewpoint.

Mark-Steph-Eric

💙💙💙

I stayed across the little ravine so I could take pictures and film them going down the ladder.

We did another short hike called the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail, and then we started down the area with all the cool overlooks.

The Yellow Mounds were super cool.

The only animal that had alluded us so far was the big horn sheep. We drove down a dirt road, and finally found a herd of them.

We made it to Robert's Prairie Dog Town, and were so glad that we had bought and kept all of our peanuts from earlier in the morning. So many critters to feed. 

Eric told us they had the plague, so Mark kept telling me not to feed them by hand. I look over and he was  totally feeding them by hand. 😒 So guess what I started doing!

I was trying to be sneaky and pet this one. Mark and Steph were laughing saying I had another one right behind me. I had no idea until I saw this picture, that it was right underneath me. 😅

We got up and headed home the next morning. We saw a herd of sheep on the side of the road on our way out.

It was a fun trip, and a great way to celebrate our birthdays.