South Dakota Adventures

South Dakota... Gracie and Owen remember our trip to Wyoming very well from 3 years ago.  We passed through South Dakota and stayed for one night at that time, but decided to go back for more fun!  We left on July 9 and spent spent the next 5 days exploring.  We had originally planned to leave on the 10th, but Nick insisted that we get there a day earlier.

Had to stop for gas before leaving

Here we all are!  Look!  Nick is smiling!

We arrived in Mitchell, SD late on Tuesday night and stayed in a hotel there.  The kids swam the next morning and we headed further west.  We met Trent, Kimi and their kids to continue on our trek with us.  We spent a couple days with them on their vacation last year in Eminence, MO kayaking.  Since they had never been to South Dakota before, Nick agree to be their unofficial tour guide.  Trent and Nick started planning this vacation in February, which was unbelievable, since Nick never plans that far ahead for anything.  I guess when you really want to do something, you just get it done. :) 

Day 2:

We had to stop in Chamberlain, SD, of course.  I think every time Nick and I have driven through South Dakota we have stopped at Al's Oasis.  The famous buffalo statues are there, and who can pass up the opportunity to climb on a giant buffalo?  (Actually, Nick declined this year.)

Gracie, Jade, Claire, and Chloe

Chloe, Gracie, Jade, and Claire

All of them on the little buffalo

Jade, Owen, Gracie, Claire, Chloe, Garin

Owen and Garin

Owen didn't want to climb all the way up.

Gracie on the little one

WALL DRUG

Home of the Jackalope (It's a real thing)

The next stop was Wall, SD.  I have been there plenty of times and I will never forget the first time, when Nick had me convinced that the jackalope was a real animal.  The pictures there are actually pretty convincing.

All of the kids on the jackalope

There was also the dinosaur that eats little kids for lunch.

Still in our 2nd day.  After eating lunch at one of the establishments in Wall, we headed a little ways south to enter the Badlands.  After dropping some of our gear at the cabins we were staying in, we went exploring through some trails in the National Park.

Here we are in the Badlands

Nick and Owen

Getting ready to go hiking

The Trailhead sign said strenuous...I didn't think it was that bad.  Especially after a different hike we took a few days later.  But I'll get to that.

On top of the mountain

They were at the peak of this hill

Here I am, just taking it in

Waving to Nick from across the way.

So, the most awesome part of this excursion was getting to see a big horn sheep pretty close.  Trent spotted it a ways off up on the top of a different hill and it made its way over to us.  We watched it for probably 45 minutes.

Nick was actually this close to the Ram.  I'm pretty sure he didn't have to zoom in.

All was well until Nick started making turkey calls and the ram showed its ability to jump and climb up the rocks.

Notice how close the kids are in the background.  After it did this, we gave the animal a little more space and respect.  He definitely was not afraid of us.

Ironically, this is exactly where Nick had been watching from.

The ram went right up there to mark his territory.

It is such a cool thing to see animals in their natural environment.  All the kids talked about it the whole way back to the cabin.

The whole group coming down the trail.

I love cabins!!!!  We decided to do this instead of tents this time around and I loved it!  We didn't have to worry about our stuff getting wet or having to set it up in the dark.  Our 1st cabin had air conditioning too!  Not that it was really needed, because it cooled off at night, but it was nice.

This is our tent!

Like I said, the 1st cabin was really nice.

However, the mosquitoes at this campground were not so nice.

After a pretty full 2nd day, we had dinner at out campground and headed to bed when it got dark and the mosquitoes were too thick for it to be enjoyable to be outside.

Day 3: Thursday

Kimi and I got up to run a few miles the next morning before having breakfast and heading to our next destination.  We drove out of the Badlands and into Custer State Park.  The driving on the 3rd day was a little more than we thought we would have, but it ended up being pretty fun.  We stopped at a picnic area to have a pretty late lunch and then took the Wildlife loop around the southern part of Custer State Park to go find some bison...and we did. There were lots of them.  Owen and Gracie were pretty excited to have the car stopped for quite awhile so we could let the bison cross.  They were right up next to the truck.

They took a lot of picture on the ipad, also, but I haven't had time to pull them off of that.

Crooked Creek Campground

This is the campground we stayed in three years ago, and it was great then, so we decided to do it again.  This time, we stayed in a cabin!  YAY!  I didn't take many pictures at the campground, but we were really close to Trent and Kimi.  The kids swam almost every day and we had other things that were really close to us.

This is the pool.  It wasn't huge, but it was nice to have.

This wasn't our cabin, but it's what they looked like.

These did not have air, but we didn't really need it.  It was pretty warm during the day, but cooled off at night and was pretty comfortable.  There also were not nearly as many bugs at this campground.

We wrapped up the 3rd day with a trip to Mt. Rushmore.  Nick and I had been there before, but never at night.  After we had dinner, we headed out to see what it looks like lit up.  Unfortunately a lot of the facility was under construction and we almost didn't get to hike and see the faces up close.  Luckily Kimi found where the trail started and we hiked up to right under their noses in the dark.  We were all prepared with headlamps and flashlights, though.

Gracie and Nick waiting for the lighting of the monument.

I think they must do this every night.

Gracie and Claire

Nick and Owen

It's lit!

Kind of a cool picture with the storm clouds building behind it.

After the lighting ceremony, we found the trail.

There were LOTS of stairs. We probably climbed up and down stairs for 45 minutes.

I think by the time we left, it was probably after 10:30pm

Here we are under the faces

The girls pointing to the monument

We returned to our cabin pretty late on Thursday evening and went straight to bed.  We had more adventures to look forward to the next day!  This was the only night that it stormed on our vacation.  I was pretty happy to be in a cabin rather than a tent.  I have a feeling that our stuff would have been soaked.

Day 4:  Needles Highway and Sheridan Lake

Breakfast was made on the 4th morning.  Pancakes and bacon!  I can't take credit for any of the cooking on this vacation.  I'm really lucky that Nick has his camping stove and isn't afraid to use it.  I made sandwiches one of the days for lunch. :)

We left for more climbing and hiking through Needles Highway.  This was pretty fun and the kids loved being able to climb all over.  After looking through these pictures, it seems like we did a lot of this and the pictures don't do justice for the experience we had.  But here they are exploring through the big rocks.

Gracie climbing to the top.

Nick on top of the world

A picture of the group from down below.

Owen climbing

Nick and Owen on top of another rock

This was amazing to watch.  None of our group was doing this, but these people were the real deal.  I watched them for probably 20 minutes doing their rock climbing thing; harnesses, ropes, and everything else required.

Lake Sheridan

We found a lake to go swimming at.  The water was a little brisk, but that didn't stop them.  They found a small cliff to jump off of a little ways out, but nothing compared to what they did the next day. :)

There was a dock that they could use to jump off too.

Owen getting a little help to go higher.

When we returned to the campground, Nick and Gracie thought it would be a good idea to try to float down the Crooked Creek.  They didn't realize it was so shallow in some places and deep in others. I recorded them coming out by our cabin, and it's pretty funny.

This shows a pretty good picture of our campground.  We were one of the tents 3 years ago. ;)

This is where they ended up.  There was a little rapids they had to get through before it spit them out next to our cabin.

We had dinner at our cabin again on Friday night; hot dogs and brats.  They got to build a fire and cook their dinner that way.  It was a good day again.

Day 5:  Hippie Hole

Kimi and I got up and ran on the trail right outside our cabin.  It was a good run and beautiful scenery.  So nice to have company, too.  Between hiking, climbing, and running, I think we got plenty of exercise!

We spent the rest of the morning making lunches and getting ready to head out for our next hike. When we were at the lake on the previous day, a couple of locals told us that we should head to Hippy Hole, which would provide more cliff jumping and hiking.  So, that's what we did.

I should have taken a picture of the road we had to go on to get there.  Thank goodness we had the truck.  I'm sure the car would have made it, but the truck handled the road much better.  It was a really long way to get there and we had to go really slow.  After parking, it was quite the hike to get down to the water, too.  Definitely the most difficult and least pronounced trail we had been on.  I don't think I would have found my way back if I hadn't had Nick there.  But that's not really a huge surprise.  I didn't have my phone with me, so these came off of Nick's phone and I didn't take any of the kids jumping off the cliff.  Kimi took quite a few, so I'll steal them as soon as she posts her pics.

Anyhow, everyone jumped and swam and then we ate the lunches we had packed in.  We were there for quite awhile and it was well worth the hike in.

Nick, Owen, and Garin sitting on a rock and eating.

Nick and Owen

Owen loved exploring through the rocks, waterfalls, and water.

More fun!

Getting a little help from dad

Looking out while having lunch

Nick getting ready to jump

Gracie doing some exploring

Nick even brought his hammock in case the opportunity should arise.

And it did!

He also had a companion.

This was definitely another fun experience that the pictures don't do justice for.  The hike was challenging and the views were fantastic and rewarding.  We climbed up rocks, went through poison ivy, ducked under fallen trees, waded through water, and had lots of fun!

After the trek back to our cars, we went back to the cabins and got ready to head out for dinner in Custer that night.  Nick was so smart and called ahead to see if they could seat 10 people, which they said they could at Mr Rushmore Brewing Company.  Of course when we got there, they had no idea that we were coming, but were able to accommodate us.  It was great!  The slogan outside the restaurant was:  "Our Pounding Fathers Restaurant."  Perfect. 

Here are the kids waiting for our food.

Notice the picture behind them...They had a lot of pictures of Mt. Rushmore being constructed.

People just hanging off of cliffs chipping away at the rock. Crazy.

Speaking of Crazy...We drove by Crazy Horse Monument several times, but did not go to it.  Nick and I went there almost 20 years ago before they started charging admission to get in.  It is such a huge project, and I'm sure it would be great to go to if we return.

The last night was pretty low key after finishing dinner in town.  We got everything packed up and ready to go for the next day of riding in the car.  We spent the evening around the campfire again.  Such a great vacation!  Nick and Trent were already planning for the next one.  I heard Southern Missouri, kayaking, Tetons, more hiking, and other adventurous words in the mix.  Can't wait to see what they come up with.  

I think everyone was exhausted.

We made it all the way home the next day, arriving around 11:30pm.  We stopped for food and gas, and that's about it.  Like I said before, Kimi probably has more pictures of when we were in the water.  (She had a waterproof camera.)  I'll post some of those after she shares them.