We left on a Thursday and on the way out there, stopped at the Corn Palace. It was a good place to stop and stretch our legs. I guess it is a place you have to stop, and we were kind of making fun of it, but the kids enjoyed it for awhile and then we were on our way again. We finally got to our hotel and the kids jumped in the pool right away. Our hotel had a waterslide, and the kids loved it! We ordered pizza and stayed in that night. We were tired from driving!
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| We laughed and laughed at Joe creeping in the background! |
On Friday morning we got up and went to a ranch and took a trail ride with horses through Black Hills National Forest. It was so much fun! It was totally outside of our comfort zone, but we had a blast. I was nervous being on a horse- I had never ridden one! Even Troy was able to ride a horse by himself! When we started out on the trail, there was a huge cow that had gotten out of its fence and it was on the trail right beside us. Adria got super nervous then and ended up not really liking the ride and was so happy when it was over.
Later that afternoon, we went to Hill City and took the 1880's train ride. It was about a 2 hour round trip train ride. It was fun and we got to see lots of deer and pretty scenery. Later that evening we went downtown in Rapid City to eat and look around.
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| Graffiti alley in Rapid City |
On Saturday morning, we drove down to Custer State park. We went to Crazy Horse Memorial on the way. It was very interesting and the museum/lookout part was very cool. After Crazy Horse, we drove on to Custer State park and drove around for awhile. Right away when we first pulled in, we saw a buffalo right by our car! We found a 3 mile loop trail that we stopped and hiked. It was just the right amount to hike and we got to see a herd of buffalo on the trail. It was very cool. We could have probably spent the whole day at the park, as they had a beautiful lake and tons of stuff to see and do, but we wanted to go on to Mount Rushmore yet. The kids thought Mount Rushmore was very cool and it was fun to see. That evening, we did an escape room with the kids. There was a wild west themed one, and the kids have been wanting to do one for some time. We didn't escape in the hour, but we finally did about 15 minutes over the time. It was fun though!
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| Troy was crabby at this moment, so he didn't want to be in the picture. |
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| Custer State Park |
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| The herd of buffalo we saw on our hike. |
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| We made it through the hike! |
On Sunday morning, we went to Bear Country. This was one of our favorites! We loved driving through and having all the animals come right up to our car! It was so cool!
After Bear Country, we went to Reptile Gardens. That was also cool, but the kids weren't quite as impressed with that. We watched an alligator show and a snake show and they were both fun.
That afternoon we went to an adventure course. Joe, Tate and Adria did a ropes course. They thought that was super fun and they loved it. Troy wasn't old enough to do it, so him and I went down the huge alpine slide. We had to take a ski lift up to the top, and the slide was really, really long and so fun. Troy loved it! The kids wanted to do more there, but it started to sprinkle, so we left. We drove up to Deadwood and looked around there for awhile. That is a very cool town with lots to see.
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| The alpine slide |
In Deadwood:
On Monday, we started out to make our way back to Iowa. We stopped by Wall drug, got some donuts and looked around there, then headed on to drive through the Badlands. Some parts of the Badlands were so cool and very beautiful! It took us awhile to drive through them and then we made the long trip home. We made a quick stop in Okoboji to eat and look around, then got home late that evening.
The trip was so fun and the scenery was so beautiful. Besides quite a bit of bickering in the car on the way there, everything went smooth and we had a great time. We made lots of good memories!
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