We were supposed to go to a family Reunion to Sheridan Wy over the 4th of July, but it turned into a little more than that. Riley called me on Thursday with a proposed new plan. He wanted to leave that night and drive through the night and go to Mt. Rushmore, Black hills forest, Bear country USA, Devil's tower and then over to Sheridan all in the same day. I have to admit I wasn't very excited about the plan because I thought we would be totally thrashed when sight seeing and being in the car with four kids for a 24 hour period, but I'm glad we did it. Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills are way cooler than I thought they would be. The whole drive was beautiful. We had to drive through Custer State Park, when we got to the ranger post we told them that we were just driving through to go to Rushmore. They said "you know you're coming on the busiest day of the year right?" No, we didn't know it was the busiest day of the year. We came on July 3rd the day they do a nationally televised fireworks show over Mt. Rushmore. It also started to rain pretty hard. So on the drive up there we find we are on the windiest most narrow road in America. My kids have inherited my awesome motion sickness, so you can probably guess what happened. Macy starts complaining that she was getting sick and then Spencer starts complaining, so we pass back the plastic bags, we can't stop because we are on a very narrow road where you just can't pull off. Macy actually had to use the bag, but Spencer made it. Well we get closer to Mt. Rushmore and the traffic hits. We had to park about 2 miles away from Rushmore. So we walk in the rain 2 miles to get there. When we get there we find the gift shop to buy some ponchos and then walked up to Rushmore. At the viewing deck we can't even see Rushmore because the fog is so thick. We were getting a little ticked because things were just not going a smooth as we planned, but the fog did lift enough for us to be able to see Rushmore, thank goodness. We then headed back to the car and on to our next destination. We didn't go to Bear Country because we didn't plan on having the troubles at Rushmore. But I would love to go back to that area and visit for a few days. It seemed like there was so much to do, and it was beautiful. So the next stop was Devil's Tower. That was a pretty awesome sight also. There was a walking path that went around the whole tower that we were able to go around and see some sights. We spent awhile there and then headed over to Sheridan. We got there about 10:30 p.m. We were so happy to get to the hotel, take showers and then hit the hay. The next 2 days we spent hanging out with family. We played games, visited, and ate. What more can you ask for? We then headed home on Monday and spent another 11 hours in the car. Well I'm exhausted just recapping the experience, and never more happy to be home.
on the walk up to Mt. Rushmore we saw a Mt. goat with 2 babies
the fog was pretty thick when we first got up there. This is after it lifted a little. I was pretty ticked that we walked 2 miles in the rain and we couldn't even see the mountain, but thank goodness the fog lifted
and then the fog lifted a little
With the man who made Mt. Rushmore
The kids....Sarah is hidden in her stroller in the back
When we were leaving the fog completely lifted and we finally saw a clear image.
Hannah after the long walk to Mt. Rushmore
Super close to a deer at Devil's tower
Devil's tower
Riley and Melanie after a long long day of being on the road.
The kids at Devil's tower
good big sister
cute Hannah
Macy climbing up trees
family volleyball game
Zimmerman family
2 comments:
Dang! You guys are adventurous! I think it would be cool to see those sights sometime too...It looks like you had a good time with Riley's family!
Sounds like you guys were busy. We did the Mt. Rushmore thing on our drive home from Michigan. It is pretty cool. It is always fun to go on vacation, right?
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