South Dakota

It feels like it happened years ago, but we took a family trip to South Dakota this summer. And it was really fun. I am going to attempt to remember what we did while we were there. Good thing I took many pictures.

We drove to Chamberlain, South Dakota on our first day. I insisted we stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, because I loved it as a kid. It is not at all how I remember it. For example, it now has a basketball court. So it was basically just an arena with a huge gift shop at center court. All well.

We had dinner in Chamberlain that night. 

This is Clare's face when she felt it took too long to get our food. My sister and I frequently share this look when we are hangry.

The kids had fun swimming in the hotel pool. The next day, we drove to the Badlands. My memories of trips to South Dakota that I went on as a kid include feeling like I stepped into an oven when we got out of our minivan in the Badlands. It was no different this time. I was even in a minivan. And this time we (Ben) decided to camp overnight.

It was a neat experience, actually, camping in the Badlands. It feels almost like being on a different planet. We spent the day hiking and exploring. Clare found it fascinating. She completed several activities and was sworn in as a Junior Ranger.

Christopher had fun, too, but he is just not as in to hiking as Clare. In his defense, it was nearly 100 degrees. By far the best part for him was when we were leaving the park and we saw a herd of buffalo. He loved the buffalo. Luckily, we saw many more when we were in Custer. It cooled off quite a bit at night, and we spent some time looking at stars. Clare loved that, too. We saw Mars and Venus. 

Flying the kite Clare received for her birthday. (Oh yeah, I never wrote about her birthday. Next post!)

After our overnight in the Badlands, we packed up camp and drove to Custer State Park, with a brief detour at the Dinosaur Park in Rapid City. (Another place I remember from childhood trips. I LOVED this park. My kids were less impressed.)

After the lackluster trip to the Dinosaur Park, we headed to Custer State Park. It is a beautiful place, nestled in the heart of the Black Hills. I had been there before, but Ben hadn't. He was impressed. He said it was the nicest park he'd ever been to. We spent our few days there hiking, swimming and exploring. The kids both because Junior Naturalists. (The parks have such great programs for kids.) Custer has a lot of interesting wildlife, we saw deer, pronghorns, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, burros, prairie dogs and of course, bison. The kids picked out souvenirs. Christopher's was a stuffed buffalo he named Ice Cream. (He originally wanted to name it Horny. We talked him out of it.) Custer is huge, so there is a lot of choose from when it comes to hiking trails and other activities. We plan to go back someday, perhaps in combination with a visit further west to Yellowstone. 

Our campsite was in Stockade South, and we swam in Stockade Lake. It is a bit quieter than some of the other lakes in the park because it doesn't have a lodge.

We drove along the Needles Highway in Custer. It was beautiful, but we were really low on gas. I was convinced we were going to run out of gas when we were in the middle of this one-lane tunnel

It was stressful. For me, anyway. No one else was worried.

We stopped to take a few pictures. Christopher stayed in the car. He'd had enough nature for the day, apparently.

And of course, no trip to South Dakota would be complete without a trip to Mount Rushmore. It was raining the night we planned to visit, but it worked to our benefit, because it was not crowded it all. And the rain stopped just as we pulled into the parking lot. My favorite part of the visit was Christopher's march to the patriotic music that was being piped in everywhere. It is embedded below for posterity.