Here is the gang all packed up to go. We loaded the van with all our sleeping gear and food and drink to last for next 3 days. We were packed to the hilt.
We arrived at the first tourist sight just before closing. The park ranger was very helpful and got us lined out for the next few days. We got loaded up on all the brochures and information. We were able to book an 8:30am tour to go through Jewel Cave, the next morning. So we set out to find us a place to camp for the night we ended up being only 7 miles outside of Custer.
Here are the boys trying to make us some roasting sticks to roast mellows.
Here we are packing up camp after a good night sleep.
Kate & Levi trying to get out of cleaning up camp.
Here we are having breakfast before we head out on our tour. Hopefully you can't see the Mountain Dew box in the background.
We did have something a little more healthier.
Costco poppy seed muffins. Yum! Our favorite!
We had about an hour to kill before our tour so we drove into Custer and bought some ice and took advantage of the Flinstone sign. It was a little amusement park but it was so early in the morning the town was all asleep.
Jewel Cave is the second longest cave in the world and it is still growing they are still discovering it. We enjoyed the tour and got to see many formation. Mike took lots of photos of them but I don't want to bore you with them all.
Our next stop was at Crazy Horse Monument. I had never heard of it until my parents went there last year. It was amazing!
It is the world's largest carving in progress.
Mt. Rushmore was a little disappointing after seeing Crazy Horse. It is only a 1/4 of the size. But it was still beautiful and we can say that we have been.
We have never seen so many motorcylces EVER! We would have to pick the week the bikers come from all over the United States to go to Sturgis South Dakota.
Here are some of the bikers stacked up in the parking lot at Mt. Rushmore.
As we were leaving Mt. Rushmore and heading for Mammoth Hot Springs we decided just for fun to count how many bikers we saw. In a 30 minute time period we counted over 630 motorcycles and only 16 cars. These were just the ones on the road. Crazy!
It was a little drive to the Hot Springs and this is what happened to the group.
The Mammoth site of Hot Springs is an indoor working paleiontological site/museum more than 58 Columbian and Wooly mammoths have been unearthed.
After leaving the Hot Springs and heading towards Devils Tower we came across a buffalo jump site. The boys had fun exloring this area and stretching there legs.
We never made it to Devils Tower we ran out of day light. So we found this campground and built a big fire and the kids got to roast hot dogs and we cut up the watermelon we had been paking for 2 days. Everything always tastes better camping. It was the best watermelon yet this season.
Here a few photos of us camping.
There was so much to see and do but we were ready to come home so we got up the next morning and headed for home. We had a great trip and it was so fun to see some more of this beautiful and unique world that we live in.
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