This past week we spent a few days camping in South Dakota near Rapid City. We drove there on Wednesday and drove home on Saturday. It was about a 10 hour drive. By the end of the drive both ways, Connor was done with the car but they did pretty well for being in the car that long. We also had no accidents in the car, so that is a win!
We got to our camp site at Sheridan Lake on Wednesday night. It was raining when we got there but it stopped for a while. Then we set up our tent and had dinner. Then we went exploring.
The next day was July 4th and we headed to Badlands National Park. The boys loved climbing all over the park and exploring. We didn't really stick to a path. We just let the boys roam around where ever they wanted to go near the door and window paths in the park.
This is Spencer's new favorite pose for pictures. You will see it throughout the trip...
I caught a shaft of light just right.
We also saw some big horned sheep.
It was perfect weather for hiking. We had some cloud cover and some wind, with temperatures in the 70's.
Connor really like walking over every ditch he could find. I am amazed at how persistent he is. Every time he falls down, he gets right back up and tries the same thing until he gets it right.
Then after having lunch, we went over into Rapid City to a place called Storybook Island. It is a free fairy tale themed park in Rapid City. The boys had fun running around and playing.
Connor really enjoyed going up and down every ramp he found.
This was Connor's favorite thing. He would just walk across this bridge and then turn around and go back across about 100 times.
After that we went back to camp and had tin foil dinners. During dinner it started to down pour! Luckily we met our camping neighbors and they graciously allowed us into there canopy to finish eating while it rained. After that we just got in the tent and stayed there the rest of the night.
Here was our firework show on the fourth of July this year.
The next day we headed to Wind Cave National Park. Unfortunately, the elevator into the cave was down so we didn't get to tour inside the cave but we did get to walk to the largest known natural entrance to the cave and look at it. You could really hear the wind going into the cave through the whole. Then we walked around the park near the visitor's center.
We also saw some bison on the road to the visitors center.
After that we headed to Mount Rushmore National Monument. We walked around the presidential trail, went into the sculptor's studio, and had lunch at Carver's Cafe.
Afterwards we headed back into Rapid City and went to WaTiki Water Resort for the afternoon.
Overall it was a really fun trip. We can't wait for our next adventure but we will wait a while. It has been a busy month for us.
