Day 9: Sioux Falls, SD

We had about a 6 hour drive today across South Dakota, so we slept in a little and had a leisurely morning and breakfast. We drove straight through with just a few breaks. Once you get out of the Black Hills, South Dakota is pretty boring. As we were coming in to Sioux Falls it started to rain. We were a little worried because we were planning to tent camp and weren't looking forward to setting up in the rain. We got off the freeway and headed through cornfields, following my Google maps directions for Palisades State Park. We drove through cornfields and soybean fields, and I was starting to doubt Google. The photos from the campground website showed a wooded area. Then the directions turned us onto a dirt road and I got a little more nervous. Suddenly a stand of trees appeared in the cornfields, and a sign directing us to the park. We got to our campsite and got out. It. Was. Humid. The sound of bugs was deafening, not sure what they all were but it was a chorus of crickets, Katy-dids, cicadas and whatever else. But it wasn't raining anymore. We set up camp and got dinner going. Our nice campsite neighbors from Massachusetts, brought Lucia a treat of microwave popcorn from their camper van. We went to bed to the sound of the bugs.

Another car photo. This is the only photo of the day. No pics of the campsite.

Day 8: Black Hills, South Dakota

We survived our thunderstorm last night and were eager to get up and explore the area. We only gave ourselves one day for a brief tour of the area. The big things we wanted to hit were Wind Cave National Park, Crazy Horse, Needles Highway and Mt. Rushmore. We took the scenic drive through Custer State Park south towards Wind Cave. We loved the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana so much we knew that another cave exploration was top on our list. We stopped at the Custer visitor center and saw lots more bison on our way to Wind Cave. We also saw lots of prairie dogs and a few wild burros who inhabit the park. We got to Wind Cave and had time for a snack and browsing the exhibits before the cave tour started. We ended up in a large group for the cave tour because of a crew of cyclists who were there. Still, Lucia did a really good job of keeping up and did most of the walking in the cave by herself. She was however very disappointed that there are no bats in Wind Cave. I was not disappointed. Wind Cave was very different from the cave in Montana. It was much drier, there were no stalactites or stalagmites. Instead there was something called boxwork formations that covered the ceilings and walls of the cave. Wind Cave has 90% of the world's boxwork. The other impressive part of Wind Cave was the 3-D nature of it, everywhere you looked there were offshoot passageways above, to the right and left of you.

After the cave we made our way back towards Crazy Horse where we had lunch and toured the museums there. We took the opportunity of Lucia being asleep in the car to drive the Needles Hwy and do a drive by of Mt. Rushmore before heading back to the campsite for dinner and to get packed up for the drive the next day.

Wild burros

Kiri loves bison

Wind Cave National Park

Junior Ranger Lucia with her bat t-shirt on, just for the caves!

Needles Hwy

Tunnel at Needles Hwy

Our drive-by of Mt. Rushmore

Day 7: South Dakota

Today was our longest driving day, at 8+ hours, down the mountains, across Wyoming and into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Today was also Lucia's. birthday. After the Grand Meltdown of yesterday, we were a little worried about how today would go. We reserved a cabin at Custer State Park, but still wanted to get there before dark. Paul and I got up at 5:30 and packed everything back into the car and truck. We hit the road right around 7am. No bear sightings this morning, although I was hoping I might glance over and see one. Western Wyoming was beautiful, coming down the mountains. Some parts reminded me of John Day and the Painted Hills. We were going to do a full pit stop in Casper for lunch and gas, but didn't easily see a good place to stop,  we headed north towards our turn off to South Dakota. As it turns out, our turn off took us straight through oil and coal mining country. We passed through the largest surface coal mining operation in the country. It was fascinating to see, and a little scary too.

We finally, after about 7.5 hours, crossed into South Dakota and began climbing up into the Black Hills. They didn't seem particularly special to me at first, until we got into them, driving Hwy 16 towards Custer and you see the exposed granite up close. We arrived at our cabin at Stockade Lake a little after 4pm. Since Lucia spent her birthday in a carseat (she was ecstatic to watch Little Bear all day and eat snacks), we gave her her birthday present right away. The restored trike and helmet were an instant hit, and after a couple times around the wooden deck of the cabin she got the hang of it. When asked what her favorite part of her trike was, she said," the sparkles" which made Paul's day, as he especially picked out the red with sparkles paint color for her. Thanks to Grammy for the perfectly coordinated ladybug helmet too! The other special birthday surprises were birthday cake in the Dutch oven and new pajamas made my Mommy (with help from Grandma Julia).

Lucia in the car photo

"New" bike!

Our cabin at Custer SP, highly recommend!

Birthday Girl!

It's hard work being 3

We ate cake inside the cabin because the ranger came by to tell us of a severe thunderstorm warning with wind gusts up to 70 mph. So we brought everything inside and hunkered down. We are looking forward to a full day of exploring the Black Hills tomorrow.