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 3: Yellowstone!

The morning was beautiful in comparison to how the weather was when we went to bed last night. The mountains surrounding the campsite were all aglow with the sunrise light. I knew that I wasn't going to see mountains like these for awhile once we get to Maryland, so I was really taking them in.

It was only a 3.5 hour drive from Lewis & Clark Caverns to our cabin outside of Yellowstone, so we took the morning to check out the caves at the park. For a nominal fee you can join a ranger led tour through the caverns. It was a 2 hour tour, and we took the chance that between the two of us, we could hold, carry or guide Lucia through the caves. We all needed some exercise after all the driving. You basically hike a trail straight up to the top cave entrance. Lucia rode on Paul's shoulders for that part. Then you start to descend into the different rooms of the cave through series of tunnels and steps. Oftentimes ducking and squeezing to fit. Lucia loved it, despite it being quite dark and cold! The caves are wired with electricity so there is some dim lighting, but she loved that she was "just the right size" to fit all the places in the caves and she didn't have to duck like the rest of us. She thought that was hilarious. She held on the handrails and climbed either up or down the 600+ steps all by herself. The whole way. By the end the other tour members were commenting that they couldn't believe how good she as doing, not only in not being fussy but just that she kept going, like a little energizer bunny. Of course our hope was that it meant she would nap well in the car.

We arrived at the West Entrance to Yellowstone around 3pm.

On our way up to the cave entrance

Inside the cave

Cool cave formations

Our camper cabin at Flagg Ranch, Yellowstone

Lucia got a pair of binoculars for our Yellowstone explorations