Badlands, Minutemen and Wall Drug

We had a full day on Saturday, putting 175 miles on the Fit. We started out from our campsite before 9:00 and headed toward Rapid City and I-90, which took us east to the Minutemen Missile National Historic Site. This was the thing Steven was most looking forward to after Mt. Rushmore, so we had to make it a priority. We spent about an hour at the Visitor's Center, and the boys even attended a movie called "The Greatest Weapon Ever Used". I slipped out early to attend to Hanna, who was waiting in the car.

This site tells about the nuclear ballistic missile system and its role in the Cold War. Most people didn't even know the missiles existed right along the highway. After we left the main site, we drove into the Badlands National Park.

We made a couple of stops at viewing overlooks and took short hikes to capture some awesome photos and listen to several rattlesnakes in the bushes, and then went on to the Visitor's Center. On the way, we were stopped by two bighorn sheep strolling down the shoulder of the road.

photo by Nathan

The Visitor's Center was not one of the most interesting NPS sites for any of us, and we felt like we had seen enough of what the landscape was going to look like, and we made the decision not to drive any farther through the park, but to turn around and go back to I-90, so Steven could visit two more missile sites. These photos were taken at the missile silo.

Steven is listening to the audio tour on his phone.

photo by Nathan 

On our way back toward Rapid City, we drove through Wall, SD. We had counted over 60 signs along the freeway for Wall Drug and decided to stop and see it. We read the story of the pharmacist and his wife who had started the store back in 1931, and by using signs along the road advertising "Free Ice Water", built their little drug store into a multi-million dollar business that now includes a small village of shops and attractions, but still offers Free Ice Water and a five cent cup of coffee. Plus they are dog friendly! Hanna enjoyed walking around the stores and got lots of attention from everyone. We had lunch and a treat before getting back on the road home.

photo by Nathan

photo by Nathan

As we neared our campground, we pulled into Crazy Horse entrance to see what the cost would be. We decided we might go up there on our final evening in the Black Hills and see the museum and laser show.

Mt. Rushmore!

We've been calling this our Mt. Rushmore RV trip, and we made it to our destination on Friday! It was as awesome as I remembered, and the boys were as impressed as I hoped they would be. 

photo by Steven

We spent time in the Visitor's Center, and watched a movie on the carving of the mountain, then took the trail to the viewing areas and the Sculptor's Studio.

Taken from inside a small crevasse near the trail, you can just see Washington's head.

This 1/12 size scale model was sculpted before work on the mountain began.
You can see the ranger in the foreground as a size comparison.
You will notice the original plan was to carve full busts of the 4 men,
but the sculptor Gutzon Borglum died before it was finished, and his son
Lincoln, wrapped up the project.

Sample Face Masks

We spent about half a day there, then went back to Minnie for lunch before we drove down to Custer State Park. They wanted $20 just to drive through, and we decided we had seen enough bison and deer (the main attraction) without paying to see more. There is also a museum, but instead, we went back to the town of Custer and walked around. There are lots of shops and also a great Visitor's Center run by the Chamber of Commerce. The docent there was extremely friendly and informative, and we picked up several brochures and suggestions from her.

There are model buffalo all up and down Main Street, each painted with a unique design.
This one had Bighorn sheep climbing on it.

Devil's Tower

I'm a little behind on my blog posts. We have been so busy and I've been so tired every evening, I haven't gotten around to it before falling into bed.

The day after our Yellowstone tour was a driving day. We traveled from the State Park just past Cody, WY over a steep pass from Ten Sleep to Buffalo. We crested a 9666' summit just before Minnie (and ME!) gave out. That was quite a haul, but she didn't complain, other than slowing down in several spots to around 35mph. But we still kept up with most of the big semi trucks and even passed a few. However, I will find another route home, because I don't want to put that much strain on the engine and brakes -- and that much gas into the tank - again. I am looking at a northern route that would mostly stick to interstates.

Anyway, that evening, we found a beautiful forest service campground just outside Sundance, WY. There were a couple pull through sites, but the back-in sites were much nicer, so I unhitched the Fit and we slid into a really nice space. The boys are getting quite adept at helping me level, set up and also break camp in the mornings. (I forgot to take a picture of this campground.)

According to the map, we were just 27 miles from Devil's Tower, which was on our list of places to see, so on Thursday morning, we headed that way with plans to circle on around to our RV park near Crazy Horse. It was quite impressive, and we took lots of pictures. We also parked the motor home, left the generator running with the AC (for Hanna) and took the 1.6 mile hike around the entire tower. It was a hot day (in the mid 90s), so we were pretty beat when we got done, but we saw all the angles of the tower, plus a climber up near the top. Unfortunately, he went into a crack before we got our cameras on and didn't come back out before we moved on up the trail.

photo by Steven

photo by Steven

That evening (Thursday), we arrived at our RV park just 1/4 mile from Crazy Horse. After studying glowing reviews online, I was pretty disappointed to find just a grassy bank to pull through, but we have full hookups, showers, laundry and it's filled with other families, so it's a decent place to home base while we journey to other sites in the area.