Mount Rushmore

Happy 4th of July from Sylvan Lake - Custer State Park, SD! 

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Our week of tent-camping in Yellowstone went so well last year, we decided to try another location for this summer.

Six people, 5 days. That's a lot of stuff! But my Tetris-super-hero got it all in or on top. 

TUESDAY
We drove 4 hours to the Mammoth Site at Hot Springs, SD.

Basically a long time ago, there was a sink hole here filled with water. The young, adolescent males used to go and drink at the edge, and many fell in and drowned. They've found the remains of 61 so far, and not a single female among them.

In the 1970s, a developer wanted to build a neighborhood here and as they started digging, bones were found. They stopped, and years later decided to build this structure on top of the dig site to protect the remains. And so they can offer expensive year-round tours to people coming to the area to see Mount Rushmore. ;-) 

Miss Kate, ready for office work like all her Morello aunts

We drove the rest of the way to our campsite in Custer State Park. After setting up on new 12-man tent (it's as huge as you are imagining and totally awesome!), we took our new-to-us paddle boards down to the lake and played in the sand and water.

Dinner was roasting hot dogs over the fire, but as the thunder rolled in and the lightning neared, we shoved all the dogs into the flames really quick and took cover in the tent. As we ate dinner, the rain, HAIL and lightning shook everything around us. Good thing our tent was big enough for us to eat inside!

WEDNESDAY - Fourth of July
After pancakes, sausage & bacon for breakfast, we headed to the Cathedral Spires trailhead. To get there, we drove down the Needles Highway, which was scary and beautiful all at once. The hike wast 3 miles among beautiful landscape.

All was fine and dandy, until...

...disaster struck (or a teeny, tiny scrap on the knee).

After the hike, we headed to Mount Rushmore. It was crowded, but not as bad as we expected. I find this particular landmark a bit disappointing, but we got ice cream and walked around awhile.

After resting back at the campground, we headed to Custer for dinner and fireworks. It is such a small town, but the kids had never seen a firework show before, so it was perfect for us. Kate curled up on my chest with noise-cancelling headphones on, but she didn't cry at all.

THURSDAY
After breakfast burritos warmed over the fire, and then we were off to Bear Country USA. So neat!

The Three Billy Goats Gruff with their Three Trolls
Collin started feeling sick in the car, so we pulled over to get him some fresh air, and there were all these mountain goats playing on the mountain-side.

Bear Country USA is a drive-thru zoo, so all our pictures are taken through the car windows, which were up and locked. ;-)  

After the driving portion, there's a portion where you can get out and walk-around. That's where all the babies were. 

While we were there, the weather turned cool and cloudy, so we decided to head straight to Jewel Cave instead of going swimming. All the tours were full though, so we got tickets for later and headed back to the campground for naps. Then we drove back to Jewel Cave for the world's most disappointing "tour." Mommy-planning fail.

Dinner was spaghetti & meatballs followed by banana boats.

FRIDAY
Breakfast today was granola and yogurt. We hiked 3-mile Horse thief Lake. So pretty! Lots of waterfalls and neat rock features.

After resting, we headed to the lake for paddle boarding, swimming and sand castle building. It was hot, so it was the perfect thing. Dinner was chicken quesadillas followed by smores.

SATURDAY
We were up about 6:30am tearing down camp. Six people worth of mats, cots, sleeping bags, etc is a lot of clean up! We had the tent down and were on the road about 9:30am. Breakfast was poptarts while in motion, lol. We were trying to hurry back for Collin to go to a good friend's birthday party at 3:30, and we made it with even enough time for him to shower the camping grit off. :-)

All in all, we had our horrible, awful, terrible melt-downs and fighting mingled with the beauty and awesomeness of family time in nature. I guess that's just real-life.

We are already choosing our camping destination for next year. We are thinking we should stay "home" and do Rocky Mountain National Park the right way, instead of always only doing random Saturdays there scattered throughout the year. Stay tuned!