South Dakota Trip Fall 2011

If I could recommend one road trip to ya'll, it would be to the Black Hills South Dakota.  We had a fabulous fall trip and would love to share some details with you!  Sorry for the overload, but it was a great trip!

Our adventure began at Noon on Tuesday, October 18th.  The girls got out of school at Noon for Fall Break and we headed over beautiful Logan Canyon to pick up Grandma Barb in WY.  We threw her stuff in the trunk, buckled her in our six seatbelt Ford Taurus and headed down the highway toward Kemmerer, Wyoming.  I didn't think to start taking pictures of all the population signs until into the second day of our trip, so I lost track of all the small towns we travelled through on our way. 

So the first night was in Thermopolis, Wy.  Home of the World's Largest Mineral Hot Spring.  We had a lot of fun and hung out until about 11 a.m. just touring around. 

Second day we continued our trek to the Black hills stopping only for fuel and potties and photo opportunities in the beautiful Big Horn Pass!!  Right before the WY/SD state line we ventured off the oil pump scattered, desolate part of the interstate to Devil's Tower National Monument (Jordan:  I don't want to see the Devil!  Dad to Jordan:  I promise the Devil won't be there. Jordan:  Isn't it the Devil's Tower?)

We reached Rapid City, South Dakota at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 19th.  We checked into the beautiful AmericInn Lodge and Suites.  It was decked out with a pool area and indoor waterslide (which was a life saver....due to one of our indoor water park plans falling through last minute).

Accomodations were bliss and we were excited to have a hot breakfast every morning before our following adventures...Thursday, October 20th, was filled with Monument visiting.  We started with Mt. Rushmore in Keystone and then headed to Rushmore Cave for a cave tour and Zipline!!  The Zipline at Rushmore Cave was actually designed by Stan Checketts in Logan Utah!!  We had a blast.  All six of us buddied up and ziplined the length of two football fields twice!  After Rushmore Cave we headed to Crazy Horse Monument in Custer, SD. (Jordan: I don't want to see a Crazy Horse!! haha) The Black Hills were simply gorgeous this day and we took a lot of fantastic pictures in hopes to capture the fall beauty.

Friday, October 21st started earlier that the other days because of the full-agenda.  We headed to Bear Country, USA and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  Then onto the Reptile Gardens for the snake show and let me tell you....the rattler in the show was NOT happy.  I was close to becoming a wall-climbing mammal...I am NOT a reptile person, but I put on a pretty good front for the kiddos.  Kysa and Jordan enjoyed this so much.  They even pet the big yellow snake....ewwww.  After the gardens, we headed back in to go to Rapid City's largest year round indoor waterslide park to find it CLOSED.  With kids in tears, we quickly gathered our wits, grabbed a McDonalds Happy Meal (heals all sorrows) and headed to the theatre for an afternoon flick.  We saw 3 Musketeers and loved it! 

We sadly left Rapid City with much, much more on the agenda to-do but didn't get the time. We left Saturday, October 22nd at 9 a.m. and headed to Sheridan, Wyoming to stay with some awesome cousins on my mom's side.  It was a fabulous visit with them, their darling newborn, and my other cute college cousin.

We again regrettably started our homeward decent at 7 a.m. Sunday, October 23rd.  We ventured to Yellowstone National Park East Entrance through Cody, WY at Noon.  Hit Old Faithful by 2:30 to discover it had just went off.  We stayed for 90 minutes give or take to have some lunch and watch the amazing Old Faithful.  The only animals we saw in the park was a porcupine, some ravens and squirrels!  But we were not disappointed when we got just out of Yellowstone and saw all kinds of deer and buffalo!  Stopped to admire the Tetons and continued home.  We safely delivered mom at 9:05 p.m. and headed back to Logan.  We had an amazing, relationship building time!  I would highly recommend it.  Here is a slideshow with some samplings of the things we experienced and saw.  I wish I could have taken you all with us.  It was a simply exciting trip!  Well worth the miles travelled!

Enjoy the show (video included, might be loud so adjust your sound).

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