Camping in South Dakota

As I was reading through the Sunday paper sometime in the early part of the summer, I came across an article in the travel section about Custer State Park in South Dakota. The more I read the more excited I became to book a short camping trip. Our family has never been Mt Rushmore before and it is only about a 6 hour car ride.

So, I took it upon myself to book a site at Custer State Park. To please James, I booked a cute camper cabin in the state park that included heat, air conditioning and 4 beds - perfect!! I told the kids that we would be doing things like a garage sale and other things to try to save up enough money for our fun weekend in South Dakota. They were getting as excited as I was as the summer grew closer to our departure date.

Despite James' threats to turn around and go back home (Dallin decided to throw a major tantrum at the Burger King in Wheatland, WY), we made it by dinner time.

As we entered the park, we were amazed how beautiful it was. Our campsite had frequent wildlife visitors such as deer and wild turkey. On our trip around the wildlife loop, we saw the massive herd of bison. We also came across donkey and sheep.

We took the scenic route to Mt Rushmore by way of Needles Highway. It was a twisty-turny road through the trees with unique tunnels and bridges. It was absolutely beautiful. There were multiple places where we got a peek of the monument from afar.

Once we arrived at Mt Rushmore, we took the walking tour and learned a bit more about the monument. (Dallin decided to have a few more frustrating moments - too long of a walk for those skinny little legs. )

After our hike down and back up the mountain, we decided to have our lunch that I packed. Logan and James grudgingly ate the sandwiches and chips that I packed for the trip and then we decided to get in line for the famous ice cream cones. I think our eyes were a bit bigger than our stomachs. We really should have shared the gigantic cones... maybe next time.

After our day at Mt Rushmore, we headed a bit more north to go to a Chuckwagon dinner. The boys had a great time!! There were pony rides, panning for gold, pistol shooting, lasso practice, and a fun gun-down show before our dinner. For dinner we ate beef, corn bread, beans and applesauce in our tin plates and cups (I think it made the water and lemonade taste a bit like aluminum) It was a great day!

On our final morning, we (Logan, Dallin, and I) decided to take a short 2 mile hike around the lake. We didn't realize the hike was a steep incline the majority of the way. Dallin was quite the trooper and did the hike without complaints (I only had to carry him on my back maybe a third of the way). The hike finally ended at the beach of the lake. The boys didn't hesitate to jump in and cool off from our hike.