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What a fun couple of days! We went to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD for a quick stop. Pretty interesting that they have a new theme each year. This year's theme was SD weather which maybe wasn't as interesting as some of the other images we saw of the themes from various years. However, the front desk gentleman gave us some great advice for driving through South Dakota and that made the little stop off all worth it!
Bryce took this photo and I couldn't help but laugh.... are we at the Corn Palace or somewhere else???? hmmmmm.... LOL!!!! I mean there are a lot of signs for those types of establishments along the highway...
We took I-90 mostly through South Dakota and it was SOOOOO WINDY that day! So much so that a local told us this wind was crazy and abnormal. Sure dude... sure. Anyway,while this made me feel better about my driving abilities, it didn't help that I felt like a sail facing the wrong direction for HOURS in Stevie the Big Rig....but we made it. Per the advice of our friend at the Corn Palace, we got off for a 30ish mile loop through the Badlands. Incredible! Jake was super pumped to see this and rode as the navigator to get the best view. "Shepard has been here and said it's really cool, I can't wait to see this!" We got off on a few of the pull offs, hiked around, climbed around, and took some scenic pics. There were signs posted to look out for Rattlesnakes. "WHAT???" Yeah, so that made myself and the boys a bit nervous and watching our every move!!
We then went to historic Wall, SD. Wall Drug was advertised literally across the entire state so seemed only fitting we stopped there for gas, dinner, and a little walk down the street of this cute little town. Then back on the road to get to our Mount Rushmore campground. We unfortunately were getting there later than planned due to our detouring and a couple extra stops BUT this meant Jeremy and I got to see Mount Rushmore all lit up at night. Super cool! The boys were asleep and our attempts to wake them up to see it were futile. I continued the drive through the winding Black Hills to our campground at night. Not the best idea in the world but we made it. If you are keeping score, yes, I have high winds across South Dakota and then winding hills in the dark at night. Needless to say, I was pooped when we pulled into the campground!
Mount Rushmore was awesome! The boys really thought it was cool too! We hiked around there a bit, even Jeremy in his boot managed the trail around it. Really cool views of Mount Rushmore from a lot of different angles. The boys have decided to have a theme in their souvenirs. Jake is collecting key chains and wants Papa to figure out a way to mount all of them. Bryce is doing magnets and wants a metal sheet to hang in his room with all of them displayed. So they started their collections at Mount Rushmore.
We then headed to the Rushmore Tramway Adventures for some Ziplining and Alpine Slides. So fun! Bryce was terrified to do the Zipline but he did it and loved it! Jeremy and I did these as well. Not going to lie, I was pretty scared on the zipline drop off as well but since Bryce was going at the same time as me, no time for fear and off we went! We did two runs at the alpine slides with our package so everyone went much faster the second time down. Jake would have stayed and ziplined all day and took rides to the top on the ski lift. Side note, you also got another view of Mount Rushmore on the ski lift to the top of the Alpine Slides. Pretty cool!
We spent some time at the Mount Rushmore Palmer Gulch KOA campground. Such a nice place with so many amenities! Maybe all of these KOAs are incredible and we just weren't aware of this little secret society. I am now officially a KOA rewards member so I guess I can find out more about this. LOL. Also not words I ever thought I would hear myself saying... "Card carrying member of the KOA rewards program!" WTH?
Off to Yellowstone we go!