#epicroadtrip Day 5

We left Custer around 8:00 in the morning, heading towards the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, then to the Badlands, and finally, Wall Drug. We wanted to be in the Wildlife Loop pretty early, as it was forecast to be a warm day and the chances of seeing wildlife are much better in the cool of the morning.

We saw a few deer that morning, though they were elusive when we tried to take pictures...

The prairie dogs, however, quite liked the camera...

Prairie Dog Town

We saw quite a few of those Pronghorns during the day...

But these 2 were the only bison we saw the entire trip. I loved watching that little baby bison. 

And then we were off to the Badlands! It's a desolate and fascinating place, and beautiful in its own way. 

I wasn't too keen on those rattlesnake signs everywhere...thankfully we did not see any.

If you go to the Badlands, the Door, Window, & Notch hikes are not too hard, and give you some great views in a short period of time. But the best part of the Badlands was when we were driving the Badlands Loop west from the Ben Reifel Visitor Center towards Wall, SD. Amazing views along this road, beautiful overlooks, changing colors. Just so unique.

As we left the Badlands, we got to see these creatures. I'm not even sure what they are...but I was happy to see them!

And then we got to see a few of the famous Wall Drug signs. Since we did not spend miles on I-90 heading west into Wall, because we were down farther south for the day, the signs didn't start until we were about 3 miles south of Wall. In that 3 miles we counted 17 signs. 

Wall Drug is such a ridiculous tourist trap.

But I'm really glad we went. 

And why wouldn't you see your best friend from Lynden while you're at Wall Drug? It *was* the season for taking road trips to bring siblings to college, after all..

We had a nice evening in our hotel in Wall, and the next morning I watched these girls all get ready for our day in the hotel bathroom...

Bethany looks so tired...and not quite ready for the day ahead! We had pretty nice hotels the whole trip, and this one had a large bathroom between two bedrooms, so it was an easy morning for getting ready.

#epicroadtrip Day 4

Day 4 brought us to Mount Rushmore, The Black Hills, Custer State Park, Sylvan Lake, Needles Highway, and the town of Custer. Here are some things to know if you go to these places:

1. If you're playing the license plate game, Mount Rushmore is awesome!

2. If that big black cloud *looks* like it might be a thunderstorm, it probably *is* a thunderstorm, and it just might have walnut-sized hail, too.

3. South Dakota kids are mountain goats. We can't believe that kids climb all over those hills and nothing is roped off because it's been deemed "too dangerous."

And now it's picture time!!

^^Bethany took the brochure and read everything so she could answer all the questions we had while we were there. It was like having our very own personal tour guide!

There were lots of people, but it didn't really feel that crowded...we could always find a spot to take a picture without people in it...but I could imagine that later in the day it would have felt crowded.

Did you know that Thomas Jefferson invented ice cream??? That settled it, we HAD to eat ice cream while we were there.

^^When we left Rushmore, we drove around the other side and got this unexpected view of George. After that, we headed to drive some beautiful roads in the Black Hills, into Custer State Park, Sylvan Lake, and Needles Highway.

These pictures were all taken at Sylvan Lake. We stopped here at the recommendation of a local friend and I had also read it about online. It was amazing. Definitely a must-do if you're in the area.

This is what I was talking about when I said that South Dakota kids must be mountain goats. Literally, there are kids climbing all over these things and there are not even any warning signs anywhere! It's truly a kids' paradise...and also an Ed's paradise.

It wasn't until we walked all the way around the lake that we realized that it was a lake only because of that dam. The little bridge at the top there is at water level on the other side. That was really a bizarre feeling!!!

^^See! There's the little bridge!

Bethany and Sarah ran around the lake for their training that day and Sarah even explored some higher trails and it was just awesome!

Then the storm rolled in. And we had to wait out the worst of it in the van, hoping and praying the hail wouldn't dent it!

A short video of the hailstorm can be viewed HERE.

Once it was safe to continue our drive, we headed to Needles Highway. This was an amazing place!! 

Video of driving through this tunnel is HERE!

(I think it was beginning to hail again at this point...once we got through we stopped at another overlook and while there, we got pelted with the hailstones like the one below in Becca's hand.

We then headed towards Custer and went to the home of a high school classmate! She has only lived in Custer for a few months, but warmly welcomed us, fed us dinner, and gave us a wonderful relaxing evening and a place to sleep. The kids even eventually all played and hung out and Ed had a great time discovering all sorts of things he didn't know about the railroad industry from her husband.