South Dakota

This year for the 4th of July we ventured out to South Dakota to sight see around Mt. Rushmore and be there for the fireworks at Rushmore on the 3rd. It was a really good trip, or at least I think so, with only one real stinker of a tourist trap. And of course it was one I picked. We paid 5.75 a person to see a waterfall in a cave. Basically you walk 60 feet into a mine and there is a waterfall in the back, not too large of a drop on it either. At least that you can see. So I would not reccommend Thunderhead Falls to anyone you like. Everywhere else was good and the fireworks were awesome. And it was so much easier to get out of the park after the fireworks then I ever imagined it would be. So here are some photos of the trip. It was Rob, Ethan, myself, grandma and grandpa Harman. We left Michigan to WI for the night in Grandma and Grandpa Pavlik's new house and then continued on to South Dakota - another 13 hours away.

On the way to the west side of South Dakota we were lurred in by the billboards for the corn palace. This place is decorated with corn cobs, kernels and husks differently each year. For some reason they were in the process of starting 2009's design over the 4th week. We all thought that was kind of wrong since the tourism should be higher that week. It was free which is nice and a good stopping place for a quick break.

The first place we visited was Reptile Gardens. Plenty of snakes and reptiles to see. Gators and giant tortises too. Now I can remember riding them when we went when I was little, but that is not allowed. However, you can pet them and one was 124 years old!

Just down the road from Reptile Gardens was our next stop. Bear Country USA. A drive through wild life park. Or as wild as animals will be when raised in a drive through park. Most did not mind the cars at all. The bears especially just went about routine life being bears. We even saw some "adult" bear activities.

Here are some photos from a lake we found with a walking path. The walk ended up a bit shorter because Ethan got a sliver and it was the end of the world. When he fell asleep in the truck we were finally able to pull it out.

Another place we went to was Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Ethan got his first Junoir Ranger badge there and really enjoyed climbing on all the boulders, until he fell and got a small cut. This first photo is one of our favorites, it shows Ethan "hiking". And yes, this is how he hiked the majority of the path around the Tower. And when he was not hiking, he was resting (2nd photo)

We also rode the 1880's steam train. Keystone, our departure city which had shops and ice cream places, to Hill city. A town that had little we saw. Everyone had to leave the train and then reboard in 45 minutes. Enough time to eat and get back in line for a good seat. The train let us on just in time because it began to rain. Really one of the few time rain ever threatened something we were doing.

Ethan really enjoyed the ride with Spidey. He also rode the horse behind there. It was the wildest horse ride ever. That thing really rocked, anyone smaller would have really had a hard time holding on!

We did some driving around. Discovered that if you want to be on a US hwy, in some spots you have to pay park admission to continue on the rode. But, we had some good sights at both parks, the Badlands and the Black Hills. Some very interesting rodes (pigtail bridged, U-turn bends, and tiny tunnels through the rocks. Had to think skinny in the truck.

At some point between the first day and before Mt. Rushmore, we did several other stops. Including the Cosmos Mystery Area where things are not as level as the "appear" and the air force base. Both where fun, Cosmos lead to lots of jokes later on about being on a slope and it being a mystery why you lean. Below is a photo of Grandpa Harman standing on a wall at the cosmos area. We also went to Roo World (or Garden/zoo, I don't remember). It was almost a bust until we got to enter the interaction area where you can pet Wallabys! It was neat, something I do not think we will have many chance to do. Ethan treated them like strange looking dogs and that is basically what they were like. Lazy indifferent about you dogs, but a bit softer.

Okay, and the reason we went to begin with. Here are the photos from Mt. Rushmore. We spent an entire day there. From about 10am to after fireworks. Ethan was very content to play with new legos on the blanket all day. All the running around really left him no time for playing all week, so he really enjoyed the break. Which worked out really well for all of us. The waiting got really hard the last hour or two. They estimate 30,000 people there, we saw a few fly overs including a B1 stealth and a B2 that when it did the real thing we heard it and saw afterburners but that is really all. It was a great fly over! They also did a flag ceremory and gave the flag to the last WW1 veteran. The fireworks were amazing, Rob caught some on his camera. Ethan loved them too! It was his first time seeing fireworks and he wants to see them again.

I am sure there are other things and I know there is a lot more detail to our trip. But, that would take a long time to do. So you will have to live with these until we see you next and can tell you all about it. At some point we will have to take a vacation that actually is not as busy so we do not need a vacation after the vacation.