Day Four - Wind Cave and Mt. Rushmore

Our trip to Wind Cave was amazing, we drove through Custer State Park, which has to be one of the most scenic state parks I have been to. On the drive in you could see all kinds of wildlife and the most beautiful landscapes. As we were heading through, we came across a bucking buffalo that looked like it was nearly going to ram our RV. Kind of scary actually. We liked the more docile ones better, the ones who could care less that you were driving through their backyard.

The cave tour we took was very cool. The park system created a paved pathway through a small section of it so it was very easy to maneuver. It took us a little over an hour to walk it. The ranger talked about the rock formations and the history of it. I think most of the kids enjoyed it, until the ranger turned of the lights to show us how the man who discovered it would have seen the cave when his candle went out. With the exception of a few light up shoes, it was pitch black. I couldn’t imagine being down there with out a light!

Our next stop was Mt. Rushmore, of which Sarah was completely excited about. She did a research paper on it for a school project last year, so she knew all kinds of facts about the place. When we had finished exploring the park, she commented that she didn’t really learn anything new! Oh well, I think seeing it in person was just what she needed. It’s an amazing site.

We had plans to see the faces at night, but once again we ended our day with a storm. We managed to get dinner in before it started raining and then retreated to the RVs for the storm. Once it passed we got a glimpse of the most beautiful, full, double rainbow. The sky was quite red which gave the rainbow a more reddish color to it. I hadn’t seen anything like it before. The kids played a bit more, then we ate the cake I made in the RV (1-2-3-4 Fudge Cake!) and then it was time to get the kids in bed.

For the first time since our stay at Shabbona Lake, the adults were finally able to hang out by the fire for a while. We had some wine and conversation to catch up on!