Highway to Heaven

(SDA: Day 4) 


      Morning greeted us with cool, crisp air, and a beautiful sunrise that brought the brilliant colors of the badlands to life. With our camp packed up and in the car, we drove back through the park. We took a different route out of the park. This route brought us face to face with buffalo. It was Michelle and Saumya's first time seeing one. We also saw another bighorn sheep, lots of prairie dogs, a burrowing owl, and a MASSIVE golden eagle.

A Bighorn sheep.

Big Buffalo!!!

The Golden Eagle flying away from us.

You know you are in South Dakota when Prairie Dogs outnumber people 10 to 1.

Just barely managed to snap this picture of the Burrowing Owl. It was pretty skittish. 

Leaving the badlands behind us, we flew down I-90 toward the black hills of South Dakota. We passed Ellsworth AFB and sadly didn't see any B-1s. We hopped off the interstate and cruised for a while before we came to Mount Rushmore. Both Nathan and I had seen it, but it was the first time visiting the monument for Michelle and Saumya. There are some trails that lead close to the base of the carved faces and we hiked those. We tried to get a picture of Michelle kissing Mr. Washington, but I am not sure that it turned out so well.

Saumya and Michelle enjoying Mt. Rushmore.

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln all look a little stiff in this picture.

Kissing George.

Nathan and I proving that we really were there.

Did you know that originally, the presidents were going to have their bodies carved into the rock as well? Unfortunately, it didn't work out because the rock wasn't suitable, so that is why it is just their faces. Although, if you look closely, George has a bit of his coat carved. We all agree though that Abe should have his hat though.

Saumya standing by a model of what Mt. Rushmore was supposed to look like.

Having soaked up Mount Rushmore, we stopped at a place called Teddy's Deli in Keystone. They had some pretty good sandwiches. Filled with food and energy, we piled into the car (which we had repacked that morning, so now there was a bit more room...key words...a bit!) and started for Custer State Park. I have to say, the road that lead from Rushmore to Custer Stat Park is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!! It twists, it turns, it has CORKSCREWS, and then there are narrow tunnels only one car can fit through. And if you look north through them, the tunnels perfectly frame Mt. Rushmore!!!!! I would totally do that section of the trip again...just for the road!!!!

One of the tunnels we passed through. As you can see, Mt. Rushmore is perfectly framed.

We entered the park and drove the wildlife loop were we saw more buffalo, more prairie dogs, more antelope, and our first wild burros!

The Burro posed for us. Wasn't that nice?

At the south end of the wildlife loop we made a jaunt south to Wind Cave National Park, to do a tour of the caves we would have had to wait a couple of hours, so we decided to just skip it (but at least we can say we have been to that national park :) ). We then joined back up with the wildlife loop and continued north to needles highway where we heard that white mountain goats had been spotted earlier. Before we got to that section we hiked Cathedral Trail which leads up rocky terrain to a section of rock pillars. That was an easy and fun hike to do.

Being adventurous, I scaled this massive mountain!!!! 

OK, as you can see, it wasn't that big!

Several rock pillars on Cathedral trail. 

 Once down we did the only thing you can do. Eat chocolate! :) OK, after that, we kept going and passed through some more cool tunnels. Sadly, we didn't see and mountain goats. Michelle wanted to go to Sylvan lake, so we drove there and stopped. The combination of the deep blue water and massive grey rocks made it beautiful. Other people must have thought so as well, because by the lake, chairs were set up for a wedding that was going to take place later that evening.

Sylvan lake.

I think they are trying to tell us "the lake is THAT way."

Having seen everything that we wanted to see, we left Custer State Park, and drove out of the Black Hills, and got back on I-90 and started to head back east. We made it to Murdo, were we got a hotel for the night. The receptionist was really nice. She gave us a discount and begged us to take all of the cookies off of a platter in the lobby--we obliged.

End day 4.