A Day in the Black Hills

On our way home from Colorado,
we stayed in the Black Hills for one night.

First stop… Wind Cave
One of the longest caves in the world with over 140 miles of explored passageways!

Wind Cave was established as a national park in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the seventh U.S. National Park and the first cave
to be designated a national park anywhere in the world.

Cave explorers! : )

Wind Cave is famous for its amazing boxwork formations. About 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork can be found here. (See photo below.)

 

Next we drove through Custer State Park, where we saw lots of buffalo and prairie dogs.
Here are a few antelope we saw on the road.

We took Iron Mountain Road to Mt. Rushmore, which is an unforgettable experience!
This 17-mile drive includes 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 pigtails, and 3 one-lane tunnels designed to frame Mt. Rushmore as you drive through them.

If you’ve been to our house, you will recognize this view,
as we have a similar photo hanging on the wall in our dining room : )

 

We arrived at Mt. Rushmore in the rain, which was a bit of a sad sight. ; )
We were hoping to see the night-time lighting ceremony, but opted to come back the next morning instead. When we arrived we were greeted with dense fog.
You couldn’t see Mt. Rushmore at all!

There were visitors from all over the world there, wondering and asking where the faces were. We overheard one fellow who said he drove 5,000 miles to see it.
What a disappointment!

 

While we waited for the fog to disappear,
we decided to take the Presidential Trail to get a little closer.

 

Here you can see the faces starting to emerge in the background.

 

View from below while on the Presidential Trail

 

View from a cave along the trail

 

One more attempt at some photos.
Now we had the opposite problem… too sunny! ; )

Needless to say, it was a memorable visit to Mt. Rushmore!
We highly recommend it if you are ever in the area.
Just be sure to allow enough time for any fog to clear. ; )

We spent a little time in the gift shop while waiting for the fog to disappear, and one of clerks asked Luke (age 6) if he could name the 4 presidents on Mt. Rushmore.
He gave her the full name of each one. Can you name them all? : )