South Dakota didn't disappoint!

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Wind Cave National Park, 

and Badlands National Park

This girl's dreams are coming true!  Our National Park System hosts such amazing wonders.  As I said in a previous post, there are 417 units in the National Park System, only 59 of them are National Parks.  I finally visited my first 2 National Parks this week!  

Mount Rushmore National Memorial:

I have seen the pictures, seen the movies, but actually seeing it in person is hard to describe.  The Black Hills are absolutely beautiful and in the middle of them is this amazing sculpture.  The park memorial isn't large, in fact we were only there about 1.5 hours.  Our National Park Pass did not cover admission but it was only $10 for a calendar year pass.  We watched the video of the making of Mt. Rushmore, learned how they transferred the model to the mountain, toured the museum, and visited the book store, of course.  All of it is impressive and wouldn't be possible without donations because even though it is gets funding from the government, it isn't enough to keep the park going,   

I highly recommend visiting this national treasure but make sure to make other plans in the Black Hills and western SD because this was a 1/2 day (at most) stop. 

I used my telephoto lens to get these up close shots of our beloved Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln.

Washington signifies the struggle for independence and the birth of the Republic;

Jefferson is the territorial expansion of the country;

Lincoln is the permanent union of the States;                                                                       Theodore Roosevelt, the 20th century role of the United States in world affairs and the rights of the common man. 

       

The Black Hills National Forrest:   

 At approximately 5700 feet, the Black Hills are named for their black appearance from far away.  We loved the cool evenings while staying at Holy Smoke Resort and our drive through the Black Hills on our way to Wind Cave National Park.

Wind Cave National Park, established 1903:

This is an unique National Park because it has both grasslands and over 140 miles of explored caves, which is believed to be only 10% of the total amount of caves in this National Park. 

It was scared land to the Native Americans that lived in the Black Hills but cave exploration started in 1881, by Jesse and Tom Bigham.  

We took a candlelight tour that consisted of only 9 guests total, used candle buckets, and got to explore an unpaved part of the cave.  We were not allowed cameras in this part of the cave so we don't have any pictures to share but it was beautiful.   It is most known for it boxwork formations; 95% of the world's boxwork is found in Wind Cave.  

Photo Credit to the NPS.  This is an example of the boxwork we saw today. 

After our 2 hour tour we got to explore the surface of Wind Cave NP, where we were treated to a show by some funny prairie dogs, an up close visit from the safety of our car by some bison, and a couple of Antelope showed up to say, "Hello," as well.  We were not disappointed in our 2.5 mile hike through the prairie, which hosted a bison in the distance for the finale.  

Just a few Bison relaxing in the sun....

Badlands National Park, 1939 established as National Monument, 1978 it became a National Park

The Badlands are unbelievable.  There really aren't words to describe how beautiful and unique they really are.  Brodey probably said it best, "Pennsylvania is boring compared to here."  Every time we came around a corner the landscape changed and was even more breath taking.  We were able to spend a day hiking and driving through the Badlands taking in another of America's most scenic national parks.  If you ever have a chance to go, spend more than a day here.  I wish I would have planned more time...guess we will just have to go back!!

Doug is sporting his "Resist" T-shirt.  The Bandlands National Park was the first to post climate change information on their twitter feed after certain publications were band by the new administration.  They were quickly shut down but not before igniting the Alt. National Park movement, which is a group of anonymous national park government employees posting scientific information daily that they would otherwise no longer be allowed to publish.   You can follow them on twitter and FB by searching for Alt. National Park.

Once we made it to the heart of the park, and went through the visitors center, we took off on a nice 2.5 mile hike/climb.  This is a boy's (young and old) paradise.  Couldn't keep Brodey down.  He has decided to live near here someday and just spend his days climbing....

 

 

 

Once we finished climbing Notch Trail we moved onto to more of a flat terrain. We thought we were on Castle Trail...well, let's just say we made our own trail and we didn't get lost.

Where's Dunovan and Brodey?? 

We then followed the Badlands Scenic Loop Road, where we got to see more prairie dogs, big horned sheep and bison! 

 

We saw the Big Horn Sheep in several places.... Don't worry, I wasn't real close, just a really good camera lens.

 

 As we continued on the loop road we saw more vistas and some Bison in the distance....

 

Thus ended our 5 amazing days in South Dakota...from Sioux Falls on the East to The Black Hills on the West. My mom always told me it is better to leave wanting more; I can see another visit to this magnificent state some day because our time here just wasn't enough.