South Dakota (Misc.)

My kids are all super travelers

and we had SO much fun on this trip.

All of us are still talking about it.

It was fun!

We played tourist, but not too much...

We relaxed in and at the cabin, but not too much...

We drove around and enjoyed the views, but not too much...

We just really enjoyed each other's company,

and really enjoyed our little trip

to South Dakota.

I have to add a few more pictures and highlights of our trip.

Have to have a few selfies.

Sisters having fun in the car.

We were driving and saw this beautiful lake 

so we stopped and spent some time relaxing here.

So pretty.

Forever sisters.

Our precious little man.

Chillin' at the lake.

Heart melter...

Across the road from the lake.

One thing we kept on hoping we would see was

Mountain Goats.

We kept on seeing signs

so we kept on watching for them.

We finally lucked out.

So much fun to see them.

South Dakota (Badlands)

Another post from almost a year ago.

~~~~~

Our last stop on our way back home...

...Badlands

Gloriously Beautiful!

My heart was in my throat the whole time in this area.

Beautiful!

The kids had SO much fun at this stop.

They climbed...

 ...and climbed.

South Dakota (Mt. Rushmore)

I know it's already almost a year later, 

but I just had to add photos of one of the highlights of our trip.  

Mt. Rushmore!

We drove through this cool tunnel on our way to Mt. Rushmore.

Walking in.

Wow! Amazing!

We did the walk around the loop.

But we didn't know and went the opposite way

of what most people went,

and it was all up steps.

You don't see Willem here because he

(our clubfoot kid)

was way ahead of us the whole way around.

I'd catch up to him and stop to rest

and away he'd go again.

So pretty.

One last look before we head out.

 Next post - Badlands

South Dakota (Jewel Cave)

One of our day excursions brought us to Jewel Cave.

We happened to be in SD on one of the four or so days in a year

 that we could enter the cave for free.  That was a nice little saving and made me smile.

A little bit of history~

In 1900 two local prospectors discovered a cave 

when they felt cold air blowing out of a small hole in a canyon. 

 After enlarging the cave entrance with dynamite, 

the two men discovered it was a cavern filled with  shiny glittering calcite crystals, 

which led them to name it 'Jewel Cave'.

Jewel Cave was proclaimed a National Monument in 1908 

by President Theodore Roosevelt.

It was very interesting to tour this cave, but very different from other cave tours I've been on in SD.

This one is considered a 'dry' cave so doesn't form as many stalactites and stalagmites.

On one of the tours you had to be able to crawl through this in order to be part of the tour. 

But we chose the shortest tour as we didn't know how long Willem would last.

We had about an hour to explore before our tour.

So we went exploring outside the cave.

We could have gone on a longer tour I think,

 because this boy walked!

Wow!  Look how far you can see.

Beautiful scenery...

You could see soooooo far!

 This boy walked and walked and walked!

 He outwalked all of the rest of us by far!

Some interesting info.

 As we drove around in South Dakota we could see areas 

where there had obviously been forest fires, 

so these were interesting to read.

Inside Jewel Cave

We took an elevator down into the cave...

...a very long elevator.

Jewel Cave has over 168 miles of mapped and surveyed passages 

and is currently the third (some say second) longest cave in the world.

All but 2 of these miles have been discovered since 1959.

When we got inside the cave we were told that this is the only rock we could touch.

Very cool (literally and figuratively) in the cave.

We were told it is always a balmy 49 degrees in the cave.

The greenish looking pictures were taken without flash.

The pictures  where you can see the reddish and white-ish tones 

were taken with flash.

Photo credits go to all of us.