Blogs from Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, United States, North America - page 3

Day 4: Tuesday, July 28, 2009: Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Devils Tower Leaving Wall, Sophie (etc.) and I sauntered our way through the Black Hills National Forests, largely filled with sweet-smelling pine trees. The goal for the day is to visit all three National Monuments, beginning with Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills National Forest, then 17 miles to the Crazy Horse Memorial, and finally, approx. 150 miles to Devils Tower, forever linked to the image of Richard Dryfess in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The site is in Wyoming. Ranking the three monuments from “favorite” down: Devils Tower, Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. Mr. Rushmore, obviously an iconic tribute to four U.S. Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln (and, hopefully, they left room for Obama after he works his magic). The site does not ... read more

Well we inended to get up early and go to Mt Rushmore right away but we were behind schedule as we discovered the campground did in fact have showers down by the beach, sw we took advantage of them. So, we decided to run into Rapid City first to pick up somethings we needed and then get to Mt Rushmore in the afternoon. Rapid city and the tourist sprawl toward Mt Rushmore is incredible compared to the last time Patti & I were there about 15 years ago. It took me a while to get used to those curvey mtn roads and those narrow tunnels, but the views are worth it. The plan to visit Rushmore later in the afternoon was a good one as there was no line for parking...and the $10. parking fee is ... read more

On Wednesday July 8, we woke up in Gillette WY, and saw the "Devils Tower" National Monument , which is more properly called the Bear Lodge National Monument. All the Indian nations called it something like Bears Lodge, and the caucasian explorer just came up with his own name, but claimed Devils Tower was the Indian name. Devils Tower was the backdrop for the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so we had to see it. Cray earned his fourth Junior Ranger badge there, after we heard a great talk from a Lakotan (Sioux) Indian woman about the Indian tradition there. We then ate lunch in Strawberry Hill National Forest in SD before going to Mount Rushmore in the afternoon. WOW...... I really thought we had so much fun in Grand Canyon that the other ... read more

Well, we have seen a lot today! We got up this morning, and we headed toward Keystone, SD. Along the way, we decided to stop at the city of Deadwood. The whole city is a historic landmark. It's the town where Wild Bill Hickok was killed in Saloon 10. Today, I did something I never thought I'd hear myself say. I took my kids to a bar!! It's not QUITE as bad as it sounds, but it's close! They do a reenactment of Wild Bill's murder in the back of Saloon 10, so we had to go in to watch it. It was really cool. I never knew where Keith and Tom got the name of their band, Aces and 8's, but now I know that was what Wild Bill was holding, and it's called a ... read more

The adventures of today started in the middle of the night when Levi woke up with a fever. He was up twice and was hot and irritable. Luckily he was a pretty good sport all day and we were able to force some medicine into him as needed. He really wishes he could get normal naps in his bed. He never naps very well or very long in the stroller or the car. Poor kid! Despite our many efforts to get an earlier start to our day, it was still 10:15 before we had the car re-packed and everyone loaded up. We started out by heading to a Denver suburb North of town to visit at mall with a Hanna Andersson store. This store is one of Sarah's favorites for kids clothes (and occasionally matching mom ... read more