I decided that we need to do something fun like going to see Mount Rushmore in person. It is one of those bucket list activities that you should do once in your life and with it only being 13 hours from us we really had no excuse not to check it off the list. The kids were not seeing the fun factor in looking at a mountain with faces on it. What else could we possibly do they whined. I didn't care, I knew we would have a blast and told them to trust me and so off we went.
There it is. The faces in a mountain. I don't care who you are, it is pretty cool to see in person. We watched a video about the sculptor and how this piece of art was achieved. I can't remember the percentage, but the majority of it was carved out with explosives. We also went on the ranger guided tour and got to hear their spiel. This part and some of the movie made blood squirt from my eyes, but it was still fun and it gave us an opportunity to tell our kids the correct history behind these men.
We also went to Rushmore cave while we were there and had fun escaping the heat below the surface. It was a fun cave and we got to learn all kinds of things like how the cave was formed, how it was discovered, what the town used to use it for and how it eventually came to be owned by 4 men. We had one of the owners as our guide and because we were at the front of the group told us all about his caving adventures. They really know how to run a business there and so they also have a zip line and a 7D adventure ride to get more money out of you while you are there and up your enjoyment factor. The kids had a blast, so I will count that as a success.
We also went to Bear Country USA and it turned out to be more fun than we imagined it would be. We really had no idea what to expect so we were thrilled that they had so many animals and that they were all out and walking around and right up to the vehicles. There were also many more varieties of animals than I thought there would be. You weren't supposed to have your windows down, but it was just too hard not too when the animals are so close and you want good pictures. There were a couple of times when the bears got a little too close, so up the windows went. The favorite part of that adventure was at the end you park and get out of your car to see the baby bears. Let me just say that they were killing me with cuteness. Oh my goodness baby bears are adorable. We could have sat and watched them play all day.
There is a cute little town there where they have some shopping and an Alpine slide so we had to check that out. My boys weren't that excited about it because, I guess, they had visions of sliding down on a potato sack at 1 mile an hour. They were surprised when a chair lift and a sled were involved and low and behold they had a blast. Sometimes I have to work a little to hard to convince my kids that they are going to have fun if they will just trust me!
We got very lucky with our timing. We had no idea that summer season was over for this town and all the lease horses were getting picked the next morning for the winter. We really lucked out that we were able to go on a horse ride. I think Jordyn was the most excited or the most vocal about her excitement. All she could talk about for days was her horse Chubby. She was in love and sure that that horse loved her too. Nate's horse was Crow, mine Rat Boy, Emma's Miles, Jared's Geronimo, Ethan's Tigger, Jordyn's Chubby. We had about an hour and a half ride and it was fun and made me wonder how I had missed out on living on a ranch. Of course, I would want someone else to manage the ranch and I would just kind of hang out there. :0)
The RV park that we stayed at had lots of fun things to do. They had 2 swimming pools, but the hot tub looked like some sort of toxic waste was in there or just filled with pee. The picture doesn't quite capture the greenish yellow tint. Did I get in, absolutely not! Gross! There was a big jumping pillow, inflatable slides, mini golf, horse shoes, nightly entertainment and a couple of stores and restaurants. Plenty to keep the kids happy during down time. We would love to go back and stay longer next time. We barely scratched the surface on what there is to do there. You also need more time to go farther north to Evans plunge and lots of other fun things. Definitely one of the best family vacations ever!
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