How I know I was on the trip. Selfies. 🤣

We did a fun trick SKV learned at camp a few years ago. COULD YOU imagine two ECVs?

A little extra climb on the Notch Hike.

Sometimes it's just fun to climb to see what view is awaiting your discovery.

Today we did Badlands. I think it was 101. Hot. So hot. No humidity really. Just miserable heat.

Many parts of this reminded us of our Utah trip. Sides of the road would have different terrain and land. White sandy appearance on one and fields as far as you could see of prairie on the other. Pictures will never do justice.

So neat to see the bands of color in the rock.

Smiles on the first three hikes. For a minute as least.

ECV wasn't even really wanting to fake scared because she was really afraid rattlesnakes were literally at the sign.

Very neat places to climb. Had to be very aware of loose rock. Quite soft for rock.

Every Kid in a Park is why we even visited Utah and Arizona in 2018 and South Dakota and Wyoming this year. When your child is in the 4th grade they get a free pass into all National Parks. I wouldn't have known about it without Reagan Todd sharing that nugget of info. I highly recommend it. You print off a pass and give it to the ranger at the entrance of the first National Park of your trip. It is good until I believe August after their fourth grade year. We did these trips with each girl before their fifth grade summer.

We stayed in Custer. I might need to add that the three road tours we did were in Custer State Park. This would have been another National Park but the state was fast to snatch it up. So much to see and do.

They even have their name in lights. Kind of funny considering the population in 2010 was barely over 2,000. As we were heading to our hotel we were also heading for food. I told Kevin, "I'm pretty sure that population doesn't even quality for McDonalds." Luckily we found a restaurant open after most everything else was closed. (8:00)

Our final stop on day one was Mt. Rushmore. If you travel Iron Mtn. road you go through three more one way tunnels, drive really cool bridges, and roads. Kudos to the people that engineered it all. Our GyPSy app told us all the history and drama about the roads and Mt. Rushmore. Two of the tunnels creat a postcard video of the monument for you and that was really neat to see. No picture does it justice.

Tired humans. Up at 4:45 to leave home, catch a plane, redo two hours of the day, and do a whole lot.

Very cool walk to the sculpture.

Did you know it was intended to look like this? I did not.

Picture by Embree.

You can walk a .4 loop to see all the angles. Over 400 stairs but worth it.

After the Needles Highway we did the Wilderness Loop. We saw a butterfly, several prairie dogs in one field, and some deer like animal. We almost named it the Wilderness-less Loop…then right as we were turning left onto Iron Mountain Road all the bison we ever wanted to see charged out. (We contribute the lack of animals because ideally you should ride this road dawn or dusk and we didn't).

The deer like animals.

The dandelions (I assume?!) are HUGE!

Each bison (they do call them Buffalo some too) are numbered and the herd is managed. The stories about every out here are great. GyPSy app for the win!

Bison rule and cars drool. They came out of a creek area and walked the whole Iron Mountain Road to their destination.

Babies!

It's her "4th grade trip" - in case you were wondering

When the tunnels are so tight you can touch them.

Somebody tells Scoops they represented all day long.

After another hike the tunnel was wide open for another picture.

Little hiking to get the blood going.

Doesn't look dangerous at all…

Picture time

I saw a lot of butts today. Mainly because an adult needs to be the caboose.

If you stick with me…we will get some good shots. This one was a tricky one. This is the eye of the needle tunnel and a tour bus squeaked through. It took him so long that a line had formed. The said line allowed me time to tell the girls to run in the tunnel for a good shot. 🎉

I wouldn't even try that.

After enough "take my picture here" comments, I told them to take mine. Haha. Regrets shortly followed

I should have guessed they wouldn't wait for a good moment. 🤣

As soon as we landed in Rapid City, we hit Wal-Mart for essentials, bought a tour on GyPSy and hit the road.

We started with Black Hills National Forest. The tour guide on the app is the best thing ever. He told us stories and guided us through the three roads we wanted to see.

We started with Needles Highway. There were three one way tunnels and they were tight!

It rained as we began but after this little hike it stopped. ECV got her fill of climbing real quick. Every other step I had one or two kids yelling at me to take their picture.

The second tunnel was at the eye of the needle. Here is said eye of needle.

She made me retake her picture. Much better Cousin It.

Suddenly the little one cares how she looks. Killing me. Hats and blue light glasses instead of the googles and/or face shields I originally said. If anyone gets sick, I tried to tell them. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️