More driving than hiking and exploring today. So enjoy these selfies.

Today was Wind Cave National Park. Thanks to the GyPSy app we had heard about how a lot of it was discovered or mapped. It was neat to hear connecting stories that were long before it became a NP.

Tours are purchases same day while space is available. I had called to ask about reservations and learned the line starts at about 7:00 FPS the 8:00 opening. We arrived at 7:15 and already had about 10 groups ahead of us. The line got much longer by 8:00. We snagged the first tour for Fairgrounds at 9:40.

We did light exploring while waiting for the 9:30 meet up time

Of course.

It was chilly but nothing a light rain jacket couldn't fix.

Wind Cave has 95% of the world's boxwork. Delicate and intricate.

After all the heat we stopped by the infamous Wall Drug. Neat story!

The girls took a quick hike up a yellow mound at the overlook. Very few hikes in Badlands (it's just too hot) but lots of overlooks.

Overlook must.

We found number 18. All alone eating by the road.

Not many flowers but these little guys try to grow alongside the road.

The GyPSy app did a great job taking us through the park and teaching us history.

Check out those bands of color.

At the end we found yellow mounds. Just a small section of the park had this color.

Prairie dogs. So funny to drive by and see them standing up next to their holes.

The girl on HER trip. Hanging in the Badlands.

A picture Kevin took AFTER I asked what pictures he took for the Notch Trail descent. 🤣🥰

Notch trail is a 1.5 hot hike and this little ladder of fun is used for going up or down. The line was nuts going up so we opted to climb a rocks like experts. We did use this to go down. There were moments where you couldn't see the next rung. Everyone did a good job though.

Hot. We are hot.

You can see SKV in red, ECV in turquoise and Kevin with the dark green backpack.

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.