Sunday, July 7, 2019

Day 3 {South Dakota -- Bear Country, Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park}

Wow! What a day!! 
This was probably my most favorite day of our trip. 
We woke up to a little fog so we decided to do Bear Country first and then Mount Rushmore. 
We wanted to be sure we would see the faces! 
We enjoyed our morning coffee on the front of our tent and took showers while Addy was obsessed with her earring purchase!


The girls and I bought these shirts before our trip! 
We received SO MANY compliments throughout the day. 

We headed off to Bear Country. It was AMAZING!! 
It's a little drive through park where the animals roam free and literally walk up to your car. 
The bears were RIGHT THERE!!! 
We loved it!








I pretty much fell in love with the bear cubs. 
I could have watched them all day. I asked the keepers a few times if we could hold them and they looked at me like I had 2 heads. They were SO CUTE!!!



The girls had their caricature done too! Addy's earrings kill me! Haha!!

We stopped and took a few photos at a little pull off on the way to Mount Rushmore. 
This is my new favorite family picture. 


Next up was Mount Rushmore. 
It truly is breathtaking. 
When we asked everyone their favorite part of the trip, Addy said "The four faces"
We walked as close as we could. 









While my mom, Addy and I hit the gift shop...John, Ava and Tracy went hiking and exploring further. 






After Rushmore, we went to lunch and did a little shopping and then decided to head to Custer State Park. This was Ava's favorite part of the trip. 
I did love it when we got there but the way there was crazy! 
I put it in the GPS and it took us on this crazy rode! 
We found out later it was called Needles Highway and is one of the craziest roads in America. 
We found another way back. Ha! 
To add fuel to the fire, it was torrentially down pouring and started to hail. 
We also heard these tunnels line up perfectly to view Mount Rushmore. As you can see, we have no way to confirm that. Ha!

We arrived at Custer (safely) and were afraid we would be disappointed. 
We saw nothing for a very long time. 
Then we received a tip to go off-roading and it was worth it!! 

There were so many buffalo! 
Mamas and babies.
The babies were crazy rambunctious. So cute!



Against my wishes, John opened the moon roof and let the girls hang out the top. 
I'm crazy about safety but the girls loved it!! 




 It was so awesome!! 
The girls saw the buffalo's poop which was also a disgusting highlight. 
John and I were secretly grateful there wasn't any mating. 

We went back to town and had dinner and then decided to spend some time at the campground. 
We could have definitely have stayed longer. 
We enjoyed smores at the fire and a mean game of Go Fish! 
We stayed out on the desk to watch Mount Rushmore light up at night. 
It doesn't show in the pictures but was very cool! 




The arrow shows Mount Rushmore! Ha!

Another fantastic day! 

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Happy Birthday, Grandma Ballmer!