We had a lot of conversations at the beginning of the year about our family trip. Our list is long, and many of the places we knew wouldn't really be options this summer. So we narrowed it down to four. And then the next week the kids had narrowed it down to three. It took about a month for us to make a final decision. I would say our destination definitely wasn't our first choice or where I originally thought we'd go this summer, but it was on the list and somewhere we all wanted to visit. So we did.
South Dakota it was. Instead of doing a lot of driving this trip, I decided we would stay in the general area of southwestern South Dakota and see as much as we could there. Obviously Mt. Rushmore was at the top of the list and the whole reason we went. But here's what I'll say. It wasn't my favorite vacation. And if you've never been to Mt. Rushmore, you should totally go. But I'd include it on a road trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons.
We left super early to go to the airport, but no one minds when Chick-fil-A is for breakfast. We flew into Denver again and started driving. We got to drive through Nebraska, which was a new state to us. And, let me just tell you. There is NOTHING in Nebraska. Or at least on the western side of the state. I'm sure it's absolutely lovely. It is. But there was nothing, and it seemed like a long drive even though it only took about five hours to get to Rapid City.
At this point, we were VERY far away from the carving so, yes, it did look "small." I had also pictured it in my mind as being on the peak of a mountain. But that's really not the way it is. It's more like a flat ledge, and the carving is on the end of the ledge. Just like the Statue of Liberty, it was still really special. It quite amazing, really, especially when you see the pictures and exhibits and videos of how it was carved. Something I didn't know is that 90% of it was carved using dynamite. We spent most of the morning here. And since you can only appreciate so many Mt. Rushmore pics, here are just a few.
The Avenue of Flags is really neat. And, of course, I had to get a pic of the Georgia and Louisiana flags.
I'll admit I didn't really know very much Mt. Rushmore history prior to our visit. I knew the four Presidents. But I didn't know why.
We walked the trails and visited the museums.
And, of course, we had to stop in the gift shop to pick out a Christmas ornament to add to our tree this year. And everybody got to pick something. When I asked Mason why he chose the Abe Lincoln socks (as opposed to one of the other Presidents), he said because Abe was tall and skinny like him.
We spent the next part of the day exploring the little town of Keystone.
They had an alpine coaster down the side of the mountain that brought back such fond childhood memories for Seth of a trip to Gatlinburg that he insisted it would be the best part of the whole trip. I was very doubtful that one or two of them would make it up, much less back down. But they all did.
