Summer Vacation: South Dakota Style

On July 30th we packed up the car and headed toward South Dakota for our week long family vacation.  The first day we drove about 6 hours to Sioux Falls, SD and stayed the night.  We drove the rest of the way to Lead, SD the next day where we had rented a condo up in the mountains. 

On August 1st, we took a train ride on an authentic 1800's train that went from Hill City to Keystone and back.  The boys loved riding on a train as they are very interested in playing trains and spend hours in the basement playing with their Geo Trax train set. 

Later that day we made our way to Custer State Park where we drove on Needles Highway and did the wildlife loop and saw many different animals including a large herd of buffalo. 

August 2nd we met up with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Patty and made a quick stop to see Mt. Rushmore where we had lunch. 

Then we went for a hike... a very long hike.  We hiked up to the top of Harney's Peak, at an elevation of 7,244 feet. It was 7 miles round trip.  The boys did really well, Sutton had to be carried a bit on the way up and on the way down.  Easton got tired on the way down and got a little help.  But overall they were troopers and did awesome.  We saw an original watch tower at the top of the peak where they used to watch for forest fires. 

After hiking to the top the boys then took a swim in Lake Sylvan.

August 3rd, we decided to head to an indoor waterpark to let the boys swim.  We were having a blast when Easton hit his forehead and had a gash big enough that we needed to head to the ER.  Poor guy did really well, and he gets the award for first kid in the family to need stitches. 

After stitches we made our way to a place called Bear Country USA.  It is a wildlife park where you can't get out of your car.  We saw wolves, caribou, and many bears.  At the end there is a place to park and go look at all the new babies. 

August 4th, we went to The Broken Boot Gold Mine and took a tour into the mine where they used to mine gold.  At the end we panned for gold and everyone got a little vial with some gold flakes in it. 

Then we headed to The Reptile Gardens where we saw a Bald Eagle, many lizards, tortoises and crocodiles and alligators.  We even got to pet a baby crocodile. 

We then went to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum where we got to see many military planes and climb on a few of them. 

We left Lead on August 5th and decided to stop at Wall Drug on our way home, just so we could say we've been there.  We got our old fashioned picture taken and bought rubber band guns (mistake).  We stopped once again in Sioux Falls on the way home and this time stayed at a great hotel with an indoor water park area.

We drove through Minnesota and headed south to get home on Friday August 6th.  It was a long driving vacation and we drove 2,300 miles!  Boys did great riding in the car and we had a lot of fun.