We spent our first night in windy Rawlins. But the fun started out at Martin's Cove. No, we didn't walk back into the cove. It was chilly and Kendal wasn't feeling well. I think every missionary talked to us. They were very friendly.We climbed to the top of Independence Rock.
The second night we camped at the bottom of Devil's Tower and hiked around it the next morning.
This was our camping spot in South Dakota. It had a huge meadow where the kids flew kites and played baseball.
Of course, our first stop was Mt. Rushmore. We ended up going there 3 times. One of those times was for the evening patriotic program when they lit up the monunment.
We were able to see a blast at Crazy Horse. Way cool!
Here ia a picture of the lake that was in the movie "National Treasure 2." It was at this lake that our biggest adventure of our trip began.
We decided to hike Harney's Peak. The trailhead started at this lake. Harney's Peak is the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains and at the top of this mountain is a fire lookout. The trail is a total of 7 miles (3 1/2 up and 3 1/2 down). We were only about 1/2 mile into the hike when we got this view of it:
It took us 2 1/2 hours to get up it and 1 1/2 to get down. It was pretty tough and we were sore for a couple of days.
We drove out to Badlands National Park.
We visited the Minutemen Missile Site out in the middle of no where. But Brian's dad used to go out to South Dakota to service these when they were active. So it was a must stop for us.
We drove through Custer State Park and on the Needles Highway. The tunnels were very small.
This is the smallest tunnel with a width of 8'-4". We had to put the mirrors in on the truck and Bryce could reach out and touch the walls.
This is way they call it the Needles Highway:
The highlight was to see the burros. The kids thought they were fun.