Mt. Rushmore & South Dakota hill country - July 8-11, 2021

July 8th we headed out of town for a quick 4 day road trip to South Dakota to meet up with Ward and Sherry who drove their RV from Montana.

The girls were excited to cross off another state they had never been to.  South Dakota was also a new state for me. I am now down to only 7 states I have not been to.

We stayed at Palmer Gulch KOA which is only 6 miles from Mr. Rushmore in South Dakota hill county.  I had no idea what South Dakota would look like and we were all pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it was.  

After traveling all day on Thursday we had dinner at the RV and the kids went swimming.

We rented a cute little cabin with 2 sets of bunk beds. 

The girls thought it was super fun to sleep in sleeping bags and in bunk beds.

After this trip, I have decided that I'm too old not to have access to a bathroom in the middle of the night. 

We had intended to go to Mt. Rushmore on Friday (July 9) but Anikka woke up not feeling great. 

I stayed with her in the RV and James, his parents and Elin went to tour Custer State park. Their pictures look great and they saw a huge heard of 1000 buffalo.

Luckily, Anikka's stomach issues went away quickly after a little sleep and by the afternoon she was feeling much better.

So after a short break we all loaded up in the car and went to Bear Country which is kind of like a zoo that you drive through. Their are lots of animals around....including bears.

The next day we went to Mt. Rushmore for most of the morning.  

In the afternoon we drove the Iron Mountain road which had great views of Mt Rushmore. 

For dinner we had reservations for a chuck wagon dinner at the KOA campsite.  We rode on a horse drawn wagon

to a beautiful clearing in a field where we were served steak, beans and potatoes all cooked over a wood fire.

We were also treated to a cowboy singing and comedy show.

After riding back to the campsite on the wagons the girls did a little panning for rocks

then we enjoyed s'mores by the campfire.

Sunday we packed up and headed back home with a quick detour at Wind Cave National Park.  

 

We didn't know that we would have to reserve a tour to actually see the caves, so we weren't able to wait around and passed on through after getting a stamp in our passport books.   8 + hours later...we were home.

This was kind of a long drive for just a few days in South Dakota, but the hill country was so beautiful and we were happy to share Mt. Rushmore with our girls.

Maija