Wide Open Spaces, Wildlife & Mount Rushmore

Monday and Tuesday were fun, hot, and very busy days.  This post will include both days so I can catch up on the blogs. The temperatures here remain in the very high 80s to mid 90s.  I think we saw 95 yesterday. Now that's getting to be a little much!  Despite that, we've put on about 300 miles in the past 2 days and I've survived.  :)

We turned right around and did a second loop through Custer State Park and the Needles Highway on Monday.  We absolutely love the wide open spaces and beauty of it all.  Went to one of the Iakes in the park, scouted out a few campgrounds, drove to Hill City for dinner and came home around 10:00 pm pooped.  

On Tuesday we headed south and drove through Wind Cave National Park towards Hot Springs.  We saw a huge herd of buffalo on the way.  That's what I wanted to see!  Then just down the road a bit we saw a coyote.  He was quite close to the road and we got a great look but no pictures. Just not fast enough.  Lots of pronghorn antelope today and of course, a stop at Prairie Dog Town.  It was so hot in Hot Springs we decided to do something inside. We had been told a few times to make sure we went to the Mammoth Site. Sounded a little odd to me but I was up for anything to be cool. What a pleasant surprise.  It's a  site (actually a sinkhole) where they have found the remains of 62 mammoths (and other animals) from late in the ice age 26,000 years ago!  It's an active dig and world renowned. Who knew? We both thought it was very interesting.

Our next stop was Mount Rushmore.  We saw it in 2005 but never got to see it at night. That was another thing I really wanted to do and it sure didn't disappoint.  Very patriotic, moving and beautiful.  What an awesome country we live in...

Happy trails.