Wind Cave National Park and Mount Rushmore
347 miles, 6 hours
We left Cheyenne without seeing much of the city at all, unfortunately. We started our drive up the east side of Wyoming, and into South Dakota.
For hundreds of miles, we saw hundreds of billboards about "Wall Drug". We had no idea what was a "Wall Drug", but we'd figure it out eventually :-)
We spent the middle part of the day at our first of 19 National Parks that we would visit on this trip -- a gorgeous, understated Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.
While the magic of this park is below ground, with over 150 miles of mapped caves, the landscape above ground consists of thousands of acres of perfect prairie.
A huge herd of American bison were reintroduced to the park and roam freely.
We loaded Camille in the backpack, and ambitiously booked a cave tour. Everyone was a little intimidated about how this adventure might turn out :-) Above ground, though, Cami was in a fabulous mood. Daddy gave Cami a little flower to play with. She loves it :-)
Look closely, and you can see a "puff" stuck to Cami's butt :-)
The cave is 68 degrees. Which Mommy though would be too cold for Cami. So she dressed her in this adorable little pink suit.
Now...in the cave. Not one of our best moments :-( Had we been able to walk and move at our own pace, we would have been fine. In fact, as long as we were moving, Camille was happy. But that wasn't really how our tour was set up. It was an hour long, guided tour, that consisted of basically four different 15 minute stops, as the very knowledgeable tour guide talked to us about the cave. Camille was not entertained or amused. And she pretty much talked and chatted and screamed the entire time. Ugh.
Now, the highlight of the cave for Cami Mae, which she very much did enjoy, was walking up and down the stairs. She didn't want to be carried (see the backpack on Dustin's back). No, no, no. She had to do it herself. We must have made this trek up and down the stairs 5 times, while the tour guide talked to the rest of the group. The cutest part? Camille said, "Up, up, up" with every step :-)
An hour later, we're back in the sunlight, and there are more stairs. And what does Cami Mae want? To go, "up, up, up" of course!
If Camille has a "signature move", it would have to be this one. Ever since she learned to stand, Camille has been bending over and looking between her legs. It's absolutely, ridiculously adorable.
On our way driving out of the park, we drove through a field of hundreds of prairie dogs. Kim just loved these little guys. We pulled over and watched them for a few minutes, and took hundreds of pictures.
They're just so damn photogenic.
Leaving Wind Cave, we started heading toward Mount Rushmore. We drove through the spectacular Black Hills. While it was already closed for the evening, we could see the incomplete Crazy Horse memorial.
Four days into the trip, we've finally hit our stride traveling with a 1-year-old. The goal? To stop every 2-3 hours, and WEAR CAMILLE OUT! We managed to do that at Wind Cave, so much so that Camille fell asleep in her car seat, with her hand inside of her snack cup :-) Tell me that's not cute!
We made it to Mount Rushmore National Memorial just before dusk.
Having purchased a National Parks annual pass, we were quite disappointed that while admission to Mount Rushmore was free, parking was not. It was already late in the evening and Camille was asleep in her car seat. So we pulled over on the side of the road, shot a couple of pictures, and ticked Mount Rushmore off of our list.
Now, after seeing signs for "Wall Drug" across three states, we finally made it to Wall, South Dakota. We spent that night in another cozy little cabin.
Our trip, in general, consisted of a number of quite predictable routines. One of Camille's favorite routines was her regular exploration of each night's lodging. We were quite impressed with how "child proofed" most hotel rooms are. Cami was always ready to stretch her legs and run around the room. She would find the telephone and pick it up, and start pressing buttons. So we'd unplug it from the wall while she played with it. She would then find the refrigerator and the closet, opening and closing the doors a bunch of times. And then play with the garbage can, putting a bunch of stuff in it, and then taking it out again. Pretty much every night :-)
After our experience trying to eat out at a restaurant the previous night, we would find ourselves cooking on a little camping gas stove most nights. Dustin would typically handle cooking dinner while Kim bathed and fed and bedded Cami Mae.
:-Dustin
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