Thankfully the rest of our trip was not as bumpy as the first part.
Not smooth but definitely not crazy.
We left the Badlands and promptly needed to find somewhere to dump our black tanks. We were dry camping (no water in tanks) but using the bathroom when needed and the last spot had no other bathroom.
Seven people for three days is apparently the max with no other bathroom choice.
And we needed a new tongue jack.
Thankfully we were able to find a place for both of those before heading into the Black Hills.
We stayed at a National Forest Campground and it was beautiful!
And most importantly had a bathroom (just a vault toilet, most places did not have water on).
Tons of wildlife, a lake, and near these guys…
I did not even have to bribe them to get these smiles!
They were surprisingly excited about seeing Mount Rushmore!
I quickly realized that this was a one stop place though. We did everything including watching all the movies on the making of (my daughters favorite part, they loved feeling like they were in a theater, something I avoid doing with them normally) in one visit.
So the next day we did the Little Devil’s Tower hike in Custer State Park.
I thought my kids would like the possible climbing part and foolishly thought I could do “the easy part” and wait for them.
Instead I tried to kill myself to get pictures of the beautiful views.
I stopped to “enjoy” the view often because I could not breathe though.
It started going uphill and then it ended in a scramble to the top.
And I did it because I wanted the shot!
I will forgive all the rest of my family for saying they were not really sore the next day when I could not use my arms or legs without groaning in pain.
This kid in the above pic was the worst, flew up like it was no problem.
But then on the way back down to the vehicle he asked if he could go ahead, I confirmed that he knew the way, reminded myself that he is growing up and said okay stay within hearing.
I did not think much more of it until we were almost back to the vehicle and he runs up from BEHIND us…
I thought he was in the front.
He said he took a wrong turn and had to run to catch up!
Never going to trust the whole he is getting older thing again.
Lies!
He will hold my hand from now on.
