Last week Bryan and I took a weekend trip to Mt. Rushmore to celebrate my birthday.
It was on our bucket list of places to visit in the U.S. and it was only a 9 hr 45 min drive from Salt Lake City.
Before starting our trek, we stopped by the new Draper aquarium for my company's summer party. It was pretty fun!
We saw penguins and piranhas (not in the same exhibit) and got to pet sea stars.
I also took some necessary pics behind some shark jaws.
(...Although it looks more like I've been startled while playing the organ.)
After a couple hours, we headed eastward toward bounteous Wyoming.
We drove for about 5 hours until we finally stopped to make camp just off the freeway.
Bryan set up our tent while I tried to find a secluded place to tinkle.
The next morning, waking up surprisingly refreshed, we heard someone moving outside our tent.
We poked our heads out of the tent like prairie dogs and there was a guy all suited up and ready to go for a bike ride. Bryan asked him if he had stayed the night too. He said yes and when Bry asked him where he slept, he pointed to the very same dirt mound I had done business at the night before.
I was mortified. He left before I could apologize.
So Mr. biker, if you're reading this, I am sorry, but in my defense
you probably should have spoken up!
We quickly packed up and continued on our trek. We didn't reach Wolf Camp, which was our final destination until about 5:00 pm. I was pretty tired. We had a little shed all to ourselves!
(Here's a tour of our shed.)
That night we drove through Iron Mountain Roadway to get to Mt. Rushmore. It was pretty picturesque. The tunnels you drive through frame the faces of Mt. Rushmore.
We finally arrived at Mt. Rushmore. We walked around the visitors center and made our way out to the outside amphitheater. Once it got dark, they started a thoroughly patriotic movie about 'Merica. Then they ended it by asking all service men and women to make their way down to the stage. There were probably 300 people who went down and the national ranger/host had them tell the audience their name and division. It took forever.
It finally ended and we decided to drive to the tourist area and buy some Subway sandwiches. We're adventurous like that. Then when we got back to Wolf Camp, Bry took out his new telescope he got for his birthday, but it was too foggy to see any stars.
Bryan: This is where I'll pick up the story. After unsuccessfully trying to see some stars we went to bed in our shack ready for a full day the next day. We woke up bright and early and being the prepared souls that we are, I whipped up a nice elaborate skillet breakfast using our camping stove and still cold foods from the cooler full of ice that I brought along. (I learned vacationing from the best, thanks parents) After we got the food all cleaned up and ready for the day we went back to the Mount Rushmore monument to get up close and personal with the four heads. We hiked up to the base of the monument, toured the museums of how it was carved, and even poked our head into a tee pee for a spell. 
After we felt thoroughly convinced that we had seen all that those four presidents had to offer we meandered down to the little town of Keystone. There we found the Red Garter Saloon and got us some meat and sarsaparilla, also got to witness us a real live mock-gun fight.
After feeling completely cowboy-ed out for the day off we went into the famous Black Hills Forest. We found our car winding in and out of trees, up and down hills, and through cut rock tunnels until we wound up on the famous Needles Highway. It was spectacular. We even got to drive the car through the famous Crack in the Rock.
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| I just had to pop this picture in, my wife's a babe. |
On the other side of the Needles Highway lies the Crazy Horse Monument. If you think Mount Rushmore is big, than you've got a surprise waiting for you at this monument. The Crazy Horse Monument was ginormous! We both really loved the history in the museum and what the monument stands for, we even got to participate in a ritual grass-stomping dance with a Native of the local Lakota Tribe.
On our way home we stopped for pizza and got to see the in-the-flesh Flintstones Theme Park! If you are in the area of Custer, make sure to stop in and see this marvel.
We got home late and went to bed in the shack, too worn out to much think of doing much else. In the morning we knew we had a long drive in front of us so we went and gave one final goodbye to the wolves of Wolf Camp and then we were on our way.
I had read that there was a nifty cave in the area that the National Rangers will take you down into if you show up on time so I had scheduled everything down to a T. My plans worked. We showed up at Jewel Cave, got our highly sought after tickets to the Gas-Lamp tour, and made our way over to the Old Ranger Station near the entrance of the cave. Waiting there for us was the most authentic National Parks Ranger we've ever met, if Yogi Bear would've seen him he would've turned tail and run. He had the puff-kneed pants, socks, and wide brimmed hat. We set ablaze our kerosene-lamps and set off down the mouth of the cave. Long-eared bats flitted past us as we ventured further and further into the cave. There were parts where I was afraid we weren't going to fit through but fit we did with what probably looked like some improvised yoga poses.
At the end of the cave was a big room called the Heavenly Room, in it was a rock formation that looked like the famous sculpture "Madonna and Child." That was Ally's favorite part.
After that we headed back out and made it back to our car for the long ride home through nothing Wyoming.
