We had a wonderful, super busy first day, but the next day was even better! First we started off the day by going to the Wind Cave in South Dakota. It is that 5th largest cave in the world. The tour was an hour and ten minutes and about 1/2 mile walk through the cave.
The tiny hole that is largest known outside entrance into the cave. It is just big enough for me to squeeze though pre-pregnancy. Now, I'm not so sure. Just around the corner is where we entered the cave through a revolving door, going down maybe 50 steps to the inside of the cave.
We are "listening" to the tour guide. He repeated himself over and over again. It didn't help that everyone was asking the same questions. What was an hour tour could have been a 20 minute activity.
Here is the path that we went on. There weren't many huge open areas where we could gather as a group. Most of the time we were walking single file through the cave.
Olivia hated being the backpack because the tour guide would ramble on for 15 minutes at a time and she would get so bored she would just scream. So we took her out and would walk up and down the path.
Then Olivia started screaming for about 10 minutes. We stuffed an empty bottle in her mouth because we couldn't have any food in the cave and within minutes, she was out.
One thing that the cave is famous for is their Boxwork. This picture doesn't show it very well, but google it. The pictures are neat.
And this is finally the end of the cave. It was really cool to go through and see the natural formations, but it would have been better if Olivia was asleep the entire time and the tour guide wasn't so boring. I highly recommend anyone going to South Dakota to check it out.
After the cave, we went to climb the highest peak in South Dakota: Harney Peak.
The elevation is a little over 7200 feet and the hike is less than 7 miles round trip. It was so easy, I would even like my 5-year-old do it. I could have probably taken my jogging stroller up most of the way.
Before we started, we had lunch at Sylvan Lake. Since it was so windy, we ate lunch by the toilets instead of the picnic benches overlooking the lake.
And for those unbelievers out there, here is the close up picture of me eating in front of the toilets.
The hike started out ridiculously simple. The sign at the beginning of the trail said that it was 6-miles round trip and that we should allow 4-5 hours for the hike. Well, it was 1:30 and we needed to get to Mt Rushmore, 25 minutes away, before 5:00 so that we could get our passport stamped before the visitors center closed. That gave us less than 3 hours to hike.
This is about 1/2 mile in. Over the rocks that we are standing on is a huge valley. Our goal was to get to the other side where you see the peak in the background. It looks a lot father away that it was.
At the very top, there is a mini-castle. There is Olivia on Papa's back!
And here is the view from the top.
Proof that we were all there together
What should have been a 5-hour hike turned out to be 2 1/2 hours. If we all went Chris' pace, we would have been done in an hour. We had a little less than an hour to get to Mt Rushmore before the visitor center closed.
These guys were just chillin' on the side of the road.
We didn't make it before 5. In fact, we went to Mt Rushmore 3 times on our trip. We saw it Thursday just after 5, then we wanted to see it when the lights were turned on, so we ate dinner and came back that night, then we went back the next day to get our passport stamped.
Olivia loved it!
Her favorite part was crawling around everywhere!
Even at night, Olivia just wanted to walk around everywhere. She didn't even want to pose for the picture.
That was day 2!
This picture is for part 3, but I loaded it to this post by accident.
That's all! Stay tuned.
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