Custer State Park in South Dakota. A quiet drive through grasslands and small forests with lots and lots of deer and antelope and even a wild burro with her baby. Yellowstone is beautiful, but I'm not sure I recommend going in the heart of summer with the crowds. This was a nice change. We drove along Iron Mountain Road which is supposed to be one of America's greatest highways. Several small rock tunnels, lots of twists and turns and views of Mt. Rushmore in the distance. Arriving at Mt. Rushmore we were all surprised at how close it actually is. We've all heard that you cant see anything unless you look into the binoculars, but that's totally wrong. Its really quite close. Really cool to finally see. Took a hike around the presidential trail and at vanilla ice cream that was the first ice cream recipe documented, created by Thomas Jefferson. Best ice cream ever! As the crowds were closing in, we headed out, North.
South Dakota is a bigger state than I thought. Drove all the way to North Dakota straight up. Fields, straight roads, not much else, groups of cows every now and then. We did pass the highest point in North Dakota, White Mountain at 3500 ish feet. Only mountain for miles. Neat.
Pulled into Medora, ND around 5:30. Checked into the Rough Riders Hotel where Teddy Roosevelt stayed for quite some time before he was president. He came to hunt buffalo. Later created a national park here in the badlands. Trapper Jack decided that we should drive through in the evening. There would be more wildlife. He was right. Cities of prairie dogs scurrying everywhere. Antelope, buffalo, white tail deer, a BADGER (first time ever seeing one), wild ponies. We watched two young buffalo chase each other around the hills for a good 20 minutes. They were adorable.
Had a great dinner at Teddy's restaurant and fell into bed. Today we go back down. Next stop, South Dakota again. More fields and cows for lots of hours.
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