In April Daniel and I went to Glenwood Springs. In the beginning of June I went to
Minnesota and for the 4th of July we went to South Dakota. On top of that we try and hike a
new spot of Colorado every weekend even with the wild fires making hiking
trails inaccessible. So far it has
been a good adult summer on a budget.
I call it an adult summer because I miss my school day summers of not
having to work at all or even only working part time! Daniel had never been to Mount Rushmore so I told him we had to go, I mean everyone really must see Mount Rushmore; it is sort of a rite of passage to being an American. It was an easy summer trip on a budget because we could drive and South Dakota vacationing is much cheaper than Colorado resort vacationing. You would think ski resort lodging would go down in the summer time because there is NO SKIING… well not in the places we wanted to go.
Even though South Dakota had wild fire issues of their own Custer National Park was a green oasis compared to the dry brown of Colorado. We had just seen Snow White and the Huntsman and hiking Custer- I thought I had stepped on the fairyland set of that movie, it was beautiful. Moss covered granite rocks, clear streams and long green grasses with purple flowers, not to mention the prancing deer and massive buffalos.
We saw Mount Rushmore actually on the fourth of July, the
perfect patriotic activity. Then
there is the less known gem of South Dakota: Wall Drug. You do not hear of Wall Drug until you
get to South Dakota and then especially driving in the direction of Wall Drug
you get bombarded with billiards.
If it wasn’t already a stop along your way to the Badlands it will be
after a billboard every half mile with ads like “Homemade Ice cream at WALL
DRUG”, “Cowboy Décor at WALL DRUG”,
“Free Ice Water at WALL DRUG”,
“Donuts and 5 cent Coffee at WALL DRUG”, “Six Foot Rabbit at WALL DRUG”, “Cowboy Boots and Moccasins
at WALL DRUG” “Hungry Dinosaur at
WALL DRUG” , “Homemade Pie at WALL DRUG”, and on and on. And I’ll just say it was everything we dreamed it would be. Seriously though, I would highly recommend Wall Drug over
Deadwood. Deadwood is such a
tourist trap it is unbearable.
Everything costs money including parking (which is unheard in the rest
of South Dakota). Even to see Wild
Bill Hickok’s grave costs money, which I find deplorable. In Glenwood Springs you walk the
original winding path to Doc Holiday’s grave and visit an awesome old cemetery
for FREE even for parking at the bottom of the hill! I guess we are spoiled by the awesome old west town casinos
in good old CO where not only parking is free but so is all the alcohol.
We brought Gollum with us everywhere including in the car to
Bear Country USA! He could have
snuck right in with the baby black bears and no one would have known the
difference. He was very
proud of himself barking at the huge bears from inside the locked and closed up
car.
The last little gem we saw in SD was THE CHAPEL IN THE
HILLS. This is an amazing wood
carved church, the exact replica of a Borgund
Stavkirke of Laerdal, a church built in Norway. I’m not that religious but the wood
carving and craftsmanship was just breathtaking. I said to Daniel “OK next trip is to NORWAY!”
