The Black Hills was one of my favorite stops on this trip. We arrived too late to do anything on Wednesday but spent Thursday seeing the sights. Our first stop was to Bear Country USA. This was one of those parks where you drive your car through and the animals roam around your car. There were other animals besides bears, but the bears were our favorite!
The babies were especially fun to see!
From there, we went to Mt. Rushmore. We had never been before (that we can remember) and it was quite a sight! Lillian fell asleep on the way there and slept the entire time of our visit.
In the evening we went to the Circle B Ranch for a Chuckwagon dinner. This was fabulous. They encouraged us to arrive about 1 1/2 hours before dinner and we spent that time panning for gems, riding ponies, shooting pistols, and playing on the playground. Right before dinner, there was a gunfight between the owner of the Ranch and the Biscuit Bandit. All the children were invited to help catch the bandit. After giving a pep talk, they all took off to hunt him down. They hadn't gone very far around the edge of the building when they ran right into him and he shot his gun up into the air. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of it, but Alaina lost her flip flop so as the children all came running back, she was by herself at the rear of the pack. She came tearing around the corner with the bandit right on her heels! The look on her face was priceless! Once she was out of the way, a gunfight pursued. They did it in such a way to make sure the children knew it was all pretend (the bandit was told that he was shot and he should be lying down). After the gunfight, we had a cowboy meal with all the fixin's and we were treated to live entertainment. I would highly recommend this ranch if you are ever in the area. The owners not only prepared the meal, they were the entertainment as well, and they did an excellent job in all areas.
The second gentleman owned the ranch. The third and fourth are his two sons.
They sang Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and the likes.
You would think that would be enough for a packed full day, but no, during the very last song of the show, Lillian took a dive off of a picnic bench and managed to put a half inch cut into her forehead. Mom and Rebekah dropped everyone else off back at the campground and then we headed to Custer to the emergency room. She was able to be glued back together instead of stitches and it only took us one hour and fifteen minutes from start to finish at the emergency room. (They apologized that it took so long, but that was the shortest emergency room visit that I've ever experienced! They even had two ambulances arrive while we were there.)
On our way out this morning we drove along the Needles Hwy through Custer State Park. This was a treat with rock formations that were very similar to some in Arches National Park. In addition to the rocks, we were also treated to many wildlife sightings, one being three buffalo. At first we thought they were statues and it took us all a minute to realize what we were really seeing. It was quite a fun way to end our time in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Keri
No comments:
Post a Comment