South Dakota - Day 3

We started our day with a visit to Bear Country USA.  We were a little unsure how this would all work - would we see animals?  Would we be able to get close enough? Was it worth the money?  It ended up being a major hit and was a great place to visit.  There were elk, wolves, big horn sheep, bison, and SO. MANY. BEARS. in this drive-thru style park.  They had all just been fed when we arrived, so we saw the elk all gathered and sparring a bit, wolves chomping on steak, and adorable bears so close to our car napping, eating apples, scratching and just doing cute bear things.  

Once we finished the drive-thru area, there was more to see!  There was an educational area with information about different kinds of bears.  There were teeny baby wolf pups that were sleeping and snuggling.  There were many small animals like raccoons, bobcats, woodchucks, and foxes.  But the highlight of that area was the adorable bear cubs.  Their little growls and squawks were so sweet and it was adorable watching them climb and wrestle.  We definitely see our kids wrestle like that sometimes!  They were just so cute!

Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids some money to spend on a special souvenir and Olivia and Simon both found sweet little stuffies to bring home with them: Barry Bear and Mia Fox.  

Bear Country was right on the way to Mount Rushmore, so we decided to keep going and see this iconic site.  As I kid, I remember being disappointed by Mount Rushmore.  I think I expected it to be bigger and take up the entire mountain.  This time I was in awe.  I'm not sure if it was a perspective shift or a better viewing area or what, but it was very impressive and so much bigger than I remembered.  

It was here that I remembered the National Park Junior Ranger program, and was able to request the books from the ranger station.  The kids worked hard on the books, learning lots of cool facts about Mount Rushmore as they went.  When the completed them, they got a certificate and their first Junior Ranger badge as an amazing souvenir.  I think we'll have to try to collect these!

After they received Junior Ranger status, we decided to walk the Presidential Trail which went down right in the front of the mountain.   There were some spectacular views of the monument along this trail and it was fun to see it from a different perspective.  Overall, Mount Rushmore definitely exceeded my expectations and ended up being a really cool place for us to visit!

Our final stop of the day was Dinosaur Park in Rapid City.  This was a free stop that was recommended on some travel blogs and it was a great stop for the end of the day.  There were several life-sized dinosaurs and a spectacular view of the city, but the kids really enjoyed the gift shop.  Nolan found some special rocks that he had been hoping to find to spend his souvenir money.  They also had ice cream, so we enjoyed a few scoops before going back to our house for the evening.  All in all, it was a wonderful, though action-packed, day!