The Black Hills of Mount Rushmore (Monday, June 13th)

Pretty much the whole time we were in South Dakota, I had a song from Calamity Jane stuck in my head—watching Calamity Jane is how I learned most of my "Western" history as a child. In the movie, Doris Day, who plays Calamity, sings The Black Hills of Dakota. Unfortunately I only know the first few lines so every now and then I kept belting out, "Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota, to that beautiful Indian country that I love!"

This was my second time in the Black Hills, so the song was fitting since, there I was, back in the Black Hills of Dakota—I visited Mount Rushmore once before with my mom and Josie in 2004, I believe, though I'm not sure that I have any pictures to prove it. 

Spelunking (Monday, June 13th)

Driving out to Mount Rushmore is kind of humorous. There are loads of random things to do, just off the side of the highway to lure tourists in. We fell for a couple of them: Bear Country and Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns. We ignored Reptile World, and some eerie gravitational/magnetic spot, among other things.

Going down inside the cave was neat. I haven't been that deep inside a cave in years...or ever. I'm not sure. I know that when I was really little—not much older than Rachel—my family went to Timpanogos Caves and I cried because I didn't get dripped on, which our guide then said was good luck. Our guide through Crystal Caverns called them a "cave kiss." I'm sure Rachel will remember the cave—she thought it looked like it was covered in diamonds and wondered if she could move in and have it be her castle (in the two minutes that she decided to be brave instead of clingy and terrified).

Rachel did much better than when we went through Hezekiah's Tunnel, that's for sure! She only screamed a few times instead of continuously wailing. She must be growing up.

There wasn't much in the way of stalactite and stalagmite, but there was a whole lot of dogtooth spar, which is what brings the Crystal Caverns both their name and fame.

Bear Country, South Dakota (Monday, June 13th)

Our first stop of the day was Bear Country. Rachel was pretty excited about this; she still remembers the trip we took to Bear World last year (most importantly that she got to kneel on her car seat instead of sitting down, buckled up) and she was excited to see the animals again (and most importantly to kneel on her chair so that she can see out the window—we live life on the edge...when we're going 2 miles per hour).

I was quite impressed with Bear Country. We saw many, much elk up close and personal.