Monday, August 10, 2015

Day 2- Hill Family Adventure 2015

Friday morning we began with breakfast at our lodge. The pancakes were amazingly fluffy and I had the veggie omlet with Hollandaise sauce. To die for!!!! Yum!

Next we drove the Needles highway to get to the Cathedral Sprire hiking trail. This was a mile hike in through the spires.












 For the most part it was up hill the whole way.











About half way in we realized there were wild raspberries all around us.


 The 2 cathedral spires were amazing. The kids climbed around and Stephen and I sketched the "Little Needle."



As we were hanging around about 5 deer came up. We were not quiet by any means but the didn't seem to mind. This hike was the highlight of our day.

We continued on down Needles highway to see the Big Needle. Again, breath taking views.




On to Crazy Horse Memorial. Along the drive we read "Who was Sitting Bull?" to learn more about the Indians, this area and their struggle. The dream of the sculptor was impressive but they have many, many more years of work to go. Unfortunately, we missed the blast by about 15 minutes.



We ate lunch in the car on the way to Wind Cave National Park. It was definitely an interesting cave and different from most any cave we had been to. The defining feature was the boxwork formation. There are only 2 other caves in the world with this type of formation.


Finally, we headed to the Mammoth site of Hot Springs. This place was truly a legit paleontological working site. It was a sink hole with a warm spring where mammoths and other animals would be drawn to, but they would slip in and not be able to get out. The number of skeletons were astonishing.





Dinner was at Wooley's next door and we headed home. Stephen and I enjoyed watching from the porch the bunnies have dinner and the Blue moon rise while the kids fell asleep.

It was a full day. The Black Hills of South Dakota have stolen our heart!


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