Day 5 started out with me heading to my class and the kids going to the general store to pick out their bribery prizes. They had wanted to go the previous night but it was closed when they walked over there. :( They picked out some cute new animals!
The kids went to another nature class at the center and had a fun time. It was not a bad way to kill a morning, especially as a single parent a la Scott.
When I returned from my class, we loaded up and headed back to Keystone for our UTV side by side rental starting at 12:30. We were really looking forward to this day!
We made a quick stop at DQ for lunch and treats and then got everything set for our rental. It was during this morning that Anna felt hot to the touch and was being super cranky. We gave her some medicine but knew we were on thin ice and hoped she would still be a good sport during the ride.
The rental place gave us some tips on good trails and we spent the time exploring, doing a little hiking, and just having fun in the utv!
The tour guides told us about this shut down trail that led to a waterfall but we just weren't having fun hiking on this day. I had to carry the Anna the entire time and it was too much complaining from others so we didn't make it to the waterfall. I figured what was the point if we weren't having fun, I wasn't going to force it. It was still nice to stretch our legs for a bit in the woods-beautiful!
The girls loved finding the super glittery mica rocks on the trail!
We saw a few deer and a wild turkey!
Anna was doing great on the trail until we hit pavement and she had to put her helmet back on. Then it was full on freak out crying for at least 20 minutes until we made it back to the rental place. We had hoped to do a little more exploring but we knew our time had run out.
Driving through Keystone on the way home we stopped at Rushmore Tramway adventures for a quick alpine slide ride for Scott and Michael. I opted to stay back in the car with the girls and watch a movie, it was actually a pretty nice break.
Mount Rushmore sighting!
We took the Iron Mountain Road back to the cabin. The UTV rental owners actually recommended this to us to drive through on the UTV but we knew we didn't have enough time. It is a really fun road and I'm glad we did it as we didn't do it last time we visited. The tunnels framing Mt. Rushmore were awesome even though they 100% did not turn out on either my iphone or Olympus (if only I'd had my real camera!). I gave up trying when I almost got run over trying to walk through the tunnel to get a good shot-whoops!
We did a quick stop at the Peter Norbeck lookout and saw another gorgeous view of Mt. Rushmore. It really is the star of the Black Hills!
We also had a surprise visitor on the way back to Custer-do you spy him? This was one of my favorite moments, when I saw the car ahead of us slow down I said, "please be a buffalo traffic jam!!" And it was!
This was a funny night as the girls fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep through the night after our rental. Scott and Michael went up to the lodge for a beer and Shirley Temple while I did some homework and studying. It was really nice!
Stayed tuned for Day 6 where we explore Legion Lake at Custer State Park.
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