Mount Rushmore, Round 2

When we first went to Mount Rushmore in May 2009, we expected to see it once, check it off the bucket list, and never see it again. I had expected to be awed at Lady Liberty, but she was much smaller and not nearly as inspiring as I expected her to be. (I blame all the movies that make her look enormous.) I had no desire to ever go back. So I assumed Rushmore would be the same.

Both Samuel and I were surprised at how much we loved Mount Rushmore that first time around. "We should come back again," Sam said as we drove away. I wholeheartedly agreed. And so, two years later, we went back. Rushmore happened to be right between Badlands and Wind Cave National Parks, so we were lucky to hit it in the middle of our road trip.

MAY 2009 - JULY 2011

MAY 2009 - JULY 2011

ps. I hate every one of you for not telling me that I looked like a mushroom head with that short haircut. I look so dumb.

The Queen of Road Trips

I think I can officially dub myself Queen of Road Trips. Poor Sam. The guy didn't know what he was getting himself into when he married me. Family reunion in southern Alberta, Canada? Perfect!  We'll go home via North Dakota and hit four national parks in the loop!  Why is it that that makes no sense to anyone but me?

A/H-home, B-Glacier, C-Cardston, Alberta, D-Theodore Roosevelt, E-Badlands, F-Rushmore, G-Wind Cave

CLICK HERE to see a map of all the National Parks. Those we've visited are in red (17 of 56).

Glacier National Park

Sam and I don't agree on everything, but one thing we do agree on is that of all the national parks we've visited so far, Glacier is, hands-down, our very favorite. Where else can my entire family fit inside a tree? Or find a giant tree nose? Or stand on five feet of hanging roots?  Or have a black bear wander right through our campsite just before we arrive? (They tell us that only after we set up our tent...) These glacial-carved valleys and rugged peaks are absolutely idyllic.  It if weren't for the way-too-friendly bears, we'd move here.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

In 1883 Theodore Roosevelt arrived in North Dakota to hunt buffalo. He fell in love with the area and soon began a ranch and built himself a "mansion." Three separate rooms! (The living room, kitchen, and bedroom.) Plus a loft for his ranch hands! Man, if he could see my place now, he'd think I was a billionaire. We have indoor plumbing. HA. You can see his "mansion" in the middle picture below. Teddy's experiences in this area led to his conservationist policies as president. He's also the only person who has a national park named after him.

Badlands National Park

The Sioux called it "mako shika" or "no good land." A frontier soldier called it "hell with fires put out." Today we call it Badlands. Because the land is bad. Bad for crossing in wagons, bad for building on, bad for ranching, and bad for farming. Theodore Roosevelt (our resident expert on all things Dakota) said the badlands were "so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth."

But seriously, he's right. I've been to Canyonlands. Arches. Bryce. Zions. Grand Canyon. Painted Desert. And I ain't never seen nothing like this.

Wind Cave National Park

You have to be an amateur genius to figure out why this cave system is called Wind Cave. I'm gonna ruin the secret for you, so stop reading here if you don't want the spoiler ... It's windy. Phew. Tough one, I know. Wind Cave is unique because of the abundance of the rare cave formation called boxwork (it's the stuff that looks like honeycomb). Apparently 95% of boxwork found in caves is inside Wind Cave. The cave is also unique because about 50 feet beneath it is a giant reservoir of water that is-by astronomical proportions-the purest water on earth. So pure that they don't dare send divers in because their most sanitary stuff would contaminate it.

My favorite story about Wind Cave, though, is about the 17 year-old boy who first entered and mapped out the cave. Alvin McDonald spent several hours every single day exploring the cave with a homemade lantern fashioned out of a bucket and a candle. (Creepy.) After a couple years he began giving cave tours, and during their half hour lunch breaks, Alvin would wander off searching new holes. Several times he forgot about his group, and once he actually went home for dinner, only remembering his group when his father asked how the tour had gone. He went down there and found them singing hymns, trying to keep from going crazy. I'm surprised they didn't kill him.

Top left: The single natural cave entrance.

Top right: Us with Aunt Catie & Uncle Steve, and their granddaughters Dakota and Kiera.

We just happened to run into them at the Visitor's Center. They were visiting from Idaho. So weird!