Exhaling...

Things have been a bit crazy these last couple of days, so I'm catching up on my blogging... (see post on Checking out the Custer ER).

Driving from the Badlands into the Black Hills on Thursday, the terrain quickly changed from the stark moonscape of the dry sediment buttes to rolling green hills with mountains in the distance. Before leaving the Badlands, we stopped by the Visitor Center to let Isaac turn in his completed Junior Ranger booklet and be sworn in as a Junior Ranger for the first time. The smile remained spread across his face all the way into the outskirts of the Black Hills.

We were all excited to get to our next stop because we knew that we would be meeting up with Dinny & Poppy (my Mom & Dad). They decided to fly out to Rapid City and stay in Custer State Park for a few days to rendezvous with us...and they greeted us at our campground when we arrived! After a quick set up, we were off to Wind Cave National Park nearby. Now that the kids had a taste for completing the National Park Junior Ranger programs, they were hooked and were eager to see their next park.

The first night we were in the Badlands, we learned about Wind Cave at the nighttime Ranger Program on the Sacred Sites of the Lakota Indians. They believe that all life was created and breathed out of the cave through the natural entrance, where the cave breathes either in or out depending on the barometric pressure. While we were on our tour, we saw several instances of the boxwork formations that the cave is famous for. Wind Cave contains 95% of the boxwork found in all of the known caves in the world - cool!

That evening, we went on a hayride through Custer State Park as we sang songs and were entertained by Kowboy Keith on the way to a chuckwagon steak dinner. As we rode along, we were treated to a visual feast of wildlife - more bison, bison calves, more antelopes and prairie dogs, deer and more. You could really imagine what it might have been like to see the bison herds thundering through the prairies back in the day. But more importantly, it was an opportunity to slow down for a bit and enjoy our surroundings, our family, and our many blessings. Thank you Dinny & Poppy.
 

 
 

 

Tracy