This Place is for Boys

We saw dinosaurs, fossils, caves, trains and reptiles aplenty.

South Dakota is made for children, especially boys.

Here are some of the things we did while on our trip:

1.       On Tuesday we drove through most of the state of South Dakota. The state earns much of its revenue from tourism, and the billboards all along the Interstate make that obvious. We stopped at what can only be described as two of the state’s landmarks:

The Corn Palace

and Wall Drug

We saw billboards for this place from the moment we entered the state until well after we passed it miles later. We stopped here to browse and to eat. I also enjoyed the best 5-cent cup of coffee I’ve ever had!

2.       Mt. Rushmore was a must later in the week. You can't go to South Dakota and not visit this place.

We explored one of South Dakota’s many caves later that day. No pictures, though. I left my camera in the car and was not about to walk down and back up the long flight of stairs with a baby in tow.

3.       We enjoyed the first train ride of the 2012 season on the 1880 passenger train Friday morning. It was cold!

Later that day we went to the Black Hills Museum of Natural History. I cannot say enough good things about this place. It’s a fossil musuem, most of which are dinosaur fossils. The most impressive is the T-Rex Stan. The museum space is small. There's a gift shop and one room where all the fossils are displayed, but it is the perfect size for little ones to explore. The staff is super friendly and there is complementary coffee as you enter the museum.

4.      We spent yesterday at the Reptile Gardens in Rapid City. It houses the biggest crocodile I’ve ever seen.
We then ventured to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. The hubby and I both agree that it was our favorite place. On display is one of the more amazing things I’ve had the pleasure to see. In 1974, when workers were trying to develop the land, they came across what can only be described as a mammoth graveyard. For almost 40 years, researchers have continued to dig and still unearth things here. They have found what they believe are 59 mammoths in this one site. The theory is that this was a watering hole that turned into a sink hole, and the mammoths drowned. Most of the mammoths found here are Columbian Mammoths. I don’t know much about mammoths, but I always thought that Wooly Mammoths were the only kind that existed. They have found wooly mammoth remains here as well, but the majority of remains belong to the Columbians.

5. We are officially out of the state of South Dakota this evening. On our way out, though, we had to make a couple more stops. We took a quick tour of a petrified wood park. Both the hubby and the little boy thought it was cool.

We ate lunch at one of the many diners in this state. Al's Oasis served up a good hamburger and some more 5-cent coffee. It was also a place to stretch our legs and get a few more pics.

The other three members of this tired family are currently snoozing away in our king-size bed here in Minnesota this mother's day evening. What a blessed mamma and wife I am!