Our first stop was at the Atka Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, as we explored some Native American history.
The next day we went to Custer State Park first. I had mixed reviews on this park. It was really neat to see the bison heards able to roam around as they pleased.
The Burros were neat to see, however they are very accustomed to the humans feeding them. Once they realized we weren't going to feed them, they weren't very interested in us.
Due to people feeding them so much, they actually just stand in the road. Apparently a park employee was getting impatient with them so he decided to push them out of the way with his truck. This put a VERY bad taste in my mouth, as these people should be the ones looking out for and taking care of these animals, not moving them with the grill of their vehicles.
We were suprised by the limited number of signs telling people not to feed the animals. I think I saw one in the whole park. I did however see a lady walking through a Prairie Dog habitat with a baggie of overly processed sugary cereal, looking both ways to see if there were any rangers around. Then she proceeded to sprinkle the "food", and I use that term very lightly, all around. As you may have figured out from a previous post, feeding the wildlife is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.
You see, when you feed the wildlife, you disrupt so many parts of their natural life cycle. This can range from becoming dependent on humans, putting themselves in danger trying to get the human food they've been fed before, turning away from their natural diet to get the human food, and totally messing up their digestive systems..... especially with crap cereal.
Anyway, we were sitting there watching this woman walk into their habitat, talking to the kids about why she shouldn't be doing that and how unresponsible and disrespectful it was. Then, and I knew it was coming, but when I saw her start throwing the food I lost my cool and started yelling at her from my car. My poor family. They had no warning, and they probably should have covered their ears with how loud I was yelling. I think they were all in shock. She stopped though! (I told you that was a biggy for me)
We left Custer State Park after that and I worked on finding my zen again..... after I posted a rant on their Facebook page.
Next we went to Wind Cave National Park. In true NPS fashion, they turned our previous bad experience into a glorious one! Our Junior Rangers learned more about the Prairie Dog and how they are a keystone animal in the area, and why we should work to protect them. It even said in their booklets to stop someone who is feeding them! It made me feel like less of a psychopath by being validated. ;)
Then we went on the cave tour with Ranger Rick. Let me tell you what. Ranger Rick is to date, the best NPS tour guide we've had so far! He was funny, knowledgable, and was really good with the kids. He was one cool dude.
The Boxwork inside the cave.
Ranger Rick swearing in our Junior Rangers.
Next we made our way over to the main event when you think of South Dakota.... Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Our Junior Rangers worked on their packets and we marveled in the modeling, planning, and execution of this carving.
(This is about the time people started to take notice of how many badges the kids had earned.)
The next morning we drove a couple hours over to Wyoming to see Devil's Tower National Monument. 
We've heard a few different versions of the Native American legend of this mysterious place, but in good fashion, the National Park pays tribute to both the legend AND the science behind how it was formed.
Our Junior Rangers worked on their packets, we hiked a little bit of the trail, and again, we marveled in the beauty of the land.
Next we made our way back into South Dakota and went to Jewel Cave National Monument. For this cave tour, we only went into one large cathedral room. It was neat to see another cave and learn about how it was formed, but it wasn't nearly as cool as others we've seen. Our Junior Rangers were able to get their badges though and we got to "star" it off our National Park map! (More on the map later)
On our last day, we woke up early and drove through Badlands National Park.
It was really fun getting to see the different formations and layers. We even saw Big Horn Sheep! Of course, you know by now that we stopped at the visitors center and our Junior Rangers earned their badges!
And of course, no trip to the Badlands would be complete without an adolescent selfie series.
There were so, so many selfies!
On the east side of the Badlands is MinuteMan Missile National Historic Site. If you blink, you'll miss it, but it's worth finding if you passed it. There are multiple locations to this site, but you should find the visitors center earlier in the day to get tickets to the launch facility before they're gone. Minuteman Missile represents the Cold War era and the launch facility was left in tact, knowing they'd use it for a NPS site and could then show visitors exactly what it was like when it was actively used.
We watched a video and our Junior Rangers did their packets and got their badges, but then we had to kill some time while we waited for our time slot to tour the launch facility.
We went and viewed an inactive missile that could be launched from the control center if needed. This was only one of many, and it was pretty cool to see.
We had a few hours before it was time for our tour, so we drove down to the infamous Wall Drug. We heard so much about Wall Drug from relatives, and how they gave out free water. Woo Hoo!!! Free Water!! .....wait..... doesn't everywhere give free water?
What our relatives failed to mention was that this free water at a drug store in the middle of nowhere, was given such clout during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days.
Today it's just a tourist trap. Not really our thing, but we had time to kill, so we went to check it out. The art gallery was pretty neat. We were able to actually eat a vegan meal there.... something we were sure wasn't going to happen, but were pleasantly surprised, and the kids enjoyed getting to play around in the water.
We made our way back to Minuteman and were shown around the grounds of the control center and then took an elevator ride under ground to the actual launch facility/bunker. It really was pretty neat!
30' below, in the launch facility
After we were finished, we made our way back to our hotel in Rapid City. The kids had been begging to go to the waterpark attached to our hotel, so for our last night there, we surprised them with a visit. They had SO much fun! It became their favorite part of the whole trip! (smh) Added bonus, they served fruity tropical boozy drinks! So everyone won!
5 days, 2 of which were travel days, 1 State Park, 6 National Park Service sites, and a few random stops along the way. Whew! That was a busy, but fun, and highly educational trip!
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