Early in July we spent a wonderful week exploring in South Dakota's Black Hills area with our friends Aaron and Annemieke. We enjoyed many adventures swimming, hiking and playing at our campsites.
Maarit was thrilled to see the presidents at Mount Rushmore, she has been a fan of Lincoln for many years now and it was awesome for her to see his face carved in the mountain. She has read about the monument, and she was really excited to see it in person.
Gus was a bit more excited about this squirrel eating ice cream than the mountain, but that is maybe to be expected. It isn't every day that a squirrel eats and ice cream cone!
Annemieke and Maarit were brave first day swimmers in Sylvan lake! It was frigid!!!
Hiking Harney Peak was a 7 mile adventure. Gus and Maarit did awesome, Maarit hiked the whole thing herself and it gets quite challenging in places. Gus got some free rides and fell asleep for a bit, but he was a pretty amazing hiker too.
We all took a swim after the big hike!
The Mammoth Site was a favorite, it was amazing to see the diggers hard a work unearthing mammoth bones. Maarit was so happy!!
My favorite is always the Wildlife Loop in Custer. We were so lucky to see the huge herd and watch the calves running and playing.
Gus's highlight of the trip was our ride on the steam train out of Hill City. He still talks about riding the big train almost a month later!
On our way back to Minnesota we stopped through the Badlands and decided that next time we will spend more time hiking and camping there. It was windy and hot the day we were there, but definitely amazing to see.
Lots of tears were shed when we had to say goodbye to Aaron and Anne, it may be a whole year until we see them again. It is amazing that you can have friends in your life where a whole year passes and it doesn't seem like it has been that long at all.
I am already looking forward to our next Black Hills adventure...
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