08/31/2025
Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Wind Cave National Park🦬
Exploring the Black Hills of South Dakota! These three places are all close enough together that they can easily be done in a day (with an added day in wind cave if there's more you want to do there). I started at Mt Rushmore pretty early since it tends to get crowded and took in the view before doing the short Presidential Trail and visiting the sculptors studio. I was honestly surprised at how small the carvings appeared.
Next, I headed to Crazy Horse, which I actually enjoyed more and spent more time at than Mt Rushmore. Crazy Horse is still in progress, but the history is so fascinating, and I loved the Native American museum on site as well as being able to tour the sculptor and his family's home there. They also do a demonstration of different Native American dances, which was fun to watch.
My last stop of the day was to Wind Cave National Park. I stayed at the campground here a night and spent most of the next day here because I enjoyed the park so much. It was uncrowded and had so much wildlife, which I loved. While here, I did one of the regular cave tours as well as the wild cave tour, where we got geared up and climbed through all kinds of different chambers of the cave seeing things you aren't able to on the normal tours. I highly recommend the wild cave tour, it was incredible! I also did a couple of hikes in the park, attended a ranger program at the campground, and just spent time watching the bison and prairie dogs all over the park🥰
