Our final stop on the trip took us right back to the beginning - the Black Hills. Instead of camping inside the state park though we stayed at a camp ground recommended by Mom and Dad called Big Pines - just to the west of the town of Custer and so very close to everything we wanted to do. The campground was beautiful and we lucked into some of the best campsites in the entire campground - backing right up to the state owned forest. Saying we lucked into them is a lie though - Mom and Dad knew exactly the campsites to reserve and they called on "opening day" of the reservation window to make sure we landed the best sites in the whole place.
We spent Tuesday driving from the Tetons to Black Hills - mileage wise I think this was our longest day. I mentioned when I started the blog series about our trip out west that we had 4 big driving days, and this started our trek home and was our 3rd of 4 big days of windshield time. Luckily Ryan and I stumbled on two good podcast series - Dolly Parton's America and Thai Cave Rescue so while this day was super long, we were engrossed in the Thai Cave podcast and the time slipped past rather effortlessly. Though, we were ALL glad to be out of the cars by the time we got to the campsite.
(Stick with me - I know the pictures don't match the story here...I'll get to the ATV in a minute).
We had two final days in the Black Hills before heading out on the last leg of our journey to home. Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday we all decided was going to be a rest day of sorts. A day to sleep in, do a few less things and just recharge. We'd been going strong for basically the entire trip - out the door early to either site see before the crowds or to get miles under our tires on the driving days. So, we all agreed we'd sleep in and we'd head out to Wind Cave (the last stamp we were trying to get in our books) when we were ready - knowing that we might not be able to get a tour because things sold out so quickly. There are two National Park Caves near Custer, Wind Cave and Jewel Cave. We decided on Wind Cave because Jewel cave wasn't offering tours due to COVID - apparently they use an elevator to get down into the cave system and social distancing couldn't be enforced there.
We left the campsite around 9:30 am on Wednesday and went to Wind Cave. We arrived there before 10 (guys, that's not even that late in the day!!). The boys dropped off Brenna, Ro and I and circled to find parking while us three girls stood in the line to get tour tickets. We were probably in line for about 30 minutes and we got to the counter just in time for them to announce that the were selling tickets for the final tour of the day - at 4:30 pm. B and I decided none of us wanted to hang out there for 6 hours waiting on the tour, so we jumped out of line, found the rest of the group, did a quick lap around the little museum/gift store and decided it was time to find a new activity.
We debated going over to Jewel cave to look around, hiking around Wind Cave, or even trying to track down the buffalo on the wildlife loop - but, you know what we picked? Lunch at Mount Rushmore Brewing in Custer, and honestly, it was the best choice we could have made. We didn't have to wait, the place was pretty empty, the food was good enough, we gave the kids iPads, ordered ourselves some beers and just sat. It was lovely!
After our "day of rest" on Wednesday we were right back at it with activities on Thursday morning. I think the ONE thing Ryan wanted to do on this trip was to rent ATV's and go out on the trails. When we were in the Black Hills on the way out Ryan made sure to note a few rental places and we booked two ATV's for Thursday morning. Our group in the Black Hills was pretty big! We had the 4 of us, plus the three Murphy's, then Mom and Dad but we also added Marsha and Ed and Aunt Jane/Uncle Dave and their grandson Ryker to the group. With a group that big, we ended up splitting up because everyone had a different idea of what to do on Thursday. There was the 7 of us on the ATV trip and then the rest of the group took a train ride from Hill City and back. We only rented the ATV's for a half day which, I think was the prefect amount of time - though, the kids LOVED his adventure and I'm sure Ryan would have enjoyed a few more hours of mud splashing. I was ready to get out and take a shower by the time noon came - I mean, we all had a great time, don't get me wrong, but I'd had enough overstimulation and was ready to get out by then.
We rented ATV's in Hill City, less than20 minutes down the road from our campground. At the rental place they had us download a trail map app on our phones that would work without service. Honestly, I think that app made the trip for us. We could tell exactly where we were (our location showed with a tiny dot and moved along with us as we went) and it was plotted out on a very well defined trail system. We'd have been totally lost or stuck to the main roads without that app, and knowing exactly nothing about the area or the trails. Similar to the horse back ride, being on the ATV's let us see some areas that we could have never seen by foot.
Chris and B led for awhile and took us to a nice overlook area, after exploring up there we decided to make our way towards Jenny Gulch (not Jenny Lake in the Tetons). We ate lunch there at the gulch, and, if we'd have had more time we could have hiked and played around in the lake for a bit. We needed to turn back and start heading toward the rental place but I thought we'd have time for one more stop along the way. We picked Edelweiss Mountain - the climb to the top was extreme - I was overly worried we'd tip over but the boys had a great time navigating us to the top and views up there were amazing (the picture above and the few below were all taken there at the top of Edelweiss Mountain.
The route home was the muddiest part of our drive and I can promise you that Ryan did everything in his power to make sure we came home as muddy as possible. The kids, in the back, stayed pretty clean, and I'm wishing I'd have taken some pictures when the mud was still wet, but you can see in the picture below that my shirt was basically soaked with mud. Ryan was in paradise and had so much fun driving on the trails. And, I think he's totally sold the kids on getting fancy 4 wheeler and doing more trail rides. I'm not sure that's in the budget right now, but maybe some day!
We finished off our last real day of vacation with dinner at Alpine Inn in Hill City. Ed and Marsha had been in the area for a few days before we all arrived and they'd scoped out this restaurant and managed to get reservations for all 14 of us - not a small feat! The restaurant was a mix between a steak house and diner? I'm not sure how to describe it. They only had two menu options, a bacon wrapped filet for $15 or Spetzel with steamed veggies on top. We weren't sure what to expect, but it turned out perfectly. After placing our orders with the waitress I asked to see the dessert menu (I mean, sometimes you have to eat according to your dessert plans, so I like to know what's available before the food comes). We were surprised when the waitress came out with a FOUR page dessert menu! Two menu options for the main mail - 4 pages of desserts. Honestly, that's when I knew this was my kind of restaurant. By the time it was time to order dessert I'd sold the whole table on ordering something and we had a true dessert sampler - we even got the kids their own bowls of rainbow sherbet. My favorite was the peanut butter pie Mom and Dad ordered.
Friday morning we packed up and headed east again for our fourth big driving day. We camped in Albert Lea, MN. Picked specifically because we wanted to be able to put Minnesota on our camper map - our rule is that we have to spend one night in the camper in a given state to be able to put the sticker up. So, on this trip we added 4 states to our map - though we drove through many more. I don't have any pictures of our campground in MN, but we stayed at Myre-Big Island State Park and it was beautiful! It's about 5 hours from our house, so a little on the long side for a weekend camping trip, but Ryan and I both want to go back and camp there again. They had brand new bathrooms - including individual shower rooms. You could hike around the campground right at the edge of the lake, and we'd have to do some research, but we saw a boat on the water at one point so it might be possible to rent a pontoon there too. I might even try proposing it for a future Cuzzies Camping trip location. Though, it would be a haul for everyone to get there.
We arrived home on Saturday afternoon which gave us a day and half to get our lives back together before heading back to work on Monday. We were gone for 16 days and it was one of the most memorable trips we've done to date.
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