Family trip to Black Hills

[Box Rocket]

This was round 2 of our family summer vacation. Round 1 was Disneyland. If you want to add those miles we did 3000+ over the past two weeks. From SLC, to LA and back with a stop long enough to wash clothes and sleep in our own beds and then from SLC to Custer, South Dakota and back with a bunch of misc miles in between. The kids were awesome as we spent all of the two weeks living out of the trailer and RTT. Was a great time with the family and a good time seeing the spectacular scenery of the Black Hills. I won't bore with a wordy trip report but just share some photos.

 

[Box Rocket]

More from Custer State Park

 

[Box Rocket]

 

[pugslyyy]

great photos - we are headed up that way September 1. Thanks for sharing!

 

[ttora4runner]

Looks like a good time.

 

[roverrocks]

Great pictures. Nice pictures of Sylvan lake which is kind of an enchanted little area. Very nice family. The Hills are a great place to visit.

 

[McZippie]

'Nice' looking Rig! .... 'Outstanding' looking family!!!

Consider entering the picture of your 4 kids mimicking the 4 presidents in the National Parks photo contest.
.
http://www.sharetheexperience.org/
.
.
.

 

[Willman]

Cool trip Adam!

Your rig keep getting cooler and cooler.

Love the family shots.

How the tires working out?

 

[rangerdogg]

Nice setup. Looks like you and your family had a great time. Want to go there someday

 

[Kiwi-Yank]

adam - thanks for posting. the Black Hills is a great place ... I really love it. there's a real sense of history out there. it's nice to see normal American families getting out and enjoying these places ... I have noticed a trend for people to be doing much less camping and wilderness activities on the West Coast. you've got a great family! good luck, mate.
K-Y

 

[Box Rocket]

Thanks for the compliments. It was a great trip.

 

[team-oomizumi]

Great pictures. The Crazy Horse progress seems to be going slooow...

Didn't know Tacos can seat 6!

Apologies if you've explained this already. How do you accommodate 6 when sleeping? Kids in the RTT and adults in the annex?

 

[Box Rocket]

Cool trip Adam!

Your rig keep getting cooler and cooler.

Love the family shots.

How the tires working out?

Thanks Nic! I've really liked the tires. They are on the noisey side but I expected that and I can feel the lugs on the pavement more than I could with the KM2s but I can overlook that stuff because of the great trail performance. I've really liked them.

 

[Box Rocket]

Great pictures. The Crazy Horse progress seems to be going slooow...

Didn't know Tacos can seat 6!

Apologies if you've explained this already. How do you accommodate 6 when sleeping? Kids in the RTT and adults in the annex?

Tacos don't seat 6 without some modification. I didn't like the factory front seats so I pulled them and swapped in some different seats.




Seats are buckets from a Suzuki Reno that needed some minor mods to work, but was pretty simple. Using some Smittybuilt "Catch-All" seat covers.

That left me with the factory front buckets. I built a strong seat frame and mounted the seats in the bed with some large backing plates under the bed. Currently using lap belts but will be upgrading to some harnesses. The seats can be mounted forward or rear facing.



Fully packed with a cooler for "dry" food and the ARB fridge.

 

[Box Rocket]

As for fitting the family in the tent. My wife and I sleep in the tent and the kids sleep in the annex. The footprint of the Tepui Autana annex is 8x8' so there is quite a bit of room. In fact a queen size air mattress will fit behind the ladder in the annex. We put the two smaller kids behind the ladder and the two older ones on either side of the ladder and still had a decent "entryway" to stand in front of the ladder to change clothes etc.