Our Family Travels and Activities

[Dougnuts]

Since Rapid City, SD is in the mountain time zone, it was no problem getting up early and hitting Mt. Rushmore by 8:30am. I've been here a number of times since I was a kid, so I was excited to bring my boys.......more excited than they were. We did walk the trail that takes you closer to the mountain.

I'm really enjoying the SmartCap, which allows us to take a trip like this without practicing my Tetris skills. You can't see it, but there are kitchen cabinets back there as well.

After Mt. Rushmore, we drove down to Chadron, NE to have lunch with my Aunt. Next, we drove to the family ranch (est. 1886) and drove the boys around a bit.

 

[the deputy]

Great trip report and pictures! That photo of the old Pontiac, in first post l believe, brought back fond memories of my grandfather coming over to my childhood home, back in the late 60's, in his identical car. Can still see him waddling up to the house, bowlegged to the point if you straighten his legs he'd have grown two feet, holding a brown beer bottle (my uncle would drive him out). He was one wornout old timer, but always happy, quit school when he was 10 yrs old to help support the farm, cut and split firewood...for ten cent a cord. Raised 14 kids, worked two jobs his entire life, cut wood on the weekend (which was only Sunday for him), retired from his main job after 46 yrs. While going through some papers at the old homestead, after my parents passing, came across some papers my dad had of grandpa's (since he couldn't read or write, and dad did all of his bills)...and one was his pension check stub...$63.00 a month. Love that old man, never a unkind word ever crossed his lips and l'll aways cherish those walks through the woods out behind the house with him. I'll stop...but like they say...'a picture is worth a thousand words...'

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Your ranch land looks much like a 360 parcel of land that I've been eyeing near Big Timber, Montana. It's absolutely beautiful ! Do you see yourself and your family living there one day ? I sure would be tempted.

 

[Dougnuts]

Your ranch land looks much like a 360 parcel of land that I've been eyeing near Big Timber, Montana. It's absolutely beautiful ! Do you see yourself and your family living there one day ? I sure would be tempted.

My wife would never live there, as it's waaaay to far from anything. My parents will be living there at least half of the year, soon.

What I could see is moving to the Denver area, someday, which is roughly 4 hours away.

 

[Kingsize24]

That looks like a ton of fun. Absolutely stunning Ranch as well.

 

[Dougnuts]

Backing up, briefly, to Mount Rushmore....

I was there on July 3, 1991, and saw Pres. George Bush Sr. give a speech, when I was eleven years old. As we were here, on this visit, I'm just now realizing that my oldest son was 11 years old.

I was excited to see that there was display from that day, in 1991. I've included pictures of it, and one from where I was standing on that day. I can still remember seeing President Bush walking down to the path to the right, turning, and waving at the crowd.

Additionally, here are a few more pictures from our family visit.

Nice reflection of a rock in this picture.

 

[Dougnuts]

Back to the Ranch.....we spent a few days there catching sunsets, shooting guns, visiting with family, tracking coyotes, and training for my marathon, which was only 5 weeks away.

 

[Dougnuts]

During the trip, I decided that we needed to go to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. Having passed by this place 100's of times, it was time to finally make the drive. On the way there, my Dad said that he'd never been there either. I had zero clue what to expect, and for some reason I expected dinosaurs bones rather than Miocene Era mammals.

Here's the burrow of a Paleocastor, which was kind of an ancient beaver. The dens are called Daemonelix, or "Devil's Corkscrew".

The spiral burrows are now a popular attraction here at Agate, but scientists struggled at first to determine how they were made. When Erwin H. Barbour first saw the corkscrews, he concluded they were fossils of enormous taproots. He named them “Daemonelix,” or “Devil’s Corkscrew.” He spent 1891 and 1892 excavating more of the mysterious corkscrews here at Agate.

In 1904, Olaf Peterson of the Carnegie Museum found a small rodent skeleton inside one of the corkscrews and offered a new scientific theory. After finding other skeletons in similar placements, Peterson theorized that they weren’t taproots, but the remains of spiral burrows dug by prehistoric beavers, later filled in with roots, sand and silt.

We made the hike up to the hillsides where the digs have occurred.

Causeway over the wetlands, in stark contrast to the dry prairie. There were signs warning of rattlesnakes all over, but we only saw one snake, which wasn't a rattler.

Up at the top of the trail, which was a low stream bed 19 million years ago.

When we got back to the parking lot, we were greeted by this cool Defender.