Sunday, November 4, 2012

Our Wild West Adventure: South Dakota

I have to tell you that after our drive through Iowa, I was expecting South Dakota to be more of the same-old-same-old.   I was greatly mistaken.  South Dakota is beautiful, and the scenery  is constantly changing around you.  My home schoolers were having a hard time getting school done that day, as there was so much to see and enjoy!




We city people just fell in love with golden hay fields!
Miles and miles of beautiful rolling hay fields. 





We were also excited to see herds of buffalo for he first time. But the kids were not excited about seeing buffalo on the menu! They weren't brave enough to try the buffalo burgers!
 
The terrain changed from farms to prairie to beautiful white hills!  It was just breathtaking to see these against the yellow prairie and blue sky!
And then we started seeing mountains!  REAL mountains! 
 
 
 
We stopped in to see Mt. Rushmore!  I must admit it was a little smaller than I thought it would be, but it was still amazing to be there.  I just wanted to burst into song, and sing "God Bless America" at the top of my lungs....but my husband said he'd go wait in the car till I finished if I did!  LOL   It was really a blessing to be able to share this with my children, and we loved seeing it!
Just a few minutes down the road from Rushmore is the Crazy -Horse Memorial.  Now that is HUGE!!!  But at $30 a person to get in, we deemed it not be a worthwhile investment.
 
We began to see ads for the "Corn Palace, only palace in the world made of corn".  So when we first saw the ad, we thought, "How Corn-y"  haha!  We didn't really want to stop, as we still had several hours to drive to make it to our destination.   But we kept seeing the signs, mile after mile after mile...  So we stopped!
The ads REALLY should say, "only palace in the world DECORATED with corn"! 
There was definitely more than just corn holding this place up!  But it was neat.  The pictures they were able to make out of Indian Corn was actually pretty amazing!  We walked around stretched our legs, saw something we mostly likely would never see anywhere else in the world, so it was a good pit-stop.  And hey - we saw "THE CORN PALACE".  Have you seen the Corn Palace?  LOL
 
Oh, yes we had to photograph the wrestling picture!
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As we approached Wyoming the terrain started to change again, and mountains began to turn red! 
 
 

South Dakota is amazing.  The landscaping, terrain and foliage are constantly changing.  It really is just beautiful.  It is hard not to be in awe of God's handiwork here. What amazes me most of all is that years ago pioneers traveled this land by covered wagon!  Can't wait to travel this beautiful land again,