On Friday, we planned to have a day in Hill City, which is where our cabin was. We first went over to get 1880 Train tickets for that afternoon. Then off to the dinosaur museum, which is actually called the Black Hills Institute Museum.
Lots of stuff in a small area. This is where Stan the dinosaur is.
Stan's real skull...
Finally, something they can touch!
After the museum, we went across the street to Teddy Bear Town. The lady who owns TBT has the Guinness World Record for the most teddy bears. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-3000/largest-collection-of-teddy-bears/ Currently, I think she said she has 8006 (or something). It was a fun, quirky, free stop! Then we went for lunch at the Alpine Inn, which comes highly recommended. It was excellent. I had some kind of Mexican salad, Dave the Monte Cristo, Luke a club sandwich, Em and Logan had the kids grill cheese. Everything was really good, good sides too (German potato salad and fresh fruit). Dinner only serves filet mignon, and lunch a full menu, so we figured lunch would be better. We got out of there just in time to get to the train.
Filling up the steam train with water. We ended up doing a round trip ride, Hill City to Keystone and back. After doing some review reading, a lot of people suggested having a vehicle in Keystone so you don't have to ride back. But, how can one really do that unless a family member stays back?! Jessie was in Winona then, so we couldn't recruit her either. But, it ended up being fine. It's only an hour train ride to Keystone, 15 minute layover and and hour back. We weren't pressed for time, so it worked for us! There were gobs of people in Keystone wanting to ride it back so you definitely need someone to stay on and save seats. Logan was sleeping, so we volunteered.
Catching up on zzzz's... he slept nearly the entire ride to Keystone.
Harney Peak (highest point in South Dakota) from the train...
Someone woke up refreshed!
After the train ride, we found Wade's Gold Mill, which is also in Hill City. From what I read about it, it is supposed to be one of the more authentic places to pan. And it definitely was! After being at Big Thunder Gold Mine later in the week, we definitely liked Wade's better. The family running it was very nice. We got one on one panning lessons and their help the entire time. Plus, the kids got to dip their feet in a real creek to pan their rough. The current was a little too fast for Logan though, and extremely cold according to Em! Luke kept his Keens on so he didn't think it was so bad. It was a unique experience!
Em found her gold, specs on the left side.
And the boys found theirs!
Digging out their mine rough...
Lots of garnets, but no gold in their rough.
We were done panning as some storm clouds were quickly moving in. Like that never happens in SD! Luckily, the storms happened either in the evening and were short, during the night or early morning. We never got caught in any rain or storms during the day, thankfully. We went back to downtown Hill City, Dave and Em went into a rock shop and I staying in the van with the boys while the rain came down. We were parked in front of a hair salon called Curl Up & Dye. Funny. We waited out the rain and went over to Crazy Horse to end the day. It's only about 10-15 minutes away from Hill City. We really enjoyed Crazy Horse. They play a 20 minute movie telling the story in a nearly a full size theater. Even if they don't finish the monument, or plan to finish it, the story is still very moving! Although we do groan a bit when we walk into a museum or attraction and they guide us to a movie first. Unless it's Paw Patrol, Octonauts or Sheriff Callie, Logan isn't too interested in a movie. At one point, he did loudly say "Crazy Horse is borning!" Oh well, he lived through it.
You can take a tour bus down closer to the monument for $4 each, I had a BOGO coupon, so we went for it. It was definitely worth it. You get much closer and our bus driver was really funny. Plus, we would have never seen a marmot if we hadn't!
Can you spot the marmot?
Marmots on the hill.
Kids picking out free rocks from the rock pit!
We were all starving and the restaurant at Crazy Horse closed, so we ran to Subway in Custer before the laser light show started. While Crazy Horse, the monument and surroundings were really fun, we didn't care for the light show. It might mean more to someone who knows about the story better, but we found it pretty lame. Oh well. No hot tubbing that night, too late!
