Day 2: Badlands and Bear Country

We got up bright and early in the morning and went to the Badlands! It was fun to see how excited the girls were about being there. We explored the Door and Window trails and climbed all over. Because of all the wildflowers, the place smelled so good! Jia exclaimed, “I would love to live here and have the best view in the world!”

We visited the fossil lab at the Visitor Center and learned about a prehistoric rhino-type animal that lived there. The girls also completed Junior Ranger guides and were sworn in as Junior Rangers! We had a terrific time at the park and are glad they enjoyed it so much.

After, we drove to Bear Country USA, a drive-through animal park. I’m not sure what I expected, but there were bears crawling all over! It reminded me of when my dad would take us to the dump by our cabin to see the bears (but without all the garbage)! The bears and wolves and other animals walked all around our car. It was pretty exciting. We liked seeing the other animals there too. And the baby bears were possibly the cutest thing we’ve ever seen. They ran around in a big group and all climbed the tree together!

We then drove to Custer State Park and took Iron Mountain Road to get to our cabin. The road is very twisty, has a beautiful view of the Black Hills and has three single car rock tunnels.

Our cabin is in Custer at Blue Bell. It is gorgeous! We ate at the lodge and roasted a dessert over the campfire: ice cream cones filled with marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, and chocolate chips. Jia said she wants to come here every year.