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I’m not sure what I expected when my family decided to spend Fourth of July weekend in the Black Hills, South Dakota. I think I expected it to be pretty boring, with little entertainment and much anxiety for the weekend to end on my part. Luckily, I was completely wrong. I had a blast with my family and family friends; we saw tons of what the Black Hills had to offer; and I don’t remember the last time I laughed quite so much.

Here’s a quick rundown of my trip:

• Mt. Rushmore is surprisingly small. Like, underwhelmingly small. But it’s still a pretty cool monument.
• If you are even five minutes late to your tour of Jewel Cave and have the misfortune of encountering an insolent employee who finds pure, unadulterated joy in making people miserable, you’re not going to be able to go on your tour.
• As corny as chuckwagon dinners are, once you start getting into the whole cowboy thing they’re actually kind of fun.
• The Badlands are absolutely beautiful.
• The Cosmos is quite possibly the coolest thing ever.

And for those of you who are interested in more details and photos of my trip, read on…

The Badlands

We stopped by the Badlands on our way into Rapid City. After hundreds of miles of prairie, I was more than ready for a change of scenery. The Badlands was just that and more. It was absolutely breathtaking; the color display on some of the rock was beautiful. All in all, I definitely recommend visiting the Badlands if you get the chance.

Mt. Rushmore

I was expecting Mt. Rushmore to be this huge, gigantic monument, but… it wasn’t. When I first saw Mt. Rushmore, the first thing I said was, “Is that it?” Don’t get me wrong, it is a pretty cool monument. But it’s just not as huge as everyone makes it out to be. Not to mention that apparently, the monument was originally going to be more extensive, with Washington wearing a broadcloth and Lincoln in a fitted collar, but time and money and WWII got in the way.

Jewel Cave

As I alluded to earlier, my party and I were barely five minutes late for our tour of Jewel Cave, thanks to the rain and a traffic incident in one of the towns we drove through on the way there. The guy we talked to at the tour desk was a total and complete jerk to us. Okay, we were late; I get the fact that we don’t get to go on the tour. But the fact that he had a huge grin on his face when he refused us from the tour entrance and got such obvious joy from acting like a prick really got under my skin.

Verdict on Jewel Cave? I’m sure it’s beautiful, even though I didn’t get to see it. But that one employee made what little experience I had there absolutely horrid.

Custer National Park

Custer National Park was pretty nice. Lots of scenery. To be honest, the only reason why we went to Custer National Park was…

Chuckwagon Dinner

The chuckwagon dinner at the Bluebell Lodge! It was pretty hokey; we all had to wear cowboy hats and bandanas. Still, once you got into it (and everyone did), it was really fun. The potato salad and the cornbread they served as part of the dinner was to die for! Not to mention the fact that I’ve never seen bison so close – I could have reached out from the wagon and pet them, if I wanted to.

The Cosmos

The Cosmos is so freakin’ cool. There’s something not quite right with the gravity or force or whatever that’s there, so everything is off-balance and a little bit off. You can’t stand up straight because of it, and everything is askew and tilted and things are not quite as they seem. It’s so, so cool and definitely a must-see if you’re in the Black Hills area!

Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better Fourth of July vacation. Now, I have about a week to rest at home and prepare for my next trip…