About two weeks ago, Luke and I were able to travel out to Sioux Falls for my sister-in-law's and Luke's cousin's high school graduations. We got there on Friday night, just half an hour before we needed to be at Brooke's graduation, and were able to spend the weekend with friends and family. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures over the weekend, and the only ones I have from either graduation are 35mm film pictures from Luke's aunt for Brooke's graduation.

I did manage to get this cute one of Luke and Kathy at a state park outside of Sioux Falls.

I like to joke (or, maybe point out?) that Luke is from the "boring" side of South Dakota, because there aren't a whole lot of attractions on the east side of the state. For a long time I have wanted to take a trip out to the west side of the state, to see the Black Hills, Badlands, and Mt. Rushmore.

So, since we were already going to be more than halfway there, and we have an anniversary coming up (Monday!), we decided that this would be a good time to do just that.

On Monday morning we packed up from Sioux Falls and headed out west, stopping at several tourist attractions along the way:

The World's Only Corn Palace (I don't have my picture from this uploaded on my computer yet, but I'll add it when I get a chance),

Al's Oasis (shoot, I don't have this picture on yet, either!)

and Wall Drug

Me at Wall Drug

My cowboy and me

Luke and the jackalope

We pulled into our beautiful bed and breakfast at about 5:30, and headed into Deadwood to check it out (for my dad's sake), and to get some dinner.

Our beautiful bed and breakfast

The view from our room

I was really surpised to see, on our way to Deadwood, the damage done by a forest fire. It was spooky, and the charred trees came right up to houses in several places-we couldn't understand how the houses survived!

Forest fire damage

In Deadwood, we saw "Wild Bill" Hickock's grave, as well as "Calamity Jane's," and also got to see where he was shot.

Wild Bill's grave
Me and Wild Bill

We gambled $5 (won $.2.50), and then ate some dinner upstairs from a casino. Not THE casino, mind you. A casino. It was nearly impossible to find a restaurant in Deadwood which was not primarily a casino. It was a pretty strange town.

Deadwood at night

On the ride back to the B&B, we had driven for about five or ten minutes through the mountains when we came around a bend, and the moon was shining in the twilight sky. I was playing around with the camera, so i took a picture. I know it's a silly and blurry picture, but I think it at least gives you the idea of the colors of the sky and the brightness of the moon. It was pretty cool.

The moon

The next morning we headed to Custer State Park for a hike. We stopped at Sylvan lake and followed one of the trails there. It was a great hike with great views, but definitely showed us how out of shape we really are! Phew!

At Sylvan Lake

The view from the top

Same, zoomed out

A mule deer we saw along the way-check out those ears!

Next, we drove through the park along Needles highway, a stretch of road that winds through the mountains and offers great views of the "needle" rock formations (like the ones we saw from the top on our hike). It was a pretty crazy drive!

Yep, we drove through that.

Trust, me, they weren't kiddin'

Throughout the later part of the drive, we saw lots of animals, including buffalo, an antelope, mountain goats, and burros.

Buffalo!

Just so you know how close they were...

Burros

From Needles Highway we got onto Iron Mountain Road, which leads to Mount Rushmore, and on which you can see Mt. Rushmore from each of the three tunnels.

Iron Mountain Road

Mount Rushmore

After Mount Rushmore, we drove by Crazy Horse. I would have liked to have gone in, but it would have cost us $20, and it wasn't something we had planned on doing. So, this is what I've got to show for it:
I'm sure it will be beautiful when it is finished.

The next morning it was time to head back to Sioux Falls, but we made a stop along the way to drive through the Badlands. Here are our shots from there:









All in all, it was a great trip. We only wished that we could have spent more time. I guess it just means we'll have to go back one of these days.