The Alaska trip with my oldest ate up most of my vacation time for this year, but we still wanted to do some sort of vacation with the whole family. I burned some comp time and we took a short camping trip out to the Badlands and the Black Hills (Custer State Park) with my In-Laws. We've been to South Dakota a number of times in the past, and love it so we keep going back. This was out first trip in the fall, and it did not disappoint.

Figured I'd share some pics. There are some more in the backpacking/chest holster thread in the CCW Methods and Issues section, if anybody is interested, but there were more related to the hiking. These are just fun shots of SD and some wildlife. I know we have some members here who live out in that area, or have visited in the past. If you've got any SD pics, or places you'd recommend to visit, I'd love to see and hear about them, as I'm sure we'll be back!

I usually opt to just see Rushmore from a distance, as once you've seen it you've seen it, but our younger kids didn't remember it and my FIL had never been there before, so we stopped in. While we were there an older guy in an american flag shirt with an accordion showed up and played a montage of all the service branch hymns...I thought that was pretty cool.



A few shots from the Badlands:







And some wildlife (these are with a 300mm from inside the car...I'm not looking to get tossed or de-pantsed by the fluffy cows!):













Sometimes even if you stay in the car, the locals can still be kind of aggressive :

Very nice. You coming back through on I90 south on I29? If so let me know. We can meet up.

Great pics, man.

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:
Very nice. You coming back through on I90 south on I29? If so let me know. We can meet up.

Already back. We were with the in-laws this time and ended up taking I-90 to I-35 and then cutting over through Waterloo to I380. 18 hours of driving yesterday was a bit grueling, to say the least. I'm sure we'll be back out that way again, though...maybe next time we can make something happen!

I love that neck of the woods! Some beautiful country!

I was just out there last month, visiting family. Love the Black Hills!

Indeed my neck of the woods here is an outdoorsman's paradise. Glad you enjoyed your visit!

What? No pics of pheasants? Need to see some of those!

quote:

Originally posted by coloradohunter44:
What? No pics of pheasants? Need to see some of those!

I've seen them out there before but didn't see any on this trip.

I love the Rapid City area in the summer and fall. Not so much in the winter.