Fresh from Laleinia’s graduation, we set off for adventure. Midnight said goodbye and nothing was going to stop us. As Lain took the first sleeping shift, we soldiered on into the night. The moon was so bright that we saw bats, deer, badgers, and even the Teton mountain range, even though it was supposed to be pitch black. About 50 miles after passing beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we were blessed with a safari-style encounter with a pack of elk. The only downside was that they were in the road, and we were driving 60 miles per hour. Thankfully, and despite the efforts of a suicidal elk, Alastair found a gap between the pack and we managed to get through, unscathed. The rest of the maiden leg of the road trip was drama-free, and we pulled into Mount Rushmore with high hopes of finding free parking, which we did.
The faces on Mount Rushmore are each about 6 stories tall, and were made by strategic explosions in the face of the rock. But being so far away, the faces did look rather small, however, it was still an incredible sight to behold. We snapped a few pictures and purchased a postcard to pursue our goal for this year.
Similar to Old Faithful in Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore was a kind of “been there, done that” experience. It was an incredible place to be, but we can’t imagine booking a yearly trip back. Mount Rushmore, job well done.
As we were driving away from Mount Rushmore and heading East, Alastair laid his eyes upon a cluster of boulders he wanted to climb. We parked and Alastair and Connor scaled rocks, utilized never-before-seen bouldering skills, and reached the summit of an impressive series of rocks. Bouldering in South Dakota, done.