Mount Rushmore

We decided to take a bit of a last minute trip to Mount Rushmore over Labor Day weekend to enjoy some family time and get out of Colorado for a few days.  It's only about five hours away from where we live, so it's even closer than visiting Liz's family in Utah.  We stayed at a nice 4-bedroom VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) home in Custer.  With the size of our family it's cheaper than 2 hotel rooms, but with much more space to spread out, cook our own meals, do laundry, etc. 

It had been exactly six years since our last time to Mount Rushmore, which we did with my parents when we only had three children and Spencer was our youngest.  We have a lot of fond memories of that trip.  Six years before that Liz and I went there as newlyweds.  Apparently our family is on a six year Mount Rushmore rotation.

They have a great trail that takes you to the base of the mountain where the presidential faces are carved.  It has lots of stairs, and we worried about our younger children, particularly Michael being able to make the whole loop.  He loves climbing stairs, though, so we pushed him in a stroller to help conserve his energy on the flat areas, then let him climb the stairs while the older kids carried the stroller.  It worked out great and the hike was one of the highlights of our trip.

Michael the Mountain Climber

Whitney the stroller climber

Getting up close and personal with the presidents

Getting the close up views was magnificent!  We wish we could climb up the rubble to get even closer.

There is so much to do in the Mount Rushmore area.  We could easily spend a week there, but this time around we only hit Mount Rushmore itself and Storybook Island, which is a huge park with lots of story book themed play areas.  

Brooklyn and The Three Pigs.  She's wearing her shirt from her Aunt Julie that says "Messy Hair Don't Care". That about sums it up for some of Brooklyn's hair days!

Since we were there on a Sunday, we attended the Mount Rushmore ward in Rapid City for church.  They're used to getting lots of visitors this time of year and we were no exception.  We were worried about the rain predicted during the weekend, but were very fortunate in that regard.  Several times there were major downpours either just before or just after visiting one of the sites, but while we were outside we managed to stay dry and have great views of Mount Rushmore.