South Dakota: Day 5 - Horseback Riding in the Black Hills, Keystone - Gold Mining and Rushmore Tram Adventure Aerial Park

Day 5

Bright and early, we surprised the kids with a morning horseback riding trail ride at Rock ‘ R Rides. They were SO excited and jumped up out of bed with out any trouble. It was beautiful getting to ride through the foothills of the Black Hills through the ponderosa pines and aspen trees. It was due to these Ponderosa pines looking black from away that the Black Hills got it's name. 

Delaney was confident jumping on her horse, Darla, and they led the group the entire time. Addison had Coal, who we knew would be trouble when we saw a mouth net to block him from eating during the ride. The eating wasn’t an issue but his “gas” issue was hysterical and Addison said one of the best parts was that Carter was directly behind Coal’s bottom! Carter was on Stove Pipe and he was a great horse. I had Laramie and Blake got to ride Big Bonnie! It was a fun morning taking in the cool, crisp South Dakota air.

Then, we went to explore Keystone, which is very close to Mount Rushmore.

South Dakota has a rich history of gold discovery in the late 1800's near this area. They found small amounts of gold and most kept moving to find better paying locations. The would find flakes but not strike it rich, until they got a little farther north in South Dakota. We learned the process of mining gold and how "claims' were made to be able to own everything 6 feet below the earth's surface.  In late 1800’s and early 1900’s, there were 60,000 claims in this area during this time. In the gold mind that we toured, Big Thunder, 2 German immigrants, in late 1800’s, started digging out a mine called The Big Thunder. They worked full time during normal hours and spend 22 years digging this one out in their off time, although never profitable. We learned interesting facts like how in the larger mines, a porta potty would be wheeled through the mine opening every 12 hours and what Strong Boxes were used for. Strong Boxes are what they used to transport to the city their gold and it would be returned with the cash inside from the sale. It was obviously, they were a big target for robbers in that era. And of course, we learned how to pan for gold. We even got to pan for a quite a while as all the kids were into it, even finding some specks.

The fun wasn't over for the day, we had another surprise in store! I had read about Rushmore Tramway Adventures in Keystone and it didn't disappoint. for 2 hours, the five of us did their awesome Aerial Park, doing many of the 100 obstacles, high up in the trees. We traversed suspension brides, climbed log ladders, balanced along tight ropes and zip lined through the forest. Yet again, I was incredibly surprised by Delaney's determination to do everything. For 2 hours she gave it her all, mastering things that she didn't think she could. There were times, she got emotional but she never wanted to give up and we were done with one "path," she was always up to do another one. There were 4 levels of obstacle paths you could take, so Blake and I took turns taking Delaney on the first "yellow" levels. On top of doing the obstacles, you had to learn their amazing dual carabiner safety system, which was the most intimidating part to me for the first 10 minutes. But once that was mastered, it was an awesome and challenging adventure for all of us! Carter and Addison went on to do the hardest, black course, at the end. The stories they had were so great!

When I asked them what their favorite things were from today, Addison’s immediate response was, “Mom, you can’t ask that... there was so much!” She ultimately said horses and the areal ropes course. Carter said the same and Delaney said, “horses and the gold mine.”  What a adventurous and fun day it was!

We ended the day with our traditional early big dinner Bumpin’ Buffalo for dinner. The kids ate an entire basket of calf fries and thought they were delicious before we told them what they were. All of our ribs, chicken sandwiches, burgers and especially the bison burger were so yummy after such a big day! We love staying in such a small town where we can walk to Main Street and eat in all of the local restaurants each evening and walk home. We love that there are no McDonalds, Burger Kings, Walgreens, CVS or even a Starbucks. We really liked our home base spot in Hill City as it was great central location to be able to quickly get to all the different places we explored this week.