Day 4- Mountain Goats, Buffalo and Burros

Our last day in the Hills was the nicest weather we had all week.  Fortunately, we had planned to do a lot of the scenic drives and outdoor activities that day.  Unfortunately, it was the worst day for Punky's bout of diarrhea.

We headed to Mount Rushmore first thing in the morning.  We walked from the parking lot to the main view point.

Upside down sunglasses are his thing

We took our family photo and had planned to walk the half mile loop to get a closer view of the faces.  As we rounded a corner, we saw a mama and baby mountain goat not far off the path.  Later on, the baby came down the hill, inches from the sidewalk.  We did all we could to get Buddy to leave the baby alone since we knew the mama was not far away.  There were some other tourists who decided to pet the mountain goat, but we did not let Buddy.

We made it about half way before Punky had an emergency and we sprint-walked back to the gift shop.  Punky decided against a snow globe and ended up with a rainbow tie dye teddy bear with a Mount Rushmore shirt.  Buddy chose a plush mountain goat that he insisted on naming "Horny".  Derek and I tried to convince him to name it something like Abe or Linc.  The only response we got from Buddy was, "His name is Horny!"  What's a parent to do?  We sat around for about 20 minutes before we decided not to hike any further.  Poor girl was having pretty bad stomach cramps.

We continued on with our plans and drove through Iron Mountain Road, Custer State Park and the Wildlife Loop and Needles Highway.  Looking back, it was probably not the best of ideas since there was no bathrooms in site.  But, to me, this is the Black Hills.  No trip would be complete without these scenic drives.  On our first day, Buddy exclaimed, "I am so excited for the Black Hills!  And I don't even know what the Black Hills is!"  Well, this is the Black Hills, Buddy.  (Although he was still confused because the trees were green).

We had a picnic lunch literally on the side of the road.  Punky's stomach issues continued and we stopped a good 5 or 6 times on the side of the road.  Luckily, I found some napkins in Grandma's van.  Punky tried to nap for the rest of the drive.

All of the souvenir buddies had to join the picnic too!

Our first animal sighting was the buffalo herds.  We also saw pronghorns, deer, and prairie dogs.  And of course, the famous begging burros were there too!

Both times we visited the Hills with the kids, we find a single burro or small group first.  We feed and pet him and decide to move on and find more.  Then we find a huge herd who is rough and pushy.  We get scared for our kids and end up leaving quickly before they get knocked over.

We did a teeny bit of "rock climbing" at the Needles Highway before driving back to our hotel for dinner and swimming.  One more post about our drive home and then our vacation recap will be complete!