Our Road Trip from TX > CO > NE > SD > ND > MT > WY

Mainly, Our Road Trip to Mount Rushmore

My sister, dad, grandma & I all took a trip from Pueblo, CO up to Rapid City, South Dakota where we planned to see Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Badlands National Park (which was my favorite). We stayed at the Baymont by Wyndham in Rapid City. It was quite nice – great free breakfast & it was actually the only place that would allow dogs that was available for the timeframe we were traveling. Nitrous did great, by the way. He’s come to love road trips because he knows he’s going to get lots of play time while we’re traveling. This was actually his third road trip to Colorado!

We got to see Mount Rushmore during the day and in the evening, about 45-60 minutes past sunset, during blue hour (when the sky is deep blue). Both times were great – we had awesome weather and I enjoyed photographing the monument during both times.

Crazy Horse was interesting, it’s been in the works of being carved for the last 72 years and counting. Super neat to see though and I respect the work that’s gone into it. It isn’t government funded, which is one reason why it’s taken so long to create & sculpt.

Post South Dakota

Other than driving through the Black Hills in South Dakota, we decided to take a look into North Dakota & Montana, which was only 3 hours north of where we were in SD. I thought, why not check those states off the list too?! For those that know, I love to check new states & countries off my endless travel bucket list. After stopping for pictures in each state and grabbing lunch and coffee, we went down to NE Wyoming, which was beautiful. I loved the hills and all the trees.

On our way back to SD, we stopped at Devil’s Tower, which was super cool. It’s basically a giant rock formation sticking out of the ground. You can do one of two hikes, depending on how far you’d like to walk. Since it was close to sunset & we had grandma with us, we decided not to do a hike, but it was still worth the visit.

My favorite part was our last day in the north, where we drove through Badlands National Park. I thought it was like the Grand Canyon of the north – super beautiful, great for photos at any time of day. I say this because I really wanted to see it at sunrise or sunset, but we only could mid-day, and I still love the photos. On the way home, we stopped at Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska. I thought this place was super funny. It’s basically Stonehenge made of old cars and that’s where the maker got his inspiration. Good to stop for pictures – I only took my iPhone for these though. 😉

For those considering a road trip up north, I definitely recommend it. It was totally doable with three drivers. Just plan for lots of car time, plenty of stops along the way, and you’ll be golden!