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Like I mentioned last week, my brother and I spent 10 days traveling out west in Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota (and drove through Nebraska as well), so I thought I’d share some of that with you, beyond the individual posts that I’m doing about some of the hikes!
The first few days we stayed with some friends in Colorado, which was great because we could hike during the day and they would have dinner ready to go when we got back! We had some fun shooting a pellet gun at a sign on their property- each night we had to “shoot for dessert” and couldn’t have dessert until we got a hit!
Aren’t the views from their house amazing?
We enjoyed some beautiful sunsets and campfires (along with great conversation!) each evening!
We started the morning with huge breakfasts of potatoes (or hasbrowns), eggs, bacon, and fruit, along with french press coffee.
Besides two hikes that I’ll share more about (Palmer Lakes and Pikes Peak Incline) , we also hiked Spruce Mountain (in Larkspur, Colorado) the morning that we left, and got some final, beautiful views of Colorado!
If you’re in the area and looking for a relatively easy and beautiful trail, this 1.8 mile round trip trail is a great one!
Besides the hikes I’ll be sharing more about in South Dakota, we also did some touristy things. I’m actually shocked that the Rapid City area has quite so much to do. Even being there a week I felt like I still had a long list of things we could’ve done!
Of course we went to Mount Rushmore, and enjoyed looking at the carvings before walking the Presidential Trail there. I was expecting to be underwhelmed by it, but I was actually REALLY impressed, especially as I learned more about how they actually got the faces there.
We went to Crazy Horse, which wasn’t so impressive as it’s still in the early stages of being worked on. I definitely would say that it wouldn’t be worth it to pay to see it, as you can see it almost as well from the road.
On the day that we went to the Badlands, we also stopped by Wall Drug, which I was definitely impressed with! There are a ton of stores there, some delicious food (we got donuts and 5 cent coffee there), and enjoyed taking some pictures. They also have a splash pad there that kids were loving! A trip to Wall Drug is definitely necessary, especially since there are a ridiculous amount of signs out there pointing to it!
I found another buffalo there!
One afternoon we headed out to a little “mountain lake” and beach with a group of people, and enjoyed time standing around in the water talking. I didn’t take pictures of it, but it was definitely the most beautiful lake I’ve ever been to!
There is an air force base out in Rapid City that was having an air show one of the weekends, so we enjoyed going out there to see several planes!
But most of all, even with the beautiful nature I saw, hikes I had, and fun netflix shows at night, I enjoyed seeing my friends and brother the most. It’s a trip that’s been hard to adjust back from, for sure. I didn’t know much about South Dakota before this trip, but I would absolutely go out to the Rapid City area again!
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever taken a trip “out west” before? What’s been your favorite thing to do or see out in the mountain region there?
I have never really been out west, but boy I want to go.
I bet you would love it! There are some crazy places to run with amazing views 🙂
[…] is another post from my trip out West! When we headed out to Custer State Park, I didn’t know what they had for hiking, but I knew […]
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