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For
a while it was pretty void of wildlife. A buffalo here, some
pronghorns there. Andrea found some firm evidence of buffalo
presence though, so we knew they had been here recently!
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Soon
we were 1/2 way through the loop and we spotted prairie dogs.
Those things are pretty darn cool. Makes you wish you had a 22
long rifle around though. :) Danielle walked up close to some pronhorn
deer, and as you can see below, Vic moved in on our 2nd group of
Buffalo we saw. We had seen some buffalo up at a small airport
along the road as well.
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Well,
thinking we had seen plenty of buffalo (2 groups, 15 and 18), we
completed the loop and headed up towards Mt. Rushmore. We didn't
know what was in store for us. Suddenly we ran into a mob of wild
donkeys. They were very gentle and prety cool to see. One was too
busy sleeping while standing up, and we gave him a rude awakening, but
he was very passive. Here you can see they were sticking their
noses everywhere.
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Holy
moly!!! We hit the motherload of buffalo now!!! We came around a
corner and there were a couple of groupings of buffalo there, hanging
out in a field, rolling in the dirt, and walking all over the road. The
2nd group was clearly enroute to something...and I bet we saw well over
100 buffalo in this one area. They just kept coming and coming,
walking right past our car, and people on motorcycles. We then
saw what it was they were heading towards. Apparently it was open
swim day at the buffalo pool, so they were walking down for a little
buffalo skinny dipping.
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With
the buffalo excitement behind us we started driving again towards
Rushmore. Along the way we started seeing it in the
distance. It is amazing how far away you can see it. We
went to a neighboring mountaintop and shot some photos, and with a good
zoom you could see them like you were right there. It was also
worth it because you got a straight horizontal view of them, whereas
when you are actually at the monument you're always looking UP instead
of across. We took lots of opportunities to take some photos of
the gang.
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We
saw Rushmore and watched a really lame video while we were there. They
have a great cafeteria though. They wouldn't let us go inside the
mountain to see the City of Gold, as depicted in the movie "National
Treasure 2". I think they must have been worried that we'd steal
some. ;) We stopped by sylvan lake, a very cool and
clear mountain lake with a beach and cool rocks, and let the kids
swim. Then it was on to our most fun stop of the day...the
entrance of the Needles Highway. This road has some incredible
scenery, and as you get to where the "Needles" start, there is a tunnel
and lots of rocks you can climb around. The kids loved playing in
the many passageways of the rocks. Very neat indeed.
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Arriving
back at the hotel, we decided to climb the hill out back, just to get a
better look at things.
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