SoDak

We said gbye to Yellowstone and took a deep breathe as we faced a 9 hr drive to our next camping spot in the Black Hills.  It’s all fun and games until its 3pm and you are pretty wiped from all day hiking and geiser facials, no time to relax, get your butt in that drivers seat and go!

By the way, Michael is a killah cook and has been whipping together treats for us, like these salmon grilled cheeses. Ooooeee!





We did 4 hours straight through, our plan was to make it to another national Forrest and take an evening hike.  Timing didn’t work out as planned, so instead it was a 5 minute stretch and switch of drivers, thank you, Michael.  I got Noah ready for bed and hoped he would sleep through as we drove the rest of the way in the dark.  He did great, until we stopped for gas an hour outside of our campsite and proceeded to have a full blown meltdown.  It’s not all made for Instagram!!  We rolled into camp at around 1am.  Michael is a champ.


We woke up at Sheriden Lake in South Dakota, it’s SO fun and completely bizarre to get somewhere in pitch black and meet your new surroundings in the morning.  I love it.  I had no idea what to expect from SD, but we had our only full day here so I was pumped to be out of the camper.  We ventured into Keystone to feel the lay of the land, and this land feels very VERY different from our little liberal bubble in SF or NY.  


We were conflicted on our feelings seeing Mt Rushmore for the first time.  There’s a lot to unpack there, but at least we got a great shot from the top of the camper. 




Because we were right by Mt Rushmore, we were also surrounded with Trump stores, little pop up merch shops, peppering the streets.  I know it was a tourist zone and I am aware T was here a few weeks ago to shoot off fireworks and spew his hatred, but the reality of all these tourist shops was they were hawking T merch, and not in the ironic way I am used to in our city where a red hat will read “Make America Gay Again”, ah SF...you’re so cheeky.  


We stopped at a brewery next to a stream and were the only ones who wanted to sit outside, more rocking chairs for us!  Noah was not feeling the photo shoot. 





I turned a blind eye to see beyond that BS and we got off the tourist path and into the crazy beautiful nature SD offers up.  This was one of my favorite hikes so far.  It’s pretty wonderful to know that just around the corner from a strong dose of propaganda sits epic nature and beauty.  Maybe a metaphor for life?!  Ohh, she deep. 









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