The whole reason for our trip to South Dakota was Uncle Steve’s 70th birthday. He and Aunt Laurie had no idea that all of the kids and grandkids were coming, and we built a pretty packed Black Hills vacation around the surprise.
Mount Rushmore at dusk, a few hours before the mountain was illuminated.
Friday, July 31 — Getting to South Dakota
Lily, Dylan, and I flew out of Fort Lauderdale on Friday and connected through DFW.
That was where the first surprise of the trip happened: we met up with the Kilker family — Julie, Cletus, Maddox, Cash, and Quinn — and the kids had no idea their cousins were going to be there. They were thrilled, and the cousins got to sit together for the flight from Dallas to Rapid City.
The travel itself was mostly smooth, although Rapid City gave us a slightly annoying welcome. After landing, we sat on the taxiway for probably 30–45 minutes because there wasn’t a gate available for us.
Once we finally escaped the airport, I took Lily and Dylan to Dinosaur Park in Rapid City. We took a bunch of pictures, and the kids climbed and hung all over the giant old concrete dinosaurs overlooking the city.
From there we stopped at Safeway to stock up on food for the cabin and then drove into Custer State Park to Blue Bell Lodge, where we were staying.
We didn’t waste much time settling in. That evening we headed out on the Wildlife Loop as the sun was setting. We saw prairie dogs, a herd of the famous begging burros, and — most impressively — a herd of bison.
The bison got very close to the car. I was considerably less enthusiastic about that than the kids were. They thought it was fantastic.
I had brought my Sony A6500, and the kids took a ton of pictures as we drove around. Between the wildlife, sunset, and Black Hills scenery, it was a pretty spectacular introduction to South Dakota.
Saturday, August 1 — Sylvan Lake, Wind Cave, and the Big Surprise
Saturday morning started around the cabins with the cousins hanging out and having their own little photography contest with my camera. They took a bunch of surprisingly cute pictures of each other before we headed out for the day.
Our first real destination was Sylvan Lake. The whole crew — my kids and me, Julie and Cletus with Maddox, Cash, and Quinn, and my sister Jaime and her husband Alex — did the roughly one-mile loop around the lake.
The kids climbed around on the enormous granite rocks, we checked out the dam, played with a friendly dog we met along the way, and generally just had a really nice family morning together.
Sylvan Lake is ridiculously photogenic, so naturally we came away with even more pictures.
Afterward, Lily, Dylan, and I drove up to Mount Coolidge Lookout. We climbed the stairs around the fire tower at the summit and took in the views before continuing south.
We met back up with the Kilkers at Wind Cave National Park. Unfortunately, all of the cave tours for the day were already sold out, but the visitor center was still really interesting. We explored that and drove around the park, where we saw plenty more bison and other wildlife.
That evening was finally time for the big reveal.
Uncle Steve and Aunt Laurie were at the lodge, completely unaware that the rest of the family had traveled to South Dakota for Steve’s 70th birthday. Everyone snuck in and surprised him.
The moment Uncle Steve realized this wasn’t going to be a quiet birthday trip.
We had a little surprise and welcome party at the lodge and then continued hanging out back at Jaime’s cabin.
Later, Nana and Pop Pop — my mom and dad — took the kids out for another drive around the Wildlife Loop since it was their first night in Custer.
Sunday, August 2 — Rush Mountain, Rushmore Cave, and Shooting Stars
Sunday was basically an entire day at Rush Mountain Adventure Park with the Kilkers.
We originally went because we wanted to ride an alpine coaster. We accomplished that goal and then some. The kids rode it over and over again, and Cletus and I got our turns in too.
We also rode the park’s two-person zip line and spent time in the 7D interactive shooting ride, which the kids absolutely loved.
Before our cave tour, we drove into Keystone and grabbed Mexican food for lunch. Then, at 2 p.m., we toured Rushmore Cave.
The cave was fantastic — and at a constant temperature of around 57 degrees, it was also a very welcome break from the summer heat. We got to explore the formations, learn about the cave, and, naturally, take plenty more photos.
By the end of Rush Mountain we were pretty toasted, but the day wasn’t actually over.
Later, Dylan and I went by ourselves to the Custer State Park Visitor Center. We took some pictures, explored a bit, and Dylan played on the little rock-climbing wall there.
Then, around 9:30 or 10 that night, Lily, Dylan, and I drove back up to Mount Coolidge Lookout for something completely different: stargazing.
We hung out on top of the mountain under the dark Black Hills sky and even managed to catch a few shooting stars. It was a quiet and pretty perfect ending to an otherwise very busy day.
Monday, August 3 — Horses, Hot Springs, Mammoths, and a Chuck Wagon
Monday may have been the most action-packed day of the trip.
We started with a one-hour horseback trail ride with Nana and Pop Pop, Julie and Cletus and their kids, and Lily, Dylan, and me.
The kids were all a little nervous at first. For most of them, it was their first time actually riding a horse on their own. But the horses were great, everyone settled in quickly, and the ride went perfectly.
The trail took us through some beautiful Black Hills countryside, past rock cliffs, and across a stream twice. One of my favorite little moments happened when one of our trail leaders hopped off her horse, picked a wild raspberry, and gave it to Dylan to eat.
From there we drove south to Hot Springs and spent a few hours at Evans Plunge, the huge spring-fed swimming pool.
The kids had an absolute ball. We did the water slides, sat in the sauna and steam room, and generally bounced around the whole place. The kids also invented — or at least adopted — something they called “ski-ski,” which involved folding the swimming mats in half and using them to fly down the water slides as fast as possible.
Afterward, it was just Lily, Dylan, and me for a little Hot Springs adventure. We stopped at Two Cows Creamery for BLTs and ice cream.
While we were sitting there, we asked ChatGPT what else we should do in Hot Springs and discovered that the Mammoth Site was right nearby. So we decided to go.
That spontaneous decision turned into one of the coolest stops of the trip.
We watched the introductory movie explaining how the site was discovered and then walked through the enormous active excavation area. We saw mammoth tusks and bones still sitting exactly where they had been found, along with archaeologists actively working on the site.
Then Dylan had to poop.
This turned out to be surprisingly fortuitous.
Finding the bathroom took us downstairs, where we discovered additional fossils and artifacts displayed behind glass in an area that wasn’t really part of the main advertised tour. We weren’t somewhere we weren’t supposed to be — it just felt like we’d stumbled into a little hidden corner of the museum. Some of the archaeologists came downstairs while we were there and said hello.
On the drive back north through Wind Cave National Park, we spotted coyotes and managed to get some photos and video of them.
And somehow Monday still wasn’t finished.
That evening the whole family did the famous Blue Bell Lodge Chuck Wagon Cookout. We climbed aboard the wagons for about a 45-minute ride through the hills as the sun started getting low. One of our guides, Keith, a South Dakota musician, played guitar along the way.
At the cookout site we had steaks, the kids had burgers, and musicians played while everyone ate. The sun went down over the Black Hills, we took a bunch of family pictures, and everyone just got to sit around together.
It was a pretty great ending to a ridiculously full day.
Tuesday, August 4 — Dinosaurs, the 1880 Train, Keystone, and Mount Rushmore
Tuesday started with me taking Lily, Dylan, and the three Kilker kids up to Hill City.
Our first stop was the Black Hills Institute Museum. The museum has casts of famous dinosaurs such as Stan and Sue, but what really impressed us was how much genuine fossil material they had — including things the kids could actually touch.
We saw dinosaur eggs, fossilized dinosaur skin, and all kinds of other specimens. The kids also played in a little sandbox excavation area where they could uncover buried bones.
And then there was the gift shop.
We spent a lot of time in the gift shop.
The big prize was Dylan finding a huge, genuine mastodon tooth. He brought it home and was extremely excited to now own an actual piece of a prehistoric animal.
Afterward, everyone was hungry, so I took the kids to a pizza place on the main strip in Hill City and we split a cheese pizza.
Then we met up with the larger family group for the 1880 Train.
This time we had a big crew: Julie and Cletus, Nana and Pop Pop, Steve and Laurie, Eric and Courtney, the kids, and everyone else. We rode from Hill City to Keystone in one of the open-air cars.
The ride was relaxing and beautiful. We saw a bunch of deer, heard plenty of train whistles, and near the end of the trip the locomotive released a huge cloud of steam as it prepared to pull into the station. The kids thought that was fantastic.
We didn’t have much time in Keystone before the return train, so we basically turned around and rode straight back to Hill City.
Then, somewhat amusingly, we all got back into our cars and drove right back to Keystone.
We had some time to kill before Mount Rushmore, so the Gennari clan wandered around downtown Keystone, checked out the gift shops, and eventually had dinner at a cool old-timey restaurant with a saloon next door. The kids all ordered their own meals and shared sides, and Nana and Pop Pop joined us afterward to sit around and talk.
And because apparently vacation rules require ice cream at every possible opportunity, we got ice cream afterward. At this point we were starting to joke about just how much ice cream everyone had eaten over the course of the trip.
Finally, around dusk, we drove up to Mount Rushmore.
This was a big one. None of us had ever seen it before, and seeing Mount Rushmore was one of the main reasons Uncle Steve wanted to come to South Dakota in the first place.
We arrived with enough daylight left to get a clear first look at the mountain. Everyone spent a while just taking it in and, of course, taking a ton of pictures.
The whole crew together at Mount Rushmore.
We browsed the gift shop and then headed into the exhibit area beneath the main viewing terrace. We saw some of the tools and equipment used during the carving of the mountain and watched the roughly 20-minute film about Mount Rushmore’s creation.
That timed out almost perfectly with the start of the 9 p.m. evening program.
That night’s presentation featured Thomas Jefferson before expanding into the stories of the presidents, Mount Rushmore, and the broader ideas the memorial is meant to represent.
Then they illuminated the mountain.
Seeing Rushmore lit up against the night sky, surrounded by the whole family, was a fitting centerpiece for a trip that had really been organized around getting everyone there together.
We took our nighttime pictures and eventually made the drive back through the Black Hills to Blue Bell.
Wednesday, August 5 — One Last Morning and the Flight Home
Wednesday was deliberately easy.
While I packed up the cabin, the kids went out with the Kilkers for one last drive around the Wildlife Loop.
Afterward, Lily, Dylan, and I stopped at Legion Lake Lodge for breakfast before finally saying goodbye to Custer State Park and driving back to Rapid City.
We met up with the Kilkers again at the airport and flew together to Dallas.
Even the flight home managed to give us one last story.
On approach to DFW, our airplane got too close to the slower aircraft ahead of us, so the pilots performed a go-around. It was the first time I’d ever experienced one. We climbed back out, came around again, and landed normally on the second attempt.
At DFW, the kids grabbed Chick-fil-A while the adults sat around eating appetizers, talking about the trip, and stretching out the last bit of our time together.
Eventually it was time for the goodbyes.
The Kilkers headed their way, and Lily, Dylan, and I boarded our final flight back to Fort Lauderdale.
After six days of bison, horses, caves, dinosaurs, mammoths, trains, mountains, water slides, shooting stars, ice cream, and an absurd number of photographs, our South Dakota adventure was over.
And somewhere in the middle of all of it, we managed to surprise Uncle Steve for his 70th birthday — which was the whole reason we were there in the first place.
You can see the rest of the photos in the full South Dakota album.