Day 4, going home...We had such a great time in South Dakota and it is such a beautiful area that it was hard to leave. With a 12 hour drive in front of us we had to get a quick start in the morning. Jason and I woke up to some strange animal noises outside of our tent. By the time I opened the door I saw something running through the clearing next to us but didn't have my glasses on so I don't have any idea what it was (and I was happy about that - I like to think it was a happy little deer scampering about). Well we were awake so we broke down camp, had breakfast and finally woke the kids up around 7:30 so we could finish taking down camp. Even with the long drive ahead of us we couldn't resist taking the Needles Highway scenic route. I'm so glad we did, neither Jason or I could remember where we watched fireworks from one random 4th of July when we were out there and we figured it out when we stopped to see Mt Rushmore off in the distance, that is where we initially stopped all those years ago.
Piper and I got out of the car to explore the tunnel, she thought it was the coolest thing. Piper also was a little photographer on this trip. She initially had my old camera but ran out of memory space, then actually lost the camera. (I think it may have been stolen at the other campground). 

Driving down the backside of the mountain - at least you could kind of see tire tracks...
























