Mt. Western Adventure

What's cuter than a box of puppies? A pen of bear cubs at Babyland in Bear Country, USA! Bear Country is a drive-through wildlife park in the Black Hills of South Dakota, on the way to Mt. Rushmore.


Mt. Rushmore is just as majestic as I had imagined it would be.



We had weather extremes there, from overcast to thunderstorms to hail to sunny and warm to a downpour within one hour.

Rapid City, well, no offense but it's not the most happening city I've ever been to. We noticed a weird quirk in waiters and waitresses there. Several times during meals at two different restaurants, the waiter or waitress asked us, "How's your dinner? Is the food still okay?" Is there something about Rapid City that causes food to suddenly go bad in the middle of a meal? We didn't experience that, but it seemed to be such a concern that we wondered.