Day 2, Part 2

After a quick lunch and refuel for the cars we parted from grandma & grandpa and carried on with our action packed day. Somewhere in the heart of the Black Hills National Forest is Rushmore cave. It was dug out by prospectors looking for gold (there never was any), then re-discovered by teenagers as well as the rest of the small town. It was a thing in the 20's to go in and carve messages on the wall of this one room. Later, a geologist came and further explored resulting in the cave that is today. It is now a 1/2 mile guided hike down into the cave. This was fun. My second favorite part of the day. Jake loved it. Small, dark, confined spaces, right up his alley. If they would have let him, he would have gladly ventured through the lesser explored spaces and probably gotten lost. This would not have bothered him at all. I would like to note how much I LOVE my husband for carrying the baby through this cave.

Some of the 80 or so pictures

The drive and scenery were pretty
Entrance to the property
Going down into the cave
This man is wonderful.

The original entrance hole
Jake in his element


Near the top of the path, quite far up with not much for safety

Coming down
My Elle
A column ruined by human hands. It will not grow anymore.
'Ribbons'

The pig's face
Another unexplored hole

Climbing back out

This was really fun despite the sometimes steep stairs and super narrow paths. And for the record, clumbsy me didn't fall! I did, however, manage to hit my head on headache rock while looking behind me to tell people to be careful it was slippery. I love my husband. Even if he did laugh really hard at me.