The next day of our trip was full of fun, wildlife, and weather. During the night a big thunderstorm came through and soaked everything. By six that morning, however, the clouds were gone and it was a nice day. I decided to continue with my running schedule and go for a jog. The area was so nice to run in. On the back side of our campground was a forest. As I was running through the forest I was running with the deer. It was so exhilarating and exciting to be trail running with the wildlife right next to me. As I was running back to camp, I saw a deer lying down in the brush. I didn't want to scare it but as I got closer the deer jumped up and ran away. I noticed that the deer was bloody and an umbilical cord was coming out of it. (Sorry for the graphics but I thought it was cool.) This deer had just had a baby. I felt so bad for scaring it away from its baby that I called after it to come back and get its baby. I looked in the bushes where I thought the baby might be but I couldn't see anything. I decided to leave the area and the deer alone so that I didn't get trampled by a protective mama deer and in hopes that she would come back and get the baby. I ran a little ways down the road to a picnic table where I sat for a few minutes and just watched the mama deer to see if she would go back. While watching I noticed that there were two other does circling area and the mama deer kind of watching over her and helping her. I was amazed and wondered if deer have sort of like "deer midwives" when they have their babies just to keep watch. The two does were kind of eyeballing me like telling me to go away. So I decided I would leave them alone and head back to camp. I don't know if the mama deer ever went back for the baby but I assume (and hope) she did. Talk about up close and personal with nature!
Anyway while getting ready for the day and eating breakfast, the storm clouds re-appeared and started it raining again. We were bummed because we did not want to spend our vacation stuck in the trailer because of rain. We decided we would drive around and see the area rather than wait around at camp. We packed a lunch and got in the cars and headed to the reservation office to pay for our stay. While we were paying and talking to the people about the local attractions, the sun came out again and the clouds disbursed. We were so glad for the sun that we decided to hit the Flintstones Theme Park now while the weather was good.
This park was really fun for the kids. The park is set up just like Bedrock in the old Flintstones cartoons. It including all of the rock houses, dinosaurs, cars, and characters from the cartoons. The kids had a blast running to each exhibit and playing on everything.
And of course Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were there to meet us:
There were many photo ops and booths for us to pose with too. Logan loved riding on Dino and Colby showed us his strength as he tried to lift the giant dinosaur bone.
The first thing we did was ride on the train that went around the whole park. The train conductor gave us a little tour and told us all about the park and the fun things there.
This picture shows some of the things we saw on our train ride. We saw dinosaurs, the rock houses of Bedrock, the playground, and then we stopped at Deadrock.
At Deadrock, we had a blast taking some funny pictures of each other. My favorite is the one of Emily trying to rob Chad at the bank. After taking a ton of pictures and laughing our heads off, we got back onto the train and headed back to Bedrock to play.
The Bedrock Sheriff welcomed us to Bedrock. The first house we came to was of course Fred and Wilma Flintstone's.
We enjoyed looking inside their home and "riding" in their car. We also met Dino and Pebbles and Wilma and Betty. Next was Barney and Betty Rubble's house:
The Rubble's car was really fun to "ride" in too. I thought the inside of their house was really cute. I loved all of the detail including everything made out of rock and the picture on the mantle of Barney, Betty, and BamBam.
We watched the music/comedy show put on by Fred, Wilma, and Dino. The kids liked it. I am glad it was just our family in the theater though because my mom got a little crazy dancing along with the music. We were all laughing so hard I don't even remember what the show was about. When the show was over we went to see the rest of Bedrock. We stopped at the movie theater for free popcorn and a movie. The movie was the old Flintstones cartoons. It was fun to watch the cartoons and remember how funny they were. Too bad there are not any good cartoons like these on TV still. My kids liked watching the cartoons. Rather than spend the rest of the day watching cartoons, we headed back outside to see the rest of the town. Our first stop was Mount Rockmore:
We also saw the police station, fire station, butcher shop/grocery store, the fire station, telephone operator, dentist, car salesman, Order of the Water Buffalo Lodge, hair salon, and more. We had so much fun walking from building to building.
After seeing Bedrock, we headed to the playground where we got to go for an actual spin in the Flintstones car. Colby loved this and said it was his favorite part.
The playground was a great park for the kids. It was full of slides, swings, a train, and a big snake tunnel that Emily was afraid to go through.
There was even a big Dinosaur slide that we each took turns going down (and falling in the mud puddle at the bottom...).
We took one more spin in the Flintstones car before leaving the Flintstones Theme Park. It sure was a fun morning.
As soon as we left, the clouds came rolling back in and by the time we had finished lunch it started raining again. We decided now would be a good time to drive around and see the scenic sights. We drove around what is called the "Wildlife Loop" in Custer State Park. This was a beautiful drive despite all of the rain and hail. And yes we did see a bit of wildlife. (We probably would have seen more if it hadn't been raining but what can you do?)
Okay these two we did not see on the Wildlife Loop. We actually took a wrong road at first but lucky for us we did. On this wrong road we saw long horned cattle and drove right passed an elk and bison reserve just as the bison were coming down out of the trees to eat. There were so many buffalo and baby calves too. It was an awesome sight. There was one elk in this herd of bison and the buffalo didn't really care for her. One buffalo kept trying to chase the elk away. It was cool to watch.
We finally got on the right road and drove around the Wildlife Loop. We saw even more bison and this time right on the side of the road, right next to the car door! I could have pet its head as we drove by but instead I took a picture!
We also saw the wild burrow herd from a distance. These burrows have been known to come right up to your car and stick their head in your window and beg for food! Too bad we were too far away, that would have been cool. We also saw a lot of deer and antelope. On the side of the road was this mama antelope and her twin fawns. We stopped and watched these babies for a few minutes and it was so funny. The babies just ran around chasing each other like they were playing tag. Then they would run back to their mom and pretend to eat and then they were off running again. It totally reminded me of my kids. They never sit still for very long. It was so fun to watch.
On our way back to camp, we drove passed this old fort and decided to stop and check it out:
I think the fort was called Fort Custer but I am not sure. The little houses were really cool to look inside but I cannot imagine living in them. The fort and houses were used but the immigrant workers that came to the Black Hills to find gold. Under one of the eaves was a bird nest with little baby birds inside. They were cool to see to and we added another animal to our wildlife sightings. There is a funny story that goes along with this stop at the fort. We saw the fort from the road so we decided really quickly to stop. The Hughes turned down this road that looked like it led to the fort. We started to follow until we realized that the road was a little small for a normal road. Then we saw the entrance sign near another road and took that way followed by my parents. When we reach the parking lot, the Hughes got out of their car laughing because they had just driven down the bike trail instead of the road! They were so embarrassed when the person on the bike laughed as he told them. We all cracked up and that was a running joke for the rest of the trip. Anytime we turned down an unmarked road we would ask over the walkies-talkies if this was a bike path.
We headed back to camp to eat dinner and then went out for ice cream at the Purple Pie Palace. The ice cream was so good. Then it was off to bed after an eventful day.
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