Monday, Sept. 2, 2013 - Mt. Rushmore and Keystone Visit

Another cool night for sleeping, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before leaving for our planned day of visiting Mt. Rushmore today. Beforehand, I was taking the dogs for a walk and met another couple that was horse camping a few sites down (the only other ones here, they had come in late Saturday from Sundance, WY), and they told me the best trail in the area (in SD, actually) was the George S. Mickelson Trail. A rails-to-trails project that extends 100 miles, there's a trail fee of $2 / day, which we'd normally avoid, but the surface is crushed rock and the grade doesn't exceed 3%, so at this point, it seems quite appealing. Not sure what our options are for staying here, but that information certainly provided us with some incentive, something else I need to research after our visit to Mt. Rushmore. I wanted to see the rest of the exhibits I missed from the other day, and also so Hubby could see them too. Unfortunately, his back was hurting a bit after yesterday's rough ride, so he didn't enjoy walking around the exhibits as much as we would have liked, but we did sit for awhile during a video presentation which was interesting. After we had seen enough, we headed down to Keystone for some ice cream and coffee and to get enough of a cell phone signal to check the internet for possible solutions to our accommodations problem. After looking at the weather again, and seeing it's going to be well into the mid-90's at our next stop in Nebraska, we decided to try to find a local private horse camp, and quickly did locate one south of Custer City that was reasonably priced. Not cheap, but less per night than here, and at least they had water and corrals! Not sure how many days we'll stay there, depends on weather and whether we like the trail or not. Love the flexibility of this lifestyle! Cruising with the weather! Got back to camp, and once again enjoyed a quick drop in temperature once the sun set.