Getting on/off a motorcoach; driving about 110 miles throughout the duration of the day, approximately 3 hours with numerous schedules stops. Getting on/off horses; trail ride approximately 1 hour; long pants and boots or tennis shoes required for horseback riding; riding helmets supplied. Walking about 1/2 mile.
In one of the Lodge dining rooms, have a great breakfast and choose what you like from the buffet with rotating main dishes, hot and cold cereals, waffles with fruit topping, hard-boiled eggs, pastries, bagels, yogurt, fruit, milk, juices, coffee, tea, water.
We’ll board a motorcoach and kick off our Black Hills adventure with our Group Leader on a field trip to Custer State Park led by our expert Group Leader. The park covers more than 71,000 acres full of mountains, plains, forests, and wildlife — one of the Top 10 places for wildlife in the world! — and was sacred to Native American people. Especially for kids: We'll stop first at the Visitor Center and explore interactive exhibits to learn about the Park's history, mysteries, landscapes, and wildlife. We'll then hop back on the motorcoach and ride along Wildlife Loop road to look for wild bison (buffalo), burros, prairie dogs, elk, white tail deer, and more.
Enjoy a self-selected boxed lunch provided by the Lodge that will include a sandwich or wrap, chips, fruit, cookie and water.
At the end of the loop, we’ll "cowboy up" and ride horses on a trail with experienced wranglers. We’ll then return to the Lodge.
Lodge buffet.
Especially for kids: At the Lodge, we’ll have a fun, hands-on activity to set the stage for our Mount Rushmore field trip tomorrow. We’ll learn how sculptor Gutzon Borglum made small scale models to plan how he would blast and carve huge images out of the mountain. We’ll team up with our families and work together to create our own scale drawing of Mount Rushmore.