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Out of Boundaries

Pursuing the new American Dream.

national park

Visiting Wind Cave National Park

August 27, 2018

out of boundaries wind cave national park

Have you ever heard of Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota? I hadn’t until recently, despite having visited the Black Hills area extensively in the past. It’s easy to overlook this park with Mount Rushmore, Black Hills National Forest, Custer State Park and Badlands National Park hogging a lot of the attention in the area.

The main attraction of Wind Cave National Park is the cave, obviously. It’s the sixth-longest cave in the world and is known as the densest cave system on Earth. It’s a three-dimensional maze cave that extends over 600 feet deep, and 140+ miles have been mapped so far. Rangers told us that the above-ground surface area of the cave, though, is only about one square mile.

We heard the cave tours fill up fast so we made sure to get an early start (as early as you can with little children in tow). Interestingly enough, Tuesday and Wednesdays are their busiest times in the summer season. Of course, we went on a Tuesday. But we had no problem getting tickets on the Natural Entrance Tour. This is kind of the middle ground in the non-specialty tours in terms of length and how much of the cave you get to see. There’s no entrance fee for the park; that was a bit shocking, after seeing how much it costs to get into other national parks. Rather, they charge for the cave tours only, which is why 99% of people come to Wind Cave National Park (my statistic).

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Filed Under: National Parks Tagged With: black hills, national park, national parks, south dakota, wind cave

5 DAYS IN THE BADLANDS

August 20, 2018

out of boundaries badlands national park

We started our trip toward the Badlands on a national park “high” – having just visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park and knowing we also had future plans to visit Wind Cave National Park, we were right in the thick of our park-hopping experience when we descended on Badlands National Park.

We stayed at the nearby KOA which, unlike our stay at Teddy Roosevelt, allowed us to enter the park after only a 15-minute drive. This was obviously very convenient and, while the KOA had literally the worst cell signal we’ve had on this trip to date, it was otherwise very quiet and charming and we would certainly consider staying there again should we find ourselves back at the Badlands. And likely, we will.

We tried to plan our trip to the Badlands outside of the annual Sturgis Rally – not because we have anything against motorcyclists, but simply because we wanted to avoid the traffic – but long story short, we ended up staying there midway through the weeklong rally. Turns out, it was fine – we were far enough away from Sturgis to avoid the heavy crowds, but still close enough that we often found ourselves dining with leather vest-clad bikers (many of whom were very friendly). Sometimes, we had to pull over on the side of the road at the park to let a biker or few pass us by as they joyrode through, but no matter – it gave us more time to take in the expansive views of this mysterious, wild landscape.

Being on that aforementioned high, we had lofty expectations for this park. And we were not disappointed.

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Filed Under: National Parks Tagged With: badlands, national park, rv, travel

VISITING THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK

August 10, 2018

theodore roosevelt bison

Our visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park was our first trip to a U.S. national park as a family of four. Elliott visited the park previously, so when we planned our route for this summer, he insisted we make a stop there. Never having really explored North Dakota before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I trusted his zeal for our trip.

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Filed Under: National Parks Tagged With: bison, national park, theodore roosevelt, travel, wildlife

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Hello! We are Steph and Elliott. We live in a 27-foot RV with our two small children and travel the United States in pursuit of the new American Dream. To learn more about our story, click here.

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