Day 8: Prairie Dogs, Buffalo, and Burros...Oh my!

Start: Rapid City, SD
End: Denver, CO
Miles Driven: 453.6 (2785.4 total)

We began the beautiful, sunny, 58-degree day at Mt Rushmore. It was truly an amazing sight--so much more impressive in person than we had imagined. It was also eerily quiet; we were literally the only tourists there! We walked the Presidential Trail, a beautiful half-mile walkway around the memorial, and took lots of pictures. December is definitely the time to be a tourist in the Midwest.

Our next stop was Custer State Park. The park is host to the world's largest herd of free-roaming buffalo, so we decided to drive the Wildlife Loop to see what we could see. After a few miles without wildlife, we were getting pretty disappointed, when we came across several buffalo just lounging by the side of the road. As we continued on our way, we were stopped by a group of burros who had situated themselves in the middle of the road. We were at a standstill, until the burros started to approach the car. We had no choice but to wait for them to lick their fill of salt off our car and lose interest before we could travel on.
After seeing a coyote, prairie dogs and deer, we set out for Colorado. Driving through Wyoming was breathtaking. We saw miles and miles of rolling hills, distinctive buttes and the Laramie Mountains.

We made it to Colorado in time to see the sun set over the Rockies and the sky's many colors lasted long after the sun had disappeared. In Denver, we found a city lit up with holiday lights. We took a few hours to explore the city by night before heading to our hotel to rest up for daytime adventures.