We woke up a little late since we slept so good last night, guess we were more tired than we thought! Jon made us a yummy breakfast of what he called a wild rice pancake that included red peppers, egg and of course wild rice! We also enjoyed some really tasty vanilla honey yogurt with strawberries and some of his amazing bread toasted with honey. I just can't get enough of his incredible bread, we ate a whole loaf last night and another one this morning, it is SOOO good! We did some laundry and planned out our route to go visit Mt. Rushmore. John warned us that we may encounter buffalo in the middle of the road and as long as we didn't get between them and their young we should be fine, but to still be cautious. After we took all the bags off our bikes, we left around 12:20 and headed towards Custer Park, which is only 3 miles from the campground/Prairie Dog Bicycle Club Headquarters. We turned on Iron Mountain Road. What an incredible road to ride on. It was a curvy narrow road with rolling hills with trees all around, so much fun. After only being on Iron Mtn. Rd. for about a mile or two we came across a large group of buffalo that were standing right next to the road. We were very hesitant to ride by them because every time Joe moved a little closer one of the big ones stared him down. Because we didn't want to startle or get them mad and be chased by a buffalo (they can get up to 45 mph) we opted to just keep our distance and wait a little while. After about 10-15 minutes they decided to walk down the hill a little. We started moving around the corner/down the hill and they were fine, until all of a sudden they all started running in the same direction we were going. We stopped and then so did they. We were worried that they would run right out in front of us as we were going down the hill, but they stayed where they were and we were able to go by without a problem. It was absolutely amazing! As we continued riding down the road we saw more buffalo, but these ones weren't as close to the road and were busy eating. It is so hard to describe how awesome this road is to ride down. We road through a few small one lane tunnels which had a view of Mt. Rushmore as you looked through the tunnel, it was pretty neat. After a while, we found ourselves riding on switchbacks up a mountain. It was so much fun and the scenery was amazing. When we got to the top we could see Mt. Rushmore on the neighboring mtn. The ride down the other side of this Mtn. was probably my favorite ride I have ever riden, it was truely incredible. I feel that people in cars would have a hard time appreciating how truely amazing this road is. There were again a few switchbacks followed by amazing curves along the edge of the mountain and pigtail bridges. One of the pigtail bridges was right after we came out of a tunnel which was pretty sweet. There were also a couple spots where the lanes of the road divided so there were trees in between which was just so cool. After an incredible ride down the mtn. we made it to the road that went to Mt. Rushmore. We had a couple mile climb up to the monument which would have been a killer climb if our bikes were loaded. I was so excited once we got to the top. After taking some pictures, we enjoyed some of the jam cookies that Grandma had mailed to us while we sat and admired the presidents. Because we were worried about getting back after dark we only stayed about 30-45 mins before getting back on the road. With the exception of climbing back up the mountain with all of the pigtail bridges, etc (which we were excited for) most of the ride home was downhill. At one point there was a group of deer that decided to run right out in front of us, it was an amazing site to see and I wish I would have been able to get my camera out in time to get a pic of Joey riding with about 10-15 deer running across the road in front of him, it would have been an amazing shot. We also saw a few wild turkeys since there are a lot of those in this area too. When we got back to where we had our fist encounter with the buffalo this morning, there was a car that had just driven by the buffalos. We aren't sure if it was the car or us climbing the hill near the group that startle them, but whichever it was, they began to run up the hill right down the middle of the road. There was a sharp turn right at the top of the hill and when they reached the top, a minivan came around the corner and almost hit them. I can't imagine what it would be like to be driving around a corner and seeing a bunch of buffalos running towards you. It was actually kind of funny to watch because of that. The ride back to the campground was very quick. After what was probably the most incredible ride we had ever been on we returned around 6:30 and found a yummy dinner of turkey with veggies an wild rice, and of course more mouthwatering bread waiting for us. What an incredible day; now when people ask what our best day on the trip so far was we can tell them about today. We rode 43.33 miles going to Mt. Rushmore and back.
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