Earlier this spring, Beau and I started to toss around the idea of another big family road trip, this time out west. The kids and I did a National Parks project together during home-school. We watched a documentary about President Theodore Roosevelt and his legacy of helping to preserve 230 million acres of United States land for beauty and exploration. Then in a tent in our basement, over a little butane flame with some indoor s'mores, we all chose which national park we wanted to research and become experts on. Cruz chose Yellowstone and wrote his 3rd grade information essay on the sites, wildlife, and great things to do at our nation's very first national park.
It seemed like the perfect summer to embark on a national park road trip. The idea came together early summer and we looked forward to a nine-day road trip out to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. And what was most exciting about our trip was that we planned to "glamp" at Under Canvas right outside Yellowstone.
Fast forward to a week before our trip. I was on the porch checking emails and randomly received one from the third party site we had booked our tent site with informing us they had to cancel our stay. Everything was planned, Beau was in Des Moines for the next few days for work, and my first instinct was to say to hell with it all and stay home. I tried to rebound and find another place to stay out there, but everything was picked over and nothing felt the same as camping under the stars in a glamp tent. I'm an experience junkie and a Super 8 up the street just wasn't going to cut it for this trip.
I called Under Canvas and they were great. They offered us a complimentary night stay at any of their resorts in the future and apologized profusely for our inconvenience. And then she just happened to share that one of their newer sites, Under Canvas Mount Rushmore, randomly had an open tent the same week. She held it for me, gave me 24 hours to talk it over with Beau and make a decision. Less than an hour after our phone call, we were rerouting to South Dakota!
If I had to come up with twenty words to describe me, I can assure that spontaneous would not be one of them. It might not even make the top fifty. But when life happens and forces me to be a little spontaneous, I typically have a great time and make some of my favorite memories. And I just had a feeling South Dakota was going to do that for us. Beau and I had never been out there, we had heard so many stories of how much there was to do, and looked forward to having a shorter drive just before we had to transition to all things school. So I stowed away my carefully planned Yellowstone and Tetons itinerary for a later date and planned one epic South Dakota adventure instead.
And I kind of think we nailed it.
South Dakota blew our expectations out the window. It was gorgeous, there were so many unique landscapes to see and explore, and it all seemed to cater to the good old fashioned family road trip. We saw and did a lot, but had plenty of time to do nothing, too. And thanks to Under Canvas, we had a pretty great backdrop to just be together in nature before the busy of a hopeful school year returns.
Day 1 adventures...
We left bright and early with the sun on Monday morning and took our time to Keystone, South Dakota. We stopped in Sioux Falls for a yummy breakfast, then made quick pit stops at all the South Dakota "must sees." We found the Corn Palace to be a bit corny, and the free ice water at Wall Drug was slightly colder than luke warm.
We spent our first afternoon and night getting acquainted with our surroundings at Under Canvas. There were about 80 canvas tents spread throughout a large area tucked away in the woods just outside of Keystone. A large canvas tent served as the check in area, there was a big patio with an excellent view of Mount Rushmore, a full-service restaurant that served breakfast, box lunches, and dinner, and fire-pits with complimentary s'mores each night. There was a great mile hike around the perimeter of the property so we checked that out before getting settled in our tent.
Our tent came equipped with the most comfortable bed for Beau and I, a bathroom with a shower, and two cots for the kids. We had a wood-burning stove if we needed it for nights, but we were blessed to have about as good as it could get as far as weather was concerned. We wouldn't have been mad about lighting that little stove up, though!
Our nights "glamping" here were some of my favorite memories of our trip. We had dinner, brought our little s'mores kits down to the fire, Beau played guitar, and we waited for the stars to come out. Sometimes, we'd share our fire with other families and loved hearing their own adventures, too. Families a few steps ahead of us with a lot more National Park notches on their belts, families who have stayed at Under Canvases all over the country, families who were escaping big cities to find peace in the great outdoors.
Our first night in South Dakota...
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