Had another great night of sleep, camper was at 74 as it was warmer when we went to bed, all windows were closed and we had some fans on to help make some white noise and keep air circulating. Plus, we were all tired from our long hike. It’s going to be a nice day today. Oh, and I had to run the black water tank flush today, emptying it didn’t work quite well as something got stuck and nothing was coming out, plus the smell in the bathroom from it being open and not moving was pretty bad. I plugged the extra hose on the flush and ran it, and it soon started flowing again. I’ll let it run for a while now to clean it up good, and put some Omo in there too and close the plug again. That did the trick, all clean and no smell.
We had a slower start day, decided we needed to get some groceries as we ran out of milk and bread, and also get some hiking shoes for the kids at least, and I had to get the AT&T hotspot fixed, so we got ready and went to town. We hit Walmart first, then while Carol and Bia stayed at Walmart, Bella and I walked to the AT&T store as they opened at 11 and I wanted to be there first thing. We had a nice walk together, we were talking the whole way, love those moments. We had about a 20 min walk, and got there right after they opened so I got helped right away, It took the guy about 45 mins to figure out that there was a data block on the line, and that’s why everything looked right but nothing worked. Oh well, it’s fixed.
I then met Carol and the girls at a department store called Scheels (I think), they got nice hiking shoes but I didn’t get any as they didn’t have my size with Wides. Carol and the girls got new hiking shoes, as you can see in the picture above 🙂
We went back, ate lunch and got ready to go back to Custer State Park, this time to hike the Cathedral Spires Trail. The drive there took about an hour, it was a bit busy and we lucked out again on parking, finding one person leaving as we were passing the last close spot.
The hike was really nice, it was about 2.5 miles total and the temp was warm but not too hot, with some breeze. Bia was feeling the heat a bit more, and as we were getting to the top she was getting a headache, and said she felt her heart beating on her thumb. We were going uphill, so it was quite a bit of work.
Bella was doing fine, but complaining a bit she wanted to be done. Once we made a deal with them both that if we finished the trail they could get some TV time and electronics, Bella took off like she was a hiking pro. Hahahaha… we had to keep up with her.
Bia was slower and surely feeling the heat and maybe some dehydration from the prior days yet, so I kept with her and made sure she drank some water every few minutes.
The views on this trail are amazing, you see the needles all over, the valley, etc. Lots of pointy rocks (the needles) forming the mountain with a forrest around it, it’s very cool.
We finished that trail with no problems and everyone was good, and even though Bia was a bit feeling it she said she still liked it.
From there we drove towards the Wildlife Loop road, which was about 17 miles, but took about 45 minutes due to slow roads and traffic. The drive is via the Needles Highway, so it’s a beautiful drive anyway. As soon as we got the Wildlife Loop road there is a ranger post where you pay to get in, if you’re not already in Custer State Park, and since we already had the sticker we kept going.
Right there though there were some Buffalos. And then right after that a herd of Buffalos was way in the back in the fields, it was very nice to see. Carol will post a video with this. The scenery changed to plains kind of, it was more like grassland and ups and downs, no forrest or mountains. The view was amazing. We drove on that road for at least 45 mins and saw more buffalo, deer, some other animals and amazing views.
I definitely recommend that drive, both for the views and for the chances to see the wild animals close and far. That concluded our activities for the day. We got back, cleaned up, Carol made some pizza on the grill, using a specific tortilla for the crust, and it was awesome! She’ll probably do a quick video of it. It was delicious, easy, quick and left almost no dishes to clean up. Perfect for camping.