We woke up and went gold panning. I didn’t find any gold but I did find some quartz.  I got lots muddy and had a blast washing the rocks in the ice cold river water.

Next, we  caught water insects for the junior naturalist  program.  The Junior Naturalist Program is great and most all state and national parks have some kind of program like this.  We learned all about bugs and were given nets to use to catch the bugs.  We put the bugs in jars and had the chance to really look at them closely.

Then, we went to Sylvan Lake up on top of the Black Hills.  We drove down Needles Highway.  It was a beautiful drive.  Lots of interesting rock formations to look at on the way.  The lake was really cool.  Part of National Treasure 2 was filmed at Sylvan Lake so it was cool to see the lake up close as we like to watch that movie from time to time.

After Sylvan Lake, we drove over past Custer to see Jewel Cave.  We completed the junior ranger program at jewel cave and received our Junior Ranger badges.  We drove to Wyoming after we were done just to say we did.

We drove back to Custer to eat dinner at the purple pie place that was, you guessed it, purple.  This place has awesome food, pie, and ice cream. If you are ever in Custer, the Purple Pie Place is the place to eat!

We had a great meal after a long day of hiking and learning. Whewwwww!  What a long and amazing day!