The second part of our second day included Agate Fossil beds. This is a high concentration of fossilized mammals. Bubby's favorite part was a trail that had several Daemonilix which were the corkscrew shaped burrows of Paleocaster (ancient beaver).
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| Paleocaster daemonelix |
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| Hubby likes torturing me bringing back pics like this |
The kids would get after me if I didn't include the right names, they were pretty rabid about their Junior Ranger duties;) We arrived at Agate's visitor center with just an hour to spare, so it was the most hurried we were on our Jr. Ranger quests. You can't go wrong with kids and fossils, so it was a hit nonetheless:) They also had a super cool Native American exhibit.
Thankfully they also had a great hands on kids area where I entertained Shorty. He was in high gear due to lack of nap time, and other than glances at the exhibits I didn't absorb too much while I was chasing after him!
Our night's stay was one that we wished would have lasted more than just the single night. It was this super neat bed and breakfast out in the middle of nowhere in NW Nebraska, the
High Plains Homestead. The drive out was through a badlands looking area which was just beautiful. We were the only guests that night, which was nice :) They had a couple of buildings for the sleeping quarters and several buildings that made up a Prairie Town furnished all in antiques. By far Mookie's favorite was the old school.
Shorty loved the "buffyloaf". There were three and he stood at the fence saying "Buffyloaf, come, come" and motioning to them. They never did listen:)
Bubby's main excitement was the possibility of fossil hunting, which was free to young kiddos. We tried after supper (which you can get at the cookshack there) without much luck. So Hubby and Bubby headed out after breakfast (which was provided and as yummy as the supper!) for another go. Success!
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| Bubby & his tooth |
He found a paleo bison tooth, and fossilized turtle shell fragments. I have never seen him more thrilled! He was just grinning from ear to ear and had to go show Miss Linda, one of our hosts, what he had found.
That was not the last of our fossil adventures. After scouting out where the Hudson Meng buffalo kill site was just a couple of miles down the road, we were off to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
The
Mammoth Site is where a giant sinkhole formed containing a nice hot springs with steep sides. Because of this it trapped numerous mammoth and other critters that are now being excavated. The building is only over part of the large site on a hill on the edge of town. The kids were fascinated. Shorty kept asking to "diggy", but we had to tell him that it wasn't Daddy's site so he couldn't dig this time:)
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| "I diggy" |
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| We had to have fun with the short faced bear exhibit:) |
The last trip of the day was to
Wind Cave National Park. Hubby was interested to go because it was a CCC project. This was the most intensive of the Junior Ranger badges - we worked forever on it. Shorty was excited to see more "buffyloaf".
Ranger Clayton, that lead our tour of the cave, was from NE Kansas just like us! That wasn't the only reason we liked him. By the time our tour happened, Shorty was done for the day. Ranger Clayton had a cool trick that he would take his flashlight and flash it on the floor near any of the toddlers (there were 3) that were getting a little fidgety or he'd take it and shine it under his hat while the kiddo was looking - so cool and such a blessing to us!
Our night was spent in Custer State Park. Did you know that many state parks have cute little cabins for low cost? This one had a heater even. The kids loved the bunk beds!
After a good night's rest we were ready for the main event the next day - Rushmore!
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