I woke early today, made/ate breakfast and headed south to the highest point in Black Hills National Forest, Black Elk Peak (WikiAllTrailsImages).  It took about 35 minutes to get there. Now, what I didn’t know was that Black Elk Peak is “just” inside Custer State Park (I think it’s actually in Black Hills NP but the trail-head is in Custer) (Custer State Park, Wiki, Images) and of course the all access National Park pass I purchased doesn’t work in state parks. When I arrived at the state park gate there was no one there but it was $20 for a 7 day pass (and several of you already know where this is going :-). Well, I was planning to be there for less than 3 hours (maybe 4) and I wasn’t about to pay $20 to do a 3 hike! 🙂  So….I found a place to park just outside the park and hiked to the trail-head inside the park! (ha ha) I mean, come on…seriously?  $20 for a 3 hour hike…NOT! 🙂

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I woke fairly early this morning, ate breakfast and hit the road anxious to visit my first national park on this trip. But as I was driving down I-90 I saw a sign for the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (Minuteman Historic SiteWiki) at the next exit. It sounded pretty interesting and since I wasn’t on any particular schedule I figured why not.

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