Dinosaurs and More - Oh My!

Since we were in the area, we decided to make a few pit stops before heading back from Grandma Rose's funeral.

Ramsey's starting to love dinosaurs and the western part of the state is rather famous for its dinosaur bone findings.

On the way there, we had stopped at Wall Drug and visited the big green 80' brontosaurus. 

Ramsey found the teeny tiniest opening in the chain link fence and squeezed through it to get a better view.  ...yet another reason Eric calls Ramsey "Little Mouse"!

Little stinker that he is, he wanted to run and play there.  Neither Eric nor I were small enough to fit through the hole to retrieve him.  He was actually being very good and just wanted to blow off some steam after being couped up in the jeep for five hours!

On the way home, we were going to visit Bear Country USA, but there was rain in the distance.  We didn't think the bears and other wilds would be out in plain site during a good downpour.  So, we decided that we'd take a venture to the Journey Museum & Learning Center.

Once inside, there were wonderful treasures from South Dakota history.  There were many Native American historical exhibits (bead work, dolls, tools, weapons, etc).

Ramsey LOVED the tee pees.  He thought they were great hiding places!

There were also exhibits from pioneer days (clothing, money, Wild West memorabilia,  more weapons - which Ramsey loved!, etc.).

There were also South Dakota-native mounted animals and birds everywhere.  It was incredible to see the large buffalo, mountain lion (infamous to this part of the state), bobcat, and there were a myriad birds, from the smallest to the largest.

There was so much to see!

On the way to the main reason we went to this wonderful museum, we found rocks... lots and lots of rocks.  Ramsey likes rocks.  *sigh*  Must be a boy thing.  :-)

Moving on...

to the dinosaurs!

 These sculptures reflect the T-Rex and Triceratops that roamed the badlands millions of years ago.  There have been great skeletal findings, to include "Sue", the famous SD T-Rex, who now actually resides in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

 There was a fun little area for kids to play "archaeologist", where they could dig around to find dinosaur bones.

And an archaeologist tent where they could play with toy dinos...

and get up close and personal with a prehistoric beast!

"RARRRR!!!!"