Posted in: Exploring Texas, National Park, National Parks, Sightseeing

Waco Mammoth National Monument

I dragged Ben to see more dinosaur bones. He was thrilled. Well, not exactly since he isn’t into dinosaurs, but at least this time we could see actual bones easily.

While looking up things to see in Waco, I saw the Waco Mammoth National Monument listed. It is a relatively new part of the National Park Service, having been inducted in 2015. It was less than 10 minutes from downtown Waco, so after exploring Magnolia, we drove over. On our way to the park, we passed the suspension bridge, which we also wanted to walk across, but was currently closed.

We have the National Park pass, but you still have to pay admission to see the bones. The flyer at the desk says it is for access to the bones with a guided tour. However, there was not a guided tour, just someone monitoring the amount of people in the building. We basically paid another $20 to the city of Waco to see the site. It is a really small park with only one real walking trail and a short loop off of the main trail through the woods. Since there had been rain this week, parts of the trail were covered in water, so we didn’t get to go on the whole trail.

Ben said the molars looked like boot prints.

It was interesting, but I would not go back again, especially since we would have to pay again.

Posted in: Exploring South Dakota, Sightseeing

July 17: Dinosaurs and Burgers

Today was a play around day, nothing too strenuous. I looked up some more quirky things to see near Rapid City, SD. (Rapid City because it was a bigger town close to the campground (40 minutes away) and had a Walmart for groceries.)

First stop: World’s Largest Quarter-Pounder outside a Rapid City McDonald’s. Of course, we had to get quarter pounders to pose with it! It’s been years since I’ve had McDonald’s burgers.

What the inscription means per Google translate box

Tire Man: A man made of red, white and blue painted tires at a car shop. This was just a quick stop, jump in and out for the picture.

Dinosaur Park (free). This isn’t a huge park, although it is on top of a hill and there are some steps. The park also has a visitor center, but we didn’t go in. The dinosaurs are made from concrete. There are still signs labeling the dinosaurs, but some of them were hard to read. The park was made in 1936. The boys got a kick out of seeing the dinosaurs.

More of the Will and Large Objects series.

Before heading to get groceries, we stopped at Mostly Chocolates, a drive through coffee and chocolate menu! How could you go wrong? I got a mocha and dark chocolate pecan caramels.

We stopped for groceries. It’s always a challenge to go grocery shopping. There are signs in South Dakota “recommending” wearing masks, but very few people are. The grocery store is normally a big grocery game of frogger. Today was really bad, so we actually left before we bought everything we wanted.

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