Monday, December 7, 2015

Cripple Creek and Mount Rushmore

This summer we spent time camping at different KOA's around our area.  We headed up to Cripple Creek for a weekend and loved hiking the trails and learning about mining there.  CJ thinks he'd like to be a miner when he grows up.
 Camping and Hiking - what my boys do best.
 In August we enjoyed a long weekend trip to Mount Rushmore, or as EMan calls it, "Mountain Rushmore".  We have enjoyed staying in cabins at KOA's and Mount Rushmore KOA at Palmer Gulch deserves 10 stars.  My boys asked if we could please just live there.  The cabin was comfortable and the grounds had tons of activities to participate in.  There was a swimming pool, splash pad, jumping pillow, mini golf, bicycles and gem mining (the last two had a fee, but the other's didn't).  
Mount Rushmore was simply amazing.  We hiked the trail, completed the Junior Ranger Program and explored all the museums.  It has been great to reference that learning as we're working on our US History curriculum. 
 I would highly recommend looking into the Junior Ranger programs at each of the National Parks.  It has given our family learning opportunities and direction for our visits.  It is phenomenal and I never need to front load the kids with other information and work on a lesson plan on my own.