STOP "I" ON THE TRAVEL MAP (PART 2)
Tuesday 5/10/16
We had an enjoyable day traveling to Rapid City. We stopped at a rest stop above Chamberlain on Hwy 90 for a picnic. It was a very nice rest stop with a museum featuring the travels of Lewis and Clark, but the museum was closed until Memorial Day. However we did get to enjoy a beautiful view of Chamberlain and the Missouri River. We arrived at the Hart Ranch Resort (http://hartranchresort.com) by 4:30 PM and were all set up on our site by 5:30. Everyone that we spoke with was very nice and informative. We have a nice spot at the back of the park away from the hustle and bustle of what goes on at the front of the park. Jaspurr is extremely happy here and has already spotted a few wildlife creatures to watch and protect us against. We will be Workamping here until after Labor Day weekend. Joe will be the pickleball instructor and I will help with game and casino nights. Perfect!
Thursday 5/12/16
We made an appointment to have some maintenance work done on the 5th wheel, so we were up and out early to get there by 8:00 AM. Unfortunately, by the time we picked up the unit at 4:30 PM we were out $1,000 more than expected due to damage done to the bearings. Thankfully we paid for additional warranty protection before leaving Oregon, and it helped us a lot. But, during the time the 5th wheel was being worked on, we headed out to do some local sightseeing:
- Crazy Horse Memorial – Sculpture Korczak Ziolkowski worked on Mount Rushmore for a few months, and during that time he met Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear. After he left working on Mount Rushmore, Chief Standing Bear contacted him and asked that he come back to the Black Hills to carve one of the mountains in honor of the Native American Indians. He accepted the challenge in 1948 and decided that the project would be funded by donations only; no government money. He worked alone on the mountain for 10 years before having enough donated money to hire help. He married Ruth in 1950 and they had ten children, who all worked on the project as early as eight years old. To date, six of the children and two of the grandchildren carry on the family legacy at Crazy Horse. Even though it seems like little has been done since 1948, the family and foundation have actually done a lot in building Korczak’s dream. Along with the memorial, his dream of having an Indian Museum, the Indian University of North America (opened in 2010) and the visitor complex has been realized. There will also be a Medical Training Center and an Avenue of the Chiefs at some point. A movie is shown inside the Visitor Center detailing the past and the future activities at the site. There are many artifacts as well as current Indian artwork and crafts to see in the Indian Museum. Also as part of the visitor center is a 1/34th scale model of what the memorial will look like, part of the Ziolkowski home, Korczak’s working studio, and many art sculptures by Korczak. The Indians chose Crazy Horse for the mountain carving because he was born in the Black Hills and defended his people and their way of life. He was stabbed in the back at Fort Robinson in Nebraska by an American soldier during a time of truce and died in September of 1877 at age 35. When Crazy Horse was asked “Where are your lands now?” he replied, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.” The mountain carving will reflect this statement with his left hand thrown out and finger pointing.
- Mount Rushmore National Memorial – Historian Doane Robinson conceived the idea for Mount Rushmore in 1923 to promote tourism. In 1924, as a memorial to the history of America, Sculptor Gutzon Borglum saw a vision of four Presidents carved into the mountain. With the help of over 400 workers, the carving of the four 60’ faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln began in 1927 and by 1941 it was completed. “These presidents were selected because of their role in preserving the Republic and expanding its territory.” George Washington – Our first president led the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson – Our third president authored the Declaration of Independence. Theodore Roosevelt – Our 26th president worked to ensure the rights of the common man. Abraham Lincoln – Our 16th president held the nation together during the Civil War. On entrance to the main viewing terrace is the Avenue of Flags with banners from every state. The Visitor Center has an exhibit about the sculptor, an orientation film, pictures and artifacts from the work on the mountain. More than 3,000,000 visitors come from across the world to see the memorial each year.
- We stopped in Hill City to walk through the souvenir shops and eat some dinner. It’s a cute town on Hwy 16. You go through on your way to Crazy Horse from Rapid City. We highly recommend eating at Desperado’s Cowboy Cuisine if you ever stop in town. Joe enjoyed an elk/buffalo burger and I kept it simple with a BLT. The onion rings are very good.
Wednesday 5/25/16
We drove just 30 minutes north to Keystone. It’s another cute resort town, with lots of fun things to see and do. It’s a must do if you’re on your way to Mt. Rushmore via Hwy 16A. The Gutzon Borglum Historical Center has an audio narrated tour that tells you about his life and how Mt. Rushmore came to be.
Saturday 6/4/16
Off to drive the Badlands Loop Road in the Badlands near the town of Wall (an hour East of Rapid City). The Badlands is a national park re-designated in 1978, after first being established as a national monument in 1939. It consists of 240,000 acres of landscapes, native mixed grass prairie, native wildlife, fossils, and magnificent skyscapes. Looking at the Badlands’ buttes, it shows that they were created in layers. The layers formed soft, sedimentary rocks, composed of sand, silt, and clay that have been cemented into solid form. There are 6 distinct layers (which you can read about online if you are interested). The different colors that make up the layers are spectacular to see. Many fossils have been found in the Badlands: horses, pigs, turtles, lizards, plant remains, snails, and a broad arrange of small mammals. In 2010, Kylie Ferguson (7-year old junior ranger) noticed something eroding out of the side of a butte. She reported it to the park ranger and it turned out to be a beautifully preserved saber-tooth cat skull (the size of a mountain lion) that lived over 30 million years ago. There is a Paleontology lab at the visitor center. Native American Indians (such as the Lakota and Sioux tribes) hunted bison in the Badlands for the last 7,000+ years. There are many overlooks to pull into. Each one is fantastic and has native wildlife and scenery to enjoy. We saw many rabbits, Prairie Dogs and Bighorn Sheep. There are eight hiking trails, of which we did the three easiest: the Door trail – a ¾ mile roundtrip trail that winds through a break in the Badlands Wall (where I took pictures of Joe at the “end of the trail”); and the Cliff Shelf trail – a .5 mile boardwalk trail going through a juniper forest along the Badlands Wall; and the Fossil Exhibit trail – a .25 mile boardwalk that features fossil replicas of the extinct creatures that once roamed the area. Since it was late in the day by the time we finished exploring the Badlands, we decided to drive back into Wall to visit the famous “Wall Drug,” and then go back into the Badlands for the sunset. Wall Drug is a shopping mall consisting of a drug store, gift shops, restaurants, soda fountain, and other fun shops. It got its start when the wife of the drug store owner thought they could bring in more customers by advertising free ice water to those driving into the Badlands or heading west to Mount Rushmore. They continue to offer free ice water and 5 cent coffee (fee coffee and donuts to all veterans). You must stop if you’re ever in the area. Our drive back into the Badlands for the sunset was nice and we were able to get fun pictures of the Bighorn lambs playing on the hills. We’ll be back later this summer when we should be able to see the Milky Way. More pictures to come.
Sunday 6/5/16
We heard that if you want to see bison, you need to head to Custer State Park in the Black Hills (named after General Custer). We drove 30 miles southwest of Rapid City to see all the bison. We weren’t disappointed. The preserve is one of America’s largest free-roaming bison herds. There is a scenic wildlife loop drive around the park. Along with the bison, we saw White-Tailed Deer, Prairie Dogs, Pronghorn Deer, Geese and Goslings, a Donkey, and some Wild Turkey. We stopped at Sylvan Lake for a picnic and were greeted by a family of geese. Along the loop are many hiking trails and pull-outs for picture taking, but one spot in particular known as the “Cathedral Spires,” is a must stop. The Cathedral Spires is a group of granite pillars and has been designated as a National Landmark. We will be going back to hike the trail that goes out to the Spires.
Friday 6/10/16
Joe recently discovered that Camping World put on the wrong breaks (which were less quality of the ones we had) on the 5th wheel during the service we had done when we first arrived in Rapid City. So, back to Camping World today for replacement breaks (at their expense). During the six hours that they needed the rig, we decided to drive back down to the Badlands so we could stop at Prairie Dog Town, which we didn’t do the last time we were there. Since we had Jaspurr to think about, we couldn’t afford to leave him in the car in 90+ degree weather, so a long drive sounded just perfect. We saw lots of Prairie Dogs during our last drive to the Badlands along the loop, but since it was Prairie Dog Town, I figured we would see a lot more, and be worth the 5-mile drive down a dirt road to get there. Well, save your car wash, because you see just as many along the loop. I thought there would probably be a souvenir shop there (since it was advertised as a “town”), but it was just a pull-out from the road with a sign that read “Roberts Prairie Dog Town.” We did see lots of Prairie Dogs, but they hid as soon as you walked near them. There was a large herd of bison in the distance (no fence between us), so we kept our distance. It’s so fun seeing all the wildlife as it should be. We went ahead and drove the loop in the Badlands and saw many more Bighorn Sheep on the hilltops. So fun!
Saturday 6/11/16
We drove to Devil’s Tower in northeastern Wyoming near Sundance. The Tower is the location where they filmed the last segment of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (for those of you who remember the movie). In 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt designated it as the first national monument. It’s believed that it was formed by magma that cooled underground and later was exposed by the Belle Fourche River and weather eroding the earth away from it. We hiked around it following the Tower Trail (1.3 miles around). It was almost 100 degrees outside, but we drank lots of water and rested on the many benches found in the shade of the trees which go around the base of the Tower. It was quite impressive. The legend of how the Tower was formed comes from the Kiowa people, and this is what they say: “Eight children were at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise into the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were just beyond its reach. It reared against the tree and scored the bark all around with its claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Pleiades.” June is a sacred time for the American Indians of the area so climbing is not permitted. As you hike around the Tower you will see prayer ribbons tied on many of the trees. The town of Sundance is named after the “sun dance” practiced by the native Indians. In 1887 15-year old Harry Alonzo Longabaugh stole a gun, horse and saddle from a ranch in Sundance. He was captured and sentenced to 18 months in jail there. During his jail time, he was given the nickname of the Sundance Kid and soon thereafter became associated with the “Wild Bunch,” which included Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker).
Saturday 6/18/16
Just down the road from our resort are the Reptile Gardens. Obviously it’s a reptile animal park. We especially enjoyed the snake and alligator shows. There are botanical gardens throughout the park. It’s a fun place to explore, especially for the kids. We drove back into the Badlands to enjoy the sunset. It was beautiful and we enjoyed watching the Bighorn lambs again playing along the ridges. Wish we could do that.
Friday 7/9/16
We decided to spend the day away from the resort so we drove 60 miles south to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs and then another 30 miles southwest to the Wind Caves in Edgemont. The Mammoth Site was totally awesome! It’s an active paleontological dig site that was discovered purely by accident in 1974 when a housing developer uncovered large bones. They stopped development of the land and since then have uncovered 61 mammoths (58 Columbian and 3 wooly mammoths). All of the mammoths are male, and it’s thought that they jumped into the sinkhole to eat plants along the edges while not realizing that they could not get back out. Duh! Either that, or their significant others had enough of their sarcasm and pushed them in. Before walking around the dig, you’re treated to a video about the history of mammoths and other animals found in the sinkhole (such as a giant short-faced bear, camel, llama, prairie dog, wolf and fish). It was so interesting. Then off to another cave. The Wind Cave in Edgemont is unique. It’s known for all the boxwork found (an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins that resemble honeycombs). We’ve never seen any boxwork before, so found it fascinating. Currently there is 143 miles of passages that have been mapped, making it the 3rd longest cave in the U.S. and the 6th longest cave in the world. We drove home through Custer State Park and saw more buffalo, prairie dogs, deer, etc. So fun!
Sunday 7/17/16
Up the road from our resort is a small Dinosaur Museum (next to Reptile Gardens) that looks pretty sorry from the outside, but did have some interesting representations worth seeing. From a Microraptor that stands just under a foot tall, to a giant Pterodactyl suspended from the ceiling, the museum featured mostly life-size fiberglass recreations of about 65 different species. Dinosaurs used to travel throughout the Black Hills and many remnants of their existence have been found throughout the region, most notably Sue, one of the best preserved T-Rex skeletons ever discovered (which now resides in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago – which we saw while we were there).
Monday 7/18/16
We don’t know if we’ll ever find ourselves visiting North Dakota, so we decided to drive into the state while we’re in South Dakota so we could mark it off our traveling map. So, after looking for something to do that wasn’t too far away, we decided to drive “The Enchanted Highway.” It’s 3-1/2 hours north of Rapid City, so we packed a picnic lunch and off we went. The Enchanted Highway came into being because the small town of Regent was becoming extinct, and Gary Greff, a local artist, came up with the idea of creating sculptures out of scrap metal in order to attract tourists to the town. We were lucky enough to meet him at one of the sculptures. Along with designing and building the sculptures, he also maintains the grounds. It was a pretty fun way to spend the day.
Saturday 7/30/16
There were a couple of sites that I wanted to see that Joe had no interest in, so off I went. Up the road from our resort is a building where they have a “Chuckwagon Supper & Show” in the evenings. It’s also the location where some of the “Dances with Wolves” sets were moved after filming. The sets were seen in the opening minutes of the movie. The room in the Ft. Hays Headquarters Building was the office for Major Fambrough who was the commander of Ft. Hays and where Lt. Dunbar (Kevin Costner) received his orders to move on to Ft. Sedgewick. The sets were originally located 16 miles east on a ranch near Caputa, SD, and moved to Rapid City in April of 1993. The Civil War scenes were filmed near Pierre, SD (175 miles east of Rapid City) and the winter camp scenes were filmed in Spearfish Canyon (47 miles northwest of Rapid City). It took all of 15 minutes to walk around, but was fun anyway.
Down the road from our resort is a replica of Independence Hall that houses the world’s only life size sculptural staging of the “Declaration of Independence” 21x31 inch oil painting by John Trumbull. John started planning the painting in 1786 but it took him nearly 20 years to complete it. He traveled the country in search of those that signed the Declaration in order that he could paint from life or a life portrait. There were 57 signers, but he only portrays 47. He also included 5 men in the painting that did not sign the Declaration. A 12x18’ mural of the Declaration was hung in the U.S. Capitol Building rotunda in 1826. The sculptural staging in Rapid City was done by a team of South Dakota artists led by sculptor James Van Nuys. Why didn’t George Washington (known as the “Father of our Country”) sign the Declaration? In the summer of 1776 he was in New York’s harbor preparing to defend against the British naval fleet. Historians belief that he was in New York intentionally because he did not want his stature as America’s top military leader to unnecessarily influence the political decisions of a civilian government.
Monday 8/8/16
If you’re not a big motorcycle fan, you probably haven’t heard of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally that takes place each year in Sturgis, SD the first week of August. The whole area is overtaken by motorcycle enthusiasts for about a two week period. People come from all over the world to enjoy the events that take place, and to do the usual touristy stuff. Well, even though we spent most of this time in our RV resort, we decided to drive into Custer State Park to hike the Cathedral Spires trail. It’s a 3 mile trail (roundtrip) that gives you up-close scenic views of the spires. We stopped at Sylvan Lake again for a quick picnic first, and the place was crawling with motorcyclists. All of the lakes and lodges along the route were hosting BBQ’s. People were having such a great time. The hike was fun and we found ourselves climbing over large rocks at times in order to continue along the marked path. Walking sticks really helped.
Monday 8/15/16
Another nearby tourist attraction is Bear Country USA. It’s a drive-thru wildlife park where the animals roam free. We saw many North American animals, and of course, lots of bears. At the end of the drive you can park and stroll to an enclosed area where you can watch the bear cubs play. What fun! The souvenir shop is large and has a lot of cute “bear” things. Next door to Bear Country is the House of Scandinavia, a store with imported Scandinavian items. Joe’s eyes popped out when he saw a jar of Lingonberry jam. Of course, we left with one.
Saturday 8/20/16
Another nice drive we’ve heard about is 45 minutes northwest of Rapid City on Hwy 14A. The Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway follows the Spearfish creek through a canyon. Along the route we stopped to enjoy Roughlock Falls. The geology and rock formations were beautiful and inspiring.
Thursday 9/8/16
Today is our last visit to the Badlands before we leave the State. We stopped at Prairie Homestead; a sod brick home with a grass roof built by Ed Brown in 1909. On the property are some rare “white” prairie dogs. It was a very interesting place to stop and learn about how many pioneers to the Badlands lived. Of course we drove the Badlands Loop again and stopped at the Wall Drug Store to browse for anything we might have missed.
Sunday 9/11/16 – Today was our last official day as Workampers. South Dakota; what a beautiful state! We enjoyed our time Workamping and touring the area. There is so much to see and do. The weather was nice, although you need to be prepared for thunder, lightning and hail storms in the afternoons. They come up quickly and leave just as fast. We’ve been told that sometimes the hail is as big as a golf ball, or even bigger. Our truck bed cover is dented from some nickel-sized hail, but luckily the truck didn’t get dented. We would definitely come back, but not until we’ve completed seeing all of the states. We’ve taken Workamping positions in Mesa, Arizona for the winter months and will take 6 weeks to visit family on our way down.
