We Visit South Dakota
June 15, 2019
by Steve
Okay, we are really far behind on our blogging. If you follow our travel map for 2019, or if you follow us on Facebook, you know that we are in Minnesota for the summer. We left Tucson in early April and arrived in Northern Minnesota in mid-May, having made a variety of stops along the way. As usual, we got busy and neglected to write about our travels. So today we'll try to get caught up.
We made a stop in the Black Hills of South Dakota en route to our summer volunteer jobs at Grand Portage National Monument. We've been to the Black Hills before, but it was many years ago when our children were quite young. Since this time we would be arriving in April, we made a strategic decision to stay in Rapid City, at a lower elevation, rather than up in the Black Hills themselves, a decision that would prove to be rather wise.
The western US is a particularly good place to find dinosaur bones, and the area around the Black Hills has been the location of some spectacular finds. So Rapid City has a park with some life-size models of dinosaurs. As this park dates from the early 20th century, the dinosaurs look like something from The Flintstones or a Sinclair gas station, but they are fun nonetheless. And how many cities create a park on a hill with a half-dozen dinosaurs?
Rapid City has something else unexpected: a piece of the Berlin Wall. I remember the events of 1989 that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and how the wall, which had divided people for so long, seemed to come down so easily. I suppose there's a lesson to be learned about walls. But I had no idea that large chunks of the Berlin wall ended up all over the world and that there are a lot in the US, including three in my childhood home of Grand Rapids, MI. Here's a list of the places in the US where you can find parts of the wall.
Near to Rapids City is the Badlands. We've been there before, but typically it was in summer and the temperatures were scorching hot. April is a much more civilized time to visit, and swe were able to see most of the national park and do all the hikes that we wanted to do. Here Jane is being rather brave on a hike that included a 60+ foot climb up a ladder and then a trail that goes along the edge of a seriously large drop off.
There's spectacular scenery in the Badlands, but it does tend to be a bit mono-chromatic. Here we've hiked up to the top of a ridge where we can see the surrounding countryside and other formations. It makes you wonder what the early European settlers thought when they encountered this obstacle on their way west. Of course, after this they hit the Rocky Mountains . . .
Custer State Park, near Rapid City, is home to one of the largest bison herds in the US, numbering around 1,300. They freely roam this large 71,000-acre park until the annual round-up, when the entire herd gets corralled so that rangers can administer vaccinations, brand the new calves, identify animals that need treatment, and select 200 or so for auction, since the park can only support around 1,500 head of bison. There's a scenic drive through the park that enables you to view the bison from your car. You'd think it would be hard to hide 1,300 bison, but you don't always see them when doing the drive. We drove it twice and saw many bison on the first trip and not near so many on the second.
Custer State Park is home to many other animals. Here we are seeing a pronghorn antelope resting fairly nearby.
Of course, a visit to the Black Hills isn't complete with at least stopping by Mount Rushmore. Surprisingly, your annual parks pass does not get you in; there's a $10 parking fee. As we've been here many times and they haven't added any new sculptures, we decided to do a drive-by on one of the scenic routes that we hadn't taken before and got an unusual view of George.
You'll also find the Needle's Eye nearby. Many people think that this refers to the narrow one-car width tunnel that the road takes, and they miss the real thing, which is this cool rock formation that does indeed look like the eye of a sewing needle. You can see the gap only from a certain location, so if you go here, park the car, get out, and walk around until you see it. During busier times you'll probably see rock climbers on it.
Of course, you can't cross South Dakota without a stop at Wall Drug and at the Mitchell Corn Palace. We've been to the corn palace before, but it's always a bit of a hoot to see it again. This time there was a car show going on, and one of the first arrivals was the "Family Truckster" from the National Lampoon "Vacation" movie.
This one is someone's replica, but it's pretty well done. Missing the hood ornament though . . .
Jane always has to ride the Jackalope. Always.
Earlier in this post I mentioned that staying in Rapid City proved to be a wise choice. Here's why:
We got snow. Just 4 inches or so, and we simply stayed an extra day to let it melt off before continuing our trip. But up in the Black Hills, they got something like 16 inches. We were glad we didn't have to deal with that.
Our next post should come a little sooner, and we'll focus on what we are doing this summer: volunteering at Grand Portage National Monument.
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