Black Hills, South Dakota - June 9 - 22, 2005
Our drive from Wyoming to South Dakota took us through rolling grasslands and cattle country, to the beautiful Black Hills. We spent our first week about 15 miles south of Rapid City at Heartland RV Park, and the second week about 22 miles north of Rapid City at the RushNoMore RV Park just outside of Sturgis. The two locations gave us an opportunity to tour most of the Black Hills and enjoy South Dakota's western environment - including the dramatic weather.
Let's talk about that weather. As the pictures show, our first couple of days included thunderstorms, rainbows and fabulous sunsets, cool temperatures and sudden winds. Then it got hot and humid, which really surprised us. We thought the prairies were arid. 85% humidity isn't arid. 95 degrees and 85% humidity is downright tropical. So, the weather changed to thunderstorms and hail, immediately followed by temps in the 90 and killer humidity. The locals told us this was very unusual weather. We wilted.
One day Susan went out to clean the windshield for a tour of Spearfish Canyon. It was bright and sunny when she started the project, as she completed her task it was raining. That was followed by hail. Then sunshine - and we went on our soggy way. Clearly, everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it!
Our first day was spent taking care of business (drivers licenses), and then we were free to enjoy the Black Hills. Our first outing took us to Mount Rushmore, or as they refer to them in SD, the "four heads". We enjoyed a ranger presentation at the sculptor's studio describing how Gutzon Borglum selected the location and designed, planned and directed the sculpting of the presidents. The ranger demonstrated the tools and process the artisans and laborers used to remove 450,000 tons of granite and create detailed 60-foot busts, down to the mole on Lincoln's face. The studio itself was very interesting in that it showed various version and scales of the proposed sculpture - the largest piece of art in the world.
It was starting to rain pretty heavily as we left Rushmore. We figured being underground would be a good choice and decided to visit Jewel Cave; one of the many caves in the region. Our route took us past the Chief Crazy Horse project, initiated in 1948. When completed, Korszak Ziolkowski's depiction of the Sioux leader astride his horse will be 563 feet tall. This project is dependent on private funding so is proceeding very slowly.
Jewel Cave boasts more than 130 miles of explored passageways and is the third longest cave in the world, and the second largest in the US (after Mammoth, Jan). Our tour only took us through about 1-mile of the cave. Spelunkers/scientist think Jewel Cave is connected to Wind Cave, which includes 84 miles of known passageways. I think that would move the Jewel-Wind Cave complex up in the global ranking.
Our southern location was only about 20 miles west of Custer State Park, just south of Mount Rushmore. This state park is much more like a national park in that it is very large and has concession services such as cabin and lodge rentals, restaurants, guided tours, and canoe and kayak rentals. The park covers 73,000 acres in the Black Hills, includes several lakes, Mt. Harney, the highest point east of the Rockies, and abuts the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve, which includes Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It has four lodges including the State Game Lodge and Resort that was used as Calvin Coolidge's summer White House in 1927. President Eisenhower also vacationed at the lodge. Custer Park offers an 18-mile wildlife drive across grasslands where the buffalo roam, deer and antelope play, prairie dogs bark, and burros beg. These descendents of burros that worked the 1876 Black Hills gold rush (Re: HBO's "Deadwood") will steal munchies right out of your vehicle.
We picnicked at Sylvan Lake. What a lovely location. Fish were jumping. Birds were singing. It was a fabulous day.
