We came into the Badlands Monday night, the 28th, about 5:00PM. We had been driving through the prairie for several hours, and all of a sudden the land changed to jagged rocks. It was pretty surreal. These cliffs, spires, and ravines have been created over the last half-million years by erosion. Every time it rains, a little more of the sediment is washed away. Sometimes the erosion cause whole buttes to fall apart overnight.
Everywhere you look there are rock formations. This land was named the badlands by the Indians because it's so difficult to cross, there is no good water there, no shade, and lots of wind.
In the evening we went to a very good talk on the constellations by a ranger who is an 8th grade science teacher in Houston. There is so much light pollution in our country, that many people have never seen a lot of the constellations. Thankfully, we don't have light pollution at our home or our cabin, so we are treated to some magnificent star displays all year long.
Is is extremely hot, close to 100 degrees, and there are hardly any trees here to provide shade. The wind blows all of the time here, but it is so hot it doesn't help much. I can't imagine how anyone would have been able to live here, but there were a few homesteads nearby. This would not be my idea of a nice place to live!
We went to see a homestead built in 1909. For $18 a homesteader could obtain 160 acres of land. He only had to live there for 5 years. The problem was the soil was extremely poor, and most of them couldn't make it. Since there are so few trees, the houses were build into the side of a hill so that the walls were made of sod. The sod for the walls away from the hill was cut into “bricks” and laid in place with the grass side down. A few poles from trees were laid over the top to become the roof. Sod was placed on the roof also, and to keep critters from walking on the roof, they planted cactus there. Inside the floor and walls were dirt. When they had a little money, they added some boards along the bottom half of the wall.To create another room, they put up a paper wall.
Then we went to the Minuteman Missile command center that was decommissioned after the end of the Cold War. There are still facilities like this with people at the ready to “pull the trigger” and start a nuclear war, but not right here. We went to the underground command center that was in a pod underground, staffed in 24 hour shifts by two people with lots of personnel on the surface to guard and protect them. It wasn’t very big, and I would have had claustrophobia if I’d had to stay there that long! A former Minuteman gave up a tour. When I asked if they got bored, he said there were always things to be checked and rechecked, but that the men were also all taking classes for their MBAs so they often studied down there.
Prairie dogs are all over the place, and we could get pretty close to the ones at the sod house because they are so used to eating peanuts provided by tourists. They are really cute as they scurry from one hole to another, and the young ones looked just like little kids chasing each other, pretending to fight, and then tattling to mom. Buffalo are also all over the place, so we've seen a lot of them. The relentless sun got to me, and I was glad to get back in the air-conditioned RV and head to the Black Hills.
We could see the Black Hills long before we got there. The area is called Black Hills because the mountains are covered with pine trees that look black from a distance. We're now in the kind of habitat we love – mountains and pine trees. We are driving with the windows down so we can smell the pine forest.
We went up to Mt. Rushmore first so we could see it in the daylight. Then we went a coupleof miles back to the village of Keystone where we found a campground. We decided to cool off with a swim, and then a dip in the hot tub. Mt. Rushmore was visible from both!
We went back up to Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony. It was very patriotic with lots of music, quotes from the 4 presidents sculpted in the mountain, and honoring of all USA veterans, including Bob. There were over 100 vets in attendance.
In the morning we took off up the Iron Mountain Highway and the Needles Highway, both scenic drives with many switchbacks. At one time we looked at the GPS and it looked like a bunch of snakes there were so many twists in the road. The twists are known as pigtails because they almost curl back on themselves. There were six tunnels to go through on the drive. They were the first things created on the roads years ago. The former governor of South Dakota wanted the first three tunnels. The RV just barely fit through some of them! After the tunnels were blasted out of the iron rock, the pigtails were put in place. The drive was beautiful, and we had lots of time to see the scenery as we could only go about 10 miles an hour.
After taking these scenic drives we headed south to the Crazy Horse Monument. It is unfinished, but if ever completed, will be the highest monument in the US. While there we saw a lot of Lakota artwork and jewelry. We also saw some great dances done in full regalia by some young Lakota men.
Then we headed to the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. This 12,000 acre property is home to about 600 head of wild mustangs. It is also home to about 400 head of cattle because without the cattle the taxes would be $100,000, and with the cattle, the taxes are $20,000! The ranch buildings are in a long valley with lots of bluffs surrounding it. From the top of some of them you can see almost to Wyoming in one direction and Nebraska in another, since the ranch is in the southwest corner of South Dakota.
We camped there overnight so we could go on the early morning tour. On the tour we rode around the property in a small bus to see the horses, who were so hot and bothered by flies that they were just standing around in groups. They were trying to use each other as shields from the flies, but it wasn’t working too well. I had hoped to see them running free across the fields, but they weren’t too cooperative with that! We saw many other things as well, thanks to our very knowledgeable guide. She told us about many of the wild flowers and explained what the Indians used them for. The inside of the leaves of one plant held a yellow juice that was used as war paint.
The property has been used for several movies and TV commercials in the last few years. Both “Hilda” and “Crazy Horse” were filmed there, and the set for the fort used in “Crazy Horse” is still there, some of the building used now as shelters for the horses.
The land where the sanctuary is located, is considered to be sacred by the Lakota Sioux tribes because it is completely surrounded by a river. The Lakota hold several ceremonies there each year. They just had their Sun Ceremony there, and we saw several of their structures still in place including a teepee and a large pole with very colorful ribbons on it which they danced around, In one place there were some caves that had been used by the natives a long time ago. They still have the petroglyphs on them.
There was a small school on the property which was used until the 1960. The ranches around here are so large that students must have to ride the buses for a long time in order to get to school. They only have school four days a week to conserve fuel for both the buses and the buildings.
We left there shortly after 11:00 AM and headed back north through Wind Caves National Park into Custer State Park. Custer is the nicest state park either of us has ever seen. It is as large or larger than most national parks, and has beautiful facilities. On the way we saw hundreds of buffalo, many pronghorn antelopes, and lots and lots of prairie dogs. At one point over a hundred buffalo were walking down about a half-mile of the road creating a South Dakota style traffic jam.
Our campground is beautiful. Our site is right next to the creek and lots of beautiful birds are flying in and out of the trees. I cooled my feet off in the creek after taking a 3 mile hike, half of which involved a very steep uphill grade, so of course the return was an equally steep downhill grade. It was worth the four acupuncture sessions on my feet before we left home, though, as I was able to complete the hike in the 90 degree weather!
We have really enjoyed our visit to South Dakota. We're heading to North Dakota today, July 2, after taking one last scenic drive through the mountains ! Tonight we'll have Pitchfork Fondue and enjoy a musical in Medora, ND!
