Monday, May 28, 2018 (Memorial Day)
South Dakota is a wonderful state. It starts out in the east with undulating fields and hills of green, turns into the fascinating Badlands, and morphs into beautiful ponderosa pine forests and mountains. There are far too many things to do here for people of all ages. I think it would be an absolutely wonderful place to take a long family vacation; if we had only known.
We just walked in the door at 10 PM tonight after a full day of sightseeing. This morning, after a bagel sandwich at Einstein’s, we headed toward Custer State Park. It was worth the $20.00 fee to get in. The first road we took was called Iron Mountain. The road was filled with hairpin turns that wound through beautiful pine forests. Iron Mountain Road connected with Wildlife Loop Road where we spotted more bison, one of which was almost on top of us, plus other wild life such as burros, deer, etc.
What struck us more than the wildlife, however, was the devastation left behind after a wildfire hit the area in December 2017. At first, we thought we were looking at some kind of tree blight because so many of the pine needles of the trees were brown. We then began to notice their black trunks. Stands of dead trees were being cut down and harvested. We aren’t sure what blackened trunks can be used for, but there were huge piles of them along the road.
Wind Cave was next on our agenda. It was the first cave to become a National Park. The cave features more than 125 miles of caves “decorated with sparkling jewel like calcite crystals.” We took the shorter Garden of Eden Tour, which lasted about 1 hour, because we were pressed for time. The main feature of these caves is fragile boxwork formations. Unfortunately, our tour didn’t feature too many of them and in all honesty wasn’t all that interesting.
It’s the cave’s history that is much more fascinating. The Lakota Sioux believe that they entered this world through the Wind Cave. Back in the 1890’s the cave was first explored by 16-year-old Alvin McDonald by candlelight. Failing to find gold, he and his family began offering tours. One hundred people at a time would go on these tours with only candlelight illuminating the way. You wouldn’t catch Dan or I down there at that time.
Next stop was The Mammoth Site. Over 61 Columbian and Wooly mammoths, plus other animals such camels, llamas, wolves and giant short-faced bears fell into a sinkhole and drowned over 26,000 years ago. Paleontologists are still working the site, which we saw. The sinkhole is estimated to have been 60 feet deep and only 20 feet have been excavated for bones at this time
How can you go and see Mt. Rushmore and not visit the Crazy Horse Memorial? The entire project was undertaken by a Polish American named Korczak Ziolkowski. He was a reknown sculpture and had been working on Mt. Rushmore. Approached by Chief Henry Standing Bear, he was invited to carve Chief Crazy Horse.
Ziolkowki took on the entire project on his own, including purchasing the mountain. No federal funds were accepted because he felt that the government couldn’t be trusted given its history with Native Americans. Eventually his wife and 7 out of ten children worked on the project along with him. Only a 15-person crew is working on the project today, including two of Ziolkowski’s grandchildren. Based on work done to date it will take another 75-100 years to complete. His saying was,” never forget your dreams.”
While at Crazy Horse Memorial we saw more deer, wild turkeys, and marmots.
We ended our day dining at Firehouse Brewing Company and had a nice dinner; tuna steaks. Dan enjoyed their Smoke Jumper Stout and I had the Nice Pear Cider.
I would write more, but it has been a long day. We have another full day tomorrow in the northern part of the Black Hills of South Dakota.
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 