June's Big Adventure: South Dakota's Black Hills

Jac has always wanted to see Mount Rushmore, so for our big summer blow-out trip, we headed to South Dakota and did/saw a whole slew of things, including Mount Rushmore. Here's the recap.

The first thing we did was we drove a lot. And then we drove some more.  And after that, there was more driving. South Dakota is far away!  Finally...

Devils Tower
Our first big stop was to see the enormous outcrop called Devils Tower:

 

There's different theories on how it was formed (ie: is it a volcanic neck, is it a 'stock' of magma, etc) but what is agreed upon is that this was UNDERGROUND until erosion slowly wore away the surface over 50 million years.  It's just incomprehensible that the land surface of this whole area was even higher than this outcropping.  It truly is astonishing how many enormous changes the earth's surface has undergone in its 4.5 billion years of existence!

But, back to the trip. Here's Devil's Tower from a distance, with Amelia there for scale. 

The first thing we did at Devil's Tower National Monument (which we got into for free!) was a nice little picnic lunch with an unbeatable view:

 

 

We then drove up to the tower, got our stamp and checked out the visitor's center, stared at the tower up close for a little bit, then took off.  There's really not a ton to 'do' there, other than see it.  Or climb to the top (ooh, so tempting!).  

But...there's one other cool thing about this particular national monument: it's home to PRAIRIE DOGS!  These cute curious little guys are all over this area, and I was particularly excited to see them. (Jac not so much).  There's a little trail that takes you into "Prairie Dog City", and Jac waited in the car while I walked it a bit so that I felt like I was 'in' the city, and then I watched them do their thing---up and down, in and out of holes, looking around everywhere while standing on their hind legs, scurrying about...  They are just so dang cute. Below are a few pictures I took. They don't really convey it, but it was a very fun, unique experience to be 'surrounded' by them, a human in their little rodent civilization!

Cathedral in the Hills
After Devils Tower, we continued on to Rapid City, our home base for this whole trip.  On the outskirts of town we checked out this cool wooden chapel, modeled after a famous 12th century cathedral in Laerdal, Norway (which is still standing today after all that time!) It was just a short pit-stop. Here are a few pictures:

Our Lazy U Motel home
After the chapel, we were not so delighted to discover that our home for the next four nights (prepaid) was pretty much a dump. The Lazy U Motel has great reviews online...and all of those people are liars. (lol)

So what do you do when faced with this situation? You drink and play backgammon and have fun anyway:

 

Day 3:
Mount Rushmore
For the big event of the trip, we got up bright and early--to beat the crowds and the shadows--and headed to the one and only Mount Rushmore!!! Jac got emotional on the way there, just overcome with how great it is to finally be having these adventures in his life. Aaah. 

And once we got there, yep, it's pretty cool. And big. And you just can't help but feel a little patriotic there.  It's just so grand!  Here we are in front of it:

 

And here's a shot we took while on a little stroll in the area:

 

And one last shot -- this is the 'Avenue of Flags" that leads up to the viewing area. 

 

Gold Mine
After Rushmore, we had a delicious breakfast back at the Lazy U, then were off for our next adventure -- a tour of a real gold mine.  This whole area was part of the big Gold Rush of the 1800s, and many say there's still gold to be found here. To get a taste of it, we went on a tour of a historic mine--the Big Thunder Gold Mine:

 

And we did a little prospecting ourselves! Jac is now a bonafide prospector and proud of it!  Jac bought us a new rockhounding kit and while waiting for our tour to start, we used it to break open a few geodes. Then a few days later, we used it again to do some real gold panning (more on that later).

 

(Jac likes this weird picture of me for some reason, so I feel obligated to include it.)

Black Hills Exploring
Next, we drove around the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. The area is so green and lush with wildflowers everywhere and interesting rock formations.  Who knew this area was so much more than just Mount Rushmore!  Here's a few shots from our wanderings:

 

Here's Jac, after jumping out the car to prospect by the side of the road. He just couldn't help himself, ya know, since he's a legit, authentic prospector now.  :)

Custer State Park
Our last stop on our first full day of exploring the Black Hills was to see the hordes of buffalo at Custer State Park. This is a quintessential Black Hills experience and we were ready to have it!  I'd seen the pictures. It was going to be amazing.  My camera was on my lap the whole time, sure that around the next bend in the road, surely they would be there.  

And, nope.  We saw two.  Just two.  Argh!  Oh well, the scenery was sure pretty!

Day 4: 
On day 2, we got up super early and--gluttons for punishment that we are--we headed back to Custer State Park, sure that this time we would see the hordes of buffalo. It was early, the weather was cool, they'd be hungry after a night of sleeping.  Surely this time...

And, nope.  We saw two.  Just two.  Double argh! 

But, the drive back to the Lazy U for breakfast sure was pretty!  We drove the Needles Highway---a spectacular drive through pine and spruce forests, and interspersed with dramatic rugged granite outcrops.

One highlight of the drive was experiencing this super, super narrow tunnel...just wide enough for a single, small car to pass through. Crazy!

Sturgis
After a yummy breakfast, we headed back out, this time to see the famous motorcycle town of Sturgis.  This was especially fun for motorcycle man Jac to experience. :) 

Our main stop in town was to check out the motorcycle museum, which had this cool throne made out of bike parts:

...and two floors worth of historic bikes, some over 100 years old.  It was pretty cool, even for a non-rider like me. 

After the museum, we cruised around the streets of Sturgis and tried to imagine what it was like during the rallies, when upwards of 500,000 riders are in town. In THIS fairly small town? Wow!

Deadwood
From Sturgis, we headed south to catch the notorious wild west town of Deadwood. Known for its lawlessness, Deadwood was a gold mining boom town where murders were common and justice was hardly fair and impartial. This is where Wild Bill Hickok was killed during a poker game, where Calamity Jane gained fame as a rugged frontierswoman and scout, and where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday came to check out the gold rush for themselves.  Needless to say...Deadwood was dripping with history.  It's a tourist trap to be sure, but it is also definitely worth a visit!

Here's some scenes from the main drag of Deadwood:

 

 

My favorite part of our time in Deadwood was when we stopped in for a drink at the same saloon where Wild Bill was shot:

The saloon was so well preserved it was like stepping back in time! Here's some shots of the main bar:

The walls were lined with fascinating historical artifacts, like this authentic ladies boots and garters. So interesting!

After the saloon, we caught a live show on the main drag -- a reenactment of a shootout over cheating in a game of cards.  It was short, pretty hokey, and not really worth waiting around for, but hey, we had to try.

By the end of the short show, it was raining pretty hard, so we retreated to the car (which was close by in a truly cherry spot right on the main drag!) and waited it out while eating the lunch Jac had packed for us. 

As we ate our lunch, the storm grew and grew...just as our interest in spending more time in Deadwood shrank and shrank. So, we headed home, back to the Lazy U to see what was on tv.  Of course, we had to stop at the liquor store en route because it was the Lazy U after all. Being a little drunk helped. :)

Oh, and...the lady staying in the room next door was trying to be my new bestie (popping by, texting me...).  Oye!  When we pulled up to our room, there she was, sitting there all smiley and waving.  Our doors were barely open when she started in, a mile a minute, but my knight-in-shining-armour Jac helped me fake a migraine (quick thinking Jac!), so I was saved. Of course, then to keep up the ruse, I had to stay in bed for most of the evening [especially since we had to keep the door open at all times -- the natural light helped the room feel slightly more bearable.]

Day 5: 
Prospecting
On our third (and last) full day in South Dakota, it was time for Jac to try his hand at his long lost calling in life....prospecting!!  We drove around for quite awhile trying to find a suitable and legal place to strike it rich!  We finally found a place, and Jac got right to the task:

 

I tried it for a few minutes, but then I got lazy.  And hot.  So I quit.  I would have definitely starved to death if I was a gold miner!  

In the end, Jac found some little gold-looking pieces/flecks, and we put it in our little special gold-keeping-vial.  (And, come to think of it, there they sit two months later. I think we both forgot all about them!)

Cosmos Mystery Area
Next up, we visited the Cosmos Mystery Area (actually on accident. We just kinda stumbled across it while exploring, and thought "why not?")  It's a goofy tourism trap that was really fun and funny to experience.  It's sorta obvious that they are just using some tricks in construction and perspective to make the "mystery", but still...it was really kind of disorienting and funny to have everything be so 'crooked', like gravity had gone awry in just that spot.

 

 

Even now thinking back on it, it makes me laugh.  It was so silly and gimmicky, but also really fun at the same time. :)

Badlands National Park
Our last big stop of the trip was to see Badlands National Park.  We went in the late afternoon (to get good lighting) and it was much cooler than we anticipated.  Here are some shots:

It was mostly a 'see from the car' type of national park, but we did get out and do one short hike:

 

 

In all, we weren't in Badlands National Park for very long, but... long enough for some ooohs and aaaahs, and long enough to see more PRAIRIE DOGS.  Those little guys are so dang cute! 

Oh, and en route to Badlands, we drove a bit out of the way to get this picture to send to Quinn.  :)

 

And on the way back to Rapid City, we cruised through the tourist trap town of Wall, SD.  Not much exciting there, except they did have a relative to Keystone's Sasquatch (same artist, with a second location in a different touristy spot.) 

Day 6:
Bear Country
The very last thing we did before heading out on the long drive home was to visit a drive through 'zoo'.  We went early, hoping to catch them before it got too hot to move.  And...that we did! We saw elk:

And rams (or mountain goat?):

And a few other animals too far off to photograph.  But the highlight was definitely the bears. There were dozens of them, and all super close!

I dunno how happy they were, all cooped up in the little bear area. We did catch an adults-only live show of one way they entertained themselves.  Yikes!

After the drive-through portion, we stopped to see the baby bears in the little walk-through zoo.  That was SO adorable.  So many baby bears and they are so dang energetic and curious:

Bear Country is probably more of a kid attraction, but these two big kids liked it nonetheless. :) 

And through it all....the food!
Of course a big highlight of the trip was Jac's delicious creations. Here are a few pictures of the food as well as it being prepared:

 

 

Here's the menu, which Jac tapes to the inside of our portable refrigerator.  He certainly does everything he can to make sure we eat well on our trips. How did I get so lucky? :)

 

What a great trip!  We packed a lot into just a few days and made the big long drive definitely worthwhile.  I love our trips!