MAY 05-08, 2016
On our way to Custer State Park, we took a break at the Air and Space Museum on the Ellsworth AFB.
On our way to Custer State Park, we took a break at the Air and Space Museum on the Ellsworth AFB.
It wasn't too large but had some nice exhibits. I enjoyed learning more about the Berlin Wall, reading the story of a WWII POW and watching a video on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and the kids of course loved the cockpit and flight simulator.
The bad news is that
we got to Custer State Park before the season officially began but
the good news is that we got to Custer State Park before the season
began!!!! There is so much fun to be had here that wasn't available
to us but we still had plenty to do and see and it was really nice to
avoid the crowding that ensues during the summer months. Even though
the visitors were few while we were there, there were still many
delays on the roads to get anywhere due to everyone stopping to view
the wildlife. In that respect, it reminded me a lot of the Smokey
Mountains where a bear sighting would clog the roadways.
Custer State Park is
located in the Black Hills and is South Dakota's largest state park
at over 71,000 acres. One of the things that makes it so popular is
its' abundance of wildlife including a herd of over 800 bison. The
day we arrived, this is what we saw right behind our campsite!
Not only did we see
quite a few herds of buffalo, but we also saw pronghorn antelope,
prairie dogs and elk.
The funniest were
the “begging burros”. They are fed by tourists often and come
quickly to the windows for food.
We visited their
brand new visitor's center where we learned a little more about the
park and bison. It is really sad to read about the decimation of the
bison. I can't remember where I first saw the image but if you have
never seen the picture of the men standing on or around the pile of
bison skulls, click here. It truly leaves an impression.
We drove the
Wildlife Loop Road and had to check out Needles Highway. The bridges
were fun even though we only had a few inches on either side of the
truck!
(the needle)
I wish you could
zoom in on this picture because if you could, you would see that Mt.
Rushmore is perfectly framed through the tunnel opening.
We made it to Mt.
Rushmore but after the visitor's center had closed for the day.
Fortunately, we had studied ahead ;)
Then we also visited
the Crazy Horse Memorial and spent a few hours exploring their
museums. I hope that one day I get the chance to see it finished but
I am not so sure I will. The project began in 1948 and is far from
being finished. For reference, Mt. Rushmore was completed in 1941
after 14 years. However, Crazy Horse receives no outside funding and
just the head of Crazy Horse is the size of the Mt. Rushmore
sculpture. In the beginning, the original sculptor worked solo.
Several of his children now work at the memorial. So here is what it
looks like now,
and here is what it
is supposed to look like when completed.
The kids were able
to each bring home a rock that was from the blasting of the memorial!
We also visited
Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park. Both were
interesting but I preferred Jewel Cave. The big reason for that may
be that we were on a tour with only 2 other people so we could hear
the ranger speak, ask all the questions we wanted and he took the
time to stop and show us things on the path. The Wind Cave tour was
the complete opposite.
(the crystals in Jewel Cave)
(boxwork formations that can be found in both caves)
(a soda straw formation about 4 ft long!)
After our hour plus tour, we stopped in the visitor's center and saw this wall. It is a map of the cave. In the center, you can see some little black boxes that show where we went on our tour. Great image to get some perspective of how huge it really is!!
(the opening that led to the discovery of Wind Cave)
Another really cool
place we visited was the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. I was
completely in awe by this place. Of course, we have seen dig sites
before and we have seen fossils before but NEVER before have we seen
the two together. The mammoth bone fossils you see in the pictures
are real! They have been preserved in some way but they are real and
exactly where they were discovered. They have removed some fossils
but there are still plenty to check out and they know there are still
many more deeper down.
This location was
originally a hill that was planned to be removed because it was felt
to be unsightly but in 1974 when they began to do so, they hit a
mammoth tusk. Since then, they have recovered 122 tusks (at least 61
mammoth) and fossils from other animals including a giant short faced bear, camel, llama, prairie dog, wolf and fish.
Interestingly, three of the mammoths are woolly mammoth and the
remaining of them are the humongous Columbian mammoths. AND they are
all young males except for one that was an older male.
(how the kids measure up to a Columbian mammoth)
The belief is that
this was once a warm spring sinkhole and that either the mammoth
slipped in or were just unable to get out due to the incredibly
slippery shale that made up the walls.
(Locate the pelvis in the center and then follow it up and down. You can see most of the mammoth skeleton. He is positioned as though he is trying to climb out. For perspective, those white containers are five gallon buckets)
The tour guide
(on our private tour) said that they find enough
specimens during a one month dig that it requires the rest of the
year to catalog it all!!
And last but not
least, we did some hiking. We hiked through the cold and wind to
Little Devil's Tower.
It was a nice hike with great views of the
cathedral spires and surrounding areas.
It was so windy though that
once we made it to the top of Little Devil's Tower, that we made the
kids stay lower for fear that they would be blown over. Even Greg
and I were having trouble keeping our footing!
Here are a couple more pictures from the hike that Greg did on his own.
Our time was short but fun! We are off to......
