Dustin & Karen Kuklenz: Black Hills Trip

Friday, June 25th: Pierre, SD to Wall, SD (via the Badlands)

After a continental breakfast at the hotel, we had planned to head up to Oahe Dam, 7 miles north of Pierre to view the dam and take a tour of the power plant. The first issue was determining whether the tour times listed were Central time or Mountain time. The time zones change down the middle of the river, so one half the dam is on Central time, the other half on Mountain. It was finally determined that tours would be Central time since they left from the Visitors Center, which was on the Central time side of the dam. So we headed out. After finding the Visitors Center, we were bummed to find out that they were not doing tours that day because "something was going on at the power plant". So, alas, there was no, um... dam tour. The volunteer at the Visitors Center was annoyed because no one had told her there were no tours and she was frantically leaving messages for the rangers because no one had showed up on time to give the tour. So we wandered around, took some pictures and headed to our next stop. Below are a couple pictures of Oahe Dam.

Lake Oahe as it ends at the dam. Water enters these 7 intake chambers and travel more than 3000 feet in concrete tunnels to the power plant. The water at the intakes is about 80 feet deep.

Surge chambers at the power plant on the downstream side of the dam.

The next stop was the Discovery Center & Aquarium back in Pierre. More discovery center than aquarium, this was essentially a mini-science museum with various hands-on displays for kids and adults alike.

Nathan in the human kaleidoscope. Which Nathan is the real one???

Off to the Badlands!! We drove the Badlands State Scenic Byway that loops from Interior, SD about 30 miles to Wall. Below are some pictures... It was about 90 degrees going through the Badlands - the hottest day during our trip.