Black Hills Trip - Day 7

Wednesday, June 30th:  Custer State Park

Today, we started the day by sleeping in!  It was about 8:45am by the time we got up and moving and it felt good.  After a breakfast of cereal and pop-tarts (that we had been carting with us for a week!), we headed out on to the Wildlife Loop that is within Custer State Park.  This 18 mile road will take you through open grasslands and rolling hills where animals such as bison, antelope, prairie dogs, coyotes, burros and several species of birds.  Below are some pics of what we saw!

Buffalo from afar

Buffalo up close - young and old

Horned antelope.  Karen has named this one "Bucky"

A burrow posing for a shot

A burrow interested in Nathan's camera

Some of the rolling hills

A visit to Prairiedog Town
On the way back to our Camper Cabin, we went up to Mt. Coolidge.  This is the site of a former fire tower.  You could see for miles!  Looking through the viewfinders, you could see Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore (kind of) and several other sights.

The view from Mt. Coolidge - In the foreground, you can see some of the 16,000 acres that burned in the 1988 fire that took 3 days to get under control

Another view from Mt. Coolidge

We headed back to the Camper Cabin for the evening.  The boys in the neighboring cabin wanted Nathan to play, so they tossed the baseball around, played some Battleship and Bowling Dice.  Before dinner, they taught Nathan how to fish:

Joey and Jack (I think).  They were from Solon, IA

Nathan's first fish!

We enjoyed dinner at our campsite, made another campfire and more of our renegade S'mores.

Black Hills Trip - Day 6

Tuesday, June 29th:  Hill City, SD to Game Lodge Campground (Custer State Park)

This morning started with (what else) but more all-you-can-eat pancakes the size of Styrofoam plates!  Off to Crazy Horse Monument where we viewed the monument, the visitors center, museum and the sculptor's home.  Below is a current picture of the monument:

Some interesting facts we learned about Crazy Horse:

--Sculpting began over 60 years ago by one man (Korczak Ziolkowski) and is still being managed and sulpted by his wife, sons & daughters

--The face has been completed since 1998

--It is being sculpted "in the round" meaning there is just as much carving/blasting happening on the other side of the monument than there is on this side

--The memorial foundation does not receive, or accept, federal or state money for the project

--The "pass through" hole you see down and to the right of the profile of the face is 10 stories tall

--The entire carving will measure 563 feet high and 641 feet long.  

 

A picture from the obersvation deck (no zoom)

This is a picture of a poster hanging inside the visitor's center that has an overlay of the final design

Foreground:  A 1:32 scale model of the finished memorial

Background:  The actual memorial

From here, we headed toward the Needles Highway which starts at Sylvan Lake, 6 miles northeast of the town of Custer.  This 14 mile highway is full of twists and turns including a 1 lane tunnel and some places to stop and take in the beauty of nature.  Before heading out, we spent some time at Sylvan Lake which is pictured below.  We stuck our feet in the water, hiked around the lake and just hung out for a while.

Sylvan Lake

Dustin and Nathan panning for mica in the sand

This was on our hike around the lake.  These rocks actually hold back the lake, so we are behind (and below) the level of the lake.  Notice the rock climber in the lower left hand corner of the picture

A view from the top of one of the rocks at the edge of the lake

From here, we headed onto Needles Highway.  Here are some pictures:

The Needle's Eye

Dustin and Nathan hanging out on a rock

From Needles Highway, we proceeded into Custer State Park where we stayed in a Camper Cabin at the Game Lodge Campground.  The Camper Cabins have a twin bed and a bunk bed with a twin on top and a double on the bottom.  They have heat, lights and A/C and a small table that folded up against the wall.  Thankfully, it was in the shade most of the day and there was enough of a breeze we didn't need the A/C.  Ours sat beside a stream, which meant Nathan could toss rocks in to his heart's content.

Our Camper Cabin

Getting the fire going

We ended the night with "modified" s'mores.  Ritz crackers, toasted marshmallows and slices of Snickers and Milky Way candy bars (we were not going to pay $4.50 for a box of graham crackers at the campground convenience store!)

Black Hills Trip - Day 5

Monday, June 28th:  Hill City/Keystone, SD

Monday started with a breakfast of a different sort.  Crooked Creek Resort, where we were staying, offered an all you can eat pancake breakfast for $3.00.  We were SOOOOO there.  They were great pancakes - each one the size of a Styrofoam plate!  We had our fill and headed to Mount Rushmore, just 9 miles away.  Below are some pictures of our time there:

Outside the entrance to Mt. Rushmore

Diane and Nathan

Your standard postcard picture of Mt. Rushmore

Once we got around to this view, we realized there could be a 5th face up on the mountain.  Seen here to the right of honest Abe, we affectionately named him "Monkey Face".

From here, we headed to Black Hills Glass Blowers, just outside of Keystone.  Two local glass blowers work out of their small (and very HOT) studio, which could be seen from the 1880's train ride the day before.  We had not called ahead to find out when/if they were doing any blowing that day, but boy, did we get lucky- they had just started when we got there.  If you haven't seen someone do this, put it on your list of things to do.  We were all fascinated.  Over the next hour or so, we watched a chunk of molten sand turn from what we thought was going to be a glass into what we thought was going to be a vase into what ended up to be a decorative platter, much like the picture below:

Karen and I found a decorative bowl and a Christmas ornament we liked, so we purchased them:

From here, we headed for Rushmore Cave.  This cave was discovered by miners in the mid-1870's.  Although no gold was found here, several rooms were discovered containing various forms of stalactites, stalagmites and columns.  We took the 1-hour tour which took us through narrow passages and sometimes up and down steep steps to view several of the rooms in one part of the cave system.  Below are some pics:

Stalactites on the ceiling of one of the rooms

A "ribbon" form of a stalactite

More stalactites

This was formerly a column (where a stalactite and a stalagmite meet), but it was later separated by an earthquake

Back into Keystone for some nourishment.  We ate outside on the covered porch of the Railhead Family Restaurant.  Nathan ate his first Buffalo Burger, which he darn near inhaled!   Apparently, it was good!  

The last stop of the day was back to Mt. Rushmore for the night lighting ceremony.  We were disappointed they were not doing fireworks this year because it had been too dry. 

During the lighting ceremony, they invited all current and veteran service men & women on stage to be honored

Six of the service men were invited to assist in lowering and folding the flag, which concluded the ceremony

Mt. Rushmore lit at night (duh)

Back to our cabin at Crooked Creek, where we spent the night.

 

Black Hills Trip - Day 4

Sunday, June 27th:  Spearfish, SD to Hill City, SD

Another hotel, another free continental breakfast...  Off to Rapid City where we wanted to get a tour at the Black Hills Gold Factory Outlet store.  The tour was to show you how they design and make various Black Hills Gold jewlery.  Unfortunately, the literature made no mention of the fact there were no tours on weekends and holidays.  Grrrrr.  The sales person seemed to not really care when we voiced our disappointment that the literature didn't mention there were no weekend tours.  Instead, she offered to have us watch a 7 minute video on the process, which wasn't really the equivalent of a tour, but oh well.  Diane purchased a ring and a necklace here and we were off to the next stop.  A couple miles down the road we stopped at the Prairie Berry Winery.

As you can imagine, Nathan was a little bored.  So, he found a new friend (also bored) and they played chess.

The 3 adults proceeded to do some wine tasting.  We were helped by a very friendly Tasting Room Associate that made sure we were getting the most out of the experience.  After each getting to taste 5 wines (for free), we made our selections (listed below):

Phat Hogg Chardonnay 2008 — Our crisp, un-oaked, international award winning Chardonnay. Available Now.

 
 

 
Crab Apple -- Our wine is made from handpicked South Dakota crab apples. It is a delightful blend of tart and not-too-sweet. Available Now.
 
 
 

 
Red Ass Rhubarb— Our semi-sweet raspberry and rhubarb wine made from South Dakota grown rhubarb and ripe red raspberries. Available Now.
 
   

 
Blue Suede Shoes - A lush, sweet wine with deep bass undertones of fresh blueberries!  Sorry Sold Out until 2011. 
 
- We must have got the last bottle!!
 

We also decided to sign up for their wine club!  As a member of their Generation 5 wine club (Cellar Cru), we receive a 10% discount on all their wine (Yay, we can order off the internet and have it shipped to MN!).  We'll also receive 2 bottles of wine in each of the months of February, May and October.  We indicated we prefer the sweet and semi-sweet wines and we won't know the specific wine we get until the bottles arrive in the mail.

 

Next, we headed into Hill City where we ordered a pizza to go for lunch and walked across the street to the picnic tables at the 1880 Train station.  We had been playing our version of the license plate game, which was simply keeping track of the states we saw and betting on how many of the 50 states we'd see by the end of the trip.  Across the street from the pizza place, there it was - ALASKA!  One of the two states we didn't think we'd see.  Any bets on whether we saw Hawaii??  Keep checking back until the end of the trip to find out the exciting ending to this game!

 

After killing time wandering the streets of Hill City, it was time to board the 1880 Train. This train runs between Hill City and Keystone and back.  Roundtrip took 2hrs, 15 minutes.  Below are some pictures of the trip!

A fawn eating from her mother.  How Diane got this picture as the train was going by, I have no idea!!!

Hanging out the open air windows of the train car

According to the narrator on the train, the numbers on this barn have been dubbed "Lazy Two, Crazy Two" 

 Harney Peak (Highest point in SD at 7244 feet) 

 

A couple miles down the road was our hang out for the next two nights, Crooked Creek Campground & Resort.  We stayed in one of the cabins, which was basically like a stand alone hotel room. 

 

Nathan went for a dip in the onsite swimming pool and then we turned in for the night.  You'll need to ask Nathan about what "Oopsie-Poopsie" means and ask Diane why the letter "P" was missing from the pool sign (and how long it took for her to "get it").