South Dakota Rocks!!!

There is no other way to say it. South Dakota’s Black Hills rock. I cannot believe that I have never been here before. It is definitely easy to understand why the Lakota considered this area sacred. There is so much to see and do here in the Black Hills that I cannot even begin to describe it, but I will try. This is actually the first stop we have made on our journey that I wish we could stay longer.
Once we got here and got settled into our campsite, we went up to the visitor center and got the kids all enrolled in the park’s Junior Naturalist program. This is very similar to the Junior Ranger program at most of the national parks so the girls knew the drill pretty well. After dinner that evening we went to a ranger-led program on the geological history of this area. Oh yeah, in between dinner and the program we caught several rainbow trout from the stream in our campground.
On Saturday, the 3rd of July, we went to Mount Rushmore for their big Independence Day celebration. It was fantastic! They do a really good job with lots of thing to do for the kids; from presidential impersonators, to a native American interpretive village. And yes, another Junior Ranger badge for Cate and Meg. We had originally intended to stay at the Memorial all afternoon and see the lighting ceremony but the crowds were VERY large and the kids were getting burnt out. So instead we headed home and had a nice dinner, fished some more, and watched a special movie about the annual buffalo round-up here at the park. Custer State Park is home to the largest free roaming herd of bison left in North America, about 1500 animals. Each year they have a round-up to corral the herd, count them, brand them, vaccinate the calves, and other necessities for managing the herd. It looked like a really cool event; definitely the only time you could ever get a feeling for what it must have been like for the Lakota Indians who inhabited this land.
On Sunday we slept in a little bit and worked on finishing up the Junior Naturalist workbooks. After that we decided to drive the Wildlife Loop, an 18 mi loop through the entire Southern portion of the park. It was raining and we thought this might be a good chance to see some animals. Boy were we right! In a one hour drive we saw wild turkeys, mule deer, whitetail deer, wild burros, pronghorn antelope, mountain goats, and of course buffalo! In fact, the buffalo herd was astride the road and at some points we were within five feet of the massive animals. It was amazing!
We hated to do it, but we had to say farewell to the Black Hills on Monday, 5 July. We went and picked up the dog (who was very happy to see us!) and headed back westward on I-90 to our next stop for the night in tiny Dayton, WY (pop. 380). On the way we took a side trip to see Devil’s Tower. This is another must see if you are headed West. An ancient volcanic plug rising out of the ground, the tower is visible for miles. The Junior Ranger program at this one was really interesting as it talked about the geology as well as some of the Native American legends for how the tower was formed.

Here is another slideshow of our stay in the Black Hills region. Enjoy! Next stop: Yellowstone!!