Devil’s Tower

This has been - officially - my favorite day of the trip so far. I mentioned our cabin in yesterday’s post, and I can’t resist posting two photos – one from the outside showing the cabin in relation to Devil’s Tower, and the other showing the cute inside. We had breakfast –including super yummy biscuits with gravy - at the KOA café, before hiking, so all-in-all a great start to the day.




We then spent most of the morning doing an 8-mile hike around the base of the tower and the surrounding prairie. Including a walk through a prairie dog town. This was too cool for words… so I’ve included a picture below and a video so you can hear them “barking” at us (sorry for the shaky camera... this is really all about the sound).




The walk was so varied – pine forest, prairie, desert/canyon-like terrain – it was just great. And we saw at least 10 different wild flowers in all sorts of colors - purple, blue, white, yellow and orange. It would be really annoying to post them all here so I picked just one. The air temp was hot, but a near-constant, cool wind and the smell of sun-warmed pines made the hike insanely enjoyable. I was definitely on a nature high for most of it… and a few hours after.














Oh – and how can I forget – we met a RED SOCKS fan along the trail at DT who was so devoted to his team he had red socks tattooed on his left ankle (this gentleman appeared to be about my dad’s age). But he said to us, as we were chatting about baseball and of course… the Yankees, “I am a Red Socks fan first, but I am really a baseball fan, and I know which team is number one.” He couldn’t let the name of the team escape his lips, but he pointed to us. Swell fella.

We left DT around 1 or so and drove through some of the most beautiful country I have seen – spectacular rocky gorges, lush green prairie, dramatic sparse desert/canyon-like stuff. It was incredible. Met some nice bikers from SD at Powder River Pass along Highway 16.

We’re now in Riverton, Wyoming, which is within the Wind River Indian Reservation. (Staying at a hotel tonight.) Tomorrow we drive to Yellowstone.


This is for Scott - This board explained about the missing bark - porcupines EAT IT!!

Jewel Cave * Crazy Horse * Rushmore * Devil’s Tower

If you’re thinking that’s too much for one day you're right. But we did it anyway.

Will’s brother George set today’s agenda which began with a 9 a.m. tour of Jewel Cave. The Cave was misnamed by those who discovered it and overestimated the worth of its contents by just about 100 percent. Nothing really valuable inside. At least not in terms of money. No pics worth sharing because… well.. it’s a cave. It’s dark. Not many photos came out well.

Visiting Crazy Horse was very satisfying. I didn’t really know the whole story until we were heading out here and it’s way too much for a blog entry, but I was most excited to learn the artist was Polish, and the entire venture is non-profit and non-government (learn more here). We also were there for a blast, and met the sculptor’s wife who now runs the whole operation with seven of her ten (!!) children.

I’ve always wanted to see Mt. Rushmore. And now I have. We showed up at an inopportune time for photos, with the sun at just the wrong angle. Oh well.


Devil’s Tower is poorly named. It is a sacred and spiritual place to Native Americans and maybe it was because we came here at the end of the day and nearly had the place to ourselves, or because the wind was blowing just enough to make that great swooshing noise in the trees, or because we got to see the sun set on the tower, but it is a place much closer to God than the devil, I am sure.

Tonight we have the most fantastic little cabin at a KOA just outside the park. I can see Devil’s Tower out our cabin door as I type this. Sadly, I have no idea when I will be able to post… no wifi last night or tonight. Bummer.

It's the solididified core of an old volcano.

Native American Prayer Bundle hung on tree near tower.

Thistle (always reminds me of my Grandma Dicton, because of her dishes).

Back on track

Got up early this morning and drove to Rapid City. Spent about half the day there while we waited for the car, which was being repaired at Sears. We then drove to Custer State Park, where we got on a trail heading up to Harney Peak – the highest point in South Dakota. It was a gorgeous 3.5 mile hike up to a rocky-top vista. We has some snacks (dinner at this point) before heading back down.


The trail wove through lush forest, with gigantic jutting rock formations mingling in with the trees. We only ran into a few other hikers – most heading down as we were heading up. The trail to the peak actually led out of the state park and into the Black Elk Wilderness of the Black Hills National Forest where the peak is located.


The state park was really nice – lots and lots of lodges, campground, cabins, picnic areas. We even saw a few wild buffalo up pretty close, but didn’t stop to get a picture at first because there were so many I figured for sure we’d see more. Then we didn’t, until this one which was pretty far away (had to use the digital zoom to get this shot which is why it's not as clear).


We ended the day at Mt. Rushmore where we met up with Will’s brother, mom, sister Linda, and nephew Scott, and saw the evening program as they light up the monument. We’ll be heading back there tomorrow, along with Jewel Cave and Crazy Horse before heading to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.



P.S. If my dear darling niece Caroline is reading this: I think I have more good news for you. When the mechanics at Sears were working on the car they had to take out the back seat that connects to the trunk and they found ANOTHER little something that I think is yours... are you missing any other games??

Not quite as planned

Today began with a bang – literally. As we pulled out heading toward the visitors center for an 8.30 geology walk, our back passenger side tire blew out. Will nearly qualified for a pit crew changing the tire and we made the walk. I should also mention that just moments before the blowout, we discovered that a mouse had helped him/herself to snacks and rolls we had left in the trunk of the car.

After learning a bit about how the Badlands were formed we drove to Wall, SD (home of the famous Wall Drug and the nearest town), and got a new tire, some lunch, and mouse traps at the local hardware store (for all the hype, Wall Drug is fairly useless in terms of practical shopping). Back to the park for some serious hiking the rest of the afternoon. EXCEPT… as we climb out of the car we see the brand new tire is now also flat. Who cares, let’s go for a hike. Nice (albeit short) 1.5-mile walk on Notch Trail. Back at the car, Will is on his back jacking up the car when the heavens open. We toss everything that was previously in the trunk into the back seat and jump in the front to wait it out.

Few minutes later we get out and Will finishes the job, noticing that the spring (something to do with the struts and shocks) has actually broken and left a sharp edge, which is what cut/punctured both tires. (It’s not sticking out far enough to catch the donut spare). Back to Wall. The tire guy sends us to the local mechanic who tells us he can’t really help and we need to go to Rapids City. We’ve decided to go first thing in the morning because it’s over an hour away and this all was taking place around 3.30/4. By the time we got back to the park it was steadily raining and we both just crashed.

It’s nearly 8 now. Still raining. Will just put the mouse traps in the trunk and the front seat of the car. Not quite the day we had planned.

Photos from today:











Our second flat tire of the day. (Oh how this tire mocks us).

P.S. This post could have also been titled, Why no one will be getting postcards from the Badlands. Had planned to get, write and send post cards today/tomorrow at the latest, but it’s not going to happen.

WI to SD

Pretty much a full day of driving, but with two fun stops and an early arrival in the Badlands NP, which left plenty of time to snap some pics before settling into our cabin for the night. Sadly there’s no wifi here, so I probably won’t be able to post this until Wednesday.

First Stop: Hawkeye Point, highest point in Iowa
Hawkeye Point is less than 10 miles south of the Minnesota border, so as we were scootin’ along Rt. 90, we turned south to head toward the high point.

This was quite an adventure since Will brought along only a photo of the site and the GPS coordinates, which would have been super helpful … if we had a GPS. We drove around in circles for a good 30 minutes; Will stopped at a farmers’ co-op and got more detailed directions and we eventually found the place. It’s on private property – a pig farm. The marker is at the end of the corn crib. This is Will’s 30-somethingth HP and my twenty-somethingth. The property owner was mowing her lawn and gave us a smile and a wave as we parked our Jersey plates and walked toward the marker. Funny.

Next stop: Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD
This has been in my sights since Jenn V. crossed the country with her cat, moving from Boston to Seattle, oh-so-many years ago and sent me a postcard from this joint. Sadly they were in the midst of changing the design, so the outside of the palace was not in its usual glory. Here’s a nice picture of one of the murals inside though.


Destination: Badlands National Park
There were storms in the area and the dark skies really made these geological wonders appear even more spectacular. Tomorrow’s agenda includes lots and lots of hiking.

BMOC

So NOW it's official. He's all graduated and stuff. Can you even stand how cute this kid is???

So after a trip out east to work with Uncle Will for a bit this summer, and a trip to Italy with the family, he's off to University of North Dakota in Grand Forks to pursue a degree in airport management, commercial piloting and something else.

It's sort of amazing that there are no photos of him with cute girls, because let me tell you there was a veritable parade of them during the course of the day.

Judy, George Peter III, George Peter Jr., Scott.

With Gram.

Valerie and Linda (Will's sisters - they will NOT stand for a photo so we take what we can get with them!)

Scott and Uncle Will (the ceremony was two full hours).

Congratulations George!

Today was George’s graduation party and that took up most of the day (although Scott really wants to get a game of Risk going right now and I feel a little guilty that I am sitting here doing this when I SHOULD be hanging with the family). Will and I started the day with a nice little hike up Hoffman Hill which is just a few miles from here. We plan to go back tomorrow and maybe I will take some pictures. But for now… here’re some shots from the party.








Nice photo of some grads...


..and then the rock band shot.



These kids today and their texting! I was able to confirm that at one point party guests were texting each other across the room!

Jackson learning all about quoits!