The Transit to Custer took almost 20 hours over 3 days. Stops included Oklahoma City and Ogallala, NE. The trip was fairly uneventful except for temperatures reaching 104 degrees on the drive through Nebraska.
In Custer, we are staying at Broken Arrow Horse Camp and RV Park. About half the campers here are horse owners who have brought their horses to ride in the country. This is the first time Pancho and Lefty have met horses. They seem to think horses are just larger dogs.
Friday was my birthday. Many of you wished me to have a great day, and I did. We started the day with a hearty breakfast at Skogen Kitchen, a fairly new restaurant. We then drove to Mount Rushmore National Monument. As most of you know, Mount Rushmore is comprised of four 60 foot busts of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Gutzon Borglum designed the monument and oversaw its construction, which started in 1927 and was completed in 1941. The Lincon Borglum Visitor Center houses a museum with exhibits that tell the story of Gutzon Borglum, the creation of Mount Rushmore and the workers who helped. Outside the Visitor Center is a terrace with a view of the monument. The Visitor Center is the start and end of the Presidential Trail, a .6 mile loop that takes you closer to the monument.
Following Mount Rushmore, we drove back towards Custer to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. The Crazy Horse Memorial is the world's largest mountain carving n progress. When completed, it will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. Crazy Horse's face, which was completed in 1998, is 87.5 feet high. For reference, each of the heads on Mount Rushmore is 60 feet high. If you don't know, Crazy Horse was an Oglala Lakota war leader who defeated General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn. In 1939, Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota Elder, wrote Korczak Ziolkowski, who was working on the Mount Rushmore memorial under Gutzon Borglum, inviting him to create a mountain tribute to North American Indians after reading that he had won first prize for his Carrara marble portrait, “PADEREWSKI, Study of an Immortal,” at the New York World’s Fair It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization, and receives no federal or state funding. In addition to the mountain carving, the memorial master plan includes an Indian University of North America, an Indian Museum of North America, and a Native American Cultural Center. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota.
This a link to an album of photos from Mount Rushmore and the Cray Horse Memorial
We ended my birthday by walking around downtown Custer and eating dinner at Black Hills Burger and Bun. Throughout downtown Custer is a series of painted Buffalo statues which were installed as part of the Custer Stampede Buffalo Art Auction. Here is a link to pictures of some of the statues. AS for the burger, it was outstanding (one of the best I have ever had), a good way to end my birthday.
On Saturday, Deb and I visited the Jewel Cave National Monument. With 181.89 miles (292.72 kilometers) of mapped passageways, Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world, after Mammoth Cave System in Kentucky and Sistema Sac Actun at the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico). It is estimated the discovered areas in the cave account for only about 3 to 5% of the estimated total air volume of the cave. The cave volume is estimated by measuring the amount of air that the cave "exhales" when the outside air pressure drops and "inhales" when the outside air pressure rises.
Jewel Cave is a popular tourist attraction. When we arrived at 9, the earliest available tour was 11:40. We opted for a 1:00 pm tour and went off to traverse the Wildlife Loop at Custer State Park. Before leaving, we had to have our shoes disinfected for white-nose syndrome, a deadly disease that affects North American Bats, since we had been to a cave infected with the disease within the past year.
The Custer State Park Wildlife loop is an 18 mile paved trail through pine-covered hills, rolling prairies and red-walled canyons where you can see a variety of plains animals including bison, prairie dogs, pronghorn, white tail deer, elk, bighorn sheep, and burros. That day, the drive was pretty uneventful as we saw only pronghorn deer, prairie dogs, and burros - no bison. The burros are descendants of a pack that used to lead rides through the park. The burros are very docile, and while you are not supposed to feed them we did.
At Jewel Cave, we took the Scenic Tour, a half-mile loop including 723 stair steps that showcase some of the best features of the cave. 95% of the known cave walls is covered calcite crystals. One of the highlights of the tour is a 10 foot strip of cave bacon, a form of flowstone, which is the longest in the world.
An album with photos from Saturday can be found at this link.
Sunday, we visited Wind Cave National Park. Established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the seventh national park, and the first cave designated a national park anywhere. Wind Cave is currently the sixth-longest cave in the world with 140.47 miles (226.06 km) of explored cave passageways. Like Jewel Cave, it is estimated less than 5% of the cave has been explored. Above ground, the park includes the largest remaining natural mixed-grass prairie in the United States.
Wind Cave was the first cave where boxwork, intersecting paper-thin calcite fins which form open chambers and protrude from the surrounding bedrock by amounts ranging from 1-1/2 to 3 feet, was found. 95% of all boxwork is located in Wind Cave. To the Lakota Indians, Wind Cave is sacred as the place where they emerged from the spirit world to the natural world.
The following link is an album of pictures from our visit to Wind Cave.
Today was a slow day for us. After a breakfast of fried eggs and green chili, Deb and I drove to Trout Haven Ranch, a rainbow trout farm that offers a pay for what you catch fishing hole. Deb had never been fishing before, so it seemed like fun. Using a cane pole, we caught 6 fish over an hour. While the hosts cleaned them we took a tour of the trout farm.
On the return drive, we drove through Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park. This time we were lucky as we were able to observe a herd of bison along the park road.
The following link is an album of pictures from our visit to Trout Haven Ranch, drive through Custer State Park, and our rainbow trout dinner.
Overall, Deb and I are glad we came to the Black Hills. It is beautiful country with many things to do. To be honest, I was surprised as to how much there was to do, and we just barely scratched the surface.
Does anyone want a postcard from Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse Memorial? Leave a comment to the blog post as to which one you want, and I will randomly select people to send one to.
Finally, I received a call today that I have squamous cell skin cancer. It is the second most common form of cancer and very treatable I will be flying to Houston in two weeks to have it removed. While a slight hiccup to the travel, we will keep plugging.
Tomorrow, we leave for Yellowstone National Park.
Until next time, like Charles Kuralt, we will see you on the road.
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