Day 7: In a Big Country

In a Big Country.

Devil's Tower

Our last day in South Dakota. We started the day spending as much time in the bathroom as we could, everyone showering and getting ready to begin the next leg squeaky clean. We packed up, purchased a few more Badlands souvenirs, we headed on our way.

In the Black Hills there is one destination that calls people like no other. The parking lot for this place is filled with license plates from all over the country. Mt. Rushmore? The Needles? No, I'm talking about Reptile Gardens, home of Maniac the enormous crocodile. Andrew was chomping at the bit to see this place, we needed to do laundry, so we figured we'd brave the attraction for some time to wash.

Reptile Gardens

Honestly, it was pretty good. Really good even. I'm not sure if it was because I had the lowest possible expectations or if it was just really that good, but we had a blast. We went to three performances: bird, alligator, and snake. They were fantastic. Corny jokes that were funny because they were delivered with a South Dakota sheepishness that made the jokes endearing. There was an indoor jungle that was impressive, with birds and lizards running around rare plants and fossils. If you are into snakes, it's the place to go, I've never seen so many. Fantastic alligators and crocs, plus giant tortoises that you could pet. It was well worth the trip.

At Homesteak Mine.  

We were now clean and reptiled out, ready to begin the next leg of our adventure, Wyoming, with a quick detour to Deadwood. Imagine every cheesy tourist destination in America and make it Western with gambling and you have Deadwood. It was worth a drive by, but we weren't sad that it wasn't more than that. The next town over, Lead (as in going in front, not as in the stuff in a pencil) we stopped at a gold mine, Homesteak Mine. It was pretty amazing. Instead of going underground, they just dug out the mountain, so you looked down this giant terraced hillside. They mined gold from this mine from the 1800's to 2001. Pretty amazing, plus they had the mining locomotives and tools for the kids to climb on which was pretty cool, and, even better they were across the street from a Subway and a pizza place. South Dakota is not known for their pizza for good reason, but the people there were really nice and it happened to be next to a place where we could buy something for Owen to eat, perfect!

Devil's Tower was our next stop. We got there just as the sunset and hiked the base. It's an astonishing volcanic formation rising to enormous height. The amazing part of our trip is how things are so intertwined from one place to another. When we were in the Badlands, the rangers told a Native American story about a race between the buffalo and four legged creatures with man and the other two legged creatures (really just birds, which was a key creature to have on your team, it turns out). The race was from Devils Tower to the Badlands. Two leggeds won, if you are curious, thanks to the magpie on the buffalos back who flew ahead. We had decided to drive through the night from Devils Tower to Yellowstone, but the ride was supposed to be amazing so we planned to drive most of the way and leave the last hour and a half for our viewing pleasure the next day.

Day 6: Combination of words to put on the back of a post card.

Combination of words to put on the back of a postcard.

On top of Harney.

Sometimes parenting calls for talents you didn't know you had. Like bed surgery. Anderw's Pokemon cards fell behind the bed, trapped in the beds innards. Before anything could be done, Josh preformed bed surgery and extracted them from the inside of the bed. Saving the day before 8am.

The goal today was climbing Harney Peak, the highest mountain between the Pyrenees and the Rockies. Instead of traveling 90, we decided to take a different route south through all of the Badlands and the Pine Ridge Reservation. Not only would we be able to see more of South Dakota, but we'd also be able to stop by the Buffalo Grasslands and gather rocks that we could actually take home with us. With our rock crazy kids, this place was a hit. It was also pretty crazy, it looked like the beach, the rocks tumbled and smooth and the ground white sand. We filled our pockets with neat rocks and headed on through the Badlands.

Want to purchase almost a whole town?  

Our trail led us through Scenic, SD. A town nearly abandoned with a sign that said, "nearly the whole town for sale.". The Badlands are still a tough place to live, I guess. Afterwards, we entered the Reserevation and went to the southern visitor center, run by the Reserevation. It was a nice center, but the bars on the windows told of a harsh world in the Reservation. Our neighbors went to Wounded Knee and spoke about the difficulty of life on the Resevation. They told us about the paltry memorial of Wounded Knee, something paid for by the people on the Reservation, not our government, which was the cause of the massacre. Sometimes it's hard to look at the past and accept the decisions of our ancestors.

Top of Harney.

Back down the trail.

From the visitor's center, we took the road west, which turned out to be a dirt road. This leads to an important lesson we learned about travel in SD, always make sure the road is paved. It is also reason #1 on why everyone has a truck in SD, not all the roads are paved. Needless to say, minivans and unpaved roads don't mix. It was a nerve wracking 20 miles with Jack Johnson blasting and beautiful country bumping by. It added time to our trip, but we finally made it to Harney Peak. We began the hike up later than we intended, but we still were able to hike up and back with time to jump in to Sylvan Lake, where we parked. Along the way, we made cairns as a hello to friends who were planning on climbing the moutains several days larder. Hopefully, the cairns will still be there to say hello!

Jackolope at Wall Drug.  

Sylvan Lake was beautiful, but our favorite swim was still Center Lake. We spent a bit of time in Keystone, grabbed dinner and headed back toward our cabin. The day was not over yet, our tiny bladdered daughter implored us to stop by Wall Drug. So, we took the plunge. It was a spectacle, which I guess should be expected from a business based on hundreds of billboards. The took the old west, made it cheesy and made a business of it. I guess this is as much of America as Mt. Rushmore or the Rockies. Afterwards, we headed back to the cabin and collapsed into bed.

Day 5: I can see for miles and miles.

I can see for miles and miles...

The Badlands, as beautiful as they are difficult. 

This was below ground level.  

Ranger Larry!

In our first full day in the Badlands, we said a big yes to the Ranger programs. We went to 4 of them and they were fantastic,although I think Ranger Larry, who presented most of them was getting annoyed with the children shouting out the answers they learned from him earlier by the end. There is this program called the teacher ranger
teacher program and participants in this program present information about the park throughout the day, it was fantastic.

Hanging out on the Buttes, the ravine there is where the other photo was taken. 

We started off at the Door hike and the geology program. The amazing thing about the Badlands is the buttes look like giant drip castles, and its almost what they are. Millions of years ago, the Badlands were under water, much of the landscape and geology was shaped at this time. Because of the composition of the Badlands, they erode at a very fast rate, revealing many fossils and other neat things as the buttes wash away. From the geology hike, we brought the kids to the junior ranger program, where they learned about the tribes that lived around the area and the landscape then collected patches and junior ranger pins. After that program, we ate lunch on the road and drove around the park until we came back to the fossil program, which gave each of us a desire to find a fossil and fill out the official form.

Climbing a ladder up buttes in the Notch trail.

Hiking is a big activity for our family and we had selected the Notch hike. Most of the hikes in the Badlands were well under a mile round trip, which seemed easy to us, so we felt confident picking this mile and a half "moderate to strenuous" hike. A mile and a half is something we would normally think nothing of, but we've never hiked the Badlands slippery surface in 100+ degree weather, no trees anywhere. We made it most of the way, up a tall trecheous ladder, but even we find some situations dangerous and right near the end a slippery ledge with a 20 foot drop turned us back.

Sod house.

Prairie dog at the sod house.

Stage coach at Cowboy Corner.  

Although the hiking was not as long as we are used to, we were still exhausted and fried and headed to check out the Praire House, a sod house exhibit toward the highway. The stories of the settlers who came here is pretty amazing and it was neat to see the kind of house they had lived in. I can't imagine dealing with the summers or winters in those primative dwellings. The kids got to chase after prarie dogs and feed goats and sheep grass.

Billy goats on the buttes, close up of other photo.

We journeyed back to Interior in the hopes of catching the grocery open to find something to make for dinner. While the grocery was open, I can't imagine finding much for dinner there. We did find popsicles for the kids and beer at Cowboy Corner for us. We wearily went back to the visitor center to the praise ranger program. As we learned about prarie grasses and chromobiotic soil, in the distance we watched lightening, thunder, and rain hit. Amazing. Rangers Larry cut the talk short to be on the safe side, but not before we found a fossilized bone! We hurried back to the center to proudly fill out our fossil report form and then went back to dinner at the restaurant.

Upper right corner.

After dinner, we climbed the buttes to watch the sunset, with the boys scrambling up and down in terrifying ways, Josh and Ellie trying to keep up and me just holding my breath. The Fat Tire beer was delicious after the kids went to bed and the sleep was too.

Sunset on the buttes.

Day 4: Roam if you want to.

Roam if you want to!

Mount Rushmore!

More bison.

Amazing 1930's caretakers cabin.  

Once you are surrounded by a herd of Buffalo doing their thing, you get addicted. Josh and I seemed to come up with excuses to see those buffalo again and going early in the morning seemed like a great idea. So, our journey began going through Custer State Park, driving us by an amazing 1930's ranger cabin and once again by some buffalo. The thrill was still there in the morning. We drove through wind cave national park, mainly to go over this crazy bridge that I saw in photos. It was honestly a bigger thrill looking at the photo than driving over the bridge, which seemed like any other bridge, just narrow. I'll have to find the photo again and show off to myself that I've been there to get the thrill I'd hope for.

Sometimes, for children, the most exciting parts of a trip is buying souvenirs. Owen is crazy for rocks and fossils, so when he saw Ken's Minerals and Rock Shop, he was chomping at the bit to go. Ken did not disappoint. The place was covered with rocks and minerals. Some so cool that even I was interested. Owen found his rocks, Andrew got a real buffalo jaw bone (yes, it's pretty big and no, I don't know what we'll do with it, but it's better than the whole skull he wanted)' Ellie got a piece of rose quartz. I found a really neat small jaw bone fossil fragment complete with teeth. Properly mineraled, we drove toward Crazy Horse and prepared to see mountain sized sculptures.

The boys.

But, we choose not to drive up to Crazy Horse. Someday, it'll be really amazing, but right now it's just a head poking out. There was a Native American museum on site, but even with that we couldn't justify the $27 to get closer to the monument. So, we drove along to Mount Rushmore. Many people have downplayed seeing Mt Rushmore, but we were blown away. The actual monument is pretty spectacular, but when you think about how they created it, it's even more impressive. When you compare Crazy Horse monument, which has been carved for the past 50 years and is only 20% finished, the accomplishment of Mt Rushmore, carved in only 14 years is amazing. Plus, the tools in the 1930's were quite different from today. Yet, it's a masterpiece. We drank in the mountain, and then walked along the presidential trail. Our first stop, a Native American exhibit, where we learned more about the buffalo we'd become so fixated on. They can run over 45 miles per hour and can jump 7 feet in the air from a run!

On the road to the Badlands, a visit to a Prairie Dog town.  

The rest of the presidential trail has a stop with information about each of the Rushmore presidents, finishing up with the artists' studio, where a ranger was giving an amazing talk on the history of Mt. Rushmore. We finished our trip at the gift shop, of course, got some shirts and tchotchkes and headed down the road to the Badlands.

Cowboy Corner in Interior, SD.

If you've been camping for several days, you are aware of the joy that comes from finally having a bathroom at your disposal. Camping is wonderful, but it does make you appreciate a nice hot shower. Were the Badlands not so spectacular, I probably would have thought of nothing more than washing the grit, bug spray, and sunblock of travel off, but the Badlands are breath taking. They remind me of that bad relationship that you just can't leave. You know there's no future in it, but somehow it's so irresistible that you can't help imagining it. We settled in to our clean, comfortable cabin and made our way to the visitor center to plan for the next day then headed to the nearby town of Interior, population 67 to try to find dinner food at the small grocery there.

Interior takes up about 2 acres of land. There are several homes, a school, a small grocery, a gas station (cowboy corner), a church, and three bars. It's fantastic, but it even beat us on trying to find dinner food with the small grocery closed. We bought some beer at the gas station and went to the cedar pass restaurant for dinner. The food was pretty good and afterwards we went to our backyard butte to watch the sunset. There is something magical about this place.

Butte behind our cabin.

After the kids went to bed, we met our next door neighbors who were on a dads trip. We hung out with Tom and Dave, and heard about the elusive Shea, who lived not too far from us just outside of Albany. Meeting fellow travelers is always a thrill for me and was a great way to begin our Badlands experience.

Sunset in the Badlands.

Day 3: On the Road Again

On the Road Again...

South Dakotans say yes to billboards. 

Some things about South Dakota: 1. It's amazingly flat for a great deal of the state. I think there is one cell tower in the whole state yet the reception is perfect through much of the state. 2. There is a lot of grass. Seriously, grass upon hay upon grass. 3. South Dakotans say yes to billboards. In places people never go, there is still a billboard for something or other, and right next to it is a billboard for Wall Drug. But, it works. You begin to depend on billboards for trip planning and so on. We are cantankerous enough to resist Wall Drug, but we might not be able to resist the giant dinosaur in their backyard.

Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD

We paused our drive in Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the illustrious corn palace. It did not disappoint. We arrived in Mitchell before the corn palace opened so we headed down the road to Jitters, a breakfast restaurant run by a wonderful woman named Vonda. You may have remembered driving overnight from your younger days as not so much of a biography deal. But, when you get older, you can be very cranky after a night of driving. The solution to that is Vonda in Jitters. The food was good, the coffee decent, the decor was based on making people comfortable, and Vonda was so nice and kind, the combination of which gave us the fuel to go on. The beauty of it all is a breakfast at Vonda's takes as long as it takes to get new tires at Graham's Tire from square jawed South Dakota straight shooter Travis.

Admiring the view in the Black Hills.

Needles are in the background.

After a trip to the one and only corn palace (which was neat on the outside but a gift shop inside, good price for post cards though, I wish I had purchased them all there). We headed west to the black hills. Exhausted, but excited, we explored the black hills, which was unlike anything we'd ever seen. We got our first glimpse of the faces, which was a thrill and drove through the needles. The needles are amazing, sharp points of rock jutting up with hair pin turns. It was stunning, we got out as much as we could and found mica, granite, rose quartz and other exciting rocks (if that happens to be your thing). After the needles, we headed to Custer State Park to find a campsite. Find it we did at Center Lake. A campsite off of the Needles, it's on a lake that has the amazing benefit of having warm water for the top three feet, but some sort of spring feeding it so by your feet in the deeper areas it was cool water. Perfect for a long drive and a heat wave. After setting up camp, we were Custer bound for dinner.

There are several options in Custer. Some look pretty good. One place in particular looks like a tourist joint, with a Leo's Lobstere-esque announcement of the prices on the outside of the building. The hook for Josh was the mention of bison meat, so onward we went.

Cheesiest restaurant in the world.  The cheese almost made up for the bad food.  

The Cattleman is easily the cheesiest restaurant in the world. In order to eat you need to go through a gift shop adored with dolphins, shells (1000 plus miles from the ocean), southern dressed dolls, and the like. We selected a tasteful hot pink back scratcher with the faces on it. In this large restaurant, everything you could imagine was for sale. The food was so bad, even the French fries were bad.

After that experience we headed to Custer state park, expecting nothing because a place as cheesy as the Cattleman crushes your hopes. We drove into the park stuck behind motorcycles, exhausted with full days and only hours of sleep, children bickering about nothing, doing this to cross it off the list and move on. After all, what really happens at twilight?

Buffalo at Custer park at twilight.

Buffalo graze. Theyn find 900 of their closest friends and they hang out in Custer National Park. After driving through for a bit and seeing only the deer we've seen in NY, our hopes were low, the around a bend, buffalo. Giant, one ton creatures hanging out, eating grass, chatting with friends and family with loud gutteral noises, and tolerating these other ton sized metal things holding people. It was amazing. Buffalo could care less about you. They are so big, they do their thing and will do it a foot from you or the other side of the park from you, which is amazing. I loved seeing these creatures, who's main goal was to have a good meal and hang with their family. Although different species, our goals were the same, I just hope that the grass was better in Custer state park than the food in the Cattleman. After it got dark, we headed back to the Needles to our campsite. A word of caution. Don't drive any part of the Needles at night, it's petrifying! But we made it and went to bed, excited to hang with George, Tom, Teddy, and Abe and, of course, to sleep.