South Dakota & Minnesota (sort of)

Blog #4 - South Dakota & Minnesota (sort of)

Saturday, 9/8

90 minutes after we left Devil’s Tower in Wyoming we were parked outside the Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame in Sturgis in South Dakota. Along the way we found a Groupon which nearly halved our admission price. :)  It was a decent museum with a lot of Harley Davidson but also a good number of antique, rare, and/or special motorcycles. Of course there was also a fair bit about the history of the Sturgis Rally - going strong since 1938 (400,000+ attendees in recent years and more than 600,000 at least twice). Entering South Dakota marked the first of what will be many new states for us and our little RV.

Leaving Wyoming earlier than planned allowed time to visit Sturgis but also more of the Black Hills area of South Dakota. We found a very nice campground in Custer (so named because General Custer surveyed this area). Custer was a reasonable driving distance from Sturgis and put us in perfect position for plans we didn’t have initially.

Sunday, 9/9

After breakfast we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial. This privately funded endeavor

will eventually be a massive mountain carving of Crazy Horse astride his horse. At present the carved portion that is finished is just his face (nearly 90’ high). But since  the first dynamite blast in 1948 there has also been A LOT of infrastructure completed on the property (Museum/Visitor Center, plumbing, electricity, small university, and more). And the mountainside that is being carved has been set up with roads and such to make the work easier. It started with the sculptor working alone and going up and down a flight of 700+ stairs to get to the worksite.

The American Indian museum on the property is huge and beautiful and represents native cultures from around the US, not just South Dakota. There are two auditoriums showing a film about the work, a cafe, gift store, and it encompasses many other buildings including the on-site home of the sculptor who designed the work. It is as good as any national park visitor center we’ve visited.

Custer State Park was mentioned to us by people at Devil’s Tower as being good for wildlife viewing. It’s minutes away from the Crazy Horse Memorial so we went there next. We had to be a bit strategic about where we entered because the road around the park has many one-lane rock tunnels with limited dimensions that can’t fit large vehicles.

So, 10 minutes into the park we come to the first tunnel and the posted dimensions are significantly different than what is in the park map (and every other map we’ve seen so far in South Dakota). For certain the tunnel is wide enough but is it tall enough? The map says the tunnel height is 11’3”. That’s great! Our rig is 9’7”. However, the signs on the road to the tunnel say it is 9’9” tall. That is not so great. But, Jeff is a professional and he says we can make it (Serena was having severe anxiety). However, once we entered the tunnel it was clear that there was plenty of clearance. FYI, none of the signs posted for the tunnels we traversed - there were four more - matched the numbers on the maps.

Custer State Park was pretty and had some beautiful rock formations. It did also deliver on the wildlife. The park has an estimated minimum of 1300 bison and the herd we saw was ¼ - ⅓ of that number! Also other animals as you’ll see in the photos below.

All along the plan for tonight was to see the lighting ceremony at Mt Rushmore which happens at 8pm. We got a campsite in Keystone which is only 2 miles from the monument so that we didn’t have to drive much on unfamiliar mountain roads in the dark. The dusk light on the monument wasn’t very dramatic but the monument and visitor center were uncrowded so it was easy to read all the displays and watch the movie. The presentation around the lighting was nice and it was cool to see the lights suddenly illuminate the monument but the lights don’t highlight the features well. Nearly half the audience was active- or past-military; those people were invited on stage at the end to participate in lowering the flag.

Monday, 9/10

The nice thing about staying overnight in Keystone is that it was easy to go back to Mt Rushmore this morning and see it in different light. Also, the visitor center was super crowded today compared to last night. We also walked the Presidential Trail which is a paved path that goes right to the bottom of the slope below the carvings. It’s great for looking up the presidents’ noses.

It wasn’t a long drive to the entrance of Badlands National Park. The landscape along Hwy 90 was essentially the same as we had in Wyoming - lots of open grassland. In fact, we passed the National Grasslands Visitor Center in Wall, SD. I didn’t know we had a National Grasslands. Did you?

When we pulled off onto Hwy 240 which goes through Badlands NP it was dramatically different. There was prairie visible but mostly beautifully eroded rocks and desert. And suddenly it was hot. The developed area of the park - lodge, visitor center, and campground - were on the opposite end from where we entered. We stopped at most of the overlooks, had a late lunch at the lodge, and did our usual at the visitor center (watching the film and reading all the displays). We did a brief drive thru the town of Interior - pop 67 - which is 2 miles south of the park. There are highways that connect to Interior from the south and the road we came on from the park. But in town there were only two paved streets: Main & A. It’s not a big town.

Despite the temperature being nearly 90, it was actually quite pleasant in the shade. The campground doesn’t have much shade but our rig provided a nice bit. It was a pleasant evening spent mostly outside. And inside the rig had cooled sufficiently to be pleasant for sleeping.

Tuesday, 9/11

Visiting Badlands NP is a lot like Black Canyon of the Gunnison - mostly driving around and taking pictures from the overlooks. There is even less hiking here but this a.m. on our way out we did about 2 miles and got to some nice views. Technically we had a reservation to stay here again tonight but we have a long drive to Milwaukee and breaking that up into two smaller drives sounded better than spending the afternoon here chasing the shade. Though the weather this morning is cooler with high overcast and was nice for hiking.

But we had time to go to the nearby Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. Very good displays and movie about the daily experience of the Minuteman missiliers, the historical context of the cold war, and the history of the placement/removal of the Minuteman missiles in the Great Plains. It was neither seeking approval for nuclear weapons nor touting their greatness/necessity. Many thoughtful questions were asked in the displays. This was not on our original itinerary but we noticed it in the other park brochures and wanted to go. We would have liked to do the tour of the launch control center but we didn’t plan in advance and it is booked out 2 ½ weeks.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving east on Hwy 90 which was a bit unpleasant due to gusty winds. We ended up at a state park in Brandon, SD. We have covered 2700 miles in two weeks. Minnesota is about 6 miles to the east and Ohio is about 6 miles south.

This is an iconic motorcycle

Foreground is a model of the eventual memorial.

Background is the memorial of the moment.

For comparison, the Mt Rushmore heads are 60’ tall and Crazy Horse’s face up there on the mountain is just shy of 90’ tall.

Better picture of Crazy Horse Memorial

Our first tunnel on the Needles Hwy in Custer State Park.

It looks so much bigger from the inside.

Needle-like rocks are the namesakes for the Needles Highway portion of the road through Custer State Park.

bison close up

bison herd

Burros begging for food

more Desert Bighorn Sheep

White-tailed deer (vs. the Black-tailed deer we have in Santa Cruz)

NB Highway 16A leaving Custer State Park heading towards Mt Rushmore

Rushmore evening

Rushmore with lights

Rushmore daytime

Presidential Trail view

a few Badlands NP photos

We’re pretty sure the sign on this building in Interior, SD is not a joke.

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

Apparently the missiliers would decorate the blast doors that sealed them in when they went on their 24-hour control shifts. The guy who painted this only had access to red, white, and blue paint. And the Minuteman missiles did have a 30-minute timeframe from launch to detonation. Unfortunately when the silos were decommissioned the artworks were not saved/documented. This one is apparently on the door of the facility that was saved (inoperable) for tours.

What a difference a day makes. Picture #1 below is our campsite in Badlands NP. Picture #2 is the next night at Big Sioux Recreation Area. Both are in South Dakota.

Wednesday, 9/12

Today we drove across Minnesota and ended up in Wisconsin north of Milwaukee. We did not stop other than for lunch @ Arby’s and refilling diesel. Not even for this

We’ll be in Wisconsin visiting friends for a couple of days. After that we’re in Chicago for five nights. So, the next post will be about a week from now when we leave Chicago