Friday, July 26, 2019

July 25 - Thursday- Badlands , headed back East.

Before we packed up we took a hike on the campground owner’s land. He has about 100 acres all around the Black Hills near Custer Mountain. Beautiful, tranquil, relaxing place with several ponds for people or dogs to take a dip. 

This is an old homestead where a hermit lived. He gave the owner, Gary this land and Gary gives back to each of his guests by sharing what he has. We loved staying here. It was close to so many things we like to do. 



Right after you pass the old homestead, you can see Crazy Horse Memorial. 






Could have stayed here much longer but it was time to start back. 

Since we needed to get the oil changed in the motor home in Rapid City, we decided to stay in the Badlands, in a tiny town called Interior. It’s on the edge of the Badlands. 

As we were driving (I drove the car to save time loading and unloading), I was able to take some pics of the motor home with the gorgeous green and yellow prairie fields. 





The Lakota Indians were the first to call this land the “Badlands” because of extreme temps, lack of water, and the exposed rugged terrain. After we parked the motor home, we drove through the National Park. Mile after mile of ruggedness!





We even got to view mountain goats up close. 




Beautiful ending to a scenic day. 





July 24 - Wednesday- hiking, trip to Hot Springs, more Buffalo

Willow Creek was our hike for today. Great scenery, easy walking and ended up in a little waterfall to cool off. Today the temps were in the low 80s, the highest it’s been since we left Fargo. So ending up in the cold mountain water was perfect for all of us. 








Bill had to help Lenny decide it was time to get out of the water. 



Look at the trees growing out of the rock. 

After the hike, we decided to take a trip south to Hot Springs. A very western-looking town with a lot of the buildings out of sandstone from the 1890s. This just a section of the buildings. There were 2 more streets. This street has a nice quilt shop with a ton of Aboriginal fabric. The owner said it was the largest in the US. 



We took a different road back through a part of Custer State Park and saw more Buffalo and a herd of antelope. Was looking for mountain goats but weren’t lucky enough to see any. 





Early evening relaxing before starting back to PA tomorrow. 

July 23 - Spearfish Canyon and Mount Rushmore at night

Today’s trek took us to through the Spearfish Canyon in the car and hiking. Beautiful drive. The hike took us 2 miles one way and two miles the other way up the canyon on the Roughlock and Savoy trails. The Savoy trail had a gorgeous waterfall. 





One more light show at Mount Rushmore ended our Tuesday. 





Unfortunately due to construction, there wasn’t a light show. They did have the presentation that talked about each president. 

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

July 22 - Monday hiking in Custer State Park and Crazy Horse light show

A challenging hike was the mission today. We had read a lot about the Sunday Gulch Yrail so we decided we needed to try it. 

What a diverse 4 mile trail through Custer State park. We climbed over boulders, jumped across several streams, heard woodpeckers doing their Morse code, saw a mule deer, and climbed more borders to exit the trail at Lake Sylvan. 

This is the beginning. 


The deer we saw. 


Wildflowers 




The railing to climb over rocks. 







Some of us were really bushed. Lenny feel asleep immediately after we had a little lunch. 

We decided to drive the Needles highway again going the opposite way with all its twists and turns and tunnels. When we came through one of the tunnels, we could see the faces of Mount Rushmore. 







For the evening we went to see the light show at Crazy Horse. 








July 20-21 - Saturday and Sunday

As we drove south into South Dakota, I worried a little about the campground Bill chose (I usually pick them). It had a website but they couldn’t send emails (yikes). I use the email confirmations to remind me where we are staying and for directions. And we were out of data so we had to use our phones sparklingly (yikes again). Bill seemed to know where he was going. He said it’s near Crazy Horse, so off we wet. As we got closer, we got  deeper into the Black Hills, 



Then we turned into our campground and met the owner, very friendly and thanked us for coming. What a beautiful setting and we could see Crazy Horse from the campground. We took a relaxing hike on the campground land, with Lenny off leash and found several ponds. Bill, you done good!

Now it was time to explore. First was a drive through Custer State Park on the wildlife drive. Look at the herd of Buffalo we found ... on the road!  Yes we were that close to them! Had to wait about 20 minutes for them to get off the road. 







Next we saw the friendly donkeys. 





After that excitement, we decided to drive the Needles highway, a scenic twisty-turns road. We had ridden this road on our motorcycles several years ago and wanted to experience it when we could pY attention to the scenery. There are tunnels on this road that is really narrow. 











Lenny even got a chance to stop and take a dip in a little stream. 



Those rock spires are called Needles, hence the name Needles Highway. 


I can’t stop taking pics of this beautiful scenery. 

Next we decided to stop at the Crazy Horse Memorial. A lot has been worked on since we were through this way about 10 years ago but there is still lots to be done. The family of Korczak Ziolkowski are continuing his work and vision. What a commitment. 

While there we saw some Native American dancing. So colorful and so much energy. 



I have a video of this but didn’t have enough bandwidth to post. Here is the link if you’d like to watch it. 

Monday, July 22, 2019

Friday, July 19 - west to Medora

The drive west on I-94 was straight with lots of open land. We saw fields of blue and wondered what they were. Google told us it was flax. Flax has a lot of uses from food, linseed oil and linen. Want to read more: https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr4/north-dakota-agriculture/part-2-production-agriculture/section-4-oilseed-and-row-crops



We had heard about the North Dakota Badlands, but never spent any time here. It’s a beautiful place with low humidity and dry air. Driving west into Medora, the Badlands were an imposing part of the landscape. 





We are camped at the Red Trail campground within walking distance of the town of Medora, ND. 

Took a drive on Custer’s Interpretive Trail that explained where Custer traveled on his campaigns here. 



Then we took a drive in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I learned that he came from New York City to vacation here and fell in love with the place. 

We saw some wildlife, one buffalo, wild horses, and a coyote. You have to look hard to see the coyote because he’s camouflaged. 





To top off the night, we had dinner at Pitchfork Fondue. Chefs load steaks on pitchforks and fondue them western style while overlooking the Badlands. It was quite impressive. These are pics of the view from our outdoor table.