Late Bloomer: Wandering West Day 3 - Black Hills of South Dakota

The Black Hills of South Dakota

Through careful observation I have come to the conclusion that there are more billboards per capita in South Dakota then any other state. But that's not difficult as SD has lots tourist attractions and not many people. They are still only represented by 1 congressman in the House. And it appears that 90% of the tourist attractions are here in the Black Hills area in the western end of the state. You could make a week of it here but that might mean filling your time with things as sublime as Cosmos, Place of Mystery or as misplaced as the Reptile Gardens. I managed to cover what I considered the highlights in a day and a half. But then I'm always in a hurry and won't visit the sublime or misplaced. But seriously, it is a very beautiful area of the country and I highly recommend it.

Custer State Park

If you want to see wildlife and scenery without billboards here you go to Custer State Park. I was only moderately lucky with finding critters but I wasn't too worried as I'm headed for Yellowstone, the critter king of national parks.

Wild Turkey

Iron Mountain Highway and Needles Highway

There are two semi connected scenic drives that are good for nothing but gawking. Iron Mountain and Needles Highways wind through the black hills with spectacular views of Mt Rushmore and “The Needles” or granite spires. As you wind through you'll encounter 6 or 7 narrow one lane tunnels carved through stone. RV's need not attempt. Why they went through the trouble of building these beautiful roads through mountains and didn't bother to dig a little wider is beyond me.

Granite Tunnel

Wind Cave

Wind Cave National Park has one of the longest cave systems in the world. Something like 500 miles have been discovered and they believe that only 10% of the cave has been explored. It is a fairly dry cave so there were no stalagmites in the areas I toured but there is an interesting feature called “boxwork” (see pic) that is all over that place. And, 90% of all the known cave boxwork in the world is in Wind Cave, how about that. The original natural opening of the cave is no larger than a large hat. It was discovered in the late 1800's when someone heard a loud whistling noise and a realtively windless day. And there is a herd of bison in the park as well.

Boxwork

Crazy Horse

Not to be outdone by Mt Rushmore, certain Native American's have commissioned the carving of another mountain in the form of a fellow named Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse help defeat Custer at Little Bighorn, refused to stay on a reservation and is considered an appropriate hero by the native American's for such a memorial. When the carving is complete it will be the largest sculpture in the world. 10 times or so larger then Mt Rushmore, larger than the Washington Monument and also the statue of Liberty. Its been going on for 50 years and only the head is carved so far so perhaps your grandchildren will see it finished. One interesting thing about the project is that is it is funded entirely by private donations and admission fees. No state of federal money was ever taken for the project.