When I was young, my family watched a lot of old movies. One of my favorite actresses to this day is Doris Day. She plays the role of Calamity Jane in the movie Calamity Jane. I love that show. In that movie, one of the songs she sings is about the Black Hills of Dakota. That song was going through my mind constantly as we were in Custer State Park and the other areas of the Black Hills.
LYRICS: THE BLACK HILLS OF DAKOTA
I think Mike and I were both surprised by how much we loved Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. That is an amazingly beautiful area. Those who planned the park really did an amazing job. One of the things they wanted was to make the amazing areas like the Needles area accessible by car, without detracting from the experience. So they built the Needles Highway through the middle of the state park. It was done incredibly well. There were several places where you drove through tunnels. Most of the tunnels would frame Mount Rushmore as you drove through it in that direction. So cool that they lined them up on purpose to do that.
They also put in some “pigtail” turns. These are areas where the road winds around like a pigtail to gain elevation. It is really cool to drive that road.
The Needles Eye Tunnel didn’t frame Mount Rushmore, but it was even more spectacular. You drive through the middle of this amazing rock formation they call the Needles. It is a one lane tunnel, so one vehicle at a time.
The scenery is incredible and the road itself is an experience as it hugs the landscape. In fact, all the roads through the park are amazing drives. Iron Mountain Road was incredible too. And the Wildlife Loop Road is a great area to see the State Park buffalo herd that roams the park.
We did a couple of really great hikes. The first one was to the top of one of the mountains they call “Little Devil’s Tower”. I understand why they call it that after visiting Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. It was the second tallest point in all of South Dakota. The fall leaves were out and the hike itself was fantastic. The views of the Cathedral Spires and other features were incredible from that vantage point.
We also did the Cathedral Spires hike. The Cathedral Spires are these amazing rock spires that have a very unique look to them. They are beautiful. We ended up doing a loop on that hike and ended up on the Needles Highway road and had to hike up the road a few miles to get back to our car. This was an experience as the road is fairly narrow and we had to walk through the tunnels that cars normally drive through one at a time. That was interesting. While we were walking on the road, we came across a mother and baby mountain goats along the side of the road. We had to be careful as we walked past so the mother would not feel threatened by us. It was really awesome to be that close to these creatures.
After we reluctantly left Custer State Park, we drove to Badlands National Park. You couldn’t ask for a more opposite terrain than where we had been. It was interesting to experience the two extremes. Forested and green to bleak and desolate. The Badlands have their own beauty though and we camped right on the edge so we could look across the Badlands. It was an incredible view. Badlands are pretty in a desolate way. We visited the visitor center and drove through the park. We saw bighorn sheep, buffalo and prairie dogs in abundance.
We enjoyed General Conference from this location and spent some time working. I continued to go for my morning walks and would walk along road that ran along the edge of the cliffs. One morning as I was working on a blog article, I noticed a visitor. Our front door was open with the screen closed and a baby bighorn sheep walked right up to it and sniffed around. Then there were some more baby sheep and some mama sheep. They all hung out right there for a minute. Mike was outside at the back of the RV and he noticed them too. I got some video of the encounter. That was really cool as well.
On the 7th of October we headed, south toward Nebraska. I had found a free dump station in the little town of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and it was on our way so we decided to stop to dump there and fill up with fresh water. It just so happens that in the town of Hot Springs they have a place called The Mammoth Site. We were intrigued by it, so we stopped to see it. WOW!!! I’m so glad we did.
The Mammoth Site turned out to be one of our most favorite stops during this first year of travel. These are old bones – not fossils. It was the site of an ancient pond. The pond had very steep and slippery sides. The Mammoth and some other large mammals would wade into it, enticed by the nice water, and then they could not get back out. So their bodies sunk to the bottom and were buried in the mud and completely preserved intact. They have uncovered the remains of over 60 mammoths and some ancient Giant Bison and Bears. It was so interesting to walk around and see the mammoth skeletons lying just as they had fallen in death. We enjoy these types of sites where we learn about creatures of the past and the process of uncovering and discovering the story of these creatures and how they met their end. It was educational and interesting. This is a must see for anyone in this area of South Dakota.
South Dakota did not disappoint. “Lost my heart in the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota.” That is definitely true. We loved this area and fell in love with it. I’m sure we will find reasons to come back here in the future.