We started our day by having some French-pressed Rook Coffee!! I got to use my new MSR Micro Rocket! This stove is so cool! Totally boils the water in minutes!
After a pop tart and some Nutella toast we left camp around 9:00am MST towards our first destination: Wind Cave National Park.
On our way we stopped at the Heddy Draw Overlook (9:30am) and look at the view of the South Dakota mountainous terrain! The view was freaking gorgeous!
This environment was sooo different from where we had visited yesterday! Not to mention we were more morale comfortable here. I mean, the desert was really beautiful, but being hot and having no shade escape from the sun, is not fun at times!
Overlooking the valley of trees and green, mountainous terrain was absolutely breathtaking!
Around 10:00am we entered the Wind Cave National Park boundaries. It was so cool to see vast prairie land and the animals that are found here. Can I please tell you how excited I was to see these kinds of animals!
Pronghorn, Mule Deer, MORE Buffalo, and Prairie Dogs! My heart was just exploding! I've never seen any of these up close and well alive! Usually in taxidermy or picture form, so I was beyond thrilled! I bet Sean and Nate were pretty annoyed at my gushing enthusiasm. Photo credit to Sean Marshall for documenting an exciting, yet embarrassing moment of the trip!
We arrived at the visitor centet at 10:30 and spoke to a ranger about which tour he would recommend to take while we were here.
From 11:00-12:30, we took the guided Natural Entrance tour with or park guide, Kaylen. She was beyond fabulous! From one teacher naturalist to another, she was an excellent and enthusiastic guide. So patient, great at answering questions, and very confident in the tour! Great job!
Being in a bunch of other caves, Wind Cave was beautiful and interesting in it own way. It definitely wasn't as big as Mammouth and didn't have as big of cavities and rooms as Carlsbad, but Wind Cave had some really cool geology.
It is the cave that has more than 90% of the country's box work limestone. It was really cool to see this. It was latticed and matrixed and spiderwebbed throughout all the ceilings, walls, and crevices! So cool!
After the tour (1:00pm MST) we were getting pretty hungry. For lunch I gave in and tried a buffalo burger in Custer. Surprisingly my stomach hasn't been kicking me in the butt from going out of my every day diet of chicken and fish and trying some red meat. Must be because I keep telling myself it's a veggie burger. Ha!
So, Crazy Horse Memorial was next on our list for the day (2:00pm). I really didn't know mug about this place and didn't realize that it was STILL under construction! Kinda cool to see history of such a huge thing being constructed as you stood before it. I am anxious to see in the next decade or so how much progress will be accomplished!
After getting out fill of one face in the rock, of course we wanted to see more! Mount Rushmore, here we come! Around 3:00pm we made it to the parking garage to the national park! Yes a parking garage! This place is so happening that they definitely need the parking space to accommodate such huge quantities of visitors!
Being at Mt. Rushmore National Park was really cool. Felt like a legit tourist, but you know it was a great sight to see. Plus I got to see my man, Abraham! I definitely had a Field of View 2010 moment when I saw Mr. Lincoln and 'Fellow Citizens, we cannot escape history...' On the sign.
We took the Presidential Trail around the base of the mountain.
It's not a complete visit until you see some wildlife. Right as we were leaving we saw a mountain goat and it's young laying amongst the trees! First mountain goat! Yes I squealed with joy!
On our way back to Custer State Park, we traveled through the Needles Highway! This was really awesome! Huge peaks jutting out of the mountain range. My photos clearly can't do any justice to what we saw out of our windows.
When we got back to our campsite, we went for a group swim in Center Lake, made some soup for dinner and just relaxed by the fire before bed.
Right before bed we had some serious lightning and so we prepped camp for an overnight storm. Let's hope I survive. That's one thing I am not too keen on: camping with really bad thunderstorms.
Friday's agenda is set to be a long, but exciting one. We will be entering the last state of our journey: WYOMING! Also on the list is Devil's Tower! I know some of my EMS boys will be jealous of this!
Until tomorrow when I meet the Forever West,
TheChristyBel
The Sioux are not real crazy about the descration of their mountains, all of which are sacred to them. Not even the fact that they are commemorating an American Indian hero. They would much prefer that the U.S give all that area back to them. Since it was their originally.
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