Buffalo, Pronghorns, & Prairie Dogs! Oh My!

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

They Call It the Badlands for a Reason!

Woke up mad early to shower and clean up camp before we headed out. Let me tell you Blue Mound State Park has the nicest bathrooms and showers I've seen in camping sites!

Hot showers was a wonderful morning surprise!  I was totally ready to brace myself for the cold shock morning rinse, but when I let the water run for a few seconds, BOOM! Hot water! Such a nice surprise!

Packed up at left Blue Mound and got gas around 8:00am.  Since we were almost on the border between Minnesota and South Dakota, we hit the lower Dakota state around 8:30am CST give or take (I wasn't really paying attention).  

10:15am CST we crossed the bridge over the Missouri River!  And then we hit another gas pit stop a half hour later.

I totally forgot that we were going to cross our final time zone half way through South Dakota!  So my timing may be a smidge off (well an hour earlier) from what I write from now until after we left the Badlands NP.

Roughly around 11:30 MST (I think!) and about 280 miles later we hit the Badlands National Park in Pine Ridge, SD.  As a geology lover this was sooooo cool. The colors you saw were extremely similar to what Nate and I saw at the Painted Desert. Well, not as vibrant but the banding reminded me of it.  

We stopped in the visitors center to speak with a ranger on what they thought was the best route to go to enjoy the Badlands.  They recommended going to Conata, a little picnic area where you get some clear access into Badlands' prairie and fossilized soils!

It was so cool to walk up and down these peaks, gullies, and buttes.  Although it was pretty hot, I think the temperature said about 80 degrees. Which I usually don't mind however no trees lead to no shade and mega dehydration.

We were originally going to camp here but I could tell after the hike we were a little hesitant.  Nate remembered a place that is past the Badlands, called Custer State Park. So we continued through the Badlands and traveled about 225 miles outside Hemosa, SD.

5:30pm MST we entered the Custer State Park.  It is so beautiful here!  It reminds me a little like Tahoe in NV.  Mountainous, rocky, cool, forested and full of life!  (Well a different life compared to the Badlands).  

We reserved a campsite in the Lower Campground of the Center Lake Area (Elev. 4686 ft).  On our way to our site, we got an up close and personal sighting of Buffalo!!!! Ahhh, fell in love all over again!!!

Made our way to our site, set up camp and on our way to relaxation in a cool, SHADED area.

While Sean relaxed at the site, Nate and I went to the Center Lake. It was soooo nice to swim in this lake.   It was mostly a gravel bottom that dips off into a deeper lake. I didn't even attempt to try to determine the depth. Haha. But Nate and I swam to this rock cliff thing jutting out into the lake. Nate was in hopes that he could climb it and fall into the water, but to our disappointment there were many shallow submerged rocks that definitely prevented any form of jumping into the water.  It was really cool to see the geology in it: there was a basaltic dike!

After the evening swim, we ate tacos over the stove and then sleep time!

For Thursday: since we made it a little farther than we planned, we had a communal discussion to stay here another night and explore the Wind Cave National Park, Crazy Horse Memorial, and Mount Rushmore!

Xoxo,

TheChristyBel