Getting out of the heat by heading north – TX, NE, SD, MT, WY, CO, TX

August 28

I shared in my last post how we arrived in Hermosa, SD, just south of Rapid City, just after lunch on Wednesday. Since we got in and hooked up fairly early, we decided to go ahead and take in Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The drive up was beautiful, but I was really surprised that our National Parks Annual Pass did not gain us entrance. We had to pay $20 to park. The other downside of our visit was something that we knew about going in. The visitor center, amphitheater, Avenue of Flags, and a portion of the Presidential Trail were closed for maintenance. But, we were able to take the open portion of the Presidential Trail right up to the base of the mountain. We stayed until nightfall and saw the ranger presentation and lighting of the statues. It was a truly amazing sight.

August 29

We started our day with a drive up to Custer State Park. This is one of, if not THE, largest state park in the country. I will say that it’s one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring parks we’ve ever visited. The drive through the park offers many spectacular views, but be aware that the roads are very, very narrow and twisty. There are also several sections that include very narrow tunnels. We witnessed one guy in a small Class-C camper squeeze through one of the tunnels with almost no room to spare. I had to fold my mirrors in just to keep them from scraping the sides.

There was a very large herd of bison that took over the picnic area at the visitor center. The ranger told us that the bison hadn’t been down in that area since last May. We watched the video in the visitor center and continued our drive through the park. We then drove to the town of Custer for lunch at the Black Hills Burger and Bun Company (at the recommendation of the Woodwards). The food there was great!

Since there was still some time left and we weren’t too far away, we made a run down to Jewel Cave National Monument so that Debbie could get her National Parks passport book stamped. We went in spite of the fact that the elevators were down at the cave and the only tours were the more primitive lantern tours that we didn’t care to take. After getting her book stamped, park stickers and lapel pin (Debbie collects them) purchased, we realized that we had time to make the drive over to Wind Cave National Park. Unfortunately, due to repeated instances back in June of people getting stuck in their elevators, those had also been shut since the first of July. We talked to the Ranger and decided to take a hike on the Rankin Ridge Trail, the highest point in the park. Upon arrival, we discovered the parking area was adjacent to a huge prairie dog village. As we walked by on our way to the trailhead, the prairie dogs were going crazy “chirping” at each other in warning. The trail, while pretty steep in places, did offer some great views to the east with the Badlands in the far distance. Leaving the park, we encountered a large herd of bison that had decided that the park road was a great place to just hang out. We patiently waited for a chance to get by them, and while doing so, one of them decided to use the front of my truck for a scratching post.

August 30

We woke up on Friday to rain. After waiting a couple of hours to determine when it might end, we then drove to the Bandlands National Park. Once again, park video, lapel pin and park sticker purchase, and passport stamp were the first things we did after arriving at the visitor center. Keeping an eye on the weather, we kept seeing that the rain was supposed to end “in under an hour”. While waiting on the rain to stop, we drove a few miles to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. This is a fairly new facility and had several movies and some really great exhibits about the nuclear missiles that were housed under the northern plains area of the United States during the Cold War.

Since the rain seemed to be a repeating story for much of the day at Badlands, we decided to take a couple of short hikes in the rain. The most spectacular of these was the Notch Trail, which included a pretty steep climb up a ladder made from logs and cables. Going up that ladder was pretty intense, especially in the rain, but even more harrowing climbing back down. The views from the top were just like so many we’ve encountered in South Dakota, absolutely beautiful. That hike was 1.5 miles, round trip.

Once the rain finally did stop, we followed up with a much longer hike down the Medicine Root trail through a vast prairieland, to Saddle Pass trail with a spectacular view over the valley below, then took a portion of the Castle trail through the intricate rock formations back to the truck. That hike was about 4.2 miles.

August 31

Our last day in South Dakota was planned to be a return to Custer State Park to do some hiking. After some research, we picked out several trails that were regarded as the more impressive ones in the park and headed that direction. Let me tell you, Saturday of Labor Day weekend sure brought out the crowds! That place was packed. We were able to find a parking spot at the Little Devils Tower trailhead. This 1.2 mile trail (one way) involved a fairly high climb to a point on a huge rock with 360 degree views. The only p0int that was higher than we were was Black Elk Peak, formerly known as Harney Peak, which is the highest pint in South Dakota and reportedly the highest summit in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. (I guess they don’t place Guadalupe Peak in West Texas as “east of the Rocky Mountains” since it is over 1,500 feet higher.) The last portion of our climb involved scrambling over boulders, near rocky ledges, and through crevices to reach the very top. Photographs doesn’t do it justice. I’m very proud of Debbie that she was able to conquer some of her fear of heights and make it to the top.

We then added as side trip along the Cathedral Spires trail. The spires were very impressive and we even saw some people climbing them. We also encountered a Rocky Mountain Sheep along the trail back to the truck. We finished the day off with a really beautiful hike around Sylvan Lake.

We made it back to the RV park in time for a hamburger and BBQ chicken sandwich dinner and some live music at the campground’s event center. Then, back to the trailer to get ready for our trip tomorrow to Billings, MT. We hope to make stops along the way at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming and possibly the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana.