Last week, I explained that in late June, Marie and I took a vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota. In that edition, I focused on Rapid City as our “jumping off” place.
Today, I’ll focus on some of the sites to see, and I’ll just arrange them in chronological order.
The Badlands National Park was our first stop. It’s about 70 miles east of Rapid City in southwest South Dakota.
The Badlands is home to about 250,000 sharply-eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairiein the country. It’s also one of the best fossil-hunting spots on the planet!
The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is asculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore just west of Rapid City. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son,Lincoln, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot sculptures of the heads of George Washington,Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt andAbraham Lincoln.
Construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents’ faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Upon Gutzon’s death in March 1941, his son took over construction. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941.
Mount Rushmore attracts 2 to 3 million visitors a year — and has become an iconic symbol of presidential greatness.
The Crazy Horse Memorial is just astonishing, and dwarfs Mount Rushmore. It’s a mountain monument that depicts Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota Sioux warrior, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.
Begun by the late sculptor Korczak Ziolkowskiin 1948, his work is carried on by his family. The sculpture’s final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet wide and 563 feet high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet tall; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet high.
The monument is far from completion. If completed, it may become the world’s largest sculpture.
The Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway is a 66-mile double loop that honors a South Dakota conservationist, Governor, and U.S. Senator.
Known as “An Ordinary Man with an Extraordinary Vision,” he is credited with an impressive list of conservation accomplishments. To the people of South Dakota and the nation, he bequeathed an enduring legacy through the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway.
Custer State Park is about 40 miles south of Rapid City, and encompasses 71,000 acres. One of the nation’s largest state parks, the Park has been home to diverse cultural heritages for thousands of years and has provided an array of scenic beauty and outdoor recreation for visitors since the early 1900s.
Today, Custer State Park is famous for its bison herds (the largest publicly-owned herd in the country), other wildlife, scenic drives, historic sites, visitor centers, fishing lakes, resorts, campgrounds and interpretive programs.
When Wind Cave National Park was established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the 7th U.S. National Park — and the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world. The cave is notable for its displays of the calcite formation known as boxwork.
About 95% of the world’s discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave. It’s also recognized as the densest (most passage volume per cubic mile) cave system in the world.
Wind Cave is currently the 6th-longest in the world — with 141 miles of explored cave passageways, with an average of 4 new miles of cave being discovered each year. Above ground, the park includes the largest remaining natural mixed-grass prairie in the United States.
Jewel Cave National Monument is the 3rd-longest cave in the world. With over 170 miles of mapped and surveyed passages, this underground wilderness appeals to human curiosity.
Its splendor is revealed through fragile formations and glimpses of brilliant color. Its maze of passages lure explorers, and its scientific wealth remains a mystery.
The Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway is a 22-mile journey that cuts thru Spearfish Canyon — a deep but narrow gorgecarved by Spearfish Creek on the northern edge of theBlack Hills National Forest.
Many tourists drive through the canyon, drawn to the region due to its wide range of plant and wildlife, geology, rock formations, and waterfalls. Although I’m not a fisherman, I’m told that Spearfish Creek holds populations of rainbow and brown trout and is dammed in several spots – affording fishing opportunities.
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally annually transforms this small South Dakota town – as an estimated 500,000 motorcyclists from around the world set out to Sturgis for the 74th annual rally. This year’s rally starts next Monday, 04 August and runs thru the following Sunday.
The entire city of Deadwood is on the National Historic Register. Here, you’ll see a careful, accurate restoration of a historically significant city. Deadwood’s extensive Victorian architecture is unique to the West.
While the gold rush of 1876 brought the likes of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, it also provided the wealth to construct a thriving commercial center in the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Devil’s Tower National Monument is a fantastic geologic feature protruding out of the rolling prairie that surrounds the Black Hills.
About 90 miles west of Rapid City in eastern Wyoming, the site is considered sacred to the Lakota Sioux and other tribes. Hundreds of parallel cracks make it one of the finest traditional crack climbing areas in North America.
Stephen Speilberg used it as a backdrop to his blockbuster movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” – released in 1977.
For those of you who have read this far, thanx! It was a helluva trip!!
