We were on a tight time schedule to meet our son Chris in Rapid City, SD on Thursday, so we had three days of driving ahead of us. Our first stop was in Provo UT. We arrived late so we just had dinner and did not visit the City. Our next stop was Rawlins, WY. It was half way between Provo and Rapid City. It was the only town of any size along the Hwy.
RAWLINS, WY
We really wanted to enjoy a quirky motel and support a local place vs all the motel chains, so we booked the Rawlins Western Lodge. It is an old timey Hotel with a central hall and Western themed rooms. The hotel is decorated in a western theme with the walls covered with prints or original paintings that depict the western life. The rooms were dated but quaint.
The bed was soooo comfortable and the sheets were very soft and buttery (weird description but it feels right). Everything was very clean.
Outside they also had a western scene of sorts in the parking area. So we got quirky for sure.
It was only 28 F when we left with a light snow fall, on our way to meet our son flying into Rapid City.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Rapid City is well located to see many of the sites in South Dakota. We planned 3 days to visit the sights. We picked up Chris at the Airport and headed to the Mt. Rushmore hotel for the night planning on getting up early to see the Badlands, Wall and Mt Rushmore the next day.
BADLANDS, SD
We drove the Badlands Loop Road, which was stunningly beautiful. We stopped by all the look outs and short hikes. Each of them offered a different view and perspective. Some overlooked a vast sea of Badlands hills while others looked out on grasslands and river valley.
Imagine an early pioneer settler, traveling across the vast prairie grasslands of the Dakotas. A strange formation comes into view that looks like a wall of mounds several hundred feet tall. There are no trees, and no vegetation in these mounds, and grass barely grow in the prairie land around it. These “mountains” have a unique grey/white color, and stripes of red and orange and you can see how the water and wind have carved out and eroded these mountains over the centuries. As inhospitable as this land is, it is strangely beautiful and other worldly.
BIG HORN SHEEP within touching distance right by the side of the road.
Just as we were leaving the Badlands Park we saw some bison adjacent to the road.
As we drove further on Badlands Loop Road, there were a few cars stopped in the middle of the road. This is usually a great sign of wildlife! Sure enough, there were a group of Big Horn Sheep yards away, on both sides of the road lounging in the grass. Two of them stood out as much bigger than the rest, with big, curled horns. We stood there and just observed nature. What a treat!
WALL DRUG
After we leave the Badlands National Park on the I-90 Badlands loop, we see a sign for Wall Drug Store and the apparent need to visit there.
They have large signs reminiscent of the Stuckys and Burma shave billboards, every couple of miles along the side of the road advertising everything the place has to offer including free ice water and 5 cent coffee.
Is it really worth the time and effort to visit? We were told to go there by friends and...Well,....we were certainly drawn in by the huge marketing stunts that have taken place in South Dakota and we had to find out for ourselves exactly what Wall Drug Store was all about.
Imagine a modern day shopping mall, but now consider what that would have been like 50 years ago. Wall Drug Store still offers free ice water today along with coffee for just 5 cents, but it is of course much more than that. Besides having all the tourist gifts you can imagine, along with restaurants, it has a Backyard. The backyard is where you can still get your free Ice water, and have a chance to ride the infamous and elusive Jackalope!
We drank our free Ice water while Mary Kay could not resist the 10ft animal's charm.
Waahoo! Rid’em Mary Kay!
MT RUSHMORE
We wanted to see Mt. Rushmore in daylight and at night, so we headed up to in the early evening. We missed the turnout for Mt. Rushmore and continued around the curve to see if there was a second entrance. We first saw Mt. Rushmore from around a curve; it appeared suddenly off to our right we could see the profiles of the sculpture. We found a turnout and stopped to enjoy the unique view presented there.
Mary Kay sees eye-to-eye … and …nose to nose … I might add …with President George Washington!
We went back to the main entrance and entered the park. In general, I have little knowledge of the South Dakota Black Hills, but I can easily understand why the area is a great place for this monument. It is, very simply put, a beautiful and scenic place. We went there around 5:30 pm and we were able to take pictures before the sunset. There was a pretty good-sized crowd at the monument and primary viewing area. We decided to take the advice of our friends and view it from the old viewing platform. That was excellent advice because no one was at the old viewing platform so we were able to enjoy the view with the quiet of the park around us without being jostled. The view I believe is better there framed by the pines.
Majestic figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by the beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota.
It got dark soon, but we hadn’t noticed the date. We were here on 9/11… so there was a remembrance and patriotic program that was put on in the Amphitheater which finished with the illumination of the faces around 8:30 pm.
It was well worth the wait, the lights make this magnificent work of art pop out of the night sky in all its grandeur.
CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL
Up there!
On the Black Hills mountain, there is a work in progress sculptured in granite of a stern faced warrior, strong and determined with his hair flowing in the wind. He is mounted upon his steed. Crazy Horse scans the horizon. We can only see his profile and the line of his outstretched arm and finger. But it is impressive to see the large sculpture carved out of the mountain
The profile of Crazy Horse is complete as are the out-stretched finger that rests on the Mane of the great steed. The photo on the right shows the image superimposed on to the photo of the partially carves mountain. The progress is slow using drills, (both hand held and machine held) explosives, chisels and flame torches in confined areas of the mountain. The sculpture was started in 1948 and this is the progress of over 70 years work, so it will be a long time before the sculpture is completed. They are currently working on the head of the horse below Crazy Horse’s hand.
But we didn’t have to wait to see what the competed sculpture of Crazy Horse will look like, because they have a stone sculpture and bronze sculpture in the Museum.
STURGIS, SD
Since we were in the area we decided to go to Sturgis. The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was held a month before we arrived, so the town was pretty sleepy when we were there. We walked the two main streets and had dinner at Loud American Road House, and enjoyed a local Beer. The streets were quiet and seemed like a peaceful Dakoda town, with the exception of over 30 bars and restaurants and the gift shops filled with Motorcycle memorabilia.
There is a motorcycle museum we wanted to see, but unfortunately it had just closed for the day 15 minutes before we went there. Additionally, the town has a Stage and gathering space right in the center of the town. Sturgis is also the county seat for Mead County so there is other major employment within the city besides the tourism
THE MAMMOTH SITE, HOT SPRINGS,SD
Mary Kay and I have always had an interest in archeology and so we were excited to go to visit an active site where digging and excavation is currently ongoing.
The Mammoth Site is part Museum and active dig. Surprisingly it is totally enclosed and sheltered by the museum building covering the dig. As I enter the room that houses the dig itself, I’m struck by the height of the excavation. It takes a pretty big hole in the ground to trap upwards of 60 mammoths, but hearing about it and seeing it in person are two different things. The way the bones have been excavated has left dramatic sheer walls and flat terraces in the yellowish-tan earth, on which light brown mammoth skulls sporting huge tusks sit like statues on pedestals. The bones are jumbled together and piled high—nothing like that perfectly articulated skeleton in Jurassic Park.
Descending the stairs from the main wooden walkway that encircles the active parts of the dig to stand on a fenced-in platform on the level of one of the deepest floors, I’m keenly aware that there are likely many more bones of Ice Age animals beneath my feet.
Heading back upstairs, I see the work of the site’s preparators in the museum’s more traditional gallery space, where mounted mammoths and replicas of huts made of casts of mammoth bones and faux-fur await. Half of this space is dedicated to ancient life in the Black Hills and surrounding areas, but the other half is all about fossil elephants and their relatives. Bits of mummified tissue from mammoths found in the Siberian permafrost fill the cases on one wall.