South Dakota…In a “Rush!”

The title of my blog, Easin’ Along, does not accurately depict the first week of this journey. Our two-trailer convoy blitzed across Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, and eastern South Dakota in a series of one-night stands until we reached Hermosa, SD, a short distance from Mt. Rushmore. We endured some temperatures that bordered 100 degrees and spent a lot of late afternoons inside our trailers. Thankfully, when we paused for a three-night visit in the Black Hills, the temperatures plunged, and we thrived on 70ish weather during the day and low 50’s at night.

With two full days to rest, stretch our legs and let our granddaughters run off some pent-up energy, we decided to visit Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park. Rushmore, just a few miles away from our campsite in Hermosa, came first. After packing a picnic lunch, we were off.

Initially, I worried about crowds and maintaining proper social distance measures. Still, with no tour busses or international travelers, the crowd size at Mt. Rushmore was not significant, and everyone there was just as concerned about their safety as we were about ours.  I felt comfortable.

I have seen pictures of Mt. Rushmore all of my life but had no perspective of the size of the carvings.  The faces are massive, and I cannot imagine the skill or the effort required to produce a monument of this size and scope.  We attended a lecture by a Park Ranger on the creation of the memorial, carved by sculptor Gutzon Borglum beginning in 1927 and completed in 1941. The Rangers presentation was excellent; even my eight-year-old granddaughter soaked up every word.

 

After Mt. Rushmore, we drove a short distance to Custer State Park to enjoy a picnic lunch before taking a one-mile stroll around Sylvan Lake. The cool temperatures and the scenic lake enhanced the pleasure of our walk, and the girls ate it up.

Although it was not part of our plans for this day, we decided to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial before returning to the campground. We opted to stay in the Visitor Center rather than take a bus to the sculpture. Instead, we watched a movie about this enormous, unfinished project that will require decades to complete. I wish them well.

At that point, Helen and I called it a day and returned to Lucy.  Collin and the girls drove through the wildlife loop at Custer State Park and received an escort of three Bison. During the excursion, they came upon a small herd of wild burros and walked over to them.  Collin captured this picture of the encounter.  Her expression is priceless.

Badlands National Park was our destination for day two. I hate to admit it, but I never realized that the Badlands was a National Park. I thought it was a desolate part of the country that was uninhabitable–that’s it. It probably is uninhabitable, but the beauty is stunning in its own right. Thankfully, our government had the foresight to create a National Park here.

Once again, the small number of visitors allowed us to roam at will without being overly concerned about social distance measures.  We took a hike along a marked trail to a canyon about a mile from the starting point. Cool temperatures kept the Badlands from being bad, and it felt great to get some exercise.

We made one stop on our way back to the campground to photograph a nursery band of ewes and lambs, Big Horn sheep separated from the rams in the herd, while the lambs bond with their mothers. They were perched on a narrow ridge overlooking a prairie. The peak was far enough from the side of the road to stretch my camera lens to the limit, but you can see that the sheep were large and probably sleeping off lunch.

On Saturday morning, our convoy companions would leave us and drive on to Jackson Hole to join my daughter-in-law’s family. Before they left, Collin was up early to try his luck at fishing the North Platte River beside the campground. I joined him to take some pictures. The fish were safe on this day, but the scenery was gorgeous.

 

Before they left, we took a picture in our traveling T-shirts, passed hugs all around, and sent them on their way.  Helen and I will join them in a week. Week one was now in the books. From this point forward, we will slow down and go from blitzing across the country and return to a pace more to our liking…just Easin’ Along. See you on the trail.

(Note: Click on any picture in this post to begin a slide show of all pictures enlarged)