12 - South Dakota

MAN MADE & NATURAL STONE CARVINGS:

The South Dakota area hosts many gems of the natural kind along with those that man has had a role in. Before heading toward the Black Hills, we skirted by The Devil's Tower on the Wyoming/South Dakota border.  Stopping overnight we enjoyed the afternoon and sunset view of the tower. There is a nice 1.3 mile paved path around the perimeter of the tower that is an easy walk winding in & out of the trees. It was interesting to learn the tower is not one solid piece of rock but rather thousands of columns. When the magma cooled it actually fractured into perfect geometric shapes, (like the shapes you see in a dried out lake out in the dessert and the mud all has the same octagonal like pattern).  After touring Devil's Tower I had the uncontrollable urge to make mashed potatoes....or was that Richard Dreyfuss????   :)

View from our campsite



Walking along the pathway at the base of the tower

MT. RUSHMORE & CRAZY HORSE:




Avenue of Flags, leading you towards the Monument



At first light we were destined for Rapid City, SD, where we'd stay for 3 days to check out the monuments and the Badlands.  Mt. Rushmore was quite impressive, the last time we'd seen it was about 2000' above ground while flying by, many years ago in our 2 place airplane. From the ground the perspective was much better! It's amazing what fourteen years of blasting & drilling and over 400 people can achieve. I wonder how hard of a choice the creator & sculptor had in choosing which of the 30 presidents (assuming presidents were the only option) would represent their vision.  Both of us were impressed with the attention to detail (even though the sculptor had a 60 ft canvas to work on). Things like the glint in the pupils and how they were carved (which upon closer inspection is stone chiseled on the outside of the eye in order to give you that 3D effect).


Amazing what a lot of jack hammering can accomplish!



Shortly after the completion of Mt. Rushmore, another memorial started construction. Unlike Mt. Rushmore's 14 yr project lifespan, the Crazy Horse Memorial, 64 years later, is still a work in progress.



Crazy Horse Memorial as it stands today...

 The original sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski passed away in 1982, but his legacy and dream to complete the memorial continue through his wife and 7 of his children. Unlike Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse is a non profit organization that has twice turned down federal funding offers, believing the interested public should pay for it and not the taxpayer. Such a noble attitude, but after viewing the large visitor's center, not much progress has been made. Thanks to google & Wikipedia, we discovered afterwards that it has been reported the family have spent millions from the admission funds received. On what exactly we do not know, but judging from the lack of work it would seem that personal gain would be one avenue of speculation.  The cost to create Mt. Rushmore was just under 1 million dollars. Today, over 3.5 million visitors come to Mt. Rushmore.  The Crazy Horse Memorial is just 17 miles from Mt. Rushmore, so one would think that at least half of those visitors would also see it too. If you do the math at $10 per person, it doesn't seem like lack of funding is the problem.

Model of what the memorial will look like in ?? years time...

$20,000 GUM:
Even though we had a National Parks pass, we still had to pay to see Mt. Rushmore. The rationale from the ranger was that it is a free monument but the parking to see it isn't free...Part of the $11 parking fee goes towards removing gum from the walkways.  I thought at least one person I know would be interested in that tid bit of information....  :)


IS IT ART?
After seeing the natural and man made rock formations, I had to question, is this really art or are "we" just defacing nature? Would a bronze sculpture at the base of the mountain have sufficed? I'm not sure I can answer that, perhaps seeing other forms of art & sculptures throughout the country will shed more light on it. I wonder if a project like this would happen in today's modern time... just random musings while driving...


THERE ARE MAMMOTHS IN SOUTH DAKOTA!

Active dig site containing mammoth remains & fossils of other creatures

Well I guess it's actually mammoth remains... In our brochures of places to see in the area, one thing caught our attention: real live archaeological dig site over a mammoth sink hole.  Over 26,000 yrs ago, mammoths along with other animals came upon a natural hot spring which unbeknownst to them, was a one way feeding area; you can go in but you can't get out! The hot spring was actually a sinkhole over 60' deep. Our tour guide told us that the trapped mammoths didn't lose their footing all at once, but rather approx. 3 a year. Sixty mammoths have been discovered and as an interesting fact, all 60 are males!!!  The sink hole was discovered in 1974. Fortunately the land owner knew it's historical importance and sold the land for the same amount he paid for it to the university's Paleontology Dept. which built the visitor's center & museum around the site. How cool is it to walk around an active fossil dig?! Seeing partially exposed bones and hearing facts about our past and stories of the site itself. The museum is located in Hot Springs, a definite stop if this is something you're interested in.

A typical scenario, one male mammoth too stubborn to ask for directions & ends up falling into a sinkhole!

LOOKING FOR BISON:

Custer State Park & Wind Cave National Park were homes to many, many bison. So many that we came across bison traffic jams while driving along the scenic roads. The open prairies, rolling hills, big sky horizons, stuff that makes you take a deep breath in and exhale slowly with an ahhhh....then comes the aw, sh*t!, dumba$s, move your f@#!ing car you sorry excuse of a person!!! (Dave's words, not mine).  Welcome to the world of bison watching rage....Oh the 2 hr holdup inching forward was as much of an earful as the scenery outside was an eyeful.  In the end, we just drove on the wrong side of the road, passing all the bison spotters and probably saved ourselves another couple of hours of Dave's sailor talk :)

Wind Cave Park also had another interesting feature, a dry cave, meaning less moist inside therefore slightly different formations within.  Why is it that most caves are discovered by teenage boys? Guess they're the only ones crazy enough to go down a dark hole with just a candle...

B-B-B-BADLANDS!

On our final day we drove out to the Badlands. It was a hot day and by the time we arrived the temps were already past 100 degrees. We took some short hikes, including one that required you to climb up a wooden log style ladder. No problem except the wood itself was very hot to the touch...We wondered why a family coming down were "bum scooting it". By the time it was our turn I went down facing the hill & gingerly grabbing the log rungs like they were hot potatoes. By the time we left the Badlands, the temp on the truck's outside thermometer said 112 degrees.  Despite the high temps, it was a very scenic drive.

An idea of how vast the Badlands are...

Hot rungs & carrying water, very co-ordinated indeed!!!

NEXT STOP?
Fortunately for Dave, Oshkosh is enroute to our Eastward trek. So his aviation withdrawal tendencies will soon subside, (I hope). One mission for Dave during this time off is to seriously look for his next airplane project. We have a fast plane, a plane that lands on water, so what feature should our third one have??? I'm thinking multi place but efficient and not cost a lot...we'll see if there's something at Oshkosh that screams, "Build Me!" on it!!!




Looking for Dave's next project to build....oh where can it be???