Blogs from Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota, United States, North America

Sadly we were in Cody for one night, so we loaded up and moved on again, this time with the music in my hands for the day, which I seemed to master, with several commenting how good the choices were. Anyway our destination was Deadwood. This town is the actual place where the HBO series is filmed, as well as the town where 'Wild Bill' Hickok was shot in the back whilst playing poker. It's where the name 'Dead Man's hand' came from, as Wild Bill final hand consisted of the two aces and two eights of the black suits. The town was a National Landmark and re-enacts the shooting, capturing and trial of Jack McCall daily. We headed into the Deadwood Theatre to tak... read more

Too tired to write these are big states that take FOREVER to drive through.... Yesterday, Summerfest in Milwaukee, Miller Brewery Tour, Milwaukee Brewers game (they lost) and random flip cup game. Today, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota. We checked out the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horses pronounced nose and the Black Hills. You check out our pics. Must sleep now, headed to Yellowstone in the morning....... read more

WEEK SIX: CHOTEAU , MT TO CUSTER , SD Tuesday, June 30 We took our time leaving Choteau lingering over long expanses of soft green prairies and buttes and memories Jen’s hospitality,. Civilization seems an ugly interruption of this lovely land. The Ulm Pishkun State Park, ten miles out of Great Falls is the historic Buffalo Jump of the First Peoples.  For hundreds of years the Great Plains Indian Tribes hunted buffalo by driving them over these and many other cliffs. To get to the edge of these impressive cliffs you must walk through a prairie dog town on top of the butte. It was fun to listen to the chirping animals send their warnings to their colonies and then dive into their burrows as we approached. We tried to imagine a thundering herd of buffalo ... read more

If it’s September, we must be on the road! We’re headed to Rexford, Kansas, by the way of Mt. Rushmore. We spent several days in Rapid City, where we haven’t been since our girls were in junior high. Two things come to mind: things have really changed in Rapid City, and we must be getting old. Both of those thoughts are ok with me! The weather was windy and rainy (is this the summer for that???) so we didn’t do a lot of looking around, but we did spend most of a day at Mt Rushmore. They have developed it quite a lot in the past 20 years~~they have better walkways, and the museum of Borglum’s studio is much nicer. They have a program and lighting ceremony every evening, but we didn’t have sit-outside-and-watch-anything weather, ... read more

Day 4: Tuesday, July 28, 2009: Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Devils Tower Leaving Wall, Sophie (etc.) and I sauntered our way through the Black Hills National Forests, largely filled with sweet-smelling pine trees. The goal for the day is to visit all three National Monuments, beginning with Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills National Forest, then 17 miles to the Crazy Horse Memorial, and finally, approx. 150 miles to Devils Tower, forever linked to the image of Richard Dryfess in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The site is in Wyoming. Ranking the three monuments from “favorite” down: Devils Tower, Rushmore, and Crazy Horse. Mr. Rushmore, obviously an iconic tribute to four U.S. Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln (and, hopefully, they left room for Obama after he works his magic). The site does not ... read more

Well we inended to get up early and go to Mt Rushmore right away but we were behind schedule as we discovered the campground did in fact have showers down by the beach, sw we took advantage of them. So, we decided to run into Rapid City first to pick up somethings we needed and then get to Mt Rushmore in the afternoon. Rapid city and the tourist sprawl toward Mt Rushmore is incredible compared to the last time Patti & I were there about 15 years ago. It took me a while to get used to those curvey mtn roads and those narrow tunnels, but the views are worth it. The plan to visit Rushmore later in the afternoon was a good one as there was no line for parking...and the $10. parking fee is ... read more