Blogs from South Dakota, United States, North America - page 61

I can't say that I ever thought that South Dakota would be home to a major dig of mammoths! Surprised to find that it truly is. Apparently, a bunch of the big rascals went and died in a South Dakota spring about 26,000 years ago. Push forward to 1974, and a local developer was getting ready to bulldoze the site to put up some homes and hit some bones. Research began as to what they had hit and they discovered it was mammoth bones. Columbian mammoths to be exact. They've been working ever since to dig out all the bones. The current count is 45 North American Columbian mammoths and 2 wholly mammoths (Canadian version). Plus, some bears and other creatures. And get this gals...all the mammoths are males! No one knows for sure why but ... read more

I probably would not have normally thought to drive through Custer State Park. With so much to see in the Black Hills, sometimes state parks get overlooked. Located in the Black Hills area, this Park could easily be part of the National Park system. You'll need to take your time going through the Park because there are a number of winding roads as you climb through the Black Hills and there are plenty of one vehicle rock tunnels as well. Many of the tunnels have views through them of Mount Rushmore. The star of the Park, in my opinion, is the Needles Highway Scenic Drive which includes the Cathedral Spires and Needle's Eye Formation. Very unique granite mountain tops. I drove the Drive pretty slow so I could take frequent stops to look at the scenery. ... read more

Driving through Custer National Forest is one of my favorite routes to take from North Dakota to Rapid City. Custer National Forest is located in the northwest section of South Dakota so not to be confused with Custer State Park located in the southwest corner of South Dakota. Custer National Forest also runs in sections west into Montana as well. I'm not sure why I like the route through the Forest so much. The striking white and pink bluffs with green trees just rise out of nowhere in the rolling grass hills of that section of South Dakota. In doing a little research on the parks site, they call them "castles" and they are made of limestone. They just don't look like they fit in at all. The South Dakota section is the Slim Buttes Section ... read more

The Black Hills have so much to explore. As someone who loves waterfalls, I had heard about Thunderhead Falls which was supposedly an underground waterfall. Figured it was worthy of a stop to see exactly what this could be. The Falls are located on one of the northern routes to the Black Hills. They are located inside a gold mine. You climb a few stairs walk and walk through a long tunnel to see the Falls at the end. They have it fenced off so you can't get too close but there is tremendous force and spray. Very powerful. The water is obviously falling quite a distance. The water then travels down the tunnel to the outside where there is a smaller lower falls located in a beautiful green setting which then falls into/joins a Creek. ... read more

Denver CO to Hot Springs SDThe Echterlings We're on board RoVer (the agreed upon name for our RV). We came up with that name because it is a Coachman Motorhome (24ft) with a Dalmation on the outside, and we are "roving" around, and RV is in "rover". RoVer won out over "Big Blue". The RV rental people in Denver were very nice and thorough in our orientation, including a video which the kids watched too and my daughter keeps repeating directions to me from such as "Take it wide daddy" and "don't back-up without a spotter". It took us about three hours from when we picked it up, until we had all our stuff unpacked into it and we were on the road. Lisa got to drive it and said it was "fun" -- ok maybe ... read more