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Published: September 10th 2006
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Wind Cave NP
Can you spot the prairie dog?? After spending the morning in the Badlands, we continued our journey West through South Dakota to our next KOA campground in Hot Springs. With temperatures soaring to near 100F, we were not looking forward to setting up camp in the heat. Fortunately this campground had a nice pool (with no kids at the time) so once the work was done a cool dip sorted us right out!
The next day we intended to drive North through Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore which was about 50 miles away. In the end, we took so long driving through the parks and pulling off at every opportunity that we had to save Rushmore for the next day. Wind Cave NP sits atop the Wind Cave, which is one of the longest and most complex caves in the world. The park itself is a preserved prairie grassland home to abundant plant and wildlife. The prairie dogs were especially cute and could be seen on the land all along the roadside. We were also lucky enough to see loads of pronghorn antelope, some at very close range.
Wind Cave NP connects right onto Custer State Park which was
Custer State Park
Can you spot the buffalo? another gorgeous drive. This park lies within the Black Hills so unlike Wind Cave, its mountainous and full of trees. As we drove up the winding roads, we soon came to a clearing with a massive herd of bison! They were everywhere, including in the middle of the road! We were happy to wait for them to pass…you really don’t want to make a big buffalo mad now do you?! By the way…What’s the difference between a buffalo and a bison? You can’t wash your hands in a buffalo! I know…an old and terrible joke, just couldn’t resist.
Now that we had seen what was on the way to Mount Rushmore we were able to get there in much better time. We arrived, paid our $8 parking fee (which is good for the rest of the year so if anyone is planning a visit just let us know!) and headed up to the monument. We had already caught a few glimpses of the four great heads whilst en route to Rushmore, but this does not really prepare you for seeing them up close. They are huge and truly impressive! It’s probably safe to say that a monument of this
size and scale would be impressive even if it weren’t carved into the side of a mountain…but it’s the fact that these four figures have been blasted and sculpted with such precision into the side of a massive mountain that just makes it unbelievable! It almost does not seem real even when you are stood right in front of it.
So after paying homage to the great Democratic fore fathers, we next paid a visit to the Crazy Horse Memorial, a monument honouring a Native American legend and his people. After seeing the monument celebrating American heroes erected on their land, some Native American elders decided that they should erect their own mountainside monument honouring one of their heroes. They asked an unknown, but very talented, sculptor named Korzcak Ziolkowski (don't ask me to pronounce that) to do the job and he devoted the entire rest of his life to the task. He started out with very little money and help and did most of the work himself for the first 10 years. He married, had children and as they grew they too began to help with his mission. Over the years, people began to take notice of this
work in progress and many would visit the site and make donations to fund the project. Eventually some offers roled in from the US government for funding, but Korczak turned them down every time because neither he nor the Native American people wanted this to be a government project. Now nearly 50 years later and after Korczak is long gone, Crazy Horse is still a work in progress that is carried on by Korzcak’s wife and children. It is still privately funded by donations, entrance fees and gift shop sales.
Even though the monument is not even half finished, it is still greatly impressive. So far only Crazy Horse’s head (large enough to hold Rushmore inside it) is complete and an outline of his arm; they are now working on his horse’s head. When the monument is completed, it will be over four times the size of Mount Rushmore and will be carved on all sides. As Crazy Horse towered in front of us, it was really hard to believe that we were seeing it from one mile away.
On our final day in the Black Hills, we went back to Wind Cave National Park and took a
Crazy Horse Memorial
A work in progress as seen from one mile away. guided cave tour. There are so many different caves in the Black Hill area that is was difficult to know which to choose; of course they all claim to be the best and most amazing. We opted for Wind Cave because it was the only one mentioned in the Rough Guide so we figured it must be pretty good. We were not disappointed with our choice but we were surprised by a few things. There were no stalactites or stalagmites, the usual cave formations that you might expect to see. These formations require steady streams of dripping water to deposit minerals and Wind Cave was very dry. What we saw instead were some other formations that we had never even heard of, like boxwork, but it turns out are very rare and quite impressive. We won’t bore you with the exact details of how boxwork is formed; however, drop us an email if you are interested and we will be happy to elaborate! After a proper lesson in cave formations and a nice break from the South Dakota heat, we headed back to the campground for an afternoon swim… a lovely ending to our stay in the Black Hills.
Crazy Horse Memorial Model
Model of how Crazy Horse will look when complete cleverly posed in front of the actual memorial site. Now you may have thought as we first did that South Dakota sounds a bit boring, but hopefully we have now convinced you otherwise! From the stunning vistas over the Badlands to the towering monuments of the Black Hills, South Dakota is well worth a visit. Ok well actually, a small portion of South Dakota is worth a visit, the rest of it you can pretty much skip.
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chris sewell
non-member comment
auuuggggghhhh the midwest
Ain't nutting like it-why would ever want to live somewhere like California or London when we could live there???? Haaaaaa,anyways-looks like you guys are having a great trip-enjoy every minute and we will be patiently waiting your arrival and will do our best to ensure your stay with us is one of the best stops of the trip.-Chris