South Dakota - Day 8 - Wounded Knee

Angostura Recreation Area, Hot Springs

Sunday, 8 August 2021

today's route

On the road

So one of the oddities of today was that my RV seemed to be rebelling against me or maybe against what I was putting it through.  Before I'd gotten very many miles down the road, I had to deal with the following:

   * the "check engine" light came on right away and stayed on steadily, then started blinking, then back to steady - with several iterations of this, and not for any reason I could see

   * the frig started beeping while I was in a Do Not Pass construction zone - that beep that says I have to turn it off and then turn it back on again for some reason I don't understand

   * when I stopped to fix the frig I discovered that the TV wasn't staying in the locked-down position - it's on a swivel arm and never mind that I was tightening it down as much as possible, it was swiveling around like crazy and, of course, it bashed itself into the overhanging cabinet that's nearby (which I didn't find out until later)

   * even the ballpoint pen I was taking notes with refused to retract itself unless I bashed it on the pad of paper

After a while of this, I was seriously contemplating buying a new RV (and a new ballpoint).

I got more illustrations of the fact that when South Dakota says "Bump," it means bump.

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

If you take another look at today's route map, you'll see that more than half of it is colored pink.  That's the Pine Ridge Reservation, which is the US's 2nd largest reservation for land area and 3rd largest for population.  This county has the lowest per capita income in the US, and the unemployment rate is 90%.  Life expectancy for men is 47 years and for women is early 50s.  I don't know if this next statistic figures into that one, but the teen suicide rate is 4 times the national average.

Interestingly, I didn't see any of that - it didn't show up along US Hwy 18.  The poverty being invisible wasn't due to this being a superhighway - it was just a 2-lane road.  But there aren't many towns around here.  Instead, what I saw were miles of hills and valleys covered with grassland and scattered herds of cows and some horses.

Just before the town of Oglala, I came to a checkpoint for the Oglala Lakota Reservation that stopped all traffic coming in.  Two young women took down my license plate number, asked me my name, where I was coming from and going to, and told me there was a mask mandate in the reservation and I wasn't allowed to leave the RV without a mask on.  I know tribes in New Mexico especially have been really hard-hit by COVID and didn't blame these folks at all for wanting to protect themselves.  After all, I've been trying hard to protect myself too.

I saw a LOT of Magpies - so easy to recognize with that black-and-white color scheme.

Everywhere I've been driving so far in SD I've been seeing signs by the road telling me to drive carefully.  This is what one looks like.

This "Why Die?" message is on most of them, but I've also seen "Think!" on some.  They all have that "X Marks the Spot" (which is completely meaningless to me in this context) and they all say "Drive Safely."  But maybe you can tell that most of this message is in print too small to be read while we're driving down a highway.  For a while I figured maybe they were a suicide prevention program or something (which I guess is sort of accurate).  I finally pulled over to read the things - sometimes there are 2 or 3 of them all bunched together.  Strange sort of program - I guess it's a state program because I see them everywhere along the roads.

I passed scattered clumps of houses and what looked like a round barn, though this one seemed to have been converted to a residence.  Then I came to Pine Ridge, the principle town in the county.  Pine Ridge has a Boys & Girls Club and a state driving test center along with a few other businesses - and the cheapest gasoline I've found in days.

I passed a sign for Red Cloud Indian School and The Heritage Center Museum.  I was curious about them and looked them up.  The school was once a Catholic boarding school where children were taught to assimilate into Caucasian culture and weren't allowed to speak their own language.  And there was some of the sexual abuse that we've heard so much about in the last decade or so.  But sometime back, the school converted to a day school until COVID hit.  They've been learning virtually for the last year and I found a lot of interesting information at the school's website.   https://www.redcloudschool.org  Click on the "Schools" tab for some detail.  But I also found an interesting article about the school's new executive director for truth and healing, which isn't a job title I've heard of in other schools, though maybe it should be.  Here's the article.   https://cruxnow.com/native-american-school-confronts-history

The Heritage Center is a multi-faceted program that in 2019 won one of the South Dakota Governor's Awards in the Arts.  You can find their information at that redcloudschool site by clicking the The Heritage Center tab.

I found lots of sunflower farming along the road.  Because I was driving east, the sunflowers all had their backs to me.

Wounded Knee Massacre Site

I had a hard time getting Google to cough up directions to the Wounded Knee Massacre Site but eventually figured out how to get there.  It's down in a valley.  There's not much there now, of course, except a parking area and an informational sign, with a cemetery high on a nearby hill.

I had to take the 2nd photo at an angle because the sun was in the way, so I hope you can read it.  There seems to be nothing but sadness in this encounter.

Also at the parking lot was an OST police car.  I finally figured out that OST stands for Oglala Sioux Tribe.  I know these folks are in the Oglala Lakota Tribe, but I also know that they're in the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and I don't know why I can't figure out the reason for the 2 names.  I asked the officer if he was there because he expected trouble, and he said sometimes people come here begging for money, or people come who are high on meth.  I'm sure he was telling me the truth, but all that seemed impossible to reconcile with the emptiness I saw today.

On the other hand, there was a car parked up by the cemetery most of the time I was here, and after a bit I saw the cop drive up there and almost immediately saw the other car leave.  He may also have been on guard for vandalism or other kinds of trouble.  The Indians are targets of racist attacks, too, and despite being a sizeable part of the state's population, I've heard on the radio of some day-to-day racism they've encountered here.  Of course, Blacks are a sizeable part of Mississippi's population and that hasn't insulated them from racism either.

Back on the road

I saw a cow in a field licking a utility pole.  Really.  What would have been on it?  Creosote?

Because it was still morning and I had started driving west, the fields of sunflowers were now all facing me.  Very cheerful.

I passed the facility for Pine Ridge Building Products - basically they provide outbuildings - sheds, playhouses, mini barns, animal shelters - and they seem to be affiliated with a large building products company in Tennessee.  I looked it up because I wondered if this were one of the few employment opportunities on the reservation, but I can't tell.

I saw a small sign that read: "Justice 4 Leon L Lakota III" and wondered what had happened.  I found a short obituary for him online - he was just shy of his 51st birthday when he died.  But I didn't see any mention of how he died or what aspect of "justice" was hoped for.

I passed a very large herd of horses.

At the entrance to a small housing area, I saw a sign that said, "Due to COVID, only residents are allowed entrance."  More precautions these folks are taking.

I heard on the radio that they're expecting about three-quarters of a million people in Sturgis this week.  Sturgis ordinarily has about 7,000 residents.  Them vs. 750,000?  Not a fair fight.

I also heard that Mike Lindell's so-called cyber symposium will be in Sioux Falls beginning in 2 days.  I'm glad I've already made plans that don't include going to these places at these times.  I'd be afraid that lots of the attendees at either event would be anti-vax and anti-mask.

I passed a sign advertising:

   Life-changing Patriotic Experience

   Rushmore Borglum Museum

   Downtown Keystone.

I recognize the person who spent many years carving that mountain was likely very patriotic, but I can't really see why learning more about him would be a "patriotic experience" for me, let alone life-changing.  Oh well.  Maybe it is.

I couldn't get gasoline at Pine Ridge because it was way too crowded and I'd've had to wait a long time where they didn't have room for an RV, so I tried to find it on my way back. Turning from US 18 to US 385, I turned left toward the nearby town of Oelrichs.  But not a gas station in sight.  What I did find, though was this unusual display.

not your typical public art

This is the plaque at the base of that sculpture.
Oelrichs has about 125 residents now.

Hot Springs, again

I noticed a historical marker by the road when I passed, but I wasn't able to stop for a photo.  Here it is:  https://www.hmdb.org/hot-springs  Like Hot Springs in Arkansas, the springs here were seen to have health-giving properties, and this marker explains it a little.

I'd come back to Hot Springs to find gasoline, because I knew tomorrow I'd be getting back on the road.  But the price was so much higher than in Pine Ridge that I decided I still had enough to wait until we got back there.

We went for a walk in a downtown area, passing a mural on the side of the American Legion showing most of the US's wars.  Regarding the war of Southern rebellion, it reads: "620,000 Americans died resolving the slavery question."  Can't say I've ever seen it phrased this way.

I stopped at a roadside stand that was advertising Colorado peaches for sale.  I'd actually bought some in the grocery store but decided to get a few more.  They told me they'd sell me a whole box for $55 (I think), half a box for $30, and 7-8 peaches for $18.  I didn't want that many peaches (I wasn't going to make a pie or anything), especially since I'd already bought some, and I didn't want to spend that much money.  I guess Colorado peaches are known here in SD like Fredericksburg (TX) peaches are anywhere in central Texas.

Angostura Recreation Area

This was my first SD state park and I was moderately impressed.  They divided incoming traffic into 2 lanes - one for boats and the other for everybody else.  Two staff members were checking the boats.  Zebra mussels have made their way into some of SD's lakes, and the state's trying to halt the advance.

I also noticed that no one was allowed in the office - a staff member besides the boat people came out to check me in.  All these staff wore masks, which I'd already noticed is unusual in South Dakota.

As I've done in other states, I bought an annual park pass.  I knew I had reservations at a number of state parks during this month and, with the usual park entrance fee of $8/night, I figured the annual fee of $36 was a bargain.  I'm staying at this park for 2 nights, so that's nearly half the cost right there.

The state park lies on one side of Angostura Reservoir.  Angostura is Spanish, the park says, for "narrows" though I'm not sure what that has to do with this lake, which doesn't look very narrow to me.  Despite it being a hot, sunny Sunday, there weren't many people on the beaches around the lake.  There were lots of boaters, though.

I had a great view from near an Overlook - if I'd climbed a long steep set of stairs, I'd likely have had a wonderful view of the whole county.  But it was too hot for either Gracie or me to be interested in that climb, and even Dext might have faded out before finishing the round trip.  And I had a good view anyway from down below.  It was 96° at 3:20 PM, so it really was a hot day.

I noticed, when I left the Overlook area to go to our campsite, that the "check engine" light wasn't coming on any more.  One mechanic had told me that sometimes, if the engine gets turned off and on again some particular number of times, the warning light resets.  So theoretically my warning light may have reset itself.

South Dakota - in the Hot Springs campground

Hot Springs KOA, Hot Springs

Thursday, 5 through Saturday, 7 August 2021

This was a strange period.  I expected to spend much of my time trying to catch up posts from North Dakota.  It's become disorienting to be so far behind because I've been seeing quite a few things in South Dakota, yet needing to put myself back in North Dakota.  Very unfortunate that I got into this position (which I'm blaming on my damaged arm, but the why doesn't matter in the end).  All I can do is plug away at getting myself out again.  But before doing that, I figured I'd better make campground reservations for the rest of the month.  

I've been seeing just how crowded the campgrounds are, and I figured that pressure wasn't likely to let up until September when most kids would be back in school.  That ended up taking a couple of days, partly because the online reservation system for SD's state parks can yield some screwy results.  At one point it told me I couldn't complete my reservation because "The Sub-Order is formed another Organization."  I called the state's reservation phone number and told the nice woman that this not only didn't make sense, it wasn't even the bad English that a foreign programmer might use.  She promised to report it to her supervisor.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we had freak rainstorms with thunder and lightning and high heat.  This photo shows all of that:

Gracie, draped across the fan for the heat,
wearing her Thundershirt for the storm.

I'd specifically chosen the campsite we were in for its location - at the end of a row of campers and close to the office instead of buried in the campground.  And those things worked out fine.  What wasn't so good was that this site backed right into a slope.  Other campers could use ramps to help level them out, but I don't own any because I've always figured it'd be too hard for me to do it as just 1 person.  I see other people using them and they almost always have somebody else helping the driver out with directions or something.

The slant was a nuisance here but we've had worse so I didn't think too much about it until the last day, when the refrigerator stopped working.  And I suddenly remembered some advice I got from a couple in another campground in another state that the frig needs a pretty level surface to function properly.  Well, it hadn't been getting that level surface here and I started seeing the results.  At least I got my freezer partly defrosted before I figured out what was going on.

Otherwise, this was a good campground for us because it was nothing but hills.  The dogs couldn't get a walk unless they were prepared to go up and down hills.  Usually, Gracie is definitely not prepared to go up even a slight incline without complaining.  But here, we had at least 4 walks a day up and down and up and down, and it was good for all of us.

Of course, I had to haul my laundry up a pretty steep hill, which wasn't so great, but the machines were okay.

South Dakota - Day 4 - to Hot Springs

Hot Springs KOA, Hot Springs

Wednesday, 4 August 2021

At breakfast I opened a container of cut-up cantaloupe I'd bought in Rapid City a couple of days ago.  It had a label on it saying "Rocky Ford Grown Cantaloupe." I figured this must mean something because usually cantaloupe isn't labeled that specifically, looked it up, and learned that it does mean something.  Rocky Ford Cantaloupe (TM) is claimed by The Hirakata Farms in Colorado for a cantaloupe grown since 1887, now shipped far and wide.  I have to say it's pretty good cantaloupe. 

today's route

Most of today's drive was on roads I've driven before.  I decided on that route partly because Google was promising it would take 3 hours 21 minutes (which means at least 4 hours for me) and any other route would be much longer; and also partly because I planned to travel those other routes on another day.  Besides, it's a lot of interesting and beautiful scenery and I wasn't tired of it yet.

The first segment, skirting the Badlands, was mostly grasslands with grazing cows, backed by mountains in the far distance.

I passed a large herd of what I thought were cows.  Then I saw their heads and realized they were bison, not cows.

I passed 8 horses in a field; they were all bunched together, all with their heads over the fence.  Couldn't figure out what they were waiting for.

The "check engine" light was solidly on from the beginning of the day; then it started blinking for about a minute; then it went back to being solidly on.

And another herd of non-cow bison.

In Rapid City I passed a fast food place called Taco John's - claiming the "Fresh Taste of West-Mex."  Having come from the land of Tex-Mex, of course I noticed this.  I looked them up and learned this is a company headquartered in Cheyenne WY, that dates back to 1968 and now has franchises in 23 states.  I guess if I can't make it to one here, I'll have to try it in Wyoming next month.  I feel an obligation to check what constitutes "West-Mex."

I took US 385 south through the Black Hills to Hot Springs, the same route I took 3 days ago when I first came to SD.  At one point I pulled over to let folks go by me (I wanted to get them off my tail so I could enjoy the scenery), and 35 motorcycles and 6 other vehicles passed me.  All in that one time.

When I passed through Hill City again, I noticed a sign for the State Railroad Museum.  I looked it up online and learned that the museum gives information about railroads in SD since 1872.  But more importantly, it's next door to the train depot, where I could buy a ticket for an 1880 train ride to Keystone and back.  Sounds like fun.

Farther on I saw a highway sign warning: "Large Wildlife On Roadway Next 7 Miles."  I drove a lot more cautiously after seeing that.  Large wildlife sounds intimidating to me.

Near Hot Springs I came to the turn to go to Wind Cave National Park.  Before I came to SD I was interested in going to this cave, but at this point I changed my mind.  I was hot and tired and my arm was hurting again.  But it sounds like a really special place.

Wind Cave was established as a national park in 1903, and was the first cave in the world to be designated a national park.  It's the world's 7th longest cave, and the world's densest cave system (that's what the National Park Service says - I'm not sure what a "dense cave system" is).  Aside from these unusual facts, Wind Cave has about 95% of the world's known boxwork formations.  Those are calcite products and they look like this:

boxwork

Don't know why it's called boxwork, but that's what they say.  On another trip I'll have to see this place.

In Hot Springs (I didn't see a sign, but online it says they have about 3,500 residents), I passed a historical marker about the local sandstone architecture I thought sounded interesting.  I couldn't stop to take a photo but found it online.   https://www.hmdb.org/sandstone-architecture  Actually, this link is better than I could have done because it includes photos of local examples of this stuff.

From there I went on to the campground, which is about 5 miles out of town.  I guess it wasn't really that long a day, but somehow it seemed like it and I was tired.  The dogs weren't, though, so I had to walk them a couple of times.

South Dakota - Day 3 - Badlands National Park

Badlands KOA, Interior

Tuesday, 3 August 2021

today's route

I drove through the national park twice - first soon after dawn heading north to Wall, and again after 1:00 on the way south again.  The difference was startling.  In the morning I saw wildlife everywhere; on the way back I saw almost none.

As I'd found at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in ND, the entrance gate isn't staffed early in the morning and I drove right on in.  The scenery was stunning.

The mountains seemed to advance and retreat as I drove along.

At a viewpoint area, I found 2 Big-horned Sheep.  And a family that was being held hostage because the sheep were grazing right by their car.  The sheep weren't in any hurry to move along, so the family had to practice patience too.  I mean, you can watch the sheep for a while, but after a bit you'd have to be a biologist to keep being fascinated because the sheep were just grazing.  Slowly.

First, I saw this one and took the photo from a distance so as not to disturb it.

Then I realized it wasn't disturbed by me at all and moved closer for this photo.

Then I saw this one appear.

And then I realized I could get both of them in the same shot.
The shadow coming from the lower right comes from the parked car of that hostage family.

more spectacular scenery

They don't call it a painted desert, but looking at this,
I don't know why not.

I learned that the white soil I'd noticed yesterday is sand.  You can see why Lakota Indians, French explorers, and settlers moving west and seeing this area for the first time would call it Bad Lands.  But it also has an unusual beauty.

Frank Lloyd Wright, noting he'd seen much of the world and the US, wrote, "I was totally unprepared for that revelation called the Dakota Bad Lands. . . . What I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere - a distant architecture, ethereal . . ., an endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it."

And in a different vein is this observation: "The prairie is not forgiving.  Anything that is shallow - the easy optimism of the homesteader . . . the trees whose roots don't reach ground water - will dry up and blow away."  It's attributed to "Kathleen Norris, Dakota."

There's a lot of history in this area.  Here's one piece of it:

This is the text in the sign below right.

This sign was at one of the viewpoints.

I saw a family of 4 Pronghorn Antelope.  Then a herd of 8, and then 4 more.  I saw a HUGE prairie dog town.  Then 5 more antelope, including a mother with her young.  Then 6 more.

I couldn't bring myself to crop those mountains
out just to enlarge the antelope.

One of them decided to cross the road.
(Why did the chicken . . .)

I saw that thing around her neck (in the middle photo above)
and wondered if she were wearing a bell.
This photo shows it's a radio collar.

Oddly, the small herd in the 1st photo here was skittish and decided to move away over the hill because of both me and that other car.  But this gal in the other 2 photos didn't seem to care about us at all.  I drove right by her and she didn't twitch a muscle.  Of course, I drove very slowly.

I got to the entrance gate at the other side of the park and saw a fat prairie dog sitting in the middle of the road.  When I came up to it, it decided to head back and waddled - seriously - back to the edge of the road.

Just outside the gate I saw some bison crossing the road, and some idiot bikers (who don't deserve to be in the gene pool) had gotten off their bikes to film the bison.  It doesn't seem to matter how many news items are published about people being seriously injured by wildlife in general and bison in particular, people seem to believe that only happens to somebody else.

I drove the fairly short distance from the park to the town of Wall, pop. 818.  Best known for Wall Drug.  I felt about Wall Drug like I did about Mt. Rushmore - I wasn't much interested but I'd heard about it forever and now that I was in the neighborhood . . .

Except I was far from being the only one in the neighborhood.  It wasn't even 8:30 AM and the town was already packed.  It seemed crazy to me.  I mean, it's just a commercial establishment.  A very large commercial establishment - it takes up an entire city block - but nonetheless that's all it is.  I would still have gone in, but the closest I could park was 2 blocks away, the day was already getting warm, and I just didn't want to do it.

Instead, I parked in the city parking lot and stayed for the next several hours, enjoying getting an internet connection, which I couldn't pick up at the campground.  The campground has spotty cellphone reception, too, and say they're down in a bowl and people should climb the hill beside the campground - which gives you an idea of the situation.

After a while, I turned on the generator so we could have some air conditioning and kept trying to get some work done, taking the dogs out for a couple of short walks.

Finally, we went on back down the park's road - I had a get-in-free card with my senior pass to national parks - and found a different scene entirely.  The colors that had been so clear in the morning were all washed out.  There were prairie dogs out but almost no other animals.  What there was plenty of, though, were people.  Lots and lots of people.  I'm guessing they saw what I did and wondered why this place was such a big deal, having no idea at all of what they'd missed.

It was going on 2:00 when we got back to the campground.  I wouldn't have missed this morning's drive for anything.  A truly remarkable place.  

South Dakota - Day 2 - Mt. Rushmore and Berlin Wall/Rapid City

Badlands KOA, Interior

Monday, 2 August 2021

today's route

I chose to go back up the same road I took yesterday, partly because it was the most direct route but mostly because I felt like I'd missed a lot of scenery yesterday and wanted to take another look.  And it was certainly worth a second look.  Really beautiful country.

I turned off for Mt. Rushmore (on Mt. Rushmore Road) and found more winding narrow roadway.

I passed a sign saying "North by Northwest - National Treasure II - Filmed in This Area."  I'm not sure about that National Treasure II bit, but that's what the sign said.

Mt. Rushmore

I wanted to see Mt. Rushmore only because I've heard it touted my whole life as a sight to see, and I was in the area (so I thought I'd stop by).  I learned a couple of interesting things.  One is that the road from the west, that I was on, runs actually on the backside of Mt. Rushmore itself - the mountain, I mean.  I found out by accident.  I'd been awed by the enormous rock masses I was driving by and, when I found a pull-out area, I stopped to take a photo.  And this is what I saw:

see George?

I guess the visibility of the carving is why the pull-out area was located where it was.  But you can see how the road (going off to the left behind the trees) runs right alongside some amazing rocks.  They were a beautiful, awe-inspiring natural sight.

Just around the corner on the right side of this photo I came to the parking area for the monument.  Despite the fact that I'd started my drive before 7:00 AM and it was only 20 miles or so, the enormous parking area seemed pretty well filled up.  I'd seen signs along the road saying they charged $10 per vehicle for parking, and I sure didn't want to pay $10 for something I didn't much want to see anyway.  I learned later that seniors can park for $5, but I got lucky.  At the entrance to the parking area, the road widens out - probably to accommodate traffic that's not headed for the monument area - and I pulled over and got this photo.

I think the roof you can see in the photo is for a visitor center just behind the parking lot, which I've edited out of this photo.  I know this is a genuine work of art, and I know it's an extraordinary engineering feat.  But I think, as sometimes happens, that Gutzon Borglum, the artist, was crazy and that this work was an obsession.  And that belief taints it for me somehow.  I like the mountain it's carved on better.  

That mountain, by the way, was known to the Lakota as Six Grandfathers.  During the late 1800s, a wealthy investor named Charles Rushmore used to visit the area for hunting and prospecting and joked that he wanted this mountain named after himself.  I guess wealthy investors have their wishes granted, because in 1930, the US Board of Geographic Names officially recognized it as Mt. Rushmore.  I don't myself see what was wrong with Six Grandfathers.

I've learned that Borglum chose these presidents to symbolize (from George on the left to Abe on the right) the US's birth, growth, development and preservation, a nice thought.  I'm sure the visitor center has a lot of information and I think there are walking trails in this area.  I'm told that the best light for viewing this sculpture is in the early morning (which may explain the nearly full parking lot so early), and my photo shows that's probably right.

Back on the road

As I drove through a camping area, 2 deer were running nearby and almost crossed the road in front of me.  I saw a family with a baby and a young boy who'd been packing up their car and they saw the deer.  The parents were pointing at the deer and the little boy was staring.  I'm sure it's something he won't forget in a hurry.

Rapid City

I didn't see a sign showing the population, but online it says there's more than 75,000 people living here.  It's the county seat (though I couldn't take a photo of the courthouse) but is most noted for the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  This is a small public college (mascot: the Hardrockers) with a good reputation.  

The main reason I came to town was because I'd heard they had 2 sections of the Berlin Wall here.  And they do.  They have a nice exhibit set up in one of their public parks.

The Berlin Wall

The sign reads: "This tank trap, located between the
Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie from
1961-1989, is donated in honor of the air force
personnel at Ellsworth Air Force Base and all South
Dakota military personnel who have faithfully
stood in readiness to protect the free world
in war and peace."

This sign reads: "This tank trap, located between the
 Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie from
 1961-1989, is donated in honor of the citizens
of Potsdam, Germany (the sister city of Sioux Falls,
South Dakota), where religious freedom was
first proclaimed for Catholics, Protestants
and Jews by the Edict of Potsdam in 1685."

This plaque is at the base of the wall
section on the left.

This plaque is at the base of the wall section
on the right.

These events occurred smack in the middle of my life.  Much of that time I was living in Alaska and news was sometimes sporadic, but I still remember this time well.  Remarkable, the way it all turned out.

Back on the road

From Rapid City I drove southeast to the southern edge of the Badlands National Park.  I wanted to visit the park tomorrow and read that park personnel suggested early in the morning or right at dusk as the best time to come, so I wanted to be able to start right by the entrance.

I drove through some odd country with white soil.  I wondered whether it was sand or dried salt or maybe an acidic soil?  It made the area look more desolate, somehow.

As I drove I saw yellow diamond-shaped highway signs with no words on them.  I learned (from experience) that they meant there was a bump in the road.  Unlike North Dakota, which is only kidding when it says there's a bump in the road, South Dakota means it.

Actually, there was a stretch of road that was almost a series of dips and made me think of the frost heaves left in some roads in Alaska.  I can't imagine they've got frost heaves here in South Dakota, but that's what the road was like.

I passed through a piece of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland.

The town of Interior, pop. 94, guards the far southeastern edge of the national park.  The KOA was about 4 miles down the road.  It was laid out very oddly and seemed composed of scrubland, but it certainly was handy to the national park.

South Dakota - Day 1 - Belle Fourche and the Black Hills

Custer KOA, Custer

Sunday, 1 August 2021

today's route

I covered 230 miles today, which may not seem like many but much of it was in the Black Hills and only a suicidal idiot drives at highway speeds through there.  It took me more than 6 hours, but I started at 6:30 so that was okay.

On the road

You can see that I traveled in North Dakota only about 20 miles before hitting the state line.  And then:

"Welcome to South Dakota - Great Faces, Great Places."

South Dakota - my 31st state

The land didn't look appreciably different in South Dakota than it had in North Dakota, but I suddenly started seeing lots of deer.  Actually, I think they were antelope because they all had antlers (except the babies).  I looked it up and it turns out the visible (to humans) difference between the 2 are the antlers - deer shed their antlers while antelope's are permanent, and deer antlers branch but antelope antlers don't.  Not visible is the fact that deer are a biological family of their own while antelope are closely related to sheep and goats (who'd've thunk it?).

Anyway, in SD there's a really wide space between the highway and the fenced-in land, and that's where I saw lots of antelope - all along the road.  Once I saw 2 fawns by themselves, and at another time I saw 2 fawns with a doe.  Lots of deer.

My "check engine" light was showing steadily all day.  So weird.

Lots of cows, too.  In one field I saw a calf trying to nurse, only his mom was walking and got so near a fence the calf was cut off.  It stopped and stared at mom as if it couldn't believe it had happened and was trying to figure out what to do next.  I can sympathize - I find life full of moments like that.

And I saw some sheep and thousands of acres of tan-covered hills.

I passed a sign saying, "Center of the Nation 8 miles →."  Although I was heading for a monument to this in Belle Fourche, I'd read that the actual geographic center is on private land.  The owner not wanting to have legions of tourists trooping onto his land, the public monument was built in the nearest town.

Belle Fourche

The name of this town is pronounced locally as "bell foosh."  It means "beautiful forks" because this is where 3 rivers join (Belle Fourche River, Redwater River and Hay Creek).  I'm sure this town of 5,594 (SD puts population numbers on its highway signs) would like to encourage tourism, but as far as I can tell, mostly what it's got is this monument.

a close view for detail

Flags from each state fly at the
Center of the Nation monument.

explains what this is about

I remember traveling to the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States near Lebanon, KS, which is what this sign is referring to.  Once the US got its far-flung states of Alaska and Hawaii, the US center moved up here, and that's what this monument commemorates.

There's a nice walking trail here and a park along the river - I think it's the Belle Fourche River.  And I found this other information nearby about the town.

Turns out Belle Fourche, too, was part of
the Great Western Cattle Trail.

And nearby I saw this artwork that seemed unusual to me.  And always timely.

Back on the road

From Belle Fourche, I wanted to stop at the Visitor Center on I-90 to pick up tourist information.  It turned out that the only way to get there was to go to Wyoming.  So I made a quick trip over that state boundary, turned around on the highway at the first chance, and came back into South Dakota.  Oddly, I had to cross a cattleguard in Wyoming, both when I was leaving the interstate and when I got back on again.  I guess a lot of cows were wandering onto the highway.

At the Visitor Center, a very helpful woman gave me far more pamphlets and booklets than I wanted.  I think I'll leave most of them at a campground somewhere for other people to pick up.  But she also explained South Dakota geography to me: the Missouri River almost bisects the state (and divides Central Time from Mountain Time).  She said folks here call the 2 areas East River and West River.  East River there're croplands and people; West River there're grasslands and ranches.  She said the population in the western half of SD is very sparse and, if it's people I want, I need to cross the river.  But of course, what makes the western part of SD famous are the Black Hills.

I spent much of the next 2 hours driving in the Black Hills National Forest.  It reminded me a little of southeast Alaska with tiny towns and huge mountains and constant forests of evergreens.  But, like West Virginia and unlike Pennsylvania, South Dakota does a good job of building mountain roads that drivers can drive on without white knuckles.

The Black Hills, which includes the national forest area, is an isolated mountain range - I'd thought it was part of the Rockies, but not according to Wikipedia.  They're called the Black Hills (a translation from the Lakota) because they look black from a distance from the evergreens covering them. The highest peak is Black Elk Peak at 7,244', which must be in Wyoming (the Black Hills extend into WY) because the AAA map says I drove by Harney Peak which, at 7,242' is the highest point in SD.  But with only a 2' difference, I didn't notice.  And actually, I was too busy driving that road to notice as much as I'd've liked.

The road was 2 lanes wide with occasional pull-out areas but no shoulders.  It was a constant series of ups and downs (including a 7% grade) and curves and s-curves and lots and lots of traffic.  Well, it was a beautiful Sunday so lots of people were out.  Plus there were LOTS of motorcycles.  The Sturgis rally doesn't start until next weekend, but I saw plenty of folks here early.  Actually, I thought it was helpful that there were so many bikers, because they usually traveled together in groups.  A group of bikes is much easier to see than a lone biker.  I got to the point where I was ready to stop those I saw riding alone and suggest they go find a friend.

The road runs through a long series of tourist towns with many many motels and hotels and B&Bs.  I'm guessing the folks around here have to make all their money in the 5 months or so of tourist season.

I drove through Deadwood, pop. 1,270 - "Where the Wild West Lives."  I didn't take the turn to the 1-mile road to the town of Lead (which I think is pronounced leed) - "Miles Beyond the Ordinary."

I passed several warning signs here and there that said "Bighorn Sheep Crossing Next 3 Miles - Be Prepared To Stop."  Which certainly gave me pause for thought.  Sadly, there weren't any sheep in sight.

Nestled in all these evergreens, I saw small meadows with wildflowers.  I passed occasional lakes, crossed occasional streams.

The "check engine" light started flashing, then reverted to being steady.  It doesn't seem to like hills.

Today was the first day my arm hasn't been hurting, although by the end of the day it was tired and starting to ache again.  Still, this is a definite improvement.

I came to Hill City, pop. 948 - "Heart of the Black Hills."  They advertise a CCC Museum which, they say, has information about the work done by the 23,000 young men from SD who were part of the CCC.  If I hadn't already been driving for 5 hours, I'd have wanted to stop and see where they'd been working.  All through town there were bikes parked by the dozens.  Given what I've already been seeing, my plan is to stay as far away from the Sturgis area as I can during the rally (which runs August 6-15).

A road sign said if I turned right, I'd come to the town of Mystic.  I didn't go there, but I've learned it's now a ghost town.  It was once a mining camp and railroad town where in 1875 the discovery of gold started the Black Hills Gold Rush.  Speaking of which, the whole time I was driving here I kept hearing Rocky Raccoon in my head ("Somewhere in the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota there lived a young boy name of Rocky Raccoon . . . .")  I'll be glad to get out of this area if I'm going to keep hearing this song the whole time.

And then I came into Custer, pop. 2,068.  In 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer left Ft. Abraham Lincoln (near today's Bismarck, ND) with 1,000-man expeditionary force to explore the unknown-to-the-white-men Black Hills, find possible locations for forts and check for the presence of gold.  They camped where the town of Custer is today.

By the time we got here, it was midday and very hot, and I was trying to avoid other tourists and bikers because my RV is unwieldy in cramped places.  I stopped to get a pizza, and while I waited for them to make it I took the dogs out for a quick walk.  I'd wanted to take them across the street to a park with a nice walking trail I could see, but the road was part of US Hwy 16, so it had too much traffic for me to risk crossing it.  Instead we stayed on our side and it was very uncomfortable.  We found a massive number of ants (which Gracie was inclined to roll around in) and I couldn't find any place to walk that didn't have ants, so I gave up and we came back to the RV.

The campground was almost completely full because, despite it being a Sunday night, it was high tourist season for this area.  Even the cabins - I mean, Kabins - were all taken.  We were a long way from Sturgis but bikers need to have a place to stay and any place closer was probably as full as this campground was.