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South Dakota

Black Hills and Badlands

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

October 14^th, 2019

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" -Native American proverb

This is our second trip to the Black Hills this summer, our first was during Sturgis week (the motorcycle rally) and after almost running over a Harley that cut a hairpin turn short and came face to face with our F350 grill we decided to come back another day.

We headed to our Grand Design National Rally in Elkhart where we met some friends and lots of new people, and a preview of where Grand Design was going with the brand. We took a factory tour and also was able to learn about key components of our rig. We also upgraded the suspension in preparation for Alaska!

After returning to South Dakota, we stayed in Custer for two weeks which gave us plenty of time to explore. It's more like the size and style of a National Park and getting lots of one on one time with the large American Buffalo (Bison) herd. We also explored the historical towns like Deadwood where we happened to visit during an outdoor music festival. We ate dinner at the Old Number 10 Saloon where Wild Bill Hickock was murdered while playing poker, holding Aces and Eights (now known as a dead man’s hand).

One of the highlights of our visit was visiting Crazy Horse mountain sculpture and Mt Rushmore. While Mt Rushmore is an icon of America, and known by every elementary student in the States, Crazy Horse, is much more impressive. Still incomplete, it is going to be the world’s largest sculpture when finished and the head is a third larger than the presidents of Mt Rushmore!

We then made a boondocking trip to the Badlands which we enjoyed very much, the best free campsite we have found yet! We enjoyed visiting the National Park and even discovered some bone fragments which we reported to the rangers. Who knows, maybe we found the ‘missing link’!

Little Big Horn

We passed Little Big Horn battlefield and decided to drop in for a visit. I had learned about Custers defeat at this battle and how it set into motion the massacre of Wounded Knee. The National Battlefield Monument is careful to tell the story from both sides and the Ranger gave the best talk I have heard at any National Park on the subject.

The thing that surprised us about this battle was that Custer thought he would walk in and the Native Americans would submit to him. He had members of his family traveling with him including his brother as a civilian employee and his nephew who was enjoying his summer off. During the battle, Custer and the 7th Cavalry even shot their horses and used them as protection during their last stand. Markers now stand where each man fell, both Cavalry and Warriors. Others like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull became famous and hunted men until they were killed or forced onto reservations, changing their way of life forever.

Where the solders 7th Calvary fell (not graves). Custer's is centered with black shield.

Native American Memorial at Little Big Horn

Prong Horn Antelope (fastest animal in the Americas)

Devil's Tower

Devils Tower is one of the most iconic geological features in America, maybe the world. It was our countries first National Monument established by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Native Americans considered it sacred to many tribes in the area and call it ‘Mato Tipila’ (the great bear lodge) and thought it to be a great stump of a tree. Scientist debated on how exactly how it was formed either as a volcano plug or magma that pushed towards the surface, welled up and cooled slowly. The basalt cooling over thousands of years fractured into hexagonal pillars. This has left a wonderful place for climbers to enjoy the formation! We saw a few climbing up a crack between two columns which are six foot or more across!

We were not alone in enjoying Devils Tower, the day we were planning to leave heading to Custer we saw tons of Harley Davidson's rolling in for a motorcycle run, part of the Sturgis Rally. This should have been a warning to alter our plans but we didn’t realize it until we were parked in Custer.

Our home with Devils Tower in background

One of the basalt formations that fell from Devils Tower

Custer State Park

A state park like no other and celebrating its 100th anniversary this year! With a bison herd numbering almost 1,500 and famous for creating traffic jams on the Wildlife Loop, these gentle giants are impressive. The ‘begging burros’ which are donkeys that escaped or were released when they pulled wagons to the region and now ready to a handout from the passing cars, they have learned to stop by each car, hanging out in the road. When they found out we didn’t have any handouts they quickly moved to the next car!

The Black Hills are famous for geology, with some of the oldest exposed rock in the country. The magma up-thrust that pushed through the layers of sedimentary rock above had eroded away leaving these granite spiers, most famous along the Needles Highway where they tower up like something from another world. We were lucky to see some mountain goats on one of the nearby cliffs. Driving our F350 dually through the tunnels on SD 16A was a challenge! We had 6"-9” on each side to spare!

The 1874 expedition lead by General Custer discovered gold in French Creek near todays town of Custer. This discovery of gold sent settlers and prospectors running for the hills in 1876 even though it was Indian Land. Due to the weak US economy the Laramie Treaty was violated but they found to be a lot less gold than expected. The placer deposit created by subsurface magma flows was created in French Creek over millions or years of erosion and not large deposit were ever found.

Buffalo (American Bison) herd in Custer State Park

Jeff on climb of Black Elk Peak (Harvey Peak)

Forest Service watchtower on Black Elk Peak (no longer in service)

Stories in Stone

South Dakota is famous for the four Presidents carved into Mt Rushmore. The sculptor was Gutzon Borglum who was hired after carving Stone Mountain in Georgia. What we learned was that each President represents a different attribute of America, Washington for our nation’s development or birth. Lincoln was chosen to represent preservation of our nation because he shepherd our nation through the Civil War. Jefferson was to represent growth as he helped our nation expand west with the Louisiana Purchase and commissioned the Lewis & Clark, Corp of Discovery. And finally, Roosevelt was chosen to represent the development of common working citizens rights. The project was not complete before he passed in 1941 but is Son Lincoln finished the project.

Crazy Horse was commissioned after Mt Rushmore was complete and Chief Henry Standing Bear contacted sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and told him "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, also." And Korczak conceived the most ambitious mountain carving in the world. When complete Crazy Horse will be riding on a horse and it will stand 563 feet tall and 641 feet long. The head is a third larger than the Presidents heads carved on Mt Rushmore. It is awe inspiring and makes me proud of our Native America citizens. What is amazing, is before Crazy Horse's his assassination by US Calvary guards in 1877, he made a statement to his friend Black Elk, “I will return to you in stone.” There are no known photos of Crazy Horse, a composite sketch was generated from tribesmen who knew him well. Korczak died in 1982 and three of his children are still working on the project today. This project is all privately funded.

Badlands National Park

After leaving Custer we headed back east to the Badlands. The name was a translation from the Lakota name for this area. It truly looks like a wasteland, mostly clay with deep erosion making this place the best place to study the geology of erosion. Also common to the Badlands are that visitors discover fossils. We did some scouting and found two different areas with fossils washing out of the clay and reported them to park service. After chasing big horn sheep all over the west last season we found plenty here. We were able to get some nice photographs of them here, both ewes and lambs herds and bachelor ram groups.

We found a BLM disperse camping site outside of the Pinnacle entrance of the National Park where we boondocked for four days. What a site, we were parked on an overlook of the canyon that dropped off several hundred feet to the floor. A site with an unmatched view! We were also amazed at the number of stars and had time for some astrophotography.

No visit to the Badlands is complete without a visit to Wall Drugs, the largest roadside tourist attraction in the US. After a couple purchased a drug store in a small prairie town in 1931 and watched many cars pass by headed to the new National Park, Ted Hustead’s wife suggested they put up a sign on the highway offering free ice water. The rest is history and now Wall Drugs host about 20K visitors a day during the season.

Fossilized bone in limestone, Badlands National Park

Fossilized bone fragments washing out in Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park, Pinnacles Overview

Sunset in Badlands National Park (Black Hills in background)

What we Learned:

· Crazy Horse mountain sculpture is inspiring! -The Black Hills are a very different place after Sturges. -The Bad Lands are very much different than we had imagined.