We played the role of drive-by tourists today, hitting four NPS sites as we rolled east. We spent the night at the campground at Devil's Tower National Monument. In the morning, we explored the tower, taking a short hike around the base which gave a good view of the rock formations. The rocks were beautiful and we saw many rock doves (pigeons to us) high up on the ledges, a turkey vulture gliding along the edge of the cliff and a smaller hawk or falcon that we couldn't identify, who harassed the vulture as it glided by. The tower is scaled by about 5,000 rock climbers per year. It is a pretty good climb with over 200 routes on the tower. It looks like it must be at least 600 feet to top. But, we could see no climbers on the tower while we were there. (We did spot a pair in the parking lot preparing to climb as we left.)
After the tower, it was back to the prairie dog town next to the campground. They were awake by now and everywhere, standing around by the road and munching on the grasses. They weren't particularly bothered by the traffic or people standing around taking photos (like Ellen). There were lots of warnings not to feed them. They have plenty of grass, no potato chips necessary.
It was then south to US 16 and on to South Dakota. The last bit of Wyoming was high grassland and looked greener than the plains to the west. It was nice winding roads through cattle country, except for the road construction where we had to wait for a pilot car to guide us through about five miles of chip seal paving. Soon after the South Dakota border, we entered the Black Hills National Forest and started winding up and down again through the hills, stopping at Jewel Cave National Monument for a short visit. The next cave tour wasn't for a while and Ellen isn't really interested in caves, so we continued weaving eastward through the national forest until we reached Custer, SD, where the road turned north. We left US 16 at SD 244 which wound even more tightly up to Mount Rushmore.
We made the obligatory stop at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It seems to be an anomaly among the National Park Service units we've visited, so far. The Mount Rushmore Society has turned it into high-end kitsch. They've built a multi-level parking garage with a fee to park (even for National Parks Passholders) and a complex of grand granite buildings with a museum and visitor center, audio tour building (where you can rent an audio tour). Not to mention the gift shop, cafe and ice cream shop, where visitors can buy stuff to carry and eat as they stroll from the Borglum Court, along the Avenue of Flags, to the Grand View Terrace and Amphitheater, where they can feed coins into telescopes to look at the Mount Rushmore sculpture.
Rather than stand around with the crowds (or feed quarters into the telescopes), we took the alternate route down the Presidential Trail. It is not a long trail, but goes to the base of the cliffs and allows a better close-up view of the presidents. It was also much quieter and included a stop at the Sculptor's Studio, where the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, directed the work (it was actually done by about 400 workers).
Time to move on. If we thought the roads were twisty until now, we hadn't seen nuthin'. After leaving Mouth Rushmore, we turned up US 16A, which goes south through the Black Hills National Forest and Custer State Park. As we started up the road, we passed one of those "adopt-a-road" signs. This section of the road was adopted by the Black Hills BMW Riders—need I say more?
The section of the road through the national forest was so narrow and twisty that it twisted around itself. There were several sections that went under an overpass into a 15 mph switchback that went over that same overpass, a 360-degree bend. Other parts went around tight curves into one-lane tunnels (sound horn!). The most interesting were the parts of the road where the two lanes split and went in different twisty paths. Each one-lane road was no more than eight feet wide, with no shoulder. I don't think I got over 20 mph in that whole stretch of road. It got a little better once we got into the state park. The road widened when we passed the park entrance booths and we could occasionally reached the 35 mph speed limit.
We decided not to stay in the park. If we were not heading homeward we might have stayed, it looked like a very nice park. We didn't have to pay the entrance fee as we were not stopping—except for the buffalo. Yup, bison again. The South Dakota State Herd, 1,300 strong, roam in Custer State Park (and a few get to Wind Cave NP). We met three solo bulls, each roaming along the side of the road—still twisty, by the way. Traffic stopped for each, of course, so we crawled past, getting and eyeball to eyeball view each time. Fortunately for the couple on a Harley we were following, the bison were more interested in the tasty green grass by the roadside. I wouldn't want to be stopped three feet from a 2,000-pound bison bull, looking up at him.
The road left the park for the national forest again and quickly entered Wind Cave National Park. The park is much more than just the cave, although it is the main attraction. It has its own 28,000 acres of the Black Hills ponderosa pine forests and prairie grasslands. We saw more prairie dogs, a couple of small herds of pronghorns (right by the road), some mule deer (one of whom passed a little too closely in front of Speedy) and a bison on the way to the campground (and a rabbit in the campground).
After a stop at the park visitor center to pick up the park guide, we found the only campground, a nice one. We avoided the group of about 50 teenagers in the last loop and found a quiet campsite with a sunset view.
Tomorrow, maybe a visit to the cave, a shower for sure, and on to the Badlands.
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