Digging for Our Roots, Part I: Finally…Cooler Weather in the Black Hills

23-28 July, 2012

I got my wish, we have cooler weather now, and it is now in the mid 70s and 80s which is very pleasant. Of course, it came at a price – lots and lots of thunderstorms with thunder, lightning and torrential downpours. We were fortunate in that we weren’t caught outdoors when one of the storms hit.

Visited Mt. Rushmore, both during the day and in the evening. At night they give a nice program and then light up the monument. Very patriotic. Boy, the place has changed since we were last there over 25 years ago. A very entertaining film on the making of the monument, some great exhibits showing some of the original equipment, a terrific café and gift store. They now have a walkway that lets you walk up to the base of the monument and you can do an audio tour that explains everything. Really enjoyed our visit. When we came back for the evening program, we had dinner in the café – I had buffalo stew and it was delicious! While we ate dinner, we were treated to a lightning show behind the monument and kept ourselves nice and dry inside. The storm had the good sense to clear out by the time the program started.

The Crazy Horse Memorial has made lots of progress in the past 25 years as well. When we last passed through the Black Hills, I don’t think they had much more than a small visitor center and you could barely recognize that a face was being created. Now the face is complete, they are working on the arm and they are blowing away the stone around where the horse’s head will be. There is a large visitor’s center, American Indian Museum and the sculptor’s home and work space is open for tour. I didn’t realize that the sculptor has previously worked for Borglum, the man who created the Mt. Rushmore monument. The scale just boggles the mind. Of course, when it will be finished is anyone’s guess. They have been working on it for over 50 years and it would appear that there is at least another 50 years to go. I sure hope that there is enough passion and commitment to continue the work.

Spent a day in Rapid City, catching a couple of quilt shops and visiting Landstrom’s Black Hills Gold factory. The downtown section is nicely preserved – kind of a 30’s looking place. They have statues of presidents on every corner, as well as other dignitaries.

One of the key features of the Black Hills is the many scenic drives. We took a wildlife drive through Custer State Park and saw lots of critters, including bison, deer, antelope, big horn sheep, turkeys and burros. Now I don’t know if the burros are actually wild – they seemed to like being around people and the people seemed to know to bring food for them (even though there are copious signs about not approaching wildlife).

Another drive looped through the Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road. Though not that long in distance, the drive took most of the day because of the many twists and turns as well as scenic turnouts. What a great day to do it – the skies were mostly clear and the temperatures were quite comfortable. Saw a large group of deer and a family of turkeys. Played chase with the steam train that goes between Hill City and Keystone, crisscrossing paths several times. Russ and I had taken that train ride 25 years ago and I remember that, at one point, the train had to wait at the bottom of a grade for several minutes to build up enough steam to make it to the top.

Finished up our visit to the Black Hills with a drive along Spearfish Canyon. After the Needles/Iron Mountain drive though, the Canyon was a little tame. Wasn’t able to get back the way I wanted because Deadwood was closed to through traffic (a parade was going on), so we backtracked and took a longer route down to Custer.

The Black Hills are a highlight of our trip so far. I loved the gentle green meadows with wildflowers and the unusual rock formations. And we saw so much wildlife! Not to mention the monuments. It is easy to see why the area is such a popular tourist destination. It will be quite a change going back into the dry flatland of the Midwest.