South Dakota and Custer State Park

Okay, sorry I haven't posted in a few days - the first night we 'boondocked' at a state park in Wyoming - we didn't plan on boondocking - but we went to this park and it was after hours - we had to pay our fee before we went into the campground. After we did we realized that not only did they not have water, but the didn't have electricity or anything other than the spot. We paid $17.00 to boondock. Dan said if we had known that before we would have stayed in a Wal Mart parking lot. Anyway, this is a picture of the campground the morning that we left. On our way back to the interstate we saw lots of wild life - turkey and deer. (I will post pictures of all the adventures at the end of the blog - and there will be three different sets of pictures).

When we left Keyhole State Park in Wyoming we headed for Custer State Park in South Dakota - we had reservations for Friday and Saturday nights - we knew we wanted to go to Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial - and if we had time we would go to Wind Cave National Park. The park was beautiful - nice big spaces and electricity - no water - but there was a place to put water in your storage tanks on your camper which we did - and did not have any trouble. The only problem was - we had no cell phone service or Internet service because we were down in a valley between the Black Hills. So once again, I was unable to post anything. I hope none of you worried about us - we are just fine - this was the first time on this trip that I could not get on the Internet.

Custer State Park was wonderful - lots and lots of wild life - from bison to mule deer and white tail deer, burros, pronghorn, antelope, prairie dogs, mountain goats, and big horn sheep - and we have pictures of them all!
I have not put pictures of everything in the blog - I will save some for the pictures at the end, but I did include some here - like this pretty buck

and this pronghorn that was grazing along the side of the road.

This was one of the animals that Dan really wanted to see - the big horn sheep were beautiful - and it almost seemed like they were posing for the photos.

This guy was really funny - he walked out into the road - Dan pulled over to the side so I could climb up on my perch to take his picture and he just walked in front of the truck and wouldn't move. It probably took him about five minutes and Dan pulling the truck up toward him very slowly before he finally turned around and ran over to the other side of the road again.

There were just the animals we saw on the first day - Saturday morning we woke up to rain and it was forecast for all day - so we just got ready and headed for Mount Rushmore in the rain - in the pictures at the end you will see a couple of pictures that shows a picture from inside a tunnel and the next one is the first view of Mount Rushmore - it is really pretty cool. There are quite a few pictures of the mountain - I kept trying to get a good shot without the raindrops, I don't know if you will think I did or not but you can at least say that I tried.

Oh, BTW Crystal, in answer to your question - yes, there is a room on top of the mountain called the Hall of Records - it's not exactly what was originally proposed but it is there.

This is a profile shot of George taken as we were leaving and heading toward the Crazy Horse Memorial.

As you can see they have not finished the Crazy Horse memorial yet, but when they do it will be the largest carving on a mountain in the world. All of Mount Rushmore will fit in just his feather that will be on the side of his head. One of the other cool things about this carving is it will be on three sides of the mountain. We were really surprised at the amount of things to do here - there is a fabulous museum of Indian artifacts and working studio's for Indian craftsmen. In case you are wondering about the white area on the side of the mountain that shows part of the horses head, ear and eye. They (which are the sons and daughters of the man who started the carving) work 365 days a year. It will definitely be something to see when it is finished - it was fascinating at this stage. (If you are wondering why this is so good - it actually stopped raining for about 30 minutes while we were at the monument and I was able to get a good shot.

Tonight we are staying at a State Park just east of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Once again, we don't have water at out campsite but we do have electricity (thank goodness because it is HOT - and muggy - probably about 78%) we have the air conditioning on and glad to have it. We are planning on staying at a state park on the Mississippi River tomorrow night - hopefully, I'll be able to blog then.

Oh! I almost forgot - we finally got a job in Georgia for the months of March and April - actually it will run from the 28th of February to the 28th of April and it is in UNICOI State Park - which was the first park we wanted to be at - it is in the mountains and it is a little out of Atlanta, but it should be fine - we are excited that we actually got a job in Georgia and that it is in the mountains (okay, not exactly the Rockie's but the north Georgia mountains are nice!)

Well, I'll sign off for tonight - I hope to be able to post every night, but if you don't hear from us you will know that I didn't have a signal for my air card.

Here are the links to the pictures:

First night out and the first day at Custer State Park Pictures

Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse pictures try the link below.

Mountain Goats and more of Custer State Park

Hope you enjoy and I'll talk to you tomorrow (hopefully!).http://picasaweb.google.com/caroldanmihlfeld/20090912MtRushmoreCrazyHorseCusterStPk91209#


Linking to: http://www.theviewfromrighthere.com/blog/?p=6907#more-6907