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| 31 August 2002 Bismarck Lake Campground Black Hills National Forest Custer SD Today we woke up in the beautiful Black Hills National Forest – we are now thankful that Custer SP kicked us out (our site was reserved by somebody for the Labor Day weekend, and they had no other sites). It was a hassle to move, but this is a better campsite by far in terms of scenic beauty, remoteness and privacy. We are much higher in the hills, and our campsite is situated on a wooded rock outcropping looking down onto beautiful Bismarck Lake. We really can’t see any other campsites from here, and the pine scented air smells absolutely wonderful. Quartz and mica and many other kinds of stones litter the ground. When you walk anywhere in the campsite, it seems to sparkle with a thousand tiny fires. We feel very lucky to be here! |
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Bev's Journal We Proceeded On... Part II: The Journey West |
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| Looking back over my journal, I note that I forgot to mention that we visited the Badlands National Park. We drove route 240, which branches off I-90. We took back roads (gravel) from Custer to get to the Badlands, and much of the drive was on the Pine Indian Reservation (Lakota). There is a fair amount of badlands before you get to the actual Badlands. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone hiding out in the Badlands – it seems such a desolate (albeit beautiful and rugged) country. But the desert does bloom – with pine trees growing wherever they can on what seems to be rock, and prairie grasses and wildflowers abound along the roadway. If you drive east to west, you go steadily higher in altitude, and the vistas become more and more dramatic. It is truly one of the treasures of the American west. |
| 30 August 2002 Game Lodge Campground Custer State Park Custer SD We leave here today and move down the road to a campground in the Black Hills National Forest. Yesterday, we spent driving around checking out the small towns nearby – Custer is the closest, and has a nice Main St., with some interesting old western-looking buildings – an old hotel and a bank that looks like a place that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would have robbed. Calamity Jane claims to have ridden the pony express between Custer and Deadwood. We also visited Hill City, which is about 15 miles north of here, and was billed by our guidebook as ‘the most unpretentious town in SD’. I’m still not sure what they mean, for the entire state seems to be unassuming and unpretentious. Hill City is nicely situated in a valley with hills all around, and I guess you’d classify Harney Peak (at 7000’+) as a mountain. Again, a cute Main St., but the rest of the town is kind of junky-looking. We took the Iron Mountain Road back to Custer State Park. It winds up around Mt. Rushmore (so we have seen the faces) and surrounding hills; the scenery is spectacular, and the drive is exciting – lots of hairpin turns, sheer cliffs and narrow, low tunnels to go through. We did the two other scenic drives in Custer State Park, and they are well worth the gas. The Wildlife Loop takes you through miles of open prairie and gently rolling hills which alternate with thickly wooded forest. To see a herd of bison grazing on the prairie is quite an experience. You never know what you’re going to meet on this road. We rounded a corner and came upon Prairie Dog Town at sunset. A lone coyote was slinking from mound to mound, looking for dinner, but the little critters were too fast for him. Wild turkey, deer, and even a half dozen elk grazing, or crossing the road is not an unusual sight. The rangers claim to have a group of what they call ‘begging burros’ somewhere in the park, but we never encountered them. The Sylvan Lake Resort (the highest campground/resort in the park) used to offer burro rides to the top of Harney Peak. When that was discontinued some years ago, the burros were turned loose in the park, and apparently thrived. (I’m sure the mountain lions got a few of them though). The other scenic drive, the Needles Highway, has more rugged and dramatic scenery – the ‘needles’ refer to the monolithic rocks that predominate in this part of the park. These particular kind of rocks are also seen in Colorado’s ‘Garden of the Gods’, but apparently nowhere else. I have to reiterate – the geology of the Black Hills is fascinating! |
| The Badlands |