South Dakota

My kind of rock and roll tour requires throbbing guitars and a heavy backbeat. It also involves driving the hills of South Dakota - a region of spectacular, rugged scenery (the rock) and free-flowing, panoramic highways ( the roll). The Black Hills region of South Dakota is a sunny smorgasbord of pine and aspen covered hills, cattle-grazing grasslands, and mountains with more wildlife than an Old West saloon (some of the latter survive in Dakota towns today).

The main gateway to the Black Hills is Rapid City which, despite a population of 60 thousand, retains an easygoing Western flavor. Home of Ellsworth Air Force Base, and a raft of high-tech companies, it's a quaint, sprawling city that still has much of the feeling of its sleepy, small town past. The Native American presence here goes back to the Sioux Indians, who settled in the area at least two millennia ago.

West on Route 44 out of Rapid City takes you up into the Hills.

This area is about un-dudey as it gets, cattle ranches and horses dot the landscape. South Dakota is a mecca for the serious horse rider, the fly-fishing fanatic, the big game hunters, or anyone who just wants to forget about routines for a week. Merely taking a hike in the Hills is therapy enough.

Acres of sagebrush plains, grassy meadows, and rocky gorges are surrounded by the pristine wilderness of the Black Hills National Forest.

High-tension wires are scarce, cell phone reception breaks up, locals carry saddlebags instead of briefcases. You have entered the low-tech zone.

South on Highway 385 takes you into Custer State Park, which is a treasured resource that South Dakotans are proud to be able to share with visitors from far and wide.

The Buffalo rut in Custer Park is an awesome event. It's loud, it's fast paced and it's brutal. Most of the parks visitors want to see the buffalo herd. The herd shares the park's 17,800 acre rangeland with numerous other wildlife: elk, whitetail deer, mule deer, pronghorn, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, coyote, prairie dogs, birds and big cats.

The bison herd is the park's dominant grazer. Bison can run up to 30 mph and weigh up to 2000 pounds.

The park keeps the herd in balance with the grassland's ability to support it and the other wildlife that inhabit the park's rangelands.

In a typical year, the park will winter between 950 and 1000 head of bison, depending on rainfall.

There are three sales of the herd's surplus animals each year. The revenue's from the sale help support the day to day operation of the park. Bison have recovered from the brink of extinction in the late 1800's to nearly 250,000 today. The park removes animals from the herd when they are 10 years old. The females are sold at auction, and the bulls are hunted. Ten bull permits are drawn each year and the hunt is conducted in December. Guided hunts are scheduled one at a time.

Each fall the wild west returns to Custer State Park during the annual Buffalo roundup. Park staff, cowboys, and cowgirls saddle up to move the park's 1500 bison to the buffalo corrals. Once in the corrals, the animals are sorted by the parks staff. Most of the bison are released back into the park, while others remain in the corrals until an auction that is held during the third weekend in November. Bison are tested for tuberculosis and blue balls. All calves are branded.

Ten miles east from the Park visitor center east on route 16a will take you to Iron Mountain road. This winding road runs between Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park, it is a must-see route. Along the highway are wildfire exhibits, pigtail bridges, pulloffs with magnificent Black Hills scenery and tunnels framing Mount Rushmore. Also along this route are the famous begging burros.

America's two largest stone carvings are a mere seventeen miles apart, spitting distance when you consider the scale on which they're conceived. The better known Mount Rushmore National Memorial, is the lynchpin of the Hills' tourist circuit. Only New York City's Statue of Liberty rivals Mount Rushmore as a globally recognized symbol of American aspirations and ideals. Each head is about sixty feet from chin to crown. Lincoln has an eighteen foot long nose.

In 1939, prompted by the sight of the Rushmore monument nearing completion, Sioux leader Henry Standing Bear wrote to Korczak Ziolkowski a New York sculpture proclaiming "that Indians would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too".

The chief invited him to take on a similar project.

Less than a decade later, pushing forty ,the Boston born orphan moved to the Black Hills to undertake a vastly more ambitious scheme than Mount Rushmore - Crazy Horse Mountain.

The subject, the revered warrior Crazy Horse on horseback.

Ziolkowski died in 1982, today his widow and most of their ten children continue to realize his vision. The 90 foot high face was completed in time for the fiftieth anniversary celebration in 1998. It could well be another fifty years before the project is finished.

The temperatures had dropped into the low 20's for our last day of vacation, and it had snowed a few inches on the mountains over night. We drove to the small western town of Custer to pick up one of the 14 trailheads for the George S. Mickelson Trail.

This was South Dakota's first "rails to trails" project and was supported by Governor George S. Mickelson. The trail was started in 1991 and completed in the fall of 1998. Governor Mickelson had died in 1993 and the trail was named in his honor.

The trail winds through the Black Hills for over 114 miles of beautiful landscapes from Deadwood to Edgemont. Trail surfacing is primarily crushed limestone and gravel with gentle slopes.

We hiked through snow covered pine forests and the aspen trees were all pretty shades of bright gold. We crossed over converted railroad bridges and passed by cattle and horses grazing in the pastures.

We could see the snow covered mountains and Harney Peak, which is the highest point of elevation in South Dakota at 7,232 feet. We were planning to hike up Harney Peak, but the snow changed our plans and we stayed at the lower elevations.

There were lots of deer crossing over the trail in front of us. There is no hunting on the trail so they were not afraid of people.

We turned back after two hours of hiking when we reached the trailhead near Crazy Horse Mountain. All the trailheads offer parking, vault toilets and a table.

It became quite cold and windy on the two hour return hike, but we were prepared with gloves, hats and several layers of clothing.

It was a good adventure and we enjoyed hiking on a trail through such peaceful and photographic surroundings. We would want to hike on this trail again when we return to South Dakota someday.

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