After three very early mornings, it felt wonderful to sleep in. I got up at 6:30, but when Greg woke up later, I went back to bed for a nap.
Once we were both awake and functional, we hopped on our bikes and took a ride down the Mickelson Trail, heading in the direction of Hill City. There was a trailhead right from the campground.
Access from campground to Mickelson Trail
The Mickelson Trail is a 108-mile rail-to-trail that goes from Deadwood in the north to Edgemont in the south.
We rode about 16 miles, round trip. It was quite relaxing. The weather was 65°, mostly sunny, with a breeze that occasionally had a bit of a bite to it.
The scenery was lovely.
After we got back, we relaxed on our deck for a little while, ate lunch, and then headed to the grocery store in search of food and a new coffee pot.
Our old coffee pot gave up the ghost this morning. Sadly, we were not able to find a new one.
However, when we got back to the camper, Greg was able to jury rig the old coffee pot to get it working again. (And hopefully, it will stay working!)
Life is not worth living without fresh coffee in the morning.
Saturday was another early morning. We had 9:00 a.m. tickets for the Fairgrounds tour of Wind Cave.
Wind Cave was a surprise. I expected it to be similar to Jewel Cave, since they are only 20 miles apart and may even be connected at some yet-undiscovered point.
However, it was vastly different. The cave is absolutely covered in this formation called boxwork, which looks a little like honeycombs.
95% of the boxwork in the United States is in Wind Cave.
I had some trouble fully appreciating this cave. Our tour guide moved us through very quickly. There was a lot of ground to cover. I didn’t get a chance to take many pictures.
Plus, the lighting at floor level was poor, which made walking along uneven floors challenging.
On top of that, for some reason I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded that morning. I was afraid that I was going to have to ask to leave in the middle of the tour, which would not have gone over well with our guide at all!
It was a fascinating cave, though, simply because it was so different from anything I had seen before.
On our way to our next stop, we encountered this majestic fellow.
The Mammoth Site
Next up was a tour of the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
At the Mammoth Site, the bones of up to 61 Columbian and woolly mammoths were discovered in what was once, a very long time ago, a sinkhole.
The sinkhole was fed by a warm spring, creating a pond with steep, slippery sides. The mammoths would enter the pond to eat the grasses that grew along the sides, drink, or bathe, and then they wouldn’t be able to get out again.
Greg and I took the audio tour around the site. It was very interesting. We learned a lot about determining the age and gender of mammoths.
The deeper, spring-fed portion of the pond.This is the skeleton of a mammoth (minus its skull) lying on its side. The shallow end of the sinkhole. So many tusks!Greg, posing in front of a replica of a Columbian mammoth and a woolly mammoth skeleton.
On Friday, we drove the 2 hours back, past our campground, and continued on to Jewel Cave. We took the cave Scenic Tour.
Since I doubt any of my readers are as obsessed with caves as I am, I will try to keep this short.
This cavern got its name from the calcite crystals covering its walls.
Most of the crystals aren’t as sparkly and pristine as the ones in the picture above, though. Most are covered in a dirty crust, so they look like this:
Not nearly as glamorous as the name “Jewel” Cave implies!
Jewel Cave is a “breathing cave.” The air inside changes pressure as the pressure outside changes, creating a breeze through the cave.
So far, volunteers have mapped 253 miles of Jewel Cave. Based on the pressure changes within the cave, scientists believe that only about 3% of the cave has been mapped so far.
We saw lots of different cave formations in Jewel Cave, but my favorite was probably the cave bacon:
It really looked like bacon!
Custer State Park — Wildlife Loop
After our tour of Jewel Cave, we headed back to the campground. I was so tired that I took a nice, long nap.
Then we headed over to Custer State Park to see if we could pick up a park pass. On impulse, we decided to do the Wildlife Loop.
Shortly after starting along the loop, we came upon this scene:
I was a little freaked out, I’m not gonna lie. And it didn’t help when Greg GOT OUT OF THE CAR to take a picture. I yelled and told him he was an idiot.
Later, we got to see some pronghorn.
And LOTS of prairie dogs.
Prairie dogs are tiny! I expected something the size of a groundhog, not a guinea pig.
Greg had really been hoping to see some elk, but it was not to be. However, we did get to see some longhorn steer as we were heading toward Custer.
To be honest, I think my favorite part of the drive was the scenery.
The prairie is so beautiful.
Since it was 7 pm by then, we decided to grab dinner in Custer rather than make dinner at the campground.
The food is good at the Sage Creek Grille (though I liked the ambiance more)
On Thursday, we drove 2 hours back in the direction we had come from the day before. (This part of the trip was not particularly well-planned, I’ll admit.)
Our first stop was the Minuteman Missile Site.
The Minuteman National Historic Site consists of two Minuteman II nuclear missile facilities that are no longer in operation as well as the visitor’s center. We weren’t able to get tickets for a tour of one of the sites, so we watched an informational video about the Cold War and browsed the exhibits in the visitor’s center.
I imagine this photo brings back vivid memories for anyone over the age of 60, including me. I remember nuclear “fire” drills that involved huddling with my classmates against the walls of the hall in my school. As if that would have saved us!Can you imagine being the president and having to decide whether to engage in a nuclear war with less than 30 minutes’ notice?The video and this poster talk about the number of close calls the U.S. and Russia have had over the years due to various mishaps. It’s terrifying to think of how incredibly close we have come to annihilating ourselves — multiple times, no less.
At one time, the U.S. had thousands of nuclear missiles. Now we only have a couple of hundred — still enough to destroy the planet, just not enough to destroy it multiple times over.
The Badlands
Next, we headed down the road to the Badlands. They were awesome! Unfortunately, the photos will not do them justice.
It’s impossible to get a sense of how massive these stone formations are and how deep the ravines go without having people in the photo to compare them to.
Our first order of business was to hike the Notch Trail.
It was freakin’ hot!
We did pretty well, despite the sun and heat (it was 100°)…until we got to the ladder.
As we waited for these folks to carefully make their way down, a crowd began to form at the bottom, waiting to go up.
Neither of us wanted to feel the pressure from a bunch of young whippersnappers to rush up the ladder, so we decided to abandon the rest of the hike.
Some other photos of the Badlands:
Roberts Prairie Dog Town
Before finishing our tour of the Badlands, we drove 5 miles down a very bumpy gravel road to Roberts Prairie Dog Town to check out the prairie dogs.
Prairie dogs are prolific little suckers. All those white spots are prairie dog mounds.Nothing like a little plague to add to the adventure!
I would post a picture of some prairie dogs, except that we didn’t get any. We saw them, but they were very far away and we needed binoculars.
Plus, it was so windy that it was impossible to hold the binoculars still enough to actually see what the prairie dogs were doing.
Wall Drug
After the prairie dogs, we headed into the town of Wall to check into our motel.
Then we had dinner at the Badlands Saloon and Grill before heading across the street to check out the famous Wall Drug.
Apparently, this is the must-see attraction in Wall, South Dakota (think South of the Border with an upscale, South Dakotan twist).
They had hats. Boy, did they have hats!And they had boots. Lots and lots of boots. And walls of photos, for some reason.And Greg, checking it all out.
Afterward, we headed back to the Badlands to see if we could catch the sunset. Unfortunately, the clouds were moving in by this time.
But look what we did see on our way into the park!
This was my first experience with a bison up close and relatively personal. But it was certainly not my last.
Although the sunset was a disappointment, I think I got some decent pictures.
This photo was taken with Greg’s cell phone camera, which is better than mine. He may have even caught a meteor, although it might have been a satellite.
Last night, Greg and I decided to try our hand at photographing the Milky Way. Greg had been spending his free hours researching the best way to do it, and he was eager to try out what he had learned.
All we have are our cell phones and tripods, so we probably won’t be able to get professional level quality, but I think we did a good job so far.
We should have many more opportunities in the coming weeks to try again.
Of course, before you get the stars, you get the sunset.
1880s Town
One of the items on our itinerary for when we were in Hill City had been to take the 1880s Train from Hill City to the 1880s Town.
As it turned out, last night we stayed about a quarter mile from the 1880s Town. I had no idea that we were going to be so close when I made our camping reservation.
So after hitching up the trailer this morning, we headed over there to check that off our itinerary (the town, not the train).
This guy was making bullets in the saloon.They had lots of memorabilia from the movie Dances with Wolves.There was a museum packed with so many artifacts and antiques from the late 1800s that it was overwhelming.Each building in town contained a veritable treasure trove of historical relics.
I imagine that a history buff would be in heaven here. Sadly, I am no history buff. The town felt very authentic to me, though, and I enjoyed that.
In the middle of our tour of the town, we stopped into the Santa Fe Train Diner to have an early lunch. The food? Blech.
Larsson’s Crooked Creek Resort
We are now at our campsite in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. We have a “presidential” site, complete with our own covered patio, Adirondack chairs, and a gas fire pit.
We will be here a week to see everything we can see in the Badlands and Black Hills area.
The new hitch seems to be working like a dream. Yay! The only time we really felt any swaying today was when we got hit by a super strong gust of wind. It made the drive to our next campground much more pleasant (the lack of swaying, not the wind).
Dignity of Earth and Sky
I had hoped to make two stops on our way to Midland, South Dakota, where we are staying tonight. The first was the Corn Palace in Mitchell. And the second was the Dignity of Earth and Sky statue at the rest area in Chamberlain.
Greg put his foot down over going to the Corn Palace, so that was a no-go. I didn’t give him a choice about seeing the Dignity statue. We were going!
Dignity of Earth and Sky is a 50-foot high stainless steel statue that depicts a Native American woman holding a star quilt. I thought it was pretty impressive.
I felt a little like I was taking my life in my hands by following this path, but I did it anyway.
Also at the rest area is a Lewis and Clark interpretive center. Greg and I took a tour through that as well.
Then we hopped in the car to continue our journey.
Almost immediately after leaving the rest area, we crossed over the Missouri River.And we got to see some hills! Okay, one hill.And lots of fields of sunflowers.And a whole lot a nothin’.
When we arrived at the campground, the temperature was 100 degrees.
Needless to say, there was no way I was going to be able to drag Greg outside to do any additional sightseeing. Sigh.
Tomorrow we are off to Hill City, where the real fun begins.
Yesterday, we visited Cave of the Mounds in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin. Before our tour of the actual cave, we walked the Karst View Trail. It took us past a number of sinkholes in the ground. (A karst is another word for sinkhole. More or less. I think.)
The sinkholes were not particularly interestingBut the wildflowers along the trail were beautiful!
Afterwards, we took a self-guided tour of Cave of the Mounds. This is the first time we’ve been in a cave where we did not have a guide. It was nice because we were able to linger over things that interested us and take pictures without feeling rushed.
Unfortunately, cave pictures never come out well. The contrast between light and dark is too extreme.
Therefore, I will not bore you with a bunch of crappy cave pictures. Just trust me when I say that this was a fun and different cave experience.
Lake Farm Heritage Trail
The weather was actually gorgeous today, so we decided to take a hike.
Wisconsin has been experiencing a lot of flooding in the last week. Consequently, the trail was flooded in a number of places, and we had to turn around and try different routes.
Despite the challenges, we got to see some pretty scenery.
And wildlife!
Monarch butterfly Great blue heron
National Mustard Museum
Next, we headed to the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Middleton is one of the cutest towns I’ve ever seen. I loved it.
We tried a slew of different-flavored mustards, toured the museum, and watched a film about the making of mustard around the world.
And, of course, we bought some mustard!
The Pink Elephant
Apparently, no visit to Madison would be complete without a visit to see the Pink Elephant. So we did that, too!
The pink elephant has been standing on the site of this gas station since the 1960s. It is not the only pink elephant in the country, but it is the only one wearing glasses.
Drumlin Ridge Winery
We finished the day at Drumlin Ridge Winery, where we tasted some wines and enjoyed some snacks.
It was lovely!
In between all of those activities, we managed to make time to see the new Superman movie (it was good but not great), did laundry, went grocery shopping, and did some maintenance on the travel trailer.
This trip has been different from previous trips with the travel trailer because of the amount of maintenance we’ve had to do while traveling.
Greg ended up ordering a new weight distributing hitch for the trailer. It will be delivered to our campground in Sioux Falls and installed before we leave. Not ideal, but hopefully, the new hitch will fix the sway problem.
We’re also having a problem with water backing up into the fresh water tank, so Greg spent some time trying to solve that problem, too.
Ugh. South Dakota is very far away. Greg and I have now passed the 1000-mile mark on our drive out west.
Yesterday, we were in Indiana, so we decided to check out Indiana Dunes National Park. (There is also an Indiana Dunes State Park, but we chose the national park because we wanted to get our national parks passport book stamped.)
It was 90° and humid, so we went in the morning and kept our visit brief. We hiked the Succession Trail off of West Beach. It involved lots of steps and slogs through soft sand. (Not a great thing for Greg’s weak ankle, but he made it.)
Thankfully, a brisk breeze made the heat more bearablePart of the trail was in shade, which we appreciated!The reward for our effort was seeing the beautiful blue waters of Lake MichiganAnd about 9 million beach goers!
Before we left for our trip, I managed to complete two assignments for my negative painting class with Rick Surowitz.
Although I don’t hate either one, I’d like to give them another try once I get back home.
Maumee Bay State Park
Yesterday was a weird day. One of my medications, either the Propranolol or the Viibryd (or I guess it could have been the lack of caffeine in the morning), made me extremely tired. I finally dragged myself out of bed around 3:00 p.m., but even then I felt like a zombie.
In a desire to not completely waste the day, Greg and I headed off to Maumee Bay State Park to see if we could do a little hiking.
The marina
This is a cute little park right on Lake Erie. It has a fancy lodge, a marina, a golf course, a small inland lake, two beaches, a campground, and a couple of hiking trails.
Greg and I managed to get our steps in, but I felt like my body was still asleep the entire walk. I was glad when we finally headed back to our campsite.
The trail along the lakeSome lucky home owner has his own personal lighthouse!A prettier view of the marina looking toward the lodge
Meanderings & Mind Munchies 