Day Four - The Hills Have Eyes

We stayed last night in Rapid City, SD, which is situated right in the middle of Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, and the Black Hills, etc. Basically we were camping at the gateways to five National Parks. Since there is so much to do in this area, we decided to stay an extra night and take the entire day to explore.

Our first stop was Mt. Rushmore. We got up early enough to escape the “Rushmore Rush,” and it actually worked out really well. We were able to look around the grounds and exhibits, hike the “Presidents Path” up closer to the monument, and peak inside the studio used by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor during the creation the monument, with very few annoyances.

As we were leaving the park we were amazed to see not only the hordes of tourist arriving, but also the family of mountain goats which made their way nonchalantly through the crowd. These white wooly goats are surprisingly not native to the area. Their ancestry can be traced back to a gift of 6 goats given to Custer State Park in 1924, from Canada….. The goats escaped, made their way into the black hills, and have been showing up for photo-ops ever since.

Our next stop on our one day tour of the Black Hills was the town of Hot Springs. To get there we took an alternate route out of the park. 16A, also known as Iron Mountain Road, is a mountain pass complete with one lane tunnels carved into the rock, scenic overlooks of the Rushmore monument, and what are known as “Pigtail Bridges.” These bridges, as the name implies, corkscrew up and down the side of the mountain, passing over/under the bridge you were just on. The road also had many scenic overlooks, and even sections where the two lanes diverged on separate paths, making us really glad we left the camper at the campground.

We soon found out that in order to get around this area, you have to constantly pass through several state and national parks, each of which, requiring their own fee. Driven by a rebellious force to not pay the man just to pass through, I unleashed holy terror on the dirt roads of rural South Dakota, and Lindy tried her best to play navigator and not get car sick.

Our next destination was Hot Springs. We were extremely surprised by the size of the town when we arrived. The structures are done mainly in rich red sandstone, and the city boasts at least 170 hot springs in the area. We decided to visit Hot Springs because of a dig site where paleontologists have so far unearthed at least 56 Mammoths, as well as several other living and extinct creatures.

It seems mammoths are pretty dumb. Researchers at The Mammoth Site believe that they have found so many specimens because the mammoths would step, or slipped, in the sink hole and couldn’t get out because of their flat feet.

Our next stop was the famed Badlands of South Dakota, now a national park. Looking at the map we had two ways to get there, the interstate route, which was a long drive back to Rapid City, and then out 90, or, a network of secondary roads, we chose the latter. Soon after we left the highway at Buffalo Gap (now bypassed by both interstate and railroad, leaving it a ghost town) we ran out of pavement and it was dirt road after dirt road for the next 60 miles. As we drove along, passing through the northern edge of the Indian reservation, we were constantly watching a storm just north of us. We flanked along it, stopping occasionally for photos, and it blew on out by the time we made it to the park. In addition to getting to see much more of the park than the average paved road visitor, we found that entering the byway and leaving it via the dirt roads, you dodge the fee, SCORE!

Inside the Badlands, we were promptly warned of the latest epidemic… prairie dog PLAGUE! Ok ok, it’s not as bad as it sounds, but visitors are still advised to not come into contact with the ailing rodents.

Before returning to camp, we stopped by the town of Wall, home of Wall Drug. The signs had been harassing us from well before Sioux Falls. “Wall Drug, Free Water,” “Roaring T-Rex at Wall Drug,” “Wall Drug featured in People, Time, and Good Morning America,” etc. etc. etc… We were previously set on avoiding Wall Drug at all cost, but since we were there, we felt like we had to see what all the hype was about. Turns out it was once a small actual drug store that somehow became a roadside attraction and thus began to consume the entire town.

The day was not without incident, though, as the left front mudflap on my truck decided it has had enough of my shenanigans. I can’t say that I blame it, and I’m really quite impressed they’ve lasted through a year and a half and 45,000 miles of rocks, mud, logs, and whatever else I’ve dragged them over. Back at camp we were tired, but very satisfied from with our South Dakota experience. I wouldn’t hesitate to come back here again given the opportunity.

(This is Carl's best Seinfeld Impression: "What's the Deal with this mud flap?!?!")