Finally, we arrived at the part of the trip where, the
days will still be full, but we will be stopping and seeing more and simply
covering ground less.
Western South Dakota is under-rated in my opinion.
Growing up on the West Coast, I never really considered South Dakota as
the "West", but as I learn more about the area, it is probably more
authentically "West" than many other places. Its is hard to
remember that Ohio was consider the far west not that long ago in this nations'
history.
The Black Hills area encompasses some impressive
history as well as interesting geology. Gold rush towns such as Deadwood
(and its association with Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane among
others), mining towns such as Lead, the National Park/Memorial areas such as Mount
Rushmore, Jewel and Wind Caves, the Badlands, etc all are seemingly interesting
places to visit and would take more than a day to see.
For our transit we had to pick a few of these to see
on our way through so I chose Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Jewel
Cave.
From our accommodations in Rapid City we
drove first down to Mt. Rushmore about 25-30 miles away.
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| At Mt. Rushmore |
After we toured to
Memorial, and were on the way out, I asked Twiggy what her impression was.
She said that it was bigger than she expected. I told her mine was
that it was smaller than expected. In the Visitors' Center, the same
Brokaw-narrated movie that I saw in 1987 was playing. It seems dated now
and grainy given the proliferation of high definition and a bit clumsy with the
mandated closed captions on a narrow (non-wide) screen.
The themes in the movie
quoting the founding fathers and emphasizing freedom seemed as quaint and
old-fashioned as the quality of the film, given the terrorist events and the
expansion in the security bureaucracy and government since the film was made in
the 1980's.
However, the Visitors' Center was redone as was the
parking area in what was clearly a multimillion dollar renovation. It is
a very nice facility. Yet, we couldn't get a pencil to help the kids fill
in their Junior Ranger programs. This is the same impression and comments
we would hear later from locals in Teton National Park with regards to their
new Visitors' Center and lack of Rangers. Seems like the physical
structures must be under a different budget....
From Mt. Rushmore, we drove the 17 miles to the Crazy
Horse Memorial which is still being built/carved/blasted. This memorial
has been in process since 1947, with the first blasts being done in June of
1948. The original sculptor died in 1982, but his family has taken over
competing the memorial. There are impressive plans for a Native American
museum and a whole complex for the future. Only Crazy Horse's head is completed
at this time and that was unveiled in 1998. It is unlikely to be finished
for another 10 years or so. Given its position on the hills in the
distance and the the fact that it is not complete, it is hard to get a sense of
the scale of the project. However, when you learn that it will be about
ten times the size of Mt. Rushmore (with Mt. Rushmore fitting inside Crazy
Horse's forearm) and the largest sculpture in the world, it sinks in.
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| The Crazy Horse Memorial today (note the blasting in the lower middle of the picture) |
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| Scale model of Crazy Horse Memorial at completion |
After leaving the Crazy
Horse Memorial, we travelled another reasonably short distance to Jewel Cave
National Monument. I was excited to let the kids explore the cave, since
on our previous journey we had gone into a cave in Arizona and the kids loved
it. However, I made this mistake of not booking a tour ahead of time, and most
tours were already sold out with one left 3 hours in the future. So we
nixed that idea and decided to push onto Cody.
As we drove toward Cody and
passed through Sioux Falls we saw a billboard for the Boot Barn...a boot and
western clothing chain. For our upcoming stay at the dude ranch, we
needed to get a few pairs of boots for the kids, hats for most and a few
shirts. Given we just got granted a few hours by getting stymied on our
plans for Jewel Cave, we decided to pop in here and get everything done.
A few hours later, everyone sized up and outfitted, we are in the midst
of checking out. The manager was being a bit difficult and Twiggy says, "Forget
it, we're leaving". I realize that we probably don't have another two
hours to spare in the time before we get to the dude ranch. So Twiggy
heads out the door on principle leaving everything on the checkout counter, and
I sheepishly stay behind and make an unprincipled, but practical decision
to wrap up the transaction. Twiggy was right, but I knew we didn't have
the time. Needless to say, there were some long periods of silence in the
car between Sioux Falls and Cody. And the Boot Barn is on our
^%$list.
First impressions of Cody
-- big enough to get done what you need to do, well regarded museums and
attractions, perfect location given its eastern entrance to Yellowstone, and
reasonable food.
We stayed at Cody Cowboy
Village. Quaint accommodations consisting of a number of cabins
grouped around a small pool. Really nice people who were very helpful in
guiding us onto the most interesting route as we journeyed forth. It is a
collection of small cabins set around a small pool. We find it nicer
to have accommodations that are separate -- if even by just a few feet -- as it
limits our possible noise pollution on fellow travelers...particularly given
Grant's tendency to constantly be doing shadow jump shots every time we stand
still for more than a few seconds.
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Randy: "Where do you
want to eat dinner?"
Twiggy: "I don't
care, just nothing on a bun"
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