July 24-26

July 24
We made a quick visit to the Rock, Paper, Scissors statue in Gillette before making our way toward Devil's Tower National Monument. We had really been looking forward to this one. It did not disappoint. We decided to hike the outer loop and were glad to get a great view of both the tower and the surrounding area. Very pretty. It was a good hike and we were glad to be back as it had a bit of a climb at the end. While we hiked we sang a little tune from the 1970s movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind which spotlighted this area. We got it from the library and showed it to the kids when we got back home.

My favorite shot

Prairie dog

 Next we stopped in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, at the geographical center of the nation, if you include Alaska and Hawaii.

We took Spearfish Scenic Byway, stopping along the river, and made our way to Mount Rushmore, the most horrible example of "No Trace Left Behind" one can find.

On our way out we took Iron Mountain Road just for fun as it is single lane in some areas, has narrow tunnels, and pigtail turns. Neal really enjoyed that.

July 25
We toured Jewel cave in the morning and spent the afternoon in Custer State Park checking out a load of wildlife. It rained a bit so we opted out of hiking.

Cave bacon that is about 20 ft long

Back in Custer, we walked main street shops, enjoyed their bison art, ate bison, and bought a load of fudge and chocolates.

July 26
We visited Wind Cave this time. We enjoyed a tour. Learned about chokecherries and gooseberries so I could forage a few and sample them, and did a prairie hike which put us in the middle of a light thunderstorm and soaked us pretty good. We changed our shirts, dried Sophie's sweatshirt with the bathroom hand dryer and ate lunch to find it was sunny and clear upon exiting the building. We did a second cave tour for good measure.

Chokecherries

Gooseberries

Here comes the storm during our hike

Sunny and clear less than an hour later- talk about timing.

Box works formations are rare and 95% of the world's box works formations are here in Wind Cave.

After a morning of cave exploring we took an 1880 train from Keystone to Hill City. Enjoyed the scenery, spotted SO MANY deer, even a fawn, and old mining cabins. In Hill City our train picked up some period dressed characters for the ride back and a little drama. Loved hearing the whistle blow.

Mine entrance

Stayed in Rapid City, Iowa that night.