Black Hills and Bad Lands

June 26-28, 2011

Devil's Tower National Monument is very imposing when seen from the distance. It rises about 1200 feet above the surrounding terrain. It is a popular rock climbing spot, as one can easily imagine. However, we didn't see any climbers since there is a voluntary closure of the tower in June in respect for native Americans, who consider the site sacred.  Steven Spielberg used this location in his movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".







Devil's Tower National Monument has a sizeable prairie dog town. This prairie dog, serving as a sentinel, lept into the air just as I was taking his picture. Was it to catch an insect, or did he catch the scent of something suspicious? Your guess is just as good as mine.







The Crazy Horse Memorial, currently under construction, will honor the Lakota warrior when completed. Currently, the face is the only part that looks close to being finished. The sculpture is huge; the face is 87 feet high (the Mt. Rushmore faces are 60 feet high). The project was started in 1948 and is funded only by private contributions. When completed it will be the world's largest mountain carving.











Mt. Rushmore National Memorial is very inspiring. The visitor center and museum are totally changed from when we visited here the last time. The movie on the construction of the sculpture is very interesting.







Our next stop was Wall Drug in Wall, SD. The kids, not understanding why we were stopping at a drugstore, were in awe of what they saw. Especially popular was the shooting game in the arcade. Zack is working on his riflemanship,










while Alex checked out this imposing looking revolver.








The next stop was the Badlands National Park. One can easily imagine Zack saying, "Wow, this is really bad land! How can anyone live here?"








The Badlands are indeed well-named, although people did try to homestead here over a hundred years ago. But they weren't successful and gave up.







The park has a population of bighorn sheep. This one has a radio collar.







Our final sightseeing stop was a rest area on I-90 at Chamberlain, SD, which is where I-90 crosses the Missouri River. The rest area has a very nice exhibit on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The boat sticking out the side of the building is a replica of the keelboat Lewis designed and had built for the expedition.








It seems that Lewis and Clark have two new volunteers for the expedition. How can we explain this to their parents?

This is the end of this trip with the grandkids. For us, it has been a great month with them! We have gotten to know them better, and they have helped us see some of the world through their eyes. We hope it has been rewarding for them as well.