SOUTH DAKOTA!!!

Somehow, I've averted all the bad weather.  Terrible to hear about all the devastating tornadoes.  Driving the little car across the Dakotas was a white knuckle experience.  Strong winds whipped the car around mercilessly.  On this travel day, I was trapped in the car for 11 hours. 

Both alert and fresh after a good night's sleep.



A few hours later, it's a different story. 



Pretty farmland...blocked nicely by a barrage of billboards.  The worst offender is a business called Wall Drugs.  Over 200 miles with more than 40 Wall's signs.  I was disgusted.



Commercialism out of control.

 Wall's Drugs will never get my business. I shall deal to them the crippling economic blow that I imposed on McDonald's 30 years ago.  I started boycotting them when I was 11 (I can't remember exactly why now).  My attempt to bankrupt Walmart has obviously failed too...especially since I fall off the wagon a few times a year and actually shop there (small businesses everywhere, please forgive me!).

Surprisingly, the billboards ceased when I entered the Badlands National Park.



Wow!

 Frank Lloyd Wright described this place as being ethereal.  And it is.  Unbelievably beautiful, yet hostile looking, brutal and barren, with pockets of life and greenery.

Smiths in the Badlands

 

A fellow tourist tried to kill us by offering to take our picture.  "Back up a little more"  she insisted!

A visitor's center, check out the groovy buttresses.



Fabulous craftsmanship!

 The main road through is paved, but I had other plans.  Prior rains had left the dirt roads muddy and slippery, perfect for discouraging other tourists.  Perfect for viewing wildlife undisturbed.



Bull bisons

 I know they were bulls because I passed so close to the last one's behind that I could have reached out and pinched his wee little bottom!

The road brought me out into the middle of nowhere.  Abandoned farms everywhere.  Too harsh of an environment to thrive in.  Later, I saw donkeys that has short horse ears...lost the tops to frostbite, no doubt!



An old farmstead had lilacs blooming.  I hadn't smelled lilacs in bloom in over 20 years.  Heavenly.


After 11 hours in the car, we arrived at our cabin.  Unfortunately, dogs are not allowed on any trails in The Badlands.  So, I never truly got the chance to stretch my legs.  Result:  enough swelling in those lower extremities to make my toes look like Vienna Sausages.



Only one other cabin occupied.  This truly is the time of year to travel!



I swapped out their Navajo comforter for mine to keep Cole from soiling it.  Plus, I dread the whole South Western/ Navajo/ fake Indian motif.  So cheesy.


I was stationed only 4 miles from Mount Rushmore. 

I paid the $11 entry fee to stroll around the parking deck.  Cole, as I had known, was not allowed close to the monument.  Nevertheless, worthwhile to see.  Their noses are 20 feet in length.  One nose might not even fit in my 38 foot horse trailer.  These are the things I ponder.

Inside Custer State Park, I ran on a shortgrass prairie trail (not to be confused with the tallgrass prairie in ND).  Wildflowers were beginning to bloom.  More prominent of a feature was the mass of rocks on the trail.  I'll be losing two toe nails in the next while, of that I am sure.



Here the Ponderosa pines compete with the grasses for what little rainfall is received.



Wishing I had my Peterson's Guide to Wildflowers.  Shooting star family?



Delphinium family?



Anemone family? 



2 mile toe stubber.



The roads through Custer Park are twisted and fun to drive.  The views are spectacular.

All these rock formations delighted this geo-buff.



The Needle


I drove about 100 miles and passed through 6 tunnels. 

In spite of all the warning signs, I witnessed one behemoth of an RV trying to wedge himself in a tunnel.  Idiot.  Must be tons of those during the tourist season.



The wily deer hunter in his stand.


To confront my deep seated fear of mountain lions, I decided to venture into the back country.  I can't help myself.  I begin to feel better once I'm at least two miles away from roads or towns.  The trail began in Custer heading towards the rock formations called the Cathedral Spires.

Phenomenal!



The spires dwarf mere mortals.


We soon left Custer and Entered the Black Elk Wilderness within the Black Hills National Forest.  A sign warns of the perils ahead and require you to sign a hiker's log, keeping a carbon copy on your person (helps them identify bodies, I suppose).  My kind of place! 



Half way to my destination:  Harney Peak, the highest point in SD at 7242 ft.


I tried to run, but the mile high altitude made my lung work overtime and my legs felt like lead.  Plus, I had read that one shouldn't run in cougar country, it triggers their predator response.  So, when I wasn't struggling up (or down) rocky paths, I was doing that little trot you do when you have been tearing through the house and your grandmother hollers at you not to run indoors.  Like the cougars would know the difference.

The pinnacle:  Harney tower.  built by the CCC in 1939.  Do we have any Can Do folks left in the world anymore?



What a view.




Cole balked on the way up, but flat out refused to come down the sets of open steps.  I had to carry him walking backwards.  I tried forwards and he flipped out at the view.



5.8 miles up and down a mountain.


Have I mentioned that life is good?