NPT: Wind Cave & Badlands

The Thursday before Memorial Day, my friend Katy and I headed to South Dakota to see Wind Cave and Badlands Nationals Parks, as part of my National Parks Tour (view the first NPT report here). 

On our way out of Utah, we stopped at Bear Lake, 

and picked up a famous raspberry shake (although, since it's not raspberry season, these shakes were made from frozen raspberries).

We enjoyed the scenic vistas throughout Wyoming, on our way to Casper for the night.

On Friday morning, we crossed over into South Dakota. This is a bridge near Custer State Park, which we were lucky enough to see, even though that "luck" was caused by us taking an incorrect turn, because we were following Google Maps, instead of the road signs.

But, no matter, we backtracked and headed in the right direction toward Wind Cave NP. On our way, we saw this guy:

At Wind Cave, we joined a tour group.

Our tour guide showed us the natural cave opening and told of how the cave was first discovered.

Then, we went down inside (through a man-made opening, not that little hole) and saw the unique wonders of the dark, damp world below.

Later, while Katy and I were eating lunch, I noticed this little bird, picking up--what I think is--hair:

Fascinating!

Our original plan was to then head over to Jewel Cave National Monument, about an hour away, but because of our unplanned detour into Custer State Park earlier in the morning, I decided to skip the monument, and head up to Mount Rushmore. On our way we saw Crazy Horse Memorial in progress:

Then, we spent an hour or so at Mount Rushmore.

So... here's a funny story...

I sent a text to my mom, "I can see up Washington's nose." You know, just to be kinda crude, irreverent and funny. Well, she was so clever! She responded, "Any cliff hangers?"

Ha! I love it! So funny!! (Sorry, Mom, I just shared that with the whole world. I hope you don't mind.)

And here are the steps in National Treasure 2 where the bad guys whip out their guns, and then they all decide they have to work together in order to find the Lost City:

Or maybe it's just a really cool view of the steps.

Here are the working models in the artist studio, with a view of the real thing out the window:

Katy and I stopped for dinner at the highly-recommended Culver's in Rapid City, then we headed up to Sturgis and out toward Howes and Takini (where my friend Tearese and her family lives).

I absolutely love the green prairie. Beautiful!

We spent the next couple days with Tearese and fam.

On Saturday we spent most of the day at Badlands National Park.

I love this picture:

(Sorry if you don't, Tearese. But, I think we look fantastic!)

After walking around and talking to strangers at the park, we headed over to the town of Wall and visited Wall Drug (because about a million road signs told us to). Sorry, I don't have any photographic memoirs of this part of the trip, but if you'd like to see more, please see Tearese's blog. Really, you should take a look. She has fantastic photos. And you don't want to miss seeing the ginormous ice cream cones. (Ginormous is a word? The spell-check thinks so!)

Anyway, here is the 7-mile dirt road to Takini. Look closely, can you see Takini in the distance?

Okay, I'll zoom in for you:

Speaking of small towns, we passed a population sign somewhere in South Dakota that boasted "Population: 4"--Awesome. And on Sunday, we went to church in Faith (that's the name of the town, not just our attitudes). Here we are on the way to church:

Katy and I made up 18% of the attendance at the branch that day. (Katy lovingly called it a twig, because it was so small!) We were two of eleven. Tearese and her family were five, and the other four were an elderly couple and their two sons who are all bee-keepers. After church they gave us some whipped honey. So delicious!!

Here's the building and all four vehicles:

After church, we said goodbye to our wonderful weekend hosts:

and headed back to Casper for the night. Same hotel. Different experience. The first night, there were lots of dogs about, because there was to be a dog show the next day, and apparently that hotel was one of few that allowed pets. It was cool to see all the groomed breeds. Also, that first night I couldn't sleep very much due to strange sounds through the ultra-thin walls. I think I heard the guy next door yawning and vomiting. But, I can't quite be sure. All I know it was too loud whatever it was. Anyway, the second night, all was well. (Plus I had earplugs in for good measure.)

On Memorial Day, we headed home. Here are some antelope-like wild creatures that we saw at various points throughout the weekend:

We stopped at Independence Rock and Martin's Cove.

While there, Katy discovered one of her ancestors came through in one of the companies!

Some must push and some must pull...

Well, that is the long and the short of my experience to the National Parks in South Dakota! As with my prior NPT destinations, I created an artistic representation of my experience at each Park. For Wind Cave, I wrote a description of my experience in German. And for Badlands, I created a video documentary. 

Enjoy!!