Roaming Around the Black Hills

“Friday

Took a vacay day and me, my daughter (Bebo) and my new best hiking buddy (Diane) and her two daughters (12 and 4) took off for Wind Cave National Park in the Black Hills.

We planned to meet up with lizs and her group at some point over the weekend.

Arrived at the Park around 3:00 hoping that even on Labor Day this little corner of South Dakota would be relatively quiet. The Elk Mountain Campground was almost empty (to my suprise) so we picked the best shadiest spot we could find and set up our camp - home for the next three nights. After that we took off for the visitor center to check out the cave tour schedules and see what was what at the park.

Dinner that night was chicken alfredo and the kids were in good moods makeing smores and goofing off around the campfire. Wind Cave staff provides FREE firewood, cut and split for your convenience!

Saturday

Woke up saturday for a scrambled egg breakfast and decided to go explore the park. Driving up the road we immediately saw three bison in a meadow and tons of prarie dogs. The kids were excited about all the wildlife - especially the 4 year old. Drove up to Rankin Ridge and hiked the short nature trail to the highest point in the park and up the fire tower. From the fire tower you have a great view of the entire area and we spotted a HUGE herd of bison about 2 miles away - around 100 or more of them. Later, we found out that liz and her group were in that same general area dodging the bison in their trail.

After going back to camp and having a little lunch and a short nap, lizs, spalpeen, firebug and sarah showed up. We planned on doing a cave tour and they were going to rest and relax.

The cave tour was really cool, Wind Cave is unique with no stalagtites or stalagmites, but has this formation called boxwork instead - mainly due to the fracturing of the limestone when the black hills uplifted. Around 117 miles of cave has been explored and the estimate is that this is only about 10 percent of the total - WOW!

We walked up to the natural entrance to feel the wind blowing up out of the cave - it was blowing hard enough to blow your hair back - and we saw the grave of Alvin McDonald - the man credited with first exploring the cave.

Another night of goofing off by the fire, hanging out with liz and the gang. Our girls did a quick skit for them - their own version of the pepto bismol commercial, LOL. Twelve year old girls are nutty ya know. We also took in the ranger program that night - pretty informative about a little history of the Park and the NPS mission.

Sunday

On sunday liz and her group took off - but not until Bebo managed to stage an ambush attack with her water gun on lizs! (she was very proud of herself)

We drove over to Badlands, first stopping at Wounded Knee on the way. We didn't spend much time at Badlands, but it was HOT HOT HOT.

Making our way back west we stopped at Mt. Rushmore where the girls did the junior ranger program and toured the museum and such. None of us had ever been there before so we spent some time looking at all the exhibits and such.

We stopped for dinner Sunday at the Pizza Hut in Custer! (some camping trip, huh? LOL)

Sunday night we listened to elk bugleing and coyotes hunting - incredible. Even though we were in a frontcountry campground, there were only three other groups and we were all spread out enough that it was almost like being in the backcountry.

Monday

Monday was just our drive home and back to the real world. We were all impressed with the Black Hills and plan to go back.

Thanks to lizs for sparking the interest in going up to check out the area!”

“Sounds like a great trip. Next time you gotta tag Harney Peak, the S.D. highpoint!”

“yep - plannin on it - we figured the four year old wasn't up to it this trip. We want to go back and backpack some of the centennial trail too.”

“The Wind Cave area was great, lot of wildlife, great views, and surprisinly quiet - especially considering it was Labor Day weekend.

Nice meeting you.”

“OK, so we had Bebo... but you forgot the BEES! lol

That Bebo... you gotta let her post on here JUST ONCE, c'mon dad! So we can add her to the "met" list. (so what if she becomes jaded at such a young age from hanging out here. hahahahaaa)”

“maybe she'll sneak in a post - check this thread once school lets out later today.

LOL

I did forget the dang bees!! OH MY GOD!!!

the bees were horrible - they stole food off your plate!”

“Great meeting you even if I did crash early.Thinking of doing all of the centennial trail myself. Going to start getting info on it”

“I picked up the guide book in teh visitor center - its only 6 hours away from me.

It was cool to meet more new folks, even if I didn't get to hike with yall.”

“Hey Roam! Sounds like a fun time with the girls! lol. I'm glad you have found a hiker friend. :)”

“Clever thread title, Roamie!!”

“i have a moment of wit about once a month or so MarkO.

Thanks embear! We may even get to see a post from her eventually....
last edited: 9/06/05 3:53:09 PM”

“OK, here I am now that I have my username. I had a wonderful time and so did the kids. I enjoyed meeting new people also and hearing thier stories. I am looking forward to going back and doing more hiking there as we didn't get to do that much this time with my little one. Hearing the Elk and the coyotes was truely a highlight for me. I also have a new respect for anyone who ever has tried to live in the Bad Lands as this must be one of the hottest places on the plannet.”

“my favorite quote from the NPS video on the Badlands, from a journal of a settler back in the late 1800's talking about the water "the water is too thick to drink and too thin to plow".”

“Welcome to Trail Talk chante!”

“Welcome Chante, sounds like y'all had a great trip, hit up Deadwood next time you're in the hills.”

“Thank you for the welcome. I am looking forward to many more trips.”

“So you did make it to Badlands. Very cool...”

“Yep, one lone guy all the long weekend with 4 womens.”

“That's rough, and the "men's work", gathering of firewood was already done
last edited: 9/06/05 8:36:21 PM”

“The men do the cookin' on my planet!!”

“So you're going soft on us Roam? Car camping??? j/k

It sounds like a totally kick butt trip. I love that almost every cave you ever go to there is some ridiculously low percentage of the cave that's been explored. Amazing. And it's totally cool that you had the place almost to yourselves.

I'd love to see Wounded Knee. I remember reading the book "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" and crying my little eyes out and being so very mad!

How crowded was Mt Rushmore?

Any pics????”

“Easy Tango, Wounded Knee got himself a gal or two already.”

“LOL!!!”

“Hello!!”

“Mt Rushmore was busy but not uncomfortably crowded.

Not much to Wounded Knee other than a sign explaining what took place.

Interesting note: the big sign at Wounded Knee has been changed. The heading at the top of the sign reads "Massacre of Wounded Knee" the word "Massacre" has been attached to the sign covering up whatever it read before. I'm betting it used to say "Battle".

There's also a cemetary there, up on the hilltop where the Army was set up. The mass grave from the massacre borders the modern cemetary.

Its always interesting to me visiting Native American sites. There is a huge difference in reservation land here in the West vs. what I used to see back East.”

“http://www.thebackpacker.com/pictures/album/avdbh5ae.php


just a few of the better ones, it takes me a few days to get my website updated.”

“Fun shots, Roam, I'll see if maybe I can start getting some up tonight. I went through all my shots and figured which ones I want to put up (ya know, it gets tough selecting from all the buffalo shots!! LOL!)

Welcome to chante! So great to meet you and hope to hike with you guys sometime!

And.... so when will that little evil Bebo girl post, huh, Dad? LOL!”

“it was fun to see bison and do the cave and most of all to shoot lizs with a water gun.


--- bebo”

“I will give you a buck the next time you do it”

“Thank you lizs, it was great meeting you too. Did you guys get a chance to hear the elk on Sunday night? Ranger Don said that they were expecting to hear them the week before but hadn't yet.

Hi bebo, I must say that was quite the ambush on lizs. lol”

“What? Bebo saw me? oh no! I was trying to hide... :)”

“you cannot hide from the bebo! (or her water gun)”

“Hey yall! I got a 100 on my social studies test AND I cooked a delicious dinner for my dad and me tonight!

Now he's got to take me for ice cream.”

“Bison, ya big hairy thing!”

“I've got a response for that MarkO, unfortuneatly there are young children hanging out on this thread.

Congratulations Bebo! Make your dad take you to Cold Stone.”

“thats ok, jsut leave it up to my imagination LOL!”

“You go girl, Bebo! Ya sneaky thing, you! ;-P

LOL!”

“Yep Coldstone it was.


and it was GOOOOOOOOOD!”