From Medora I drove to Hill City South Dakota. Beautiful country! I found my campground, a small place with a few cabins a about eight RV spots. Nice looking place, but…it had no cell service, TV, WiFi, nothing! The bathroom had one stool and one shower; small. So I did not spend much time there. And again my post is late.
I went to Mount Rushmore that afternoon and night; very impressive. There is a nice museum and ice cream shop. The evening program was very patriotic, very moving.
The next day I went to Hill City and Keystone and walked the streets looking in the shops and had ice cream.
When I was in Medora with my cousins there was a rain storm one evening. (It didn’t slow us down much). They had a lot of rain in the Black Hills. The streams were overflowing. The streams going through town was up on the lawns, flowing rapidly. Oh yeah, the storm knocked out my afore mentioned WiFi.
The next day I went to Crazy Horse Monument. Very impressive. I wish I could get closer to the sculpture. The visitor center is huge. Very well done. I sent a lot of time looking and reading.
Then on to Custer State Park. I drove the loop looking at the scenery and looking for wildlife. I saw Pronghorn antelope a few times. I saw buffalo at a distance and prairie dogs up close. I took pictures as best as I could. At one open meadow there were cars stopped and people walking out into the meadow a loooong way. I didn’t even realize they were people at first they were so far away. I zoomed my camera and took a picture. When I got the pic on my computer and blew it up I found they were out with the to burros.
In the park I drove and drove, around sharp corners up and down, through the tress and gullies. Beautiful! I wanted to drive the Needles Highway. I set my GPS and took off. I drove through tress and more trees but no needles. I stopped at a picnic stop (with an outhouse). I asked a couple standing in line where the needs highway was. He said “You are on it”. I thought I was on the right track, I just hadn’t gotten to the needles.
The needles are amazing. I had not seen them since 1973. Narrow winding roads, right on the edge, tunnels so small. Cool !!!
Then back to Hill City, ice cream, and then to bed.
Go to my Photos page to see pictures.