Rapid City SD—>Mount Rushmore SD —>Wind Cave National Park, SD —> Dubois, WY

As I am going out west to work, unfortunately I had some medical testing that did not get done while at home, and this was one of the first cities we were staying at that I could get them done, especially since the next few days would be in Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Glacier. So unfortunately I needed to go have a drug screen and blood draw done early in the morning before we went on our way. I’m sure the heat of Badlands did not help the blood draw situation, because they made me come back later after I got better hydrated. After I chugged a liter and half of water, I finally got the blood draw and were on our way.

We made our way through the Black Hills, watching the landscape change from prairie with occasional buttes and hills studded with yellow and green grasses to tall pines and rocks with our first look of some large mountains. We approached Mount Rushmore through some touristy areas (Keystone, SD) and some cute towns that have that stereotypical western feel with the wood buildings and mine-town feel. It feels as though you are going back in time to the 1800’s driving through the town, the only thing missing is the saloon swinging doors and the cowboy quick-draw in the streets. As we climbed the mountains we came into the park and were for the first time in days surrounded by tons of people. We parked and walked into the park. It felt as though we were in Disney World- everyone had their cameras out, selfie sticks, children everywhere. It was an interesting experience. They just started construction on the main walkway down to the monuments this week, but there were good unobstructed views off to the side where most were viewing the monument. The hill that the faces were carved in is huge! I can’t imagine what it would be like to see them up close, or what it was like to carve it! It reminds me of the movie Richie Rich, when there was a secret room with treasures in one of the face carvings!

It was shaping up to be another hot one, and since I had all that testing in the morning, billy was able to convince me to get ice cream for lunch. I had a twist cone of chocolate and raspberry soft serve. To say it was delicious is not enough- this rivals the orange vanilla twist cone of the jersey shore. They even have recipes for Thomas Jefferson’s vanilla ice cream that I may look for and try out one day.

We made sure to get our stamps at the visitor’s center and were on our way out into the Black Hills National Forest and toward Wind Cave National Park. It was a super scenic drive through plains, hills, mountains and pines.

Unfortunately, Wind Cave’s elevator was under repairs during our visit, so we were not able to see their cave. I would really love to visit again one day to see them, my experience with them has been that each one looks very different from the next. From their website, it also seems like they are extremely diligent with decontamination to prevent white nose syndrome in their bat population, unlike the other caves I have visited in the past (in the northeast). White nose syndrome is a fungus that affects bats while they are hibernating, and has killed millions of bats. It was first detected in New York in 2006, but has spread to the Midwest since.

As they advertise it, there are 2 parks in one, one underground and the other above ground. We drove to the visitor center, stopping along the road to see the prairie dog towns that seemed to be everywhere. Seriously, in the prairie dog towns it seemed like there was a prairie dog hole every 15-20 feet, you can hear an almost constant squeak from the road if you listen for it. We got to the visitor center, filled up on water and drove out to Rankin Ridge for a potential hike to the lookout tower. We decided to abandon the hike idea since it was getting late in the day, and like every day before, we were not sticking to our schedule very well. We got out of the car, took some pictures of a lone bison in the field taking a nap and the prairie dogs scampering around before getting back in the car and heading back toward the park entrance. A quick stop at an overlook of beaver creek bridge to try to recreate our postcard we purchased in the gift shop, and we were “on the road again”. Or so we thought. On our way out of the park, Billy asks me to pass him the Sigg water bottle and we can’t find it anywhere in the car. Back to the visitor center, we had left it in the gift shop. Take two.

We actually hit the road again through South Dakota, leaving the Black Hills and entering into Wyoming. It was a scenic drive, but one that went hours before we saw another town, such a strange concept to someone who grew up in a rural area of the north east. We luckily filled up on gas before we hit that two-hour stretch. We did get stuck in some road work after the gas station, where we were completely for about 15 minutes. They closed down the road to 1 lane for a stretch of a few miles while they were paving, which we had to follow a lead car. 15 minutes in the 103-degree heat in the blazing sun was not the most fun, for sure. Luckily that was the only hold up on the road, and we continued on our way across the state of Wyoming. We passed field after field, traveled alongside trains hauling coal, and saw many fields of cows and horses. We went through a desolate and rusty ghost town, that was hauntingly beautiful in its own way. We drove through dusk as we saw the mountains fade into darkness and finally got to our end destination of Dubois, Wyoming. We checked into the Branding Iron Inn, a cute rustic log cabin. We spoke with the owner Robert who told us his stories of how he made his way out to Montana from North Carolina, and reminisced about the blue ridge mountains. He gave us the insider scoop on the Grand Tetons, peaking our excitement and curiosity despite our tiredness.

For more information on White Nose Syndrome: https://www.whitenosesyndrome.org/

~GW