Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Road Trip - Day Two: South Dakota

It was cold and snowy this morning in Rapid City, but the roads were clear, so after a leisurely start we headed east to Wall and The Badlands National Park.

We had Wall Drug pretty much to ourselves as we browsed the tourist goodies.  We did buy two ornaments for the travel section of our Christmas tree.  Then we were off to The Badlands.

It was cold and breezy, but dry as we drove through these exotic land formations, the product of thousands of years of erosion.

We ate a car lunch at the visitors center before heading west again.  There are lots of miles between attractions here in this vast open prairie.  It was about 4:00 when we got to Mount Rushmore, but by then the clouds had moved on and we had blue sky!




The Black Hills are quite spectacular in some places and we enjoyed the drive to the Crazy Horse Memorial.
What an undertaking!  It has been under construction for over 6o years, and will probably take another 50, but when complete it will be the largest sculpture in the world, larger than the pyramids.  It will look like this model.
Leaving Crazy Horse, we attempted to drive the scenic routes in Custer State Park, but were turned back on both routes by snow on the roadways.  These roads are not maintained in winter, the sign says.  Will someone please remind Mother Nature that it is not still winter!

We had a great day, lucking out on the weather again.  We saw wildlife too - deer, antelope, Big Horn Sheep, wild turkeys and elk, and the prairie grasslands were full of bird song.  Of course I have photos of all of these, but Susie is getting tired.  I'll have to do a follow up when I get home.


Tonight we are in Keyhole, SD.  Tomorrow more from the Black Hills before we head to Nebraska.

10 comments:

  1. Fabulous photos Linda, what a great trip you are having.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You have a fantastic camera to take such great close-ups of Lincoln and Washington! I would love to see Rushmore in person.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is so great! You're doing the trip we're planning to do in June! We've been to Wall Drugs a long time ago. What fun! It doesn't seem like there's been much progress on the Crazy Horse memorial.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Linda, I forgot to tell you your photos are absolutely amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow Linda! What amazing photos of Mt Rushmore and the mountainous scenery!
    They are brilliant. What an excellent blog! - Dave

    ReplyDelete
  6. Really enjoying this trip along with you! you have inspried me to pull out our photo albums.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your new camera seems to be quite sufficient to keep these great memories alive, Linda. I love the closeups, but they are all wonderful. You are managing very well, and I sure appreciate all your efforts to share these. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. thanks for the photos, I've always wanted to go there. Love the closeups of Mt. Rushmore. What a sight but it does look cold...

    ReplyDelete
  9. And so your adventure continues! Thank you so much for including us in this. Your photos make me want to get in the car and start driving!!!

    ReplyDelete

I would love to read your comments. Since I link most posts to Facebook, you may comment there if you do not have an account. I have eliminated Anonymous comments due to spammers.