Wind Cave and Custer State Park

Monday morning I woke up early to try and get a hike in before my 1pm Wild Cave Tour. I jumped on the Lookout Point Trail that follows the rolling hills of the prairie and then connects with Centennial Trail to take me back to my starting point. The hike was nice and I passed through several prairie dog communities and saw a buffalo up close. It is easy to see how the prairie dogs got their name as they all emitted high pitched barks with tails wagging furiously as I approached their dens. As for the buffalo, I got within about 15 yards before deciding that was close enough, since I had no safety zone and would not be able to out run a mad buffalo in that terrain. After I connected with the Centennial Trail, things started to go wrong. I’m not sure if I missed a turn or if the trails were just poorly marked, but I ended up wandering around the prairies and eventually connected again with my original Lookout Point Trail, turning what should have been an easy 4.5 mile round trip hike into at least 6 miles.

The Wild Cave Tour was good, but it was a little slow and unadventurous for me. With their warning of being able to fit through a 10 inch gap, I was expecting to be challenged a bit during the tour, but that was not the case. However, the cave is exceptional and includes a formation known as box work that is a result of how the cave was made. Also, there were several other formations in the cave that were amazing, including one that looked like a crystalline porcupine. The cave tour lasted four hours despite only covering less than a mile of terrain. After the tour, I jumped in my car and headed north to the Crazy Horse Memorial. This memorial is one of kind and it’s just in its beginning stages. Like Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial is cut out of the face of a mountain. But, the size and detail going into this memorial puts Mount Rushmore to shame. When finished, the memorial will be of the head and torso of Crazy Horse as he sits upon his horse. Only the horse’s head and neck will be included. Right now, on the face of Crazy Horse is completed and they are working on the horse’s head. To give you an idea of the size of this memorial, the entire Mount Rushmore carving can fit into the head of Crazy Horse. The project began in the 1940s and is completely privately funded due to the creators’ desire to not accept federal funding because of their belief that the money should come from people who truly care for Crazy Horse and other Native Americans. While it may not ever be completed in my lifetime, I feel blessed to have seen it and added my support to the project. I hung around the memorial until nightfall as each night there is a laser light show. The light show was pretty incredible as it projected lasers onto the mountainside for over 45 minutes telling the history about Crazy Horse and Native Americans.

The next morning I packed up my camp and made my way to Custer State Park, just a few miles north of Wind Cave National Park. I then decided to hike to Harney Peak, the highest peak east of the Rockies and west of the Pyrenees in Europe. It’s hard to imagine the force the earth generated to force the earth to reach towards the heavens in the flatland dominated landscape of western South Dakota. The view from the top was a panoramic view of the Black Hills and surrounding areas. After the hike, I drove the Wildlife Loop of Custer State Park and then accessed Iron Mountain Road that leads to Mount Rushmore. Iron Mountain Road was an engineering marvel when it was built and it still amazes those that drive it. There are three tunnels that pass through the mountainside and each is situated so that as you pass through you are treated to a view of the four presidents carved into the granite. Like the Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore has a night program, albeit not close to the level of the latter. The night program consisted of a ranger talk about the construction of the mountain and a brief history as to why Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt were included in the carving. It ended with lights illuminating the massive structure.