Give me a home where the buffalo roam and the sky is not cloudy all day……..

July 28 – 29, 2006

An hour and a half drive took us from Interior by the Badlands to Hermosa near the Black Hills, where we were to perch for a couple of nights at another Passport America campground, the Heartland RV Park. We drove past the grassland fire that we thought was under control yesterday and were shocked to see the hillsides scorched where the blaze had run rampant blackening miles of previously golden grasses. The fire had laid a veil of hazy smoke over the entire area lending it a depressing quality. The smoke seemed to magnify the suns rays and increase the heat and the wind that blew was not a cooling breeze but a furnace hot blast.

What an amazingly diverse area this is - from the parched Badlands to the lush Black Hills, from flat prairie to high rocky spires. There are National Parks, State Parks, and a myriad of privately run tourist attractions. Leaving Hermosa, with the idea of visiting Mount Rushmore, we took the scenic route across ‘Iron Mountain Highway’ at the edge of Custer State Park. It curled precariously, the land changing as we progressed through beautiful forests and lush meadows, rocky pinnacles and sandy prairie. We met so much wildlife – mule deer, white tailed deer, pronghorn antelope, wild turkeys and all so unconcerned about us interloping in their territory. A herd of wild burros that they call the ‘begging burros’ spread all across the road and would not move as I inched the car by, shooing them out the window. Fernie eventually got out and gave a few of them a shove. They looked at him blankly and continued at the same pace.

There are three beautifully designed and carved wooden spiral bridges called the ‘Pigtail Bridges’ nearing the end of Iron Mountain Highway and several single-lane granite tunnels that frame the Mount Rushmore presidential rock carvings in the distance. The first unexpected sight of the Mt Rushmore faces through the tunnels made us gasp in awe. As we crawled out onto the main road, we were shocked to see the hundreds of vehicles converging on the Mount Rushmore memorial site after it had been so quiet on our curvy little road. They charged $8 per vehicle parking fee but there was no charge to walk the site, view the monument, visit the museum or browse the visitors’ center and they didn’t accept the National Parks annual pass. The heads are massive – sixty feet high – but they appeared quite modest in size from our viewpoint below. As we left the site and drove behind the mountain, we caught sight of the George Washington head in profile - magnificent! Not too far down the road, there’s another massive rock carving in progress – the Crazy Horse Memorial. They charged $10 a person to go into the site – a money grab! We could see it partially from down below so passed on it.


Instead, we travelled a bit further on through the touristy town of Custer to the ‘Jewel Cave National Monument’. We travelled down 270 feet (in an elevator) to a temperature of 49 degrees. What a shock to the body, just leaving 107 degrees. A magnificent huge cave system where only 3 percent of the tunnels have been explored, it’s one of the largest caves in the world. We passed on the ‘Spelunking Tour’ where you crawl through slots only 8 to 10 inches high. I would have got stuck for sure and Fernie would have totally freaked out (he’s quite claustrophobic in an elevator).

Five or six hours had passed and we had to rush back to Caesar. He stretched and yawned as we opened the door, obviously just waking from a long sleep. It was a very comfortable temperature inside the motorhome and we were pleased the AC worked so well. Outside though, the temperature kept blazing highs until well after the sun went down and then it was so lovely that we stretched out in our lounge chairs under the stars.



A slow start to the day is the best part of staying longer than one day in a place. We rose early to enjoy the cool morning, having our tea and coffee outside. Our campsite was right at the end of the site away from all the other Rvers and even though there were no trees around, we enjoyed the wide open view of the grasslands.

Custer State Park is on the eastern edge of the Black Hills not far from our campground and we meandered around the Wildlife Loop Road keeping our eyes peeled for any sign of movement.


And there was a lot! Pronghorn antelope, white-tail and mule deer in profusion. They wouldn’t move as cars approached even if they were standing at the side of the road. They would just look at us with their big black eyes and carry on munching.




It’s obvious they have never felt threatened. We drove very slowly being really careful while rounding bends because you never knew what animal might be in the middle of the road.





A huge bison herd inhabits the park and as it is rutting season, there’s lots of posturing going on. And rolling in the dust seems to be one of their favourite pastimes.




It is a managed herd which means they round them up every October, inoculate them and brand them with a ‘S’ for State and a single number denoting the year they were born.






They only keep them in the park for ten years and auction them off after that maintaining the herd at about 1,500, which is the maximum, the park will sustain. The part that shocked me is that they sell licenses to the rich to trophy hunt the bulls. I really wish blood-sport didn’t have to come into it.








South of Custer Park lies Wind Cave National Park – full of grasslands and prairie where our favourites, those wonderful little prairie dogs reside.



Their burrows were so close to the road and the young litters of pups hadn’t been taught road sense and frolicked on the pavement.

Fernie had to get out to shoo them off and even then they were unperturbed and didn’t really want to move.

We noticed quite a bit of road kill in the area and wondered why the other prairie dog town’s inhabitants were more afraid of people and careful than the ones in this area. Fernie said he’d love to have prairie dogs at home in his back yard, chattering and scampering around.

We didn’t bother visiting the Wind Cave as we felt it would probably be redundant after the Jewel Cave. It was also getting late in the afternoon and time to go home and pick up Caesar, drive back up to the hills in Custer Park, find a shady haven and spend a few hours relaxing in the cooler temperatures. Aggravatingly, the black flies wouldn’t let us rest so we took another drive through the Needles Highway, which is a curvy and narrow park road with hairpin bends and more roughly hewn granite tunnels. The ‘Needles’ are spectacular granite spires and formations that rise high above the dark pine covered hills. Caesar quietly enjoyed watching the wildlife along the way, not sure what kind of animals he was viewing. It was another thrilling drive and the sun was setting as we descended to the park exit.




On our way back, we drove through Keystone, a town riddled with tourist atrocities, theme hotels, glitz and Wild West décor. The main street had been taken over by bikers headed for the Sturgis Bike Rally next week and the bars were beginning to howl. Instead of howling with them, we elected to go back to Maggie where we put our chairs out under the stars and chatted about our wonderful day. As we lay there, the most magnificent shooting star that I’d ever seen shot across the sky.