South Dakota!
So glad this last minute trip came to fruition!
Day 1: A Mammoth-Sized Day
Took quite an early flight and tried to sleep as much as I could, but did make a plane friend on the last leg of the flight! And as a side note, these people’s accent is nothing short as adorable. Upon landing grabbed my rental car and drove straight to Hot Springs (a city ~1.5 hrs south) to make the most out of the day. The landscape really is striking, so much red rock and FLATNESS (I can see why they filmed the Martian here), but at the same time gorgeous and picturesque and quaint.
On my way to the first goal of the trip, the Mammoth museum, I made a few stops to take in some roadside attractions, one of which was this ghost town thingy that was super cute and just a really cool moment in time. Ate lunch outside the museum and then hopped inside! The museum itself is one of the largest mammoth excavation sites in the world, and they are far from done excavating! What that means is you get to walk around the active dig site, where they are still finding new discoveries and even had scientists actively excavating while I was there!
The origin story of the site goes that essentially a sinkhole formed as the limestone gave way to erosion, and the rim of the sinkhole was shale which is incredibly slippery when wet. What is so cool here is that the slope of the hole made it so that really only mammoths were trapped here, and even more strange (and still not fully understood) is that of the 60+ mammoths they have found, all have been male!
The origin of the research site is equally as interesting (and hopeful)! A developer in 1975 was digging to build a series of houses, found some mammoth bits and phoned a friend who discovered what a treasure trove they had stumbled upon! The developer then sold the site at cost to the non-profit they established to preserve and discover! Sincerely amazing stuff, and they have gotten the community involved in the research / excavating in a really cool way as well!
Two more mammoth points of interest:
They called one of the mammoth skeletons Marie Antionette since it was totally complete except for a head, but then they figured out it was a male (using pelvis size and elephant comparisons) so they pivoted to Maury… kinda funny
My friends were recently discussing the question of if you could have any animal as a pet (in a humane way) what would it be… and I think I found my answer: a Pygmy elephant!! These little dudes got isolated on some islands and shrunk down to 6-8ft tall, and on top of being adorable elephants live for a really long time, are playful, curious, have a family structure, and are delicate when they want to be. I've fallen in love.
OK I clearly went on a bit of a ramble there… oops
Next stop was a two mile river walk in town where I met a local who gave some great pointers like where the especially hot spots were in the river (which did turn out to be a blast) and he largely was just oozing about how much he loved the town which is always cool to hear (and got to play with his dog who was LOVING the river)! Hit another freshwater spring for some swimming / tranquility, although this water was in no way a HOT spring!
Decided somewhat impromptu to hit a “scenic highway” in Custer State Park on the drive back, which turned out to be much cooler than I expected! The sun was setting over these incredibly rock formations that were so grand and “needly” (they don’t call it Needle Point for nothing), as the road wove its way through the mountain and these tight tunnels -- to add to this, saw a ton of deer and little critters as well!
Hit the grocery store for some essentials and finally checked in to my place to get ready for an EARLY morning tomorrow after some brief stargazing!
Day 2: A Monumental Success
Today is Mount Rushmore Day! I got there as the sun rose and it was just me and the zamboni cleaning guy (tad annoying)! It really is a gorgeous setup as you walk through all of the State/Territory flags onto Rushmore itself and a giant amphitheater below. Got to soak in all the sights and find some tranquility on the nature walk that gets you even closer to the presidents alongside some really nice quotes from the four.
I don’t often think of how America really was one of the first democracies and paved the way in that regard. Easy to forget among the colonialism but we have really created something lasting and Mt. Rushmore was a great reminder of that. Also the power of celebrating wins along the way! The architect (albeit very power hungry and not super easy to work with) did an incredible job at getting the entire country on board and excited about what many could have (and did) believe was a crackpot idea. This public excitement was paramount in securing funding for the project, even through the Great Depression and WWII. And when I say crackpot… they blew 900,000 tons of rock off of the mountain to carve four presidents’ faces so large that they would have stood 430ft tall at scale with the goal to permanently remind the future that man “has a right to be free and happy”.
After soaking in the grandeur of Rushmore for a few hours (and the accompanying museum), I started bopping around Custer. Found a cute spot overlooking all the nature to eat breakfast, which was all nice and tranquil until a field mouse crawled onto my leg! I don’t know which one of us was more shocked, but only one of us yelped (it was me)!
I also popped by a lake for a solid 20 minutes and almost went for a dip, but I did get to see some cool fish! It was a stocked lake and someone had left some bait lying around (yuck), but it did give me the opportunity to see some of them surface!
I had a few hours to kill and decided to pop over to the nearby Crazy Horse Memorial, and thank god I did -- it was sensational. A polish orphan self taught himself how to sculpt and subsequently won the prize for best sculptor at a 1930s World Fair. This led the Lakota tribe to reach out to ask him to help build them a monument to their people. After WWII he turned down a lucrative offer from the US government and relocated his entire life to embark on a gigantic 250ft monument by himself, knowing he would never see it complete. When I say by himself, he literally cleared the trees to build his home, built the road to the mountain and slowly accumulated resources... as in he didn't even start out with a jackhammer. His family continues to build and they are hoping to complete in the next 50 years (more than 125 years after it started). They rejected federal, state and local money... subsisting only from tourist dollars and individual donations. As if this wasn’t inspirational enough, not only are they building this gargantuan monument, but in addition they dream of an entire campus dedicated to advancing the Native people -- and already they have built a university and art museum! Just so holistically good.
P.S. I recommend researching the story of Crazy Horse… such bravery and betrayal.
Next I made my way over to Jewel Cave, one of the largest cave systems in the world (5000+ miles of caves, the vast majority unexplored! Only thanks to handy ol’ PV=nRT do they know!). We took an elevator down the ~230ft to the first area (faster than my apartment building’s elevator by 2x!). Honestly wasn’t totally blown away, but definitely some cool stuff. Befriended the park ranger and a kind older woman who showed me all these photos of the northern lights and set me up with (hopefully) the tools to go find them later in the trip (update: didn’t work out).
Followed the cave up with a wonderful 5 mile hike through a previously burnt down (~20 years ago) forest, which made for some really cool burnt remnants alongside the new birth of a whole new forest! The contrast of the plains w/ the exposed rock of the mountain and certain more-forested areas was truly breathtaking. Also, spotted so many bunnies that thought they were being sneaky (they weren’t).
Finally, drove the “wildlife loop” which was so much better than expected! About 90 minutes of driving through breathtaking landscapes and pulling over to see bison, deer, prairie dogs, etc! And to top it all off, at the tail end we drove through ~500 bison that were essentially penned off because it is their annual medical checkup, but you could slowly drive your car through as long as you gave them the right of way! It was very slow going but look how close we were able to get! An absolutely jam packed day that seemingly kept outdoing itself!
Side note on prairie dogs (who really are just chunkier meerkats), they are called “keystone” creatures -- meaning they are paramount to the ecosystem as researchers have found 130+ other species depend on them for survival. They dig extensive tunnels (called towns) that many other creatures depend on for their habitat, and are a common prey food. Cool stuff!
Day 3: The Goodlands
Today was a full day of the Badlands -- South Dakota’s premiere (maybe only?) national park!
The landscape is essentially an ancient riverbed, which makes for some incredible rock features -- and so much of the ground looks almost like tree bark peeling away from the trunk. Remnants of an ancient time that are slowly eroding, the Badlands as they currently exist have only been around for ~500k years, and should fully erode in about the same length of time, so make sure to get it while it lasts!
Hiked more than 13 miles today, and I’ll mostly let the pictures do the talking! The trails all kinda connected which was really nice as it made it so easy to keep appending! Did creep all the way up to 85 degrees with almost no shade… so it was a hot (and wet) day.
Nature Report: They have the fluffiest little mice here! And all the major players from yesterday also made an appearance! Saw a mountain goat actually climb a mountain today! Saw a real life tumbleweed! Got one of those burrowing spiders to come out of its hole after ~2 minutes of hard work imitating a bug slowly losing energy in its web. And had a rattlesnake encounter — there really isn’t too much spookier than hearing that rattle!
Day 4: Ain’t no Mountain High Enough
Today was another full day of hiking, but in a very different climate! In comparison to yesterday’s Martian landscape, today was full of mountains and forests! Did what was essentially a 10 mile loop with a few out-and-backs, which was really fun because I kept bumping into the same hiking groups time-and-time again! Befriended this nice Australian couple for a while up until they got baited into discussing the “merits” of Trump’s international diplomacy while I decided to preserve my nature-provided tranquility.
The hike culminated in summiting the highest point between the Rockies and Pyrenees (>7,500ft above sea level)! And I climbed ~2000ft of that on my own, which I’m definitely feeling the result of as I write this back in my room! I decided to frontload the climb, which made for a more tolerable walk back, and each time we reached a summit I found a cozy little alcove and took the opportunity to recharge, read my lightweight book (courtesy of Adam, and yes Sam I am capable of reading physical books!) and eat a little snack!
After the hike was over (bittersweet for sure), I relaxed by the lake for about an hour to recharge, and then did a final drive-by of Mount Rushmore, it was hard to pull myself away! Can say I successfully tuckered myself out so I can get to bed in order to make my 7am flight tomorrow (oof). What a trip!
Some additional photos from the trip!
