August 16 - Day 42 - Minnesota

Greetings

Today is the last day of our sixth week, and we spent most of it driving across Minnesota from Sioux Falls to Taylor's Falls.

Most of the state that we saw looked surprisingly the same! Corn, corn, corn - oceans of corn from horizon to horizon. What wasn't corn was soybeans. The day was beautiful - blue skies and fluffy white clouds. Picturesque farms, complete with silos and red barns, dotted the landscape, and dairy cows grazed peacefully in the rich, gently rolling pastures.

In Holland, we counted hundreds of wind generators slowly turning all around the horizon.

We stopped in several small towns that featured grain elevators, old-time buildings on Main Streets, and tidy houses in neighborhoods shaded with oak, ask and beech trees.

At Clearwater, we crossed the Mississippi River. Also we are now in the Central time zone -- forgot to mention that yesterday.

Beautiful state!

Just before sunset, we crossed into Wisconsin and stopped for the night at a small campground in Turtle Lake. The front brakes have been squealing a bit, and Donny plans to change the brake shoes in the morning. Still limping along with one air bag, since we haven't found a place to buy another one yet.

Later!

Donny & Cheryl

August 15 - Day 41 - 1 of 5 - Black Hills & Mt. Rushmore

The map at the top of this post represents our travels from August 11 through August 16.

We did so much on today, August 15, that it will take five posts to cover it all.

Our travels today took us through a range of terrains - everything from the dark pine forests and the rocky cliffs of the Black Hills, through verdant prairie grasslands and sandstone canyons; dry short-grass cattle ranches and rangeland and on to arid desert and watelands; and finally to fertile cropland dotted with prairie potholes and and dairy farms.

We began in South Dakota's Black Hills National Forest where we visited Mt. Rushmore. We didn't take the tour, since the place was mobbed. We just took some photos and headed back down the mountain. Mt. Rushmore is truly awe inspiring - what an accomplishment. Right near the parking area, we came across a nanny mountain goat and her kid! (They are shown in Post 5).

The National Park Serivce website says about Mt. Rushmore.

Carved into the Black Hills of South Dakota are the faces of four former presidents of the United States--George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. These men were chosen to represent the first 150 years of American history and America’s cultural heritage.

The idea came from Doane Robinson to promote tourism in South Dakota and his idea was wildly successful--the park attracts almost 3 million park visitors every year. Gutzon Borglum designed the sculpture. Though he passed away before its completion, over 400 workers helped bring his vision to life.

On the way to see Mt. Rushmore, we passed the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is a mountain monument under construction in the form of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.

Then we went to Rapid City and stopped at Bear Country USA, a drive-through wildlife park. (Post 2 of 5). After that, we visited part of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and drove through the Badlands Loop, a 20+ section of Badlands National Park. (Post 3 of 5)

We then drove the entire width of South Dakota, ending our day at a campground just across the Minnesota border. (Post 4 of 5)

Post No. 5 is a few recent wildlife photos.

More in Parts 2-5

August 15 - Day 41 - 3 of 5 - Badlands National Park

Donny had visited South Dakota's Badlands about 30 years ago, but I had never been there. Once again, I was blown away by the beauty of this place!

Before reaching the Badlands, we passed through part of Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Tall prairie grasses and wildflowers covered the plains in all directions, billowing in the wind. We saw several small bands of grazing pronghorns.

Suddenly, the terrain changed, with the land dropping off sharply into peaks and valleys of delicate banded colors that seemed to shift in the sunshine. Vistas opened up with buttes, mesas and wide prairies vanishing into the hazy distance. Around every corner of the sharply twisting road jagged sawtoothed mountains soared into the azure sky. It seemed to be part of another world - inhospitable, lonely and austere. It is difficult to imagine that humans have inhabited the Badlands for 11,000 years!

No photos can do it justice, but, of course, I had to try. I took about 350 pictures, kept shooting until my hands were cramping from holding the camera. It was very difficult to choose just a few to post.

As I marveled at the gorgeous scenery, Donny quipped, "This is just a bunch of gullies. If I had enough equipment and fuel, I could level this place out in about a month."

August 15 - Day 41 - 2 of 5 - Bear Country

Since we never were lucky enough to get any photos of grizzly bears in the wild, we decided to visit Bear Country USA in Rapid City, SD, which offers visitors views of most North American mammals. Visitors take a three-mile drive through several enclosures where the encounter black bear, elk, reindeer, mule deer, cougars, bobcats, rocky mountain goats, bighorn sheep, dall sheep and bison. Here and there throughout the park were wooden towers with armed guards, ready to take action if anything should go wrong.

The collection of black bears was quite amazing! They had every size and color phase imaginable, from the lightest "blond" to the darkest black. (At first I thought the brown and blond bears were grizzlies, but after looking at the photos, I realized they were not. Supposedly the park has grizzlies, but apparently they were not on display.) Many of the bears had unkempt, matted fur -- not sure if that happens in the wild, but I have never seen a wild bear that looked like that.

There must have been at least 100 bears in a very large enclosure. As we drove through, some were lounging in a pool of water, and others were ambling about, crossing the road in front of cars, climbing on logs, etc. Suddenly they all began running in one direction -- they had heard the truck coming with their food. They all gathered around the truck as the attendant shoveled out what appeared to be vegetables and possibly bread. They squabbled among themselves, with some running off with tasty morsels, and other pursuing.

It was interesting to get some close-up photos of huge elk shedding the velvet from their antlers. Other highlights were a very light-colored "white" bison, wild asses, and a bighorn sheep with fantastic horns.

This place made me a little sad, since most of the animals were lethargic, with many sleeping or just lying down looking through the fences. I couldn't even bring myself to take pictures of the cougars -- they had six of them in two small, heavily fenced enclosures. I couldn't get shots of the arctic wolves, reindeer, mule deer and mountain goats, since all were asleep or lying down out of sight.

More in Part 3

August 15 - Day 41 - 4 of 5 - South Dakota I-90

After leaving the Badlands, we traveled east on I-90. At first, the terrain was waterless and nearly desert. The landscape consisted of arid rolling hills and arroyos filled with sagebrush, with an occasional ranch in the distance. At one point, we spotted a herd of wild horses browsing on dry grass.

As we moved eastward, we began to notice more streams and rivers, and there were herds of cattle and horses grazing the rangeland. Gradually the desert gave way to farmland, featuring endless fields full of hay rolls, wheat and sunflowers. Near the Wisconsin border, we began to see more trees, ponds, streams and fertile cropland and dairy farms.

At Oacoma, close to the middle of the state, we crossed the broad Missouri River. We remembered how small it had been when we saw its source in Three Forks, Montana, and were impressed with how large the river had become in that distance.

We saw lots of deer -- both mule and white tailed -- with a couple dozen in S. Dakota, and nearly 60 in the Black Hills National Forest, right after we crossed the state line. Throughout the day we saw small bands of pronghorn antelope. By the time we reached Wisconsin, we had counted over 300!

Interesting note about pronghorns. According to National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals,

This family consists of a single species, which occurs only in Western North America. Despite it's genus name (Antilocapra, meaning "antelope goat"), the Pronghorn is neither goat nor antelope, or even very closely related to either; instead, it is the sole remnant of an ancient family that dates back 20 million years.

More from August 15 in Part 5 - Animals

August 15 - Day 41 - 5 of 5 - Animals

Western Meadowlark

Lark Sparrow

Brewer's Sparrow

Here are a few animals we have seen recently:

Mountain goat nanny and kid, near Mt. Rushmore

Black-tailed prairie dog, Badlands National Park

Hoary Marmot, Sylvan Pass in the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming

August 14 - Day 40

Hi Folks

Here we are in Custer, South Dakota at the Beaver Lake Campground.

Early this morning we stopped at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. First we explored the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, which houses a comprehensive collection of works by Albert Bierstadt, George Caitlin, Frederic Remington, Bob Kuhn, Carl Rungius, Charles Russell, Philip R. Goodwin and more. There was a reconstruction of Remington's studio that was amazing.

After the art, we toured the Cody Firearms Museum. The museum is noted for its exhibits of American firearms, including the Winchester collection. The museum, featuring some 3000 items, traces the development of firearms from the early 16th century. Donny says the collection was "mind-boggling"! There were so many firearms and so much information, it was difficult to take it all in. Donny did say that he thinks his Savage collection may be better than theirs!

After leaving the museum, we headed east on Rte. 16, passing through Greybull, Worland, Buffalo, Gillette, Moorcroft and Newcastle. At about 7:30 p.m. we crossed the border into S. Dakota at Custer.

Highlights of the drive today included the drive through part of the Bighorn National Forest and Powder River Pass (elevation 9666') in the Bighorn Mountains. Beautiful scenery all the way. The terrain ranged from dry desert, complete with cactus to lush grasslands and forests. The road was often lined with limestone cliffs carved by the elements into spires, peaks and outcroppings of every shape and color. We saw extensive oil and gas extraction facilities in Wyoming, as well as several coal mines and power plants. We saw many freight trains pulling cars loaded with coal - we counted 135 cars on one of them.

Crossing the last part of Wyoming, we began to see small bands of 10 - 30 pronghorn antelopes, and we counted over 300 before dark. Just before crossing into S. Dakota, we started to see quite a few mule deer. Just across the border, we traveled through the Hells Canyon section of the Black Hills National Forest, where we encountered over 60 whitetail deer before arriving at the campground for the night.

We did have some trouble with our camper today -- the clamp that held the airbag we had to replace in Fairbanks, Alaska got twisted around, and the bag got cut. Not sure if we will try to replace it, or maybe just try to get home the way it is. When we stopped to check out the airbag problem, Donny noticed that the front left tire was soft. He checked, and sure enough, it had some kind of a metal stud in it and was losing air. He got out his tire patch kit and was able to fix it without removing the tire. If it keeps leaking he will put on one of the two spares we have with us.

Tomorrow we will visit Mt. Rushmore, and a wildlife park called Bear Country where at least a dozen species of animals roam freely. They have wolves, bears, sheep, goats, badgers, mountain lions, bobcats, lynx, elk, and more. Maybe we will finally see a grizzly! Not the way we hoped, but at least I may get some photos. After that, we will travel through a section of Badlands National Park and continue making our way eastward.

Good night!

Don and Cheryl