South Dakota

Leaving Wyoming we merged into South Dakota and stayed in Rapid City.  Instead of the sharp mountain peaks as seen in Wyoming...we started seeing hills that looked black against the sky.....thus named The Black Hills.

One of the big attractions is Custer State Park.  We visited an area called The Needles which had amazing needlelike rock and mountain formations plus lots of hairpin turns and killer dropoff cliffs.  

we somehow managed to SQUEEZE the truck through here

Also inside Custer State Park were lovely lakes surrounded with mountains and beautiful scenery.  One spot looked like a wedding planned there in the near future.  Crazy Hammer and I.......had a moment.  

WE DO

After visiting Custer we went in search of Crazy Horse....cousin to Crazy Hammer.  The statue is still in its formative stage but when finished it will be quite a sight to see.

The following day we headed to Mount Rushmore to visit with Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln.  

The walkway leading up to the mount is an archway with the flags from all 50 states.  The flag of Massachusetts was furled and I couldn't take the pic.

I zoomed up really closely onto Theodore Roosevelt's face and you can see the delicately sculpted spectacles around his eyes.

An interesting tidbit of trivia was on a sign there stating that Thomas Jefferson brought the very first ice cream recipe to this country.  And if you zoom in really closely you might be able to make out the recipe!

South Dakota has so much to offer tourists.  We went to another amazing place.....The Badlands, and took so many beautiful pics of this gorgeous place.  It reminded us of gorgeous and colorful sand castles.......WITH RATTLE SNAKES HIDING ALL AROUND!!  

You only need to tell me ONCE

The Badlands were lovely the day we were there....temps in the 60's.  But we were lucky.  Temps can go up as high as 116 and as low as -40.  Beautiful.....but deadly.  

The most interesting were the rainbow colored rock formations.  This area was carved over the course of 40 million years and was at one time a lush tropical forest and even a sea.  The colors are from the different layers of sedimentary rock and fossils which accumulated over the years.  Even alligator and three toed horse fossils were found here.  

Strangely....almost as famous as Mount Rushmore....is WALL DRUG!!!  All across the state.....because of its starkness that you notice them.....are signs for Wall Drug.  How many miles left until you get there.  What kids of things you can buy there.  You are almost there.  How many exits until.........    It kept us busy as we crossed S. Dakota.  So to appease the signs we had to GO and see it.   Ha ha.  it's kind of like Kittery Trading Post.  

And NOW....for the South Dakota animal report!!

white prairie dogs....supposedly only found in South Dakota

bighorn sheep in the Badlands.....posing for me

regular colored prairie dog

We are now starting our long but fun journey back home.  The first place we needed to visit is THE MALL OF AMERICA!!!  After sooo much beautiful nature.....we NEEDED some fabulous artificial and man made excitement.  And let me tell you....The Mall Of America is ALL THAT and THEN SOME.  It has 4 floors and an amusement park to rival any Six Flags.  It took us 4 hours just to walk the entire place.  What an amazing mall.  The restaurant area takes about 20 minutes to walk by.  

And now family and friends......thank you all for sharing this epic adventure....RIVETING too....with us.  This will be the final entry for this trip.  Hopefully this early spring we will begin another adventure.....the southeastern states.  Hope you all join us for that too.               TTFN.......
Love, Princess Glass O' Wine and Chief Crazy Hammer   xoxooxo