Wyoming/South Dakota – Speed Dating Style

In the morning we try and sleep in since past week was the week of early mornings and late nights as we were adding remote schooling to our mental load.
The pup does not agree and gets Sol up before the sunrise. We make the rest of the way to South Dakota with lots of plans in our heads. We have to accomplish them in two days and hightail it out before the looming Labor Day snow storm arrives. It is perfectly sunny and hot while we are there.

First, we set out to see Devils Tower in Wyoming. Once there, we briefly consider turning back as the line to get into the the parking lot is long.

We do brave it though and are not disappointed. The rock – serving as a plug to an underlying volcano – is mesmerizing. It is a collection of hexagon solid tubes that are sticking out of the ground at the height of 4 football fields.
We hike around it’s foot watching some climbers who are braving 6 hour long technical climb (with equipment). We watch their tiny figures
reach the top of the mountain.

The view must be amazing from up there.

As we drive away, I quiz the girls a little on the nature of Devil’s rock (they red their junior ranger magazines while there). Sasha pipes in: “This rock is like a wine cork in an underground volcano bottle!” I say: “Correct! it is made of petrified Magnum….. “. I catch and correct myself not quick enough for Sol not to notice…. Oh well, it is 5 pm somewhere out there..

From Devils peak we soldier on to Custer, South Dakota and drop our Trailer Swift at a camp site before we are off to other adventures of this busy day.

Onward we drive through Black Hills, SD to Mt. Rushmore where we spend about 40 minutes dodging mostly unmasked crowds. We select some remote hikes striving to avoid people and catch some unconventional views of the mountain face(s).

I quiz the girls about Mt. Rushmore on the way there and Sasha pipes in with “Well, those are faces of presidents carved out on the rock they stole from Indians!” Among all the craziness that is to raise our high energy girls we live for the proud moments like this. They do listen after all.

Next, we drive over to Crazy Horse memorial site to spend the rest of the evening and attend a historic laser show projected onto the monument once it is dark. The show is dedicated to the story of Crazy Horse monument and the life of it’s polish sculptor who, commissioned by the Lakota tribe leaders, dedicated most of his life to carving this sacred mountain face. The monument, which is not finished yet, will be much larger than the faces on Mt. Rushmore and is perceived as a tribe’s answer to it.

current state

What a whirlwind experience indeed. There is a lot to unpack with the girls on the way to our camp after the show. As one could imagine, Crazy Horse did not live a peaceful life and did not die of a ripe old age, so, girls have lots of questions.

At the site, girls go to bed while me and Sol figure out our remaining travel plans.

After an overwhelming day we are thinking about catching home wind. We are about 25 hours of solid driving away, so, we figure it will take about 4-5 days as we will drive around our school and work schedules and we will try to fit in a few short fun things along the way.

The next morning girls support our sentiment. Tamara misses her reptiles and Sasha must be home for her cat’s birthday! Our lift off day was just over a month ago but we have seen and done so much over this time that it seems like it has been ages. It is time to set sail home.

Next morning, before we are off, we have got business to attend to. First thing after breakfast we go back to Crazy Horse monument because girls want to complete their scavenger hunt in the museum. We walk around museum of Lakota art and history which is fascinating and also sobering. The scavenger hunt is challenging as they have to find particular pieces among many exhibits.

We walk along looking at every piece and reading about them and
most definitely learning (me as much as them). After all the scavenger hunt items are found we take their booklets to the front desk where girls get a prize: a sticker, a pencil, and a packet of mica(!) out of all the minerals found in nature this one is the most glittery one: parent’s delight! The choice of mica as a gift to visiting children is not random. We learn that mica is heat resistant and can be ‘sliced’ until it is translucent. So, it was used by the Lacota people as covering for fire stoves.

Next order of business, we drive down to the town of Custer’s cemetery. We have a task of finding a grave of Pappy’s grandfather who was the town’s
blacksmith in the beginning of last century. We tell the girls the name (Herman A. Miller) and they are on the task! We find the grave fairly quick, thanks to Ancestry.com’s data base. Girls put two pink quartz stones on the top of a white obelisk. They have learned the gesture of respect when visiting Jewish cemetery with my mom.

We stop in town’s visitor center in hopes to also find Herman A. Miller’s smith shop as a historic location. However, Sol is told, they have razed that part of town down to create historic site memorial … go figure. We then exit the town fairly quickly. The main street looks like a picture from Sturgis rally few weeks earlier and not a single person is wearing a mask.

Next stop is Custer State park where Sol had planned a lovely 4 mile hike before we say goodbye to South Dakota. We pay $20 to enter the park and we are excited as the hike promises to be difficult and beautiful, and dogs are allowed!

We quickly realize that there is no way we can stop here as the park is full to the brim with weekenders. It looks more as busy downtown than back woods.
We parade a circle around the parking lot and exit. We drive further into the hills to have lunch in the remote spot with a nice view.

With that, we set off on a first long leg of our journey home and drive well into the dark. We rest that night under the protection of a Sioux Woman at the rest stop on the border of Minnesota.