Nature, travel, pets, home renovation, and geekery
I have visited a lot of parks on my trip out west, and in a lot of those parks were prairie dogs. A lot of prairie dogs were in those parks. I have to admit that I couldn’t get enough of them. They are just so cute. Here is a collection of photos of prairie dogs from several different parks.
Prairie dog
Prairie dog
Prairie dog
Prairie dogs
Prairie dogs
Prairie dogs
Prairie dog
Prairie dogs
Prairie dogs
Prairie dog
I spent a total of five days in the Rapid City area, but I barely spent any time in Rapid City itself. The last day I was there, I spent a little bit of time wandering around downtown Rapid City. It is a rather cute town. I have clear preferences in towns. I like towns that still have some of their old buildings, and Rapid City does. It also has some new art and a town square of sorts. On several street corners, there are statues of various Presidents, presumably with keeping with the theme set by Mt. Rushmore. Most unique, it has an art alley, where people can paint the backs of buildings and evidently everything else in the alley that doesn’t generally move. Permits are required for the painting, which is a rather interesting touch considering some of it looks like graffiti.
Downtown Rapid City
Downtown Rapid City
Downtown Rapid City
Town square of sorts that kids clearly like
Art Alley
Art Alley
Art Alley
Statues of Presidents on most corners
I have said it before, and I will say it again, the Black Hills are gorgeous. I have posted some of my photos in their respective blog posts: Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, 1880 Train ride, Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore, and Deadwood. Here are just a few more photos that didn’t fit anywhere because they weren’t in any particular park. Of particular note are three tunnels on US 16A that were made by tunneling straight through the rock for only the small amount needed for a (single) car to go through. That in itself is an engineering feat, considering when they were built, but also they were built to frame Mt. Rushmore. It is not easy to see in the photo, but with all three, depending on the direction you are driving, you can see Mt. Rushmore, and it is really neat. Consider also the crazy route that the road had to take to get to those exact angles to frame Mt. Rushmore.
Horse Thief Lake
US 16A, the scenic drive
Black Hills
Tunnel that frames Mt. Rushmore
Tunnel that frames Mt. Rushmore
Tunnel that frames Mt. Rushmore
Black Hills
Black Hills
As I was driving from the Rapid City area up to North Dakota, a storm was coming through. I was lucky in that I only went through a little bit of rain. I was also lucky because I had decided to take entirely back roads. (Of course in truth, almost all roads in the area I was in was a back road.) There was almost no one else on the road, so I could occasionally stop and take photos of the storms. I also lucked out because there were numerous sunflower farms, which made for very nice foregrounds. Anyway, here are a few of the photos.
Previously I visited the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Delta-01 which was the launch control center as well as where the crew lived. Yesterday, I visited the Delta-09 site, which was where an actual missile was. The missile with the nuclear warhead has been removed, but there is an unarmed missile in it now, so visitors can see what it looked like. You can walk around the surface, which is a fairly small area, but you can see some of the support infrastructure like an antenna and manholes.
Missile in silo
Missile in silo with basket for a person to do maintenance
Antenna
Tracks to move cover
Missile silo is under glass room. Manholes for maintenance are on right.
Utility pole
In the photo above, you can see lines of vegetation. The entire area was mainly devoid of vegetation, but the vegetation it did have followed neat lines. I can’t figure out why, and I presume it has nothing to do with the site. I considered if the site had water pipes, perhaps if they were leaking, then vegetation might follow along the pipes, but I am fairly sure there are no water pipes. I know some plants develop root runners, but I have never seen any that are that linear. If anyone knows why plants would do this, I would love it if they would leave me a comment.
I saw and photographed quite a few bison while at Custer State Park, so I wanted to share some more photos in a separate blog post of just them. The first four photographs are of the same bison, who rather enjoys rolling around in the dirt.
Buffalo who likes to roll in dirt
Buffalo who likes to roll in dirt
Buffalo who likes to roll in dirt
Buffalo who likes to roll in dirt
Buffalo
Buffalo creating traffic jam in Custer State Park
Herd of buffalo
I am probably prone to superlatives on my blog, but Custer State Park is, in fact, stunningly gorgeous. It has lovely grasslands where you can find bison, prairie dogs, and donkeys and probably others. Those are the ones I saw. I have to also admit that I am a little sketchy on wild donkeys being in a park, but I digress. The park also has the granite peaks and spires that make the Black Hills so famous. There is a manmade lake called Sylvan Lake that has the granite spires lining it and popping out of it. There is Needles Highway, which is an engineering feat of wonder, where you drive around the granite spires and in two cases drive through them in the most ridiculous small, just cut out the exact space needed for a car, tunnels. There is the Wildlife Loop where you can see the wildlife and just take in the gorgeous grasslands. My photos probably don’t do it justice, but if you are ever in the area, make time and go to this park.
Custer State Park grasslands
Buffalo on the grasslands
Donkeys (or burros) on the grasslands
Buffalo on the grasslands
Custer State Park
Needles Highway tunnel
Needles Highway
Sylvan Lake
Sylvan Lake
I took a ride today on the 1880 Train, whose route goes back and forth between Hill City and Keystone SD. It uses an old mining and mill railroad for its track. The round trip takes two hours, and it is a nice, relaxing ride through some beautiful countryside.
The 1880 Train engine
The 1880 Train on a curve
An old mine entrance
Views of the Black Hills
Views of the Black Hills
The 1880 Train having a blowdown
This afternoon was spent in the Black Hills. I first visited the Crazy Horse memorial being built. The scale of it is amazing. I spotted it from the road, and I was in awe. They are carving a sculpture out of an entire hill of rock. Only the face is complete thus far, but the work is impressive, and it is interesting to watch it being carved.
Crazy Horse and the model from which the hill is being carved
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Next I visited Mount Rushmore National Memorial. I have to say, after visiting Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore was slightly underwhelming. The carving is really impressive, especially considering when it was all done without some of our modern day tools. However compared to Crazy Horse, it is kind of small. Calling Mt. Rushmore small is ridiculous, but in comparison, it is.
Mt. Rushmore
Mt. Rushmore and the plaza walk to it
Mt. Rushmore, profile of George Washington can be seen from road
This morning I visited Wind Cave National Park. On the surface, the park looks like much of same lovely grassland as the surrounding area. Underground, however, lies a huge cave system filled with gorgeous formations. The cave is famous for its boxwork formations and has most of the known boxwork in the world. You can take tours of a small portion of the cave, enough to get a glimpse of the gorgeous boxwork.
Wind Cave National Park, grasslands above ground
Boxwork in Wind Cave
Boxwork in Wind Cave
Crystals in Wind Cave
Crystals in Wind Cave
Wind Cave
Boxwork in Wind Cave
Boxwork in Wind Cave