SD, WY – Jul 2022

Spent the last three weeks exploring south western South Dakota, and north eastern Wyoming.  There sure it lots of beautiful sites to explore out here in the west.  Now that I’m in Casper, I realized I could have used one additional week back in Sturgis, and one less week here.  There’s so much more to see in SD that I just ran out of time before visiting.  Oh well, just may have to make another trip out this direction.  But with two additional National Parks knocked out, and a slew of Roadside America visits, the past three weeks have certainly been fulfilling.

National Parks & Monuments

South Dakota has many National Park Service (NPS) sites, including two National Parks, as well as monuments, memorials, and historic sites.  Perhaps the most iconic and recognizable memorial is Mount Rushmore.  I had actually visited this once before some 22 years ago when the kids were little, and my two brother-in-laws and their families and I all took a pop-up camper roadtrip out west.  We visited Rushmore, Yellowstone, and a few other places on that quick 2-week adventure.  Seeing it again now, at my much slower and relaxed retired pace, certainly has its advantages.  Mt Rushmore had not changed since I last visited it, but it remains an awe inspiring and amazing place.  After visiting the faces, I was curious about a Roadside entry about something that was located behind the Rushmore mountain.  At first I thought it was a joke, or something that had been photoshopped into existence.  But alas it was the real deal.  Had it not been for Roadside, I would have never known about this interesting site, nor taken the short drive back behind the mountain to check it out.  I’m not going to describe it here, but rather will share it with you via the following video.  Enjoy!

Along the same line as Rushmore, Crazy Horse is another mountainside stone carving in SD. It too has not changed much since I’d last seen it 22 years ago.  That though, is unfortunate. This is not an NPS site, but rather a private entity.  I paid the $15 one person in a vehicle rate to simply drive in, take a few pics, then drive out.  Seems to me that if they are charging that exorbitant amount for admission, then they should have the funds to have made significantly more progress on the piece in the last twenty plus years.  It remains largely incomplete with only the head having any recognizable level of finish to it.  Geez!

Wind Cave National Park was the next NPS site I visited.  I have to be honest, I’d not really heard of this place before.  It’s definitely an interesting place, but apparently not one of the more well known National Parks.  It was established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt as the 7th National Park, and the first cave to receive the national park designation.  At 154 miles of explored passageways, it’s the 7th longest in the world, and 3rd longest in the US.  It got its name from the air that moves in and out, like breathing, as it adjusts to the outside air pressure.  There are a number of different tours, each having different levels of difficulty in traversing the many established tunnels, some requiring stooping and even crawling.  I opted for the shorter, safer, and easier senior tour that explored a couple of rooms and included lots of interesting history and anecdotes.  One of the more interesting notes was that unlike many other caves I’ve been in before, this one does not contain hardly any stalagmites or stalactites.  This is due to the caves overall dry climate and semi-permeable rock that limits water infiltration.  What is unique to this cave it the significant presence of Boxwork – or a honeycomb-like structure that can form in some fractured or jointed sedimentary rocks. Wind Cave has more boxwork than all other caves found on earth combined.  Truly amazing!

The last SD NPS site I visited was Badlands National Park.  This place was incredible! Initially created as Badlands National Monument on March 4, 1929, it was later redesignated a national park on November 10, 1978.  Interesting trivia, the movies Dances with Wolves and Thunderheart both contain scenes that were filmed here in the Badlands. The park extends to 242,756 acres, or 379 sq miles of wondrous buttes along with the largest undisturbed grass prairie in the US.  A 30 mile roadway was built through the park, and today serves as a driving tour through this amazing countryside.  As noted before with other vast scenic and seemingly endless visuals, simple pictures really do not do it justice.  So, this time I shot some videos and several pictures, and along with my dash cam video, I stitched together a short montage of this truly beautiful park.  So, for your enjoyment, here is that video.

Playing Tourist

Around Sturgis, there are a number of interesting towns and sites to see.  First up is a town called Deadwood, SD.  It had its heyday back between 1876 and 1879 when gold was discovered and lead to the Black Hills Gold Rush.  At its peak, the town had 25,000 residents  including famous westerners Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane, and the legend himself, Wild Bill Hickok – whose life was lost there in the town.  As of the 2020 census, the current population is around 1,200, further sustained by extensive tourist offerings.  One such attraction is the grave of Wild Bill Hickok.  James Butler Hickok was a folk hero of the old west, living his life as a fugitive, lawman, gambler, soldier, scout, and even an actor.  He’s also known for having participated in many gunfights and so many outlandish tales.  He was shot and killed while playing poker here in Deadwood by fellow gambler Jack McCall.  The hand of cards which he supposedly held at the time of his death has become known as the Dead Man’s Hand – two pair – black aces and eights.  There are lots of Wild Bill items in Deadwood including the chair he was sitting in when he was shot, several monuments in his honor, and of course his burial plot located on the hills of Mount Moriah Cemetery.  Right next to Bill is the burial plot of Calamity Jane.  It was her dying wish to be buried next to him.

Located in the Black Hills National Forest, just outside of Deadwood, up a several mile mountain side dirt road, you will come to Mount Theodore Roosevelt Monument – or aka Roosevelt Friendship Tower.  This is a 31 foot tower with a 6 foot observation platform at the top.  It was the first tribute to the president’s memory.  Back when Roosevelt was deputy sheriff in Medora, ND in 1884, he was searching for some horse thieves and met up with Seth Bullock who was the sheriff of Deadwood.  They became lifelong friends, and when Roosevelt died, Seth Bullock wanted to build a monument for his friend.  It was funded by the Society of the Black Hills Pioneers and was dedicated on July 4, 1919.  In 1966, the society turned over the tower to the US Forest Services who continues to maintain it to this day.  I’ve gotta say, the drive up the winding dirt road, and the 1 mile round trip hike on elevated rocky paths required a bit of effort, but the views from the top made the trouble all worth it.  Really pretty from up there.

Next, just a couple of miles north of Deadwood is the town of Lead, which is home to the Homestake Mine open pit.  This open pit mined gold and operated from 1876 to 2001.  In 1879, the owning partners sold shares in the mining company and listed the business on the New York Stock Exchange.  The Homestake Mining Company would become one of the longest listed stocks in the history of the NYSE.  Besides the surface open pit operation, it is also the largest and deepest gold mine in North America.  Going down some 8,000 feet, the mine produced more than forty million Troy ounces of gold during its operational lifetime.  That equates to 2,500 cubic feet of gold, or roughly the equivalent of 18,677 US gallons.  Wow – that’s a lot of gold!  In terms of production, the Homestake mine was the second largest gold producer in the US.  Later, in 2007, the mine beat out several other mines and was selected by the National Science Foundation as the location for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory.  Research in dark matter particles and enhanced geothermal systems continue to this day.  The picture doesn’t really do justice, but at right, center left, is a model of all the horizontal and vertical shafts that exist underground within the mine.  Now that’s a lot of digging!

No trip to southern SD would be complete without a stop to Wall – home of the famous Wall Drug.  This place is definitely a roadside attraction.  It started in 1931 when Ted Hustead, a pharmacist from Nebraska, purchased the building in this 231-person middle of no where town in order to setup a drug store.  Business was predictably slow, so his wife Dorothy came up with the idea to advertise free ice water to parched travelers heading to the newly opened Mt Rushmore some 60 miles west.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Today Wall Drug still offers free ice water, and sees upwards of two million visitors each year.  It’s now a collection of various cowboy themed stores, restaurants, and various gift shops.  You will also find the famous, yet elusive Jack-a-Lope which is an animal native to SD and WY, that is a cross between a Jack Rabbit and an Antelope.  Very strange creature indeed (if you believe it).  You can’t miss this place as there are signs for hundreds of miles on Interstate 90 suggesting you stop for a visit.  Sort of the western version and very similar to those hundreds of miles of advertising on Interstate 95 heading south towards the Carolina’s advertising Pedro and South of the Boarder.  All a must stop for us sucker tourists.

About 35 miles west of Sturgis is the town of Box Elder – home to Ellsworth Air Force Base.  It also happens to be home to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum.  Outside on static display you will find several  war era aircraft including Vietnam war era B-52, General Eisenhouwer’s WWII B-25, Titan I ICBM and Nike Ajax and Minuteman missiles, and the legendary WWII B-29 Superfortress bomber to name a few.   Also present are a number of fighter aircraft including F-101, F-86, and F-105.  Certainly lots to view and explore in their large outdoor display.  There is also a large indoor area which has other aircraft as well as trainers and simulators, but sadly the indoor section was unscheduled closed on the day I was there.  So, I missed those area.  Oh well – maybe next time.

Next was a visit to Rapid City, SD – or as it’s also known as, the City of Presidents.  Since 2000, Rapid City has been creating life-size bronze statues of former US presidents, and placing them on various street corners throughout the town.  To date, they have created statues of all presidents up to 43 – President Obama, and placed them on the corners of 4 by 8 city blocks.  They have a complete listing and interactive map available online to help you search and locate each of the presidents.  I walked around a bit and snapped a few pictures of about a half dozen of them, but it was an extremely hot day (close to 100), and this was a late afternoon stop, so it was just too darn miserable to go see each and every one of the statues.  But, it certainly would have been a lot of fun doing so.  Again as noted, there was just too much to see in this area of South Dakota and I just ran out of time.  I’m definitely gonna have to make my way back there someday and spend another 2-3 weeks to see all that I missed.

On the outskirts of downtown Rapid City just to the west is a McDonalds.  But not just any McDonalds, but a very special one.  In Feb 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Quarter Pounder being introduced at McDonalds, they formed the Quarter Pounder Fan Club.  Through sales of merchandise and other various events, it was determined that Rapid City had the most Quarter Pounder fans per capita, and thus would be the location for the burger statue.  Standing 9 feet tall and and 8 feet wide and weighing in at a whopping (no pun intended) 23,000 pounds, the statue bears the phrase “hot and deliciously juicy” in Latin on the front.  But I found the back of the statue a bit more interesting.  Given what is considered a litigious society, it would appear they found it necessary to include a regulatory warning as well.  See at right top for the details.  Too funny!

Also on my way back from visiting Wind Cave, in the small town of Pringle, SD, was this interesting Bicycle Sculpture roadside attraction.  Assembly began in the 1980s, and now includes hundreds of bicycles arranged in a pile with artistic intent.  I’ve seen older pictures of this artwork and it definitely had a better look and feel to it.  Today, it appears to be just a pile of bikes.  Oh well, still an interesting stop along the way

Lastly in downtown Rapid City was a visit to a segment of the Berlin Wall.  Located in Memorial Park is one of America’s largest Berlin Wall exhibits consisting of a pair of concrete slabs that were part of the wall that separated East and West Berlin during the Cold War.  Though South Dakota has no obvious ties to Berlin, this became a favorite from a traveling expo, and in 1996 became a permanent staple for the popular park.  In addition to the wall segments, there are also two steel tank traps and numerous placards that offers history and timelines all related to this historical landmark.

I’ve now left the Sturgis, SD area and have arrived in Casper Wyoming.  I’ve been here to Casper two times prior – once to attend a family reunion with my father-in-law Bob Brock back 22 years ago, then again in 2015 to sadly attend the burial of that same father-in-law.  He grew up here in Casper, but spent his later years in Maryland surrounded by his children and grandkids.  He was tremendously loved and respected by all, and is sorely missed.  I knew he was interred with his mother Mary Jane, but I had forgotten exactly where.   However, I remembered a website called Find-A-Grave that my brother Dick introduced me to through his genealogical journey.  So I used it to find the exact plot where he was located.  Unlike most of the graves on the web site, there was no picture associated with Bob’s entry.  So, I visited the site, took a picture, then submitted it for publishing.  Through that process I discovered there is a picture request list whereby others will request pictures of specific grave sites be taken and submitted.  I figured this would be yet another interesting and satisfying venture I can do while I’m traveling.  So I signed up and fulfilled a couple of requests from the same cemetery where Bob is located.  As I travel, I’ll check online to see if any requests exists for any local cemetery, and will try to fulfill them while I’m there.  Something very similar to what I’m doing with Roadside America by submitting new or updated pictures of places they feature on their list.  Certainly gives me something constructive to do while I venture around the country, and hopefully benefits others at the same time.

There are not a lot of Roadside items here in Casper, but one that clearly hits the mark is this place – Sanford’s Grub and Pub.  Complete with 30 foot statues of Bugs and Daffy, a truck riddled with alligators, a back section filled with antique cars for landscaping, and an old gas station vibe, this place has it all.  This is a small chain of three restaurants with locations in Dickinson, ND (where I was just staying a few weeks ago), another in Cheyenne (where I’ll be next), and one here in Casper.  I’m not sure if all locations share this type of extensive cartoonary, so I guess I’ll have to find out when I’m in Cheyenne.  I could not find much history on this place other than the chain was founded by two brothers James and Willy Yates in 1992.  They also have significant support for both the military and first responders through various discounts and donations.  Definitely a cool place to visit, and apparently supports good causes as well.

Next up was a visit to an interesting town.  Bar Nunn, WY, located about 10 miles north west of Casper has a population of just under 3,000, and was founded in 1950s by Rosie Nunn, and later incorporated as a town in 1982.  What actually makes this town unique is that its roughly 2 square mile land mass  was built around the runways of an old shuttered airport.  Wardwell Airport was Casper’s original, later replaced by Casper-Natrona County International Airport.  Their local watering hole, the Hanger Bar & Grill, is actually located in one of the old airplane hangers.  All the streets are long and straight, consistent with their prior use as runways.  I included a google satellite view so you can clearly see what was once an active airport.  They are apparently also known for their wild Pronghorn – or Antilocapra Americana by its Latin name – meaning American goat-antelope.  Interestingly, it is neither a member of the goat or antelope family. Anyway, this mammal is featured on the town sign, and sure enough I spotted a couple of them roaming around Bar Nunn.  Nice of them to have posed for the picture.

Well, I’ve got a few more days here in Caper, and a couple more places to visit before I leave  – which I’ll report on in my next blog post.  In the meantime, since I was to be here for two weeks, it was a perfect opportunity to catch up on some much needed Amazon orders, and to get some minor maintenance done.  What I did NOT expect, was to find a large cache of fresh rhubarb in the local grocery store.  I’ve not seen this in any store for quite some time (years), and was immediately drawn to it for some much needed, and long overdue batches of strawberry rhubarb jam.  So I got a bunch of it, then ventured off to Walmart to purchase the necessary canning supplies.  I then spent the next couple of days preparing and canning a dozen half pint jars of the glorious concoction.  Having been so pleased with how it turned out, I went back to the store and purchased another large supply of rhubarb and related ingredients, and made up another dozen half pint jars.  I’ve already got requests from several of my brothers for a sampling of the goods, and will gladly fulfill them upon my return to Florida.  I’ll also be sending a care package to my daughters for them to enjoy as well.  Looks like I’ll have more than enough to share, and also keep a steady supply for some time to come.  Its been many, many years since I last made rhubarb jam, and now that I’ve got the canning supplies again, I’ll certainly be on the lookout for more in the future.

Final Thoughts

Well, as noted, I’ve got a few more days here in Casper before I continue my southern route to my next stop in Cheyenne.  I’ve also recently learned that my brother Gerry is looking to meet up with me in Albuquerque during his trek back to Florida from his summer stay in Washington state.  I’ve also got friends and former co-workers I’ll be catching up with in NM, so I’m definitely looking forward to all the visit time upcoming.  I’m now roughly two and a half months into my journey, with just about three months remaining.  Still lots to explore and experience along the way, and I continue to thoroughly enjoy myself along the way.  Till next time, stay well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!