Black Hills
At this point, we wanted to sit still for more than 2 days. Plus Labor Day was coming up and you don’t want to be caught without a campground reservation over Labor Day. Thus, we found the Rafter J Bar Ranch RV Resort in Hill City, central to the Black Hills of South Dakota. The place had a pool, a hot tub, and gorgeous scenery. Sign me up please!
This was the view from the hot tub. Can you spot the Blue Flame…between the two red umbrellas?
Of course, a visit to Mt. Rushmore was in order.
No drones allowed at Mt. Rushmore. Who knew this was a thing?
Crazy Horse is being memorialized in stone. This is the third time I’ve seen the Crazy Horse Monument. The first time was in around 1970. I may have to find a picture from then in my parent’s photo album. Back then all you could see was the hole under his arm…no face!
Custer State Park
We took a day and drove through Custer State Park. This place was unique. The gentleman that placed the roads did it such as to maximize your views of Mt. Rushmore. He started with three Pigtail Bridges that circled back on themselves.
Pigtail bridge
Then he placed tunnels such that when you drove through them you had a view of Mt. Rushmore!
There were a number of places to park, again with views of Mt. Rushmore. Someone has the job of clearing the trees so the views are unobstructed.
There is a road through the park called the Wildlife Loop. So off we drove to see the wildlife.
The Custer State Park Bison herd
Prairie Dogs are so much fun to watch.
We were allowed to drive up to a mountain that had a fire tower and a bunch of communication antennas on it. Unbelievable! The fire tower was manned, it was so hot and dry.
View from the fire tower. There were lots of antennas here. You could also see Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Badlands, and an Air Force Base.
The final road in the park to explore was the Needles Highway. The rock formations here look like, well, needles!
The Needles
Needles Highway
This is Needle Eye tunnel. It was one lane wide and people were lined up on both sides to get through it. Only in America!
I have to include another food picture. I had a bison-elk burger on trip into Hill City. It tasted like hamburger!
About this time, all the wildfires in the west started to flare up. There was one day it was so bad, I stayed inside the RV (and quilted, of course). See the before and after pictures below.
This was the view from the RV of the surrounding hills the day we arrived.
This is the same view a week later. It was hard to breathe and didn’t smell that great. Fortunately, it was this bad only a couple of days. I can’t imagine being in Montana or Oregon though. Yikes.