Camping in the Black Hills

6-17-10

Hi all...

We're camping tonight and tomorrow in Hill City, South Dakota which is in the Black Hills National Forest. We're about 12 miles from Mount Rushmore and fairly close to the Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park.

It is so windy here!! 50+ mph gusts! Makes it very difficult to sight-see on a motorcycle. The roads inside the campground are gravel and when the wind gusts, it kicks up so much white dust it looks like it's snowing outside!! We even lost power for a couple hours. LOL! Our campground is called Horsethief Campground and I can certainly understand why. No one would ever find you here, that's for sure!! There's no cell phone service here, no cable tv, and a very limited internet connection. Gosh, I didn't know we'd be truly "roughing it" on this trip. ;-) I probably won't be posting today's or tomorrow's adventures until we move on because the internet connection is so poor.

We did venture out on the bike, despite the weather, to see Mount Rushmore. It really is something to see. There really are no words.......just amazing.
























On the way back, we went into downtown Hill City to pick up some groceries. Hill City is yet another neat little western town......little shops, neat restaurants.....really great little town. I love being out west. Westerners know how to take life at a slower pace and seem to enjoy and appreciate the simpler things in life. Patriotism and respect for the flag are huge out here. And people are openly proud of their Christianity and do not hesitate to show it publicly.

Tomorrow it's off to the Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park....





6-18-10

Good morning everyone....this morning we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is hard to believe that they have been working on it for over 60 years and so far only the head is done. It is going to be GI-NORNMOUS! The head is so big that all four of the Mount Rushmore heads would fit on his face alone! Here's a few pics of what it looks like now and what it will look like when it's completed. If you look carefully, you will see where they have drawn the horse's head on the side of the mountain to use as a guide. It will never be completed in my lifetime.....perhaps our children will someday see it complete.




Next stop was to be Custer State Park, but it was so windy, the bike was blowing all over the road, so we had to turn around and head back to camp. Better safe than sorry.

After dinner we decided to take a walk in the woods behind the campground, and we're so glad we did! It was beautiful! The tall, dark Ponderosa pines give the illusion of "black hills" when viewed from a distance. Most of the "foliage" is on the top 1/3 of the tree. We hadn't gotten too far when we started seeing large rocks here and there and pretty soon, there was a huge rock formation looming in front of us. We climbed to the very top and it was such an amazing view. We were as high as the tops of some of the pines. One of the things I found to be so amazing is that the sun would set where we are so it would be dark, but the mountains all around are so high that it would still be sunny on the mountain.















The other thing that I loved about this area is that the hillsides are full of granite and quartz and when the sun shines on them, they sparkle like diamonds. How beautiful.....





What a perfect end to a perfect day. Tomorrow it's goodbye to the Black Hills and on to the Badlands.