Making the Most of the Last Days of Our Trip - Part 1 - The Black Hills of South Dakota

When you read this, we will be home. Here's Part 1 of the rest of our trip.

With just a few days before we had to start back, we tried to cram as much in as we could. We had been to the Black Hills and Badlands National Park 19 years ago with Aryeh and Yoni so we didn’t feel bad rushing through what we had already seen, and even found time for some new stuff.

Ye Olde “Wild West” Towns
All the restored Wild West towns look the same. With all the gift shops, hotels, saloons, daily “shootouts”, zip lines, etc. - It is hard to believe the days of the wild west were less than 150 years ago. And that this whole area still belonged to the Indians.

Deadwood - Claim to fame-Place where Wild Bill Hickock was shot. (Note: Wild Bill Hickock’s claim to fame is that he was shot in Deadwood.) Also the location of the unlikely named Mount Moriah Cemetery where many legendary wild westerners are buried.

Lead - Location of the Homesteak Gold Mine which made a fortune for George Hearst, father of William Randolph. No longer being mined. The open pit mine is enormous. The underground part dwarfs the aboveground section. Part of the tunnels were converted to the Sanford Underground Research Facility (claim to fame - detection of neutrinos).

The top of the open pit mine. To give you a sense of scale, the horizontal lines are truck roads.

Gold ore. I didn't get to keep it.

Keystone - Claim to fame - Near Mount Rushmore. I’m not sure this photo is actually of Keystone, but you get the idea. (See, “All the restored Wild West towns look the same,“ above)

There were lots of motorcycles in the area for the Sturgis Bike Rally starting August 6th. Would not like to be in the area then. 

Spearfish Canyon

Location where the movie "Dances with Wolves" was filmed. (We never saw the movie but we seem to be collecting Kevin Costner movie film sites, see "In Their Dreams" post)

Mickelson Bike Trail

Custer State Park

Mount Rushmore. We did a drive by. And saw a profile view of George Washington.

Fun Fact - Who was “Rushmore”? - Back in 1884 a NY lawyer named Charles Rushmore was in the Black Hills checking on the legal titles of properties for a mining company. Rushmore inquired what the granite outcropping was named. His local guide replied, "Never had a name, but from now on we'll call it Rushmore." The name stuck and locals began calling it Mount Rushmore. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names made the name official in June of 1930. 

Reminds me of our first Canyonlands canoe trip, when Bob asked the shuttle driver what a formation was called. The guy responded, let’s call it, “Bob’s Knob.” I wonder if that name took?

Coming soon: Making the Most of the Last Days of Our Trip - Part 2 - Badlands National  Park