We thought
if we got to Custer State Park early we would have a better chance of seeing
the buffalo. We stopped in Keystone for
breakfast.
We ate at
the Powder House Lodge Restaurant. The
current restaurant sits on the site of the original Powder House which was used
to store blasting powder and bootleg liquor. The lady in the picture just kept meandering across the parking lot, I got tired of waiting on her and took the picture anyway.
Some more of
that local knotty pine. Breakfast was
great.
The wooden
bridges they have in this area are amazing.
A couple of these are part of the pig tail bridge system. From the air it does curl around like a pig’s
tail.
In addition
to all of the ponderosa pines in the area, we saw a lot of birch trees.
This is the
Sovel Johnson Tunnel.
The Iron
Mountain Road has a lot of areas filled with trees.
The Wildlife
Loop Road has more grassland.
When we
noticed this pronghorn I was so excited I almost didn’t get a picture. Thank goodness this one didn’t take advantage
of the fact that it can run 60 mph for great distances.
We didn’t
know until last night when I was doing some research that Custer State Park was
devastated by a huge fire just this past December, 2017. What started as a small spark caused by one
of the ponderosa pines falling across and breaking a power line, escalated
quickly through the dormant grass. Over
50 mph winds fanned the flames quicker than fire fighters could get it under
control. At this same time a lot of the
hot shots who would normally help fight this type of fire were in California
fighting another wildfire. The local
firefighters eventually lit back fires to get it under control. The fire swept
so fast through the area that it remained largely at ground level. This helped save some of the trees and it
meant that the fire didn’t remain in one place long enough to burn through to
the roots of the grass and wildflowers, which are flourishing now. The charred trees still remind us of the
devastation that took place.
We took
Fisherman Flats Road in search of the buffalo herd. This is a gravel road which will accommodate cars
coming and going. However, the road goes
nowhere, it ends and you have to turn around (if the buffalo will let
you). We found the herd but it was off
in the distance grazing so we didn’t get up close to any. The lighter colored ones are the new calves, lots
of them throughout the herd.
Scenery on
Fisherman Flats Road.
We decided
to take a road less traveled and headed out on Oak Draw Road. There are lots of these yellow flowers out
here. They look a lot like smartweed
that we have back in Indiana, except they are yellow. I think I found out they are called goldenpeas.
Scenery on
the Oak Draw Road.
Just as we
were leaving Oak Draw Road we saw this deer in the distance. It was so far away I had my camera zoomed as
far as it would go and still didn’t get a very good picture.
Ok, this
prairie dog looks fake to me. I think
someone set this up so I could get at least one “wildlife” photo today.
These
buffalo thought they could avoid us noisy tourists by hiding in the shade.
These stacks
of wood throughout this part of the park are another leftover from the fire.
This is just outside the Scovel Johnson Tunnel as we come out of the park. If you are quick you can catch Mt. Rushmore
between the trees.
Even though
Mt. Rushmore is a national monument, we couldn’t use our national parks
pass. There is no actual admission to
the monument, but there is a $10 fee for parking. Either because we are licensed in South
Dakota or because we are senior citizens, we got in for $5.
I know, we
saw most of the monument from the road, but I am really glad we came to see it
close up. I would have missed the man of
obvious Mexican descent proudly telling his children what he had learned about
the presidents who are depicted on Mt. Rushmore. I didn’t intrude to ask, but it sounded like
this knowledge was new to him and he was very proud of it so I am assuming he
learned it in order to become a citizen.
He knew a lot more about these presidents than I could remember.
The Avenue
of Flags was pretty impressive.
We found the
Indiana flag, but couldn’t catch a picture of it when it was blowing in the
wind.
There is a
plaque for each state on the column underneath where the flag is located.
The carving by
Gutzon Borglum is breathtaking. Borglum
died March 6, 1941 just months before it was completed. Borglum’s son, Lincoln saw the project through
to completion on October 31, 1941. The
original cost of the carving was $989,992.00 about 85% of that was federal
funds. Around 400 laborers, mostly from
the unemployment ranks worked on the memorial.
Hourly pay ranged from 35 cents to $1.50. In the 1990’s it was renovated at a cost of
$56 million dollars.
This has
nothing to do with the Mt. Rushmore Monument other than it was over to the side
of the viewing center and I thought it was interesting.
We learned
in the film about the monument that 90% of the carving was done with
dynamite. The rest was done by weakening
the granite by drilling holes in it and then chipping it away.
In my
research I found out a lot of things about the monument that I didn’t
know. One was that Susan B. Anthony’s
portrait almost made it into the carving.
Borglum had planned a Hall of Records storage vault behind the heads to
store important national documents and an American time capsule, work ceased on
that before completion.
Through the
tunnel heading home.
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