Rocky Raccoon

July 22, 2015

Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon
And one day his woman ran off with another guy
Hit young Rocky in the eye Rocky didn't like that
He said I'm gonna get that boy
So one day he walked into town
Booked himself a room in the local saloon

My reference to the Black Hills to now has been a Beatles song. Also, any hills that are black are going to be ugly, right? I sure was surprised. There was no black in the hills; rather they were lush, green mountains with some rocky cliffs. It was stunning.

We planned three nights in the Black Hills, and as it turned out, it wasn't enough time to enjoy all of the beauty of this place. Cheri's Mom and Dad had their honeymoon here - they spent a week. Cheri's always wondered what they could possibly do in a week in the Black Hills. Now, we both know.

The Flintstones live in South Dakota

First, this place is designed for family vacations, there are all kinds of attractions from Flintstones Theme Park, Dinosaur displays, Bear Country, Reptile World and even some place called Cosmic World. And there were more campgrounds than we've seen, even at places like Yellowstone and Glacier. We picked a campground near Custer and settled in. Custer's a cute little western town, and we actually found an organic market there to stock up our rig.

Mount Rushmore - It's not this small

We did the obligatory visit to Mount Rushmore. When Cheri first started planning out the trip, she mentioned going to Mount Rushmore. I really had no interest in seeing it. Just a tourist trap, I thought. But, I have to admit, it's awe-inspiring. The work that went in to creating this monument is unthinkable. The weather in the Black Hills can be unforgiving, and the work went on all year round.

Original concept for Mount Rushmore

We hiked the loop that took us right under the sculpture. It's much bigger than I thought it was. Huge is a better description. When you get close, you see just how big this is. Under the sculpture was the artist's studio where we got to see the original model of what the finished product was to look like. As you see, the original plan by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and his son was to have more of the bodies of the presidents, but at some point, it was decided that it would be too much work and take too much time, so it was left with just the faces as we see today.

Crazy Horse, still far from complete

On another mountain not far from Mount Rushmore, a memorial for all Native America tribes is being built featuring the image of Crazy Horse. The plan is to ultimately have Crazy Horse pointing out over the horizon while sitting on his horse. This monument was started in 1948, and is still far from completion. When Done, it's expe
cted to be the world's largest sculpture.

We got incredibly close to buffalo.

Our favorite time in the Black Hills was spent in Custer State Park, an immense park featuring wildlife galore. At one point, we found ourselves surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of buffalo. They were peacefully grazing, just as you would see a field of cows grazing. We had to stop several times as a herd of buffalo simply decided to mosey across the road in front of us to see if the grass was greener on the other side of the road. Bebop and Satch were fascinated by the hugeness of them. I caught a shot of one only a few feet away from us.

We charged up the rig, filled the water tank, emptied the waste tanks as we get ready to move to our next destination, one that will have no hookups. We've come to like these times. When you don't have electricity, you find other things to do. Like talk, and play cards. And talk. It's good when you don't have all the distractions of the modern world. We lived like this for four nights in Yellowstone and really enjoyed it.

Mount Rushmore selfie.

Now, we leave the mountains behind and head East across the plains. We have really come to appreciate the abundance of beauty our mountain parks have to offer. Now, we head into the Upper Midwest, where we hope to find some lakes to swim, some friends to meet and enjoy a different type of camping experience.






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