Day 5: South Dakota --> Wyoming

Today was a day of driving and famous stops. I was in a National Park, a National Grassland, a National Forest, a National Memorial and at a National Monument all in the same day today! I also saw a publicly funded monument which I'll talk about in a minute.

Let start with the National Park. I woke up this morning in The Badlands, as expected since that's where I went to sleep! I packed up my tent and everything I had inside it, ate a really quick breakfast (thank goodness I grabbed a wrapped muffin at my last hotel cause I really didn't want to cook this morning), and got on my way! 

Next up was driving through the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Buffalo Gap surrounds the Badlands, so I've seen it, but still, I was there again today. I stopped on a gravel road the man at the National Grasslands Visitor Center told me about so I could find some prairie dogs. I drove about two miles and then found a colony! They were smaller than I expected and pretty cute, though signs had warned not to get out of your car since they carry the plague. Yes, THE plague. Not something you want to acquire right before residency. After taking a bunch of random pictures I got back on my way and continued driving through Buffalo Gap. 

Cute little prairie dogs

My first out of the car stop was at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It was actually much cooler than I anticipated, having heard about how un-impressive and commercialized it was. I don't think it was like that at all, and actually really enjoyed the stop. I walked around the little museum, watched the short film about its creation, and obviously viewed the mountain. I also read a funny fact in the South Dakota travel brochure I picked up at Cabela's a few days back. The man who was the lead on the project was very competitive, and since the workers had a baseball team he often hired workers based on their ability to play so they would do well! Anyways, it was a nice stop. 

After Mount Rushmore I drove the roughly 17 miles through the Black Hills National Forest to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is a memorial for all North American Indian tribes, but features Crazy Horse, a member of the Oglala-Lakota tribe. All of the heads in Mount Rushmore can apparently got in the space of the Crazy Horse head!! It's hard to appreciate that since you are further away when viewing it, and it's no where near complete but it's pretty cool nonetheless. It was begun by a man who was initially an apprentice on Mount Rushmore, and the tribes in the area asked him to make a monument. He created the idea for Crazy Horse and started it all on his own!! He did amazing things all by himself on a crazy low budget. His family eventually became involved in the project and now continue the memorial monument after his death. He had five sons and five daughters, and seven of them still work with the memorial. Pretty cool! There is also a museum there, a short video, and a gift shop. The full vision also includes a University for northern American Indians and a medical training center as well. His family seems committed to the initial vision so it will be interesting to see how it develops throughout my life. 

After Crazy Horse I continued my drive through Black Hills into Wyoming to the Devils Tower National Monument. It is a pretty cool natural land feature. In the same South Dakota book I read a ledges about how a giant bear was chasing twins and they asked the spirit to help them. At that point they rose up on a giant rock. The bear tried to climb up but only was able to claw and slide down the rock side, creating the gauge marks in its sides. That's obviously a horrible paraphrase, but you get the picture. The area is really pretty, and there was also a prairie dog town there that was a lot closer to me, so I got some awesome pictures. 

Saw a buffalo in front of Devils Tower

At the prairie dog town at Devils Tower

Little baby prairie dog

Devil Tower is pretty beautiful and impressive 

After Devils Tower I drove the rest of the way to my hotel in Wyoming. It was nice to have a shower and now I'm watching the Warriors game! Tomorrow I head out to my next National Park! Can't wait!