Abbey's Road

On Thursday I left Montana and finally entered South Dakota for the first time in my life. The first thing I did Friday morning was to go and get my driver's license. If I had a shady past, I think I would pick SD as the place to get my new license. It was the easiest thing I ever did. I did have to give them 2 forms of ID, including my NY license, and the paltry sum of $8 and 5 minutes later I had a new license. I was thinking of blowing out of town as fast as I blew in, but my brother Michael told me I had to stick around and check out the Black Hills. So I headed for Mt. Rushmore. On the way I saw Keystone, which has to be the tackiest tourist town I have ever seen. Without Mt. Rushmore, the place would have no reason to exist. I did get some ice cream there, but it wasn't that good. I should've known better. Before going to Mt. Rushmore I stopped at Cosmos, which is a difficult place to explain. The only reason I stopped was again because Michael insisted that it was a cool place to experience. For the same amount of money that I paid to get a SD driver's license valid for 5 years (and coincidentally that same sum that I would soon pay to park at the Mt. Rushmore National Monument), I was entitled to go on a tour complete with live demonstrations of the awe and mystery of Cosmos. The complex consists mainly of the requisite gift shop and this very oddly shaped, unevenly built cabin. The tour guide proceeds to demonstrate seemingly apparent contradictions to the laws of nature and gravity that exists in this 'special' place. I must admit though, that what we saw sure didn't appear to be optical illusions (isn't that why they call them illusions you might ask?) and there wasn't a real good rational explanation for any of the strange contradictions that were demonstrated. I also have to admit that as soon as I walked into the cabin I started to get nauseous, like motion sickness. Are you dying to check it out yet? Well, I don't think I'm doing a very good job of explaining it, but if you're ever near Mt. Rushmore, you have to check out Cosmos. At least then I won't be the only sucker to fork over $8 for a 20 minute tour. Of course, you could save the $8 and get a SD license instead.

I was somewhat hesitant, after Cosmos, to pay to see Mt. Rushmore as well. I thought, 'What's the big deal about giant heads on a mountain' It seemed like it would be super touristy and a waste of time. But, I decided to throw away another $8 and check it out. I was actually pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were busloads of overweight senior citizens, but I was still impressed with it. Mostly because I was amazed not by the patriotism represented, or the grandeur of it all, but by the mere fact that what was once a mountain is now 4 giant sculptures. The sheer enormity of the job and what they had to overcome really amazed me, not to mention the quality of the sculptures is pretty incredible.

I then moved on to Custer State Park, which is pretty large and nice for a state park. Unfortunately, this weekend is also the big Buffalo Roundup and Arts Festival. Luckily, the roundup itself is on Monday and is much more popular than the Arts Festival otherwise I might not have been able to find a campsite for Friday and Saturday night. I think I'll bug out before the roundup on Monday. In case you're wondering, they round up the bison herd that resides in the park for auction every fall. Someone told me that it is the next biggest thing around here after the Sturgis Bike Week which any Harley fans out there should know about. Anyways, on Saturday morning Abbey and I forsook the free pancake breakfast and started out early for Sylvan Lake.

We hiked up Little Devil's Tower first which gave us some beautiful views of the various rock formations around including the Cathedral Spires. The area is quite rocky with these 'spires' jutting up out of the forest in all directions. It was a tough climb, especially for Abbey, but luckily it wasn't too long.



Next we headed for Harney Peak which is actually the highest point east of the Rockies at 7242ft. It was one of the easiest mountains I've climbed, but with the temperature in the 80's it was hard enough. Once again the views from the top were impressive, though Abbey didn't seem to care a whole lot. She was more interested in going back to Sylvan Lake for a swim. As if that wasn't enough for one day, I decided to again listen to my brother's advice and go to Wind Cave National Park. I was a bit skeptical yet again because I had never even heard of the place. I thought it was probably made a park in the last few years, but was quite surprised to find out that it has actually been a national park since 1903 and it was the seventh park to be dedicated. I figured I've been to Innerspace Caverns near Austin so how much better could this be. Well, it turns out that this is the 5th longest cave system in the world and is known for it's incomparable boxwork. Sorry, but this is too hard for me to explain so I'll leave that up to you to research what that is. As an added bonus, we had the most vivacious guide who really seems to get excited about caves and her job. She gave a pretty emotional speech at the end regarding the need for national parks and why we should patronize them. I was convinced. Needless to say, it was a good way to finish off the day.