South Dakota Trip 2013 - Day 4

What a night.  So far in Rapid City it's been cool enough to sleep with the windows open, but last night...

Woke up at 12:45am.  Woke up again at 1:45am when the garbage truck was rolling through the alley and lifting every single goddamned waste container and dumping them into the back of the truck.  The truck engine, the beep beep beep of the truck backing up, the grinding noise of the lifting arms, and the loud bang! of the lid of each container lid slamming as it was emptied, then the other bang! as the truck slammed the container back onto the pavement woke me up fully.  By that time it was muggy in the room and the city noises continued.  I was wide awake then, so it didn't matter if the window was open or closed.  I was up until 3:30am, then I was able to go back to sleep.

Around 7:30-8:00am we got up and went down to the lobby where a Seattle's Best Coffee is attached to the hotel.  I had never had their coffee before.  As guests of the hotel we have a daily buy one get one free discount.  I ordered a large decaf vanilla latte, and Todd ordered an iced tea.  We both got cinnamon rolls.  Everything tasted ok, but I still prefer Starbucks.

We went back to the room to get cleaned up, then got on the road.  Today's destination: Mount Rushmore.

Just around the bend

Entry Plaza

It's about a 30 minute drive from our hotel to Mt Rushmore.  We paid our $11 to park, then took a lot of photos.

After the entry plaza, state flags line the walkway leading to the monument

Distinguished gentlemen

Monumental

Hidden in the rock behind the monument is the entry to the Hall of Records - not accessible to the public (I didn't even know it existed - look it up)

Shutterbug

What his camera saw

After the entry plaza there's an amphitheater where they hold an evening lighting ceremony.

The amphitheater stage

Then there's a trail that loops around behind the amphitheater and takes you to the base of the monument, at the bottom of the scree pile.

This lone goat captivated everyone on the trail

Up from the rubble

Looking back at the amphitheater

Look at that punim!  :o)

Then the path continues around to the sculptor's studio, then back to the entrance plaza.

Gutzon Borglum's studio while the carving was in process

Through the trees

One last photo before lunch

We did the entire loop, then checked out the souvenirs, which were kitschy and tacky.  Todd got a hat on sale for $5, and although he expressed interest in these souvenir medallions that were dispensed from a machine, he didn't buy them.

It was lunchtime, so we decided to eat there.  The lodge and restaurant from the movie North By Northwest were torn down many years ago.  Darn.  Instead they have a very nice cafeteria with a variety of American foods set up at different stations.  However, outside they had an area set up where they were grilling buffalo burgers and buffalo hot dogs.  I had a buffalo burger and barbecue baked Lays chips, and Todd had the hot dog.  The burger was $9 and didn't come with anything - lettuce, pickle, onion, etc., but they did have mustard.  I didn't mind though.  The meat was just like beef, but slightly milder and yet still more flavorful somehow.  Very good, and supposedly healthier.  Afterward we stopped in the ice cream shop.  Since they had it plastered everywhere that Thomas Jefferson brought the first ice cream recipe to America from his travels in France, I had the TJ vanilla (which is supposedly his recipe) in a waffle cone.  It was also very good.

Hmm...the shape of this ice cream is foreshadowing where we will go tomorrow

I had to use the facilities, so while Todd finished his ice cream I went to the restroom located in the cafeteria building.  Beside the restroom was another of those medallion machines, so after I was finished I got Todd (one for $3 or two for $5) two medallions and surprised him with them when we were back in the car.

We then decided to drive back to Custer State Park, since it is so beautiful there, and the weather was so crappy on the drive the day before.  So we went.  After making a wrong turn and having to backtrack, we came into the park from a different direction than the day before, which included some really neat sections where the road split into single lanes that went their own separate ways through the woods.  Then we were on the Needles highway again.

Explore Custer State Park - looks a little like the shape of Africa

From a distance

Another long distance view of Mt. Rushmore

Rushmore, from a distance, through the trees, through a tunnel

One area where the road loops around on itself and onto a wooden bridge

We drove it toward Sylvan Lake again, and stopped before we got to the lake at the Cathedral Spires trailhead.  It was somewhat overcast at this point, with clouds to the north.  We decided to climb the trail anyway.

The view

Parking on the side of the road

The trail starts off to the right around this rock formation

The beginning of the trail

We walked the trail up to the top of the Cathedral Spires rock formation.  It's an out-and-back trail, about 5 miles total length, with a 962-foot elevation gain for a total elevation at the top of 7,242 feet.  The trail is fun and strenuous, with required climbing over fallen logs, up and down rock formations, etc.  There was a ton of fallen/felled trees, rocks and scrub all along the trail.

Along the trail

Heading up

Some of the spires

Massive rock formations

This is part of the "trail" you have to navigate

A leveled-out area near the top 

Todd on the trail

180-degree panorama

As we neared the top, it got cooler and darker, and the wind picked up.  Even though we feared a repeat of the prior day's weather, we kept going.  Then it started sprinkling, which turned into light rain.  Luckily, it only lasted about 15 minutes.  We made it to the top and took in the view.  I introduced a dark spooky cleft in the rock to my urine.

The end of the line

Happy to have made it

In case you would have kept walking forward and tumbled off the mountain

In front of the cleft where I marked my territory - this mountain is mine now

While at the top, the wind picked up again.  You can hear a pin drop up there, so the wind blowing over and through the rock spires sounds like there's traffic on a busy highway on the other side.  The place was already Blair Witch-y enough, but add the wind and the sudden sound of distant thunder and we decided to hasten our way down, lest we get caught in a shit-storm of trouble.  That being said, we had to laugh at how stupid we were by stopping every few feet to take more pictures.

Coming down

Off in the distance.  These photos make it look much sunnier and bright than it actually was.

We should be hurrying, but we're not

Fallen tree overhanging the path

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip

Trying to make it down (and pose, and work it) without twisting an ankle

Trail marker

It's hard to tell from this photo, but the rocks are full of mica crystals, and the dirt along the path is heavily strewn with mica dust and flakes, causing the rocks and the trail to sparkle in the sunlight

We took the red trail

We made it down without incident, and the sky had even lightened some by the time we got back to the car, but it was still overcast.  We drove ahead through the tunnel to Sylvan Lake.

One of the 6 tunnels in Custer State Park

Sylvan Lake is a small lake at the top of the mountain where there are cabins and people can camp.  It's where we parked while we waited out the hail the day before.

Thank you parking spot and trees

In the center and all along the back of the lake are these magnificent large rocks.

Looking north

Walking around the "front" of the lake.  Parking is over to the right, and the cabins and visitor center/store are to the left.

The "back" of the lake

We parked in the same spot, and walked the trail around the front of the lake to the little visitor's center where I picked up a couple of souvenirs - a small soapstone buffalo for me, and an ironwood buffalo for mom.

We then walked the path that went around the entire lake (I did say it was a small lake).  It began to get colder and more overcast.  When you approach the wall of rock at the far end of the water, the path juts off to the left and around a corner where a very narrow path has either been cut or naturally occurs in the rock. There are boulders that have been stuck overhead as the crevice narrows toward he bottom. You walk through this crevice and then down stone steps to find yourself behind the giant rocks that are holding back the lake.

It's like The Lord of the Rings

Oh noes!

As we were walking behind the rock, it got colder fast, and the wind picked up again, so we picked up our pace.  In order to come out from behind the rocks on the other side, we had to climb up several stone steps, then the trail disappeared.  Like climbing up the trail to Cathedral Spires, we now had to climb over rock formations, and down little gullies to continue on the path.

Here is a video from the back of the lake:

We made it the rest of the way around the lake and back to the car.  We then continued on the scenic drive down to the start of the 18-mile wildlife loop.

Another tunnel:

I was nervous about the chance of hail because of yesterday, but also because we knew the forecast called for severe thunderstorms around 6:30pm, and it was already 6:00pm, but Todd was confident we would miss the storm so we took the loop.  It started to rain, lightly.

The loop promised views of prairie dogs, buffalo, etc., but because of the rain we only saw some deer and a couple of pronghorns until we came to the last couple of miles of the drive.  It had stopped raining, and we came across a handful of buffalo grazing by the side of the road.  We then went around a bend and saw a whole herd on the side of a hill.  There were a lot of calves, and the adults were molting for the summer.

Wildlife loop drive

Buffalo and green grass on red earth

Part of the grazing herd

Hey, how'd he get here?

We finished the loop, took the road out of the park, then took 79 toward Rapid City.  We were driving straight toward the storm, which luckily was blowing off to the northeast of town.

We just missed this one

We decided to eat at a Perkins restaurant, which is like a low-rent IHOP.  I had a Granny's omelet with hash browns, pancakes, and decaf coffee.  The omelet is (allegedly) cubed ham, onions, bell peppers, hash browns, and cheese, sprinkled with more cheese and a cheese sauce on top.  I was hungry so I ate it, but it and the pancakes were not very good.  Todd hated his chicken and biscuits covered in gravy and cheese sauce.

Yuck

Their muffins looked good though, so we both got a muffin to go for breakfast the next day.