Crazy Horse

Yesterday after our walk up the mountain, we headed out. We took another road out of Sturgis that we hadn’t been on before to hook into the road to Hill City and then past Crazy Horse Monument and then to Custer. It was a beautiful drive, very green as we climbed, lots of trees and interesting rock formations…Oh and tons of….yes, wildflowers!

We enjoyed walking around Hill City. Old buildings, small population and had a quaint (still touristy) feel. We checked out the Museum of Natural History there. Quite a lot of dinosaurs have been dug up here in South Dakota. Triceratops and T-Rex the most familiar. There is an old 1880’s train there that you can take a ride on, we didn’t.

We drove on down to Custer and passed old Crazy Horse. At the rate they are going on that I doubt it will be finished in my lifetime. Larry was there 30 years ago and there wasn’t a face. Now he has a face, but that is it.

Custer was quite a bit bigger than we expected and had its historical buildings, but we didn’t stop and walk around. We took another road out of Custer that looped back up to Hill City. We had lunch in Hill City at Desperados. It had a lovely décor and different menu. It was really good. Then we decided to walk back down the street for an ice cream. Chocolate with peanut butter cups and a peanut butter ribbon in it. We shared. Then we figured we would work some of it off walking back down main street to the truck. I had to check out a couple shops along the way…darn.

On the road between Custer and Hill city, I saw this blob that moved on a rock. No one was behind us so Lar backed up and I got the camera to zoom in on it so I could figure out what it was. It is a very big Marmot also known as woodchuck, or groundhog, it is a very BIG member of the squirrel family. I’d never seen one this color, he was the same color as the dead pine needles and if he hadn’t have moved I wouldn’t have noticed him.

Other than a deer running out in front of us, that was our big wildlife sighting for the day. Lar took another little back road that dumped us out into Rapid City by way of the HUGE houses area of the city. They just seem such a waste of money to me, on so many levels! So we fueled up, picked up a few things at Super Walmart and headed home.

Today it is hot and humid. After our hill climb I did laundry, cleaned the bathroom and then spent 3 hours doing this blogging. We leave here Monday, so the next few days will be busy tying up loose ends and getting ready to hit the road! We’ve had a good time here.

Good morning Uncle!