Nomad View in Buffalo National Grassland - Rapid City - Mt. Rushmore - Crazy Horse - Keystone, SD

Monday, May 13 - Monday, May 20, 2024

It's been a busy week again!

On Tuesday, May 14 we drove a few miles south of Wall to Nomad View, a very popular boondocking location on the edge (literally) of the Badlands.  When we got there it was cloudy and starting to rain.  The sun came out a little but then it was very windy all night, shaking the 5th wheel, which was a little nerve racking for me since the site wasn't level and the passenger side wheels weren't touching the ground.  The weather was going to be rainy for the next couple of days, so when we got up in the morning we decided to leave.  We'd 'been there, done that' and decided that was enough.  Maybe if we're in the area again and the weather is going to be  nice we'll try again.

We went to Lake Park Campground in Rapid City, SD for two nights.  It was full hookups but quite expensive at $74.35 per night, even with the Good Sam discount.  On Thursday we ran errands, got fuel and a car wash, and stocked up at Walmart.  The trees there had little flying sticky seeds that got on everything - 5th wheel, truck, clothes and shoes.  It was a pretty little campground with a very nice park a block away, but I don't know that we would return.

Friday we left for the big 21 mile trip to Holy Smoke Campground in Keystone, SD for five nights.  They had a special stay for four nights get the fifth one free.  Sounded like a deal to me!  It's full hookups for $44.18 per night, divided between the five nights (otherwise $50 per night).

Saturday we went on an all day tour with Black Hills Above and Beyond Tours.  It was well worth the $130 each.  Our tour guide, Karen, picked us up at the campground at 8:15.  There were three other people on the tour; a man from about an hour north of London in the U.K., and a couple from Utah.  Very nice people!

Our first stop was at Mt. Rushmore.  She gave us one hour to go through the visitor center, watch the film, take pictures, and of course visit the gift shop.  This is the first time either one of us have been in this part of the country and it's beautiful.

We're practicing our selfies.  Al least this one's better than the last one!  I'm not sure who those old people are though.

It was larger than I thought it would be.  Did you know that the 'stair steps' under Lincoln's chin were going to be his hand holding his lapel?  Originally they were going to carve the presidents from their waist up, but it didn't take them too long to decide that wasn't going to work!

From there we went Iron Mountain Road, with it's 'pigtail' bridges (they loop like a pig's tail) and granite tunnels.

All of the tunnels were designed to be able to see Mt. Rushmore going one way.

Iron Mountain Road competes with the Tail of the Dragon in North Carolina in relation to curves.  The Tail of the Dragon has 318 curves in 11 miles.  It was a beautiful drive!

On our way to lunch in Custer State Park Karen spotted some bison near a campground and pulled into the driveway.  I've seen bison, but never any this close.

He was a big one!  There was a cattle guard to keep them from going into the campground, but this guy figured that out and was headed for the campground when we left.

We went to the Game Lodge in Custer State Park for lunch.

John had a bison burger and I had bison stew.  I took a bite of John's burger and decided I like the stew better.  The burger had a little gamier taste.

After lunch we went on the Needles Highway.  The rock formations are beautiful!

Our next stop was the Needles Eye Tunnel.  It's 8' wide and 9'9" tall.

A lot of people think that the tunnel is the eye of the needle, but the tunnel is the Needles Eye Tunnel.  This is the Eye of the Needle.

We continued on the Needles Highway to Sylvan Lake, where we stopped for a few minutes.  It's a beautiful lake.  That weekend was free entrance and free fishing.  We saw a couple of guys that had several really nice trout.

From there we went to Crazy Horse Memorial.  She gave us a little over an hour to see the film, museum, other buildings, and of course Crazy Horse.

This is the model of what it will look like when it's finished.  You can see the sculpture so far in the background if you look close.  Remember, you can click on the pictures and make them larger.

From Crazy Horse we went back to Custer State Park to do the Wildlife Loop Road.  We saw prairie dogs, bluebirds, pronghorns...

...and donkeys!  These donkeys know that the tourists will feed and pet them.  Karen had some carrots and spinach for them.  She knew they liked the carrots and the spinach she had that was about to go bad.  She found out they don't like spinach.

Soon after we left the donkeys we went around a corner and there must have been a herd of at least 200 bison.  Most were mamas with their babies.  I've never been so close to so many bison.  Of course we had to stay in the van so the pictures we took have reflections on them.

It was after 6:00 by the time we got back to the campground.  What a wonderful day; so many memories!  If you're ever in the area take this tour; it's well worth it!

Sunday we took a picnic lunch and scouted out some boondocking locations in the Black Hills National Forest.  We haven't done that in a really long time and it was fun.  The weather forecast called for rain, and it started raining as we were leaving the last location.  Between Custer and Hill City the temperature dropped from 70 degrees to 33 degrees in less than 10 minutes, it started hailing and then big snow splatters hit the windshield.  We got through it and less than 5 minutes later the temperature was 58 degrees.  We've never experienced something like that before!

Today I spent on my computer figuring out where we're going from here, what we're going to do at our next stop, and working on the blog.  Tomorrow I'm going to relax!

We'll soon being roving on...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".

Genesis 1:1

Marquette, KS - Concordia, KS - Smith Center, KS - Minden, NE - North Platte, NE - Valentine, NE - Wall, SD

Sunday, April 27 - Sunday, May 12, 2024

It's been a while since I did my blog.  We've been busy!

We left Hutchinson, KS on Sunday, April 27 and went to Riverside Park near Marquette, KS.

It's a CoE park (> $9 a night, electric, water and a dump station) and we were going to stay for 3 nights.  We had planned on taking another route to Minden, KS, but since we didn't have any reservations until then we decided to stay another night.  That's what I love about not planning ahead and making reservations.  We can choose to go in any direction we want when we want.

While we were there we went to Mushroom Rock State Park.  It's strange to see these rock formations out on the Kansas prairie. It's not a very large state park so it didn't take very long.

We left on Wednesday, May 1 and went to Concordia Airport Park. It was a town park and although was free they accept donations, which we did.  It had 30/50 amp electric, some sites had water, and there was a dump station.  It's between a small airport and a busy road.  I never heard any planes take off or land because the road was so noisy.  It did mostly quiet down at night.  It was also right across the street from a Walmart so we were able to stock up.  It's evidently quite well known because the electric and water sites filled up each night.

We've been trying to limit our travel days to less than two hours or 100 miles.  So on Friday, May 3 we stopped in Smith Center, KS at the Beaver Creek RV Park and Campground ($40 per night, full hookups).  The full hookups were nice but it was basically just a gravel parking lot.  However, the owners were very nice and they have a small restaurant/bar on site.

We left on Sunday, May 5 and went to Pioneer Village Campground in Minden, NE ($25.48 per night with Passport America, full hookups). 

The reason we went there was to go to Pioneer Village.  Harold Warp was born in 1903 near Minden, NE.  In 1924 he moved to Chicago and started the Plex-O-Glass Company that went on to make plexiglass for airplanes in WWII.  In 1953 he found out that the school he attended as a child was going up for auction.  He purchased it, complete with everything that was in it.  Then he found out a church and depot were to be disposed of and purchased them.  He found a place to put them and his collection grew from there.  From 1830 he has just about everything you could imagine, all displayed in chronological order.

From the website:

"The Harold Warp Pioneer Village complex comprises 28 buildings on 20 acres housing over 50,000 irreplaceable items of historical value, restored to operating order, arranged in groups and also in the chronological order of their development.

There are 12 historic buildings around the circular “green”. There’s a Frontier Fort, a real honest-to-goodness Pony Express Station, an Iron Horse, and a home made of sod. There’s a general store and a toy store, chock full of all the goods from yesteryear. An original art collection including 25 Currier and Ives prints, 23 Jackson paintings, and the largest single collection of Rogers statues.

You can see a priceless steam carousel, 17 historic flying machines and marvel at 100 antique tractors. See the world’s oldest Buick, a 1902 Cadillac and a 1903 Ford, both designed by Henry Ford, plus 350 other antique cars, all displayed in their order of development."

Here's the website for more information: https://pioneervillage.com/

We spent the whole day looking at everything, but I think it would take a week to see it all.  If you are even close to Minden, NE you should see this museum.  It's a bargain!  Here are pictures of a very few of the things we saw.

This was one of those cars that can go on land or water.

This is the best stocked mercantile I've ever seen.

When they renovated this depot they found seven layers of floor.

Here's the school that started it all, complete with everything that was in it, including many books from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

        There were buildings full of rows and rows of cars, all organized by make and year.

This one had me stumped.  Why would you need a treadmill for a dog?

By the end of the day we were tired!

The next day we drove up to Ft. Kearney to go to The Archway museum over I-80.  It takes you through transportation along the Great Platte River Road, from the pioneers that crossed the country on the Oregon Trail to the present day.  They give you little audio 'phones' that connect to information along the 'road'.  It's easier than trying to read a lot of signs.  We took our time and it took us a couple of hours.  The website is https://archway.org/.

If you're in the area it's a fun stop.

We left Minden on Wednesday, May 8 and went to the Golden Spike Tower in North Platte.  We had been there before five years ago but enjoyed it and it was on our way, so we decided to stop again.

It's fascinating to me to watch the train cars be pushed up the hump, and then each car goes to a different train waiting on one of the tracks.  A car starts at the top and the tracks branch off to waiting trains.

This is also a Harvest Hosts stop so we spent the night.  When you're up in the tower you don't hear the trains, and when you are walking in the parking lot you don't really pay attention.  However, you notice about 10:00 at night that the cars going down the hump screech all night.  Probably not the best sleep we ever had but hey, it was free!

We left on Thursday, May 9 and drove to Ballard Marsh State Wildlife Area.  We spent the night in a grassy campground area a little off the highway.  It was really nice with all kinds of birds singing.  We walked down the road and saw even more birds and marsh.  Even with the highway fairly close it was a much quieter night than the previous one.  We thought about spending another night but there's really not anything to do so we didn't.

It was the night of the aurora and John got this picture.

Saturday, May 11 we drove to Sleepy Hollow RV Park in Wall, SD ($54.67 per night, full hookups).  We were going to go to another wildlife area but when we discovered it was seven miles down a dirt road we decided to go on to Wall. 

 Of course we had to go to Wall Drug!

You may wonder why I post pictures of the campgrounds and include prices.  If I don't post pictures of campgrounds I won't remember where I was and what it looked like.  In years to come the prices will seem cheap!  My grandparents camped in the 1960s, they spent $1-3 a night and didn't have to make reservations months ahead.  How times have changed.

Soon we'll be roving on...

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".

Genesis 1:1