Alaskan Adventure: Post 5 of ?. We are blessed to be able to attend our church “online”. We did that on Sunday morning June 7th (at 7:30am Mountain Time Zone – this will be 5:30am when we are on Alaskan Time Zone) before packing up and leaving Wall. Very soon after leaving town we spotted mountains on the horizon! It was a really windy day on the plains of South Dakota so driving the RV was exciting. The trip West from Wall to the town of Custer also meant going up in elevation from around 2,000′ to 5,500′ in about two hours.
30+ MPH wind straight out of the south across the South Dakota plains. Wind let up somewhat in the Black Hills from Rapid City and on to Custer.
Dashcam view on I-90 heading into Rapid City area. Not impressive in the photo but nice to see The Black Hills coming up on the horizon.
Our campsite at Custer KOA. Nice place to hang out for five nights to visit the Black Hills/Custer area.
On Monday morning we visited Jewel Cave National Monument which was just 12 minutes away. This is the National Park Passport Stamp. The description in the book is a few years old. They have surveyed over 200 miles and it is the second-longest cave in North America (behind Mammoth Cave). On the map below the original opening is in Hells Canyon labeled Historic Area. We just saw an underground room called the Target Room near the Visitor Center.
We took a “Discovery Tour” with an elevator ride (instead of a tour with 780 or more steps). The tour descends into a large cave section where the park ranger had a nice talk about the cave history and the people who survey for new passages. The cave is unique because it had only one known entrance. There are now two entrances but only because they built the Visitors Center and added the elevator. They have seals on all the doors to keep the original entrance at the only “breathing” area for the whole cave system. They estimate there are over 1,000 miles of passages which would make it possibly bigger than Mammoth Cave. There was never human habitation in the cave and no animal habitation other than some bats have been discovered.
We didn’t see this on our tour but this is what gives Jewel Cave it’s name.
The cave was discovered in 1900 by two brothers searching for gold. The heard a whistling noise and discovered air blowing through an 18″ hole. Of course they dynamited it open… Only 8 years later Teddy Roosevelt protected it by making it a National Monument.
The higher elevation was really wiping us out so we rested a bit before heading back out in the afternoon to Custer State Park. It is $25 for a 7 day pass to Custer SP. We drove through the park and watched a video narrated by Kevin Costner at the Visitors Center. Then we headed out on the “Wildlife Loop Road” looking for Tatanka (Bison in Lakota).
Beautiful day and beautiful rolling hills on the wildlife loop road.
We drove quite awhile without seeing much wildlife and were prepared to come back another day when around the next bend, the hills were filled with Bison. This is one side of the road. The other side of the road was about the same!
iPhone pic through the windshield.
With guys like this watching over the herd we did not want to get out of the car.
(You may need to click the link to see the video) The car in front of us got a free car wash for about half an hour they got ‘licked’ all over. They couldn’t go forward because that guy in front of them was standing his ground. Once they started moving again the one licking the car turned around and looked straight at us like “you’re next”! He got a few licks of our bumper before we could move along but nothing like the full car wash.
This one took a dust bath in a dry buffalo wallow.
We also saw Prairie Dogs and Burros.
The Black Hills Wildlife Loop Road.
Favorite Bible reading passage of the day: Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
DADart Photography 