We came back from our trip to South Dakota last night. On Thursday we had an early flight to Minneapolis via Washington, and met up with Pierre, Chantal’s brother, and his partner Rena. They had driven down from Canada the previous day. We set off for Wall, in the Badlands, over 600 miles of driving across the prairies – just mile after mile of grassland with occasional grain silos
The initial plan was to stop overnight a couple of hours before Wall, but we decided to press on so that we could have a full day in the Badlands the next day. We loved the dramatic scenery of the Badlands,
and saw long horned sheep, prairie dogs (lots), a distant wolf, a closer coyote, several very close bison, but not, to Chantal’s disappointment, any rattle snakes, despite warning signs.
Late afternoon we headed north through the Black Hills, second in height only to the Rockies, to Lead, near Deadwood, where we had booked a hotel. The following day was a full day. We woke to snow, and headed through the mountains to Mount Rushmore (the one with the president’s faces) and then on to Crazy Horse – the Native American version, still in progress. After many more years it will be the face of Crazy Horse, a Native American chief, pointing to his lands over the head of a horse. At present the face is complete, and the open space beneath the outstretched arm is being blasted.
Out of the two “mountain sculpture” sites I found Crazy Horse to be fascinating, with a much less touristy feel.
From here we went to a “pow-wow” – not a tourist event, but a dancing competition, organized by and for Native Americans across the region
Rena, herself a Native American, had spotted details of this in a local paper
Day three was more relaxed, exploring the gold mining towns of Lead and Deadwood.
We set off early the following day, back across the prairies to a 4 star hotel booked in Minneapolis, and a nice evening at “The Brits” – a restaurant with a British pub theme, where we ate fish and chips and drank Old Speckled Hen – from a tap rather than hand-pulled, but you cant have everything. Not bad for an American effort.
Just pottering today – it’s raining.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
