Day 3: Friday: Black Hills

Keystone

Under Canvas Mount Rushmore

We woke up early after a night of rather uncomfortable sleep in the Under Canvas safari tent. It had been an unseasonably cold night for June but fortunately we had a wood-burning stove in the tent for heat.

Our 13-year-old had come to our tent since his kid’s tent had no heat and we managed to sleep three to a king-sized bed.

We were not about to spend the outrageous prices that the glamping resort charged for food so we quickly showered and dressed, then got in the truck to head to our next destination: Wind Cave National Park.

It was a very nice morning for the drive and we pulled off at a scenic area with a profile view of George Washington.

It was interesting to see the surface features of the sculpture, such as the way in which the eye has a section of protruding stone to give the illusion of light hitting the cornea, and the noticeable cracks that will eventually cause features like the nose to fall away. Fortunately, the sculptures will remain intact and well cared-for for many centuries.

Custer

Miner’s Cup

Along the way we stopped off for coffee and some breakfast. We found a terrific coffee and breakfast spot called Miner’s Cup. We ordered three breakfast burritos to go with our coffees and they were so good we made a return stop the next day.

We drove south from Custer and about an hour later arrived at the Wind Cave visitor center for our 9:20 AM Natural Entrance tour.

Wind Cave National Park

We entered the visitor center and actually spent about 20 minutes in the wrong line. We already had cave tour reservations so we could have just gone straight to the front desk and picked up our passes. They didn’t mark the lines with signs so it wasn’t our fault.

At any rate we picked up our passes and walked out to the waiting area with plenty of time to spare.

While sitting outside we played some Oregon Trail on my phone. It’s the same game I played as a kid on an Apple II.

Once the full tour group and the ranger had arrived, we were ready to start the walk to the cave entrance.

The natural cave entrance is only about a foot in diameter and would be easy to miss (I certainly would not have noticed it if we hadn’t been led there by the ranger). A gentle wind (hence Wind Cave) blows into or out of the cave depending on the external air pressure relative to the cave. The park service hung scarves over the entry gap to help visitors see the movement of air from the cave.

Wind cave is most famous for the boxwork formations and this cave has more box work than any other cave in the world.

Boxwork is formed when cracks in the surrounding rock layers are filled in with calcite, which is a harder material than the surrounding limestone. Over the course of millions of years the limestone dissolved away leaving the intricate patterns of calcite on the ceilings and walls.

We had a good time in the cave, although I would have been happy to take longer and see more of the cave than the hour and a half allowed.

After the cave tour we decided to enjoy some of the surface areas of Wind Cave. Wind Cave has been a national park since 1903 when it was established as the sixth national park, and the landscape is the best protected wilderness in the Black Hills.

It is the home to bison herds, pronghorn, and thousands of prairie dogs.

I took the Cold Brook Canyon Trail from the road for about a mile until I came to a massive prairie dog town in a large meadow.

After the short hike, we drove north from Wind Cave into Custer State Park.

Custer State Park

Custer State Park ought to be a national park. It has more to see and do than most national parks, is full of wildlife, and has some of the Black Hills best scenery.

Originally our plan was to go straight to the Sylvan Lake area and hike the Black Elk Peak trail, but we just couldn’t skip by the Wildlife Loop. We were happier with the revised plan.

Wildlife Loop

The Wildlife Loop is an 18-mile loop drive that leads through habitat for bison, pronghorns, deer, and donkeys. Yes, donkeys. Feral donkeys that are the descendants of animals left in the park by miners over a hundred years ago.

We first encountered a large bison herd that included many active calves. The calves were playing and butting heads with other calves.

After watching the bison we continued on until we found the donkeys down in a section of land shaded by cottonwood trees.

The donkeys range in age from old nags to young colts. Some are friendly and some are temperamental. They not surprisingly show more interest to those people who come bearing carrots and other snacks. We brought nothing but our friendliness, which made us less popular.

After petting the donkeys we continued onward and saw some pronghorns.

I got a few good photos of a grazing pronghorn near the end of the loop.

After enjoying the loop drive it was time for lunch. I had made reservations for dinner at 6 PM at the Sylvan Lake Lodge, but we were hungry now and the Game Lodge was just a couple miles away. We decided to go there instead.

Game Lodge Dining Room

The Game Lodge offered buffet lunch, but we opted for burgers and mac ‘n cheese. My burger was delicious but Shelley and Evan weren’t crazy about their mac ‘n cheese dinner plates. Burgers tend to be more reliably good.

While eating lunch we played more Oregon Trail. I showed Shelley and Evan how to win.

The Needles Highway

The Needles are an incredible geologic feature of the park and the highway passes slowly through some of the best scenery. The road narrows to one lane in many areas including several tunnels.

Shelley was nervous driving my truck on the narrow, winding road so I took the wheel after a stop at an overlook. I drove onward from there to our next stop: Sylvan Lake.

Sylvan Lake

Upon entering the Sylvan Lake parking area we found it disappointingly crowded. We had wanted to take the short trail around the very pretty lake, but Shelley rightly said we should move on to a less busy place.

I stopped at the very nice Sylvan Lake Lodge and we took a couple distant photos of the lake.

After our brief stop, we were ready to go back to the tent to rest a bit and decide on our dinner options.

Keystone Pub Grub

We let Evan choose the dinner spot for the night and he chose Keystone Pub Grub which was just down the hill from Under Canvas in Keystone.

They are right next to an arcade called Sprockets, but Evan wasn’t really interested in it. The food was very meh, but they did serve beer. I ordered brisket mac n’ cheese this time and it wasn’t very good.

Under Canvas Mount Rushmore

Afterward we were ready to go back to UC to try out the evening s’mores. The resort had only a few fire pits for the entire resort and the s’more setup was kind of stupid.

They were repackaging Hershey’s chocolate in their own packaging and everyone had to take turns at the few fire pits. A kid was reaching his dirty hands into the shared marshmallow jar.

Yeah…

We at least had a better fire in the stove that night.

And I got some photos of the local wildlife around the tent.