The Black Hills Expedition of 2021

 

    A little bit of this

A little bit of that

A fort, some rocks

A tunnel, some monuments

South Dakota, South Dakota

(My apologies to the original lyricists for that lame parody on "Anatevka".)

  I don't know how to begin this entry as we've seen so much in the last three days.  I suppose I'll just "dive in."

    On Monday we drove from Estes Park down the Big Thompson and north into Wyoming.  There were some truly impressive geological formations along the way followed by some extremely desolate country.  It is dry here so everything was brown and crunchy.  I saw several signs indicating we were following the Oregon Trail and at one point there was a sign for the Guernsey Ruts and Register Rock. That sounded really familiar but I wasn't sure I'd been there before.  A glance at a map and I realized we saw it several years ago on our way to Glacier National Park.  Beyond Guernsey the road became very flat and very straight.  Twice on this stretch we had to avoid careless, impatient drivers who were trying to pass other vehicles.  The first one was very, very close causing Ken to have to take to the shoulder of the road.  Thank you Jesus we avoided what would've been a very serious accident.  I told Ken that we wouldn't have walked away from that one.  Almost as I said it he said "will we walk away from this one?"  I looked ahead just in time to see a semi abruptly cut in between the camper and semi he was trying to pass.  Our guardian angel was with us for sure.  We arrived in Custer about 3:00 p.m. and found our cabin.  Petticoat Junction fans will appreciate the name "Shady Rest Hotel".  Yes I sing it in my head every time we come "home".  After resting a bit we went to eat dinner (Bison tenderloin with blueberry puree mmm, mmm).  We had already decided to go to the Crazy Horse Memorial for the evening laser show so headed up the hill after dinner.

    The Crazy Horse Memorial was commissioned by Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Lakota in 1940 or so.  He was impressed with the work of Korczak Ziolkowski and asked him to take on this huge project.  Korczak agreed and worked with the Chief to choose the location in the Black Hills and create the design of the sculpture.  Over the years the sculpture married his assistant Ruth and they proceeded to have ten children-they were needed to do the work he said.  The memorial will be several times larger than Mount Rushmore when finished.  I overheard a museum employee say that it will take decades and decades to finish.  When we were here in 1993 Crazy Horse's eyes were not "open" yet.  Now his face is finished and they are working on his arm and beginning his horse.  The entire complex is quite impressive.  There is a beautiful museum of Native American culture and art work.  The home that the family lived in is open for visitors and there is now a huge gift store.  More impressive is the Native American University that is part of the complex.  It is specifically for Native American students and allows them to work and to earn college credits while living on campus.  The laser light show was interesting although a little cheesy.  

    On Tuesday we chose to drive the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway which is made up of the Iron Mountain highway and the Needles Highway. We started by driving to the Breezy Point Lookout for a spectacular view of the Black Hills.  The movie "North By Northwest" was filmed in this area. We then backtrailed a bit so that we could drive the Needles Highway first.  That way we would be able to see Mount Rushmore as we drove through the tunnels on Iron Mountain.  Needles highway winds through the southern part of the byway and takes you through some very impressive volcanic formations.  My inner geology geek, nurtured by Mrs. Jones so many yeas ago, found them quite interesting.  There are two or three one lane, narrow, low tunnels carved through the rocks.  Since the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally just ended there were several groups of riders that we often had to wait for before we could go through the tunnels.  One in particular was memorable.  It is called "Needle's Eye" and is at the end of a curve so that you really can't see if anyone is coming the other way until you are right at the entrance to the tunnel. Norbeck meticulously planned each tunnel on both highways so that they were in the most scenic areas.  When the byway was built in the 30's it was nicknamed the "needless highway" because it was so expensive.  

    The Needles highway branches off into Custer State Park and the Wildlife loop which is home to a huge herd of Bison.  I thought we weren't going to see any bison but just before the end of the loop we came upon the herd right alongside the road.  They were very impressive and there were many calves with their mothers.  On down the road a bit we were attacked by a wild turkey that tried to fly into our car.  He narrowly missed us thank goodness.  Cars and tunnels and bison, oh my!

    Iron Mountain highway was also designed by Peter Norbeck.  The tunnels on this road frame the monument on Mount Rushmore.  I remember in 1993 how thrilling it was to see the 4 Presidents through the tunnel for the first time.  Norbeck knew exactly where he wanted the tunnels and he left it up to the park director and engineers to design the road.  The result was two sets of pig-tail bridges that curve back over themselves so that the road comes out where Norbeck wanted the bridges to be. I forgot to mention that he also planned several scenic lakes along the way.  We stopped at one that is called Horse Thief Lake.  The lakes were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps to serve as fishing lakes.  Horse Thief Lake is pictured above.

    We ended up in Keystone and to kill time we found the city cemetery and thanks to www.findagrave.com I was able to locate the graves of Carrie Ingalls husband, his first wife and his son.  I have an indulgent husband who allows my Wilder side to be nurtured from time to time.

    Tuesday evening after a lovely meal at Powder Valley Inn we took in the evening ceremony at Mt. Rushmore.  We were there about two hours which was just about right.  The lighting ceremony was beautiful.  I won't go into the history and building of the monument as it is pretty common knowledge.  Look it up if you are interested.

    Our final day, today, was spent at Keystone Historical Museum and napping.  The museum is home to several items that belonged to Carrie Ingalls Swanzey, the sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The most important item in the collection is a small figurine thought to be Ma's China Shepherdess which Laura mentions several times in the Little House series.  It was found among Carrie's belongings carefully wrapped and stored away.  Laura mentioned in a letter to a fan that "Carrie has the shepherdess."  No one is quite sure that this is the beloved china woman or that she even existed.  She may have been a literary element added by Rose Wilder Lane to give continuity and symbolism to the series.  Either way, it is fun to see her (or maybe him.)

    Tonight we strolled down Rushmore avenue in Custer and then drove out to the Gordon Stockade for another LIW moment.  Honestly I did not remember the story from "These Happy Golden Years" until Sarah Manley mentioned visiting the stockade on her trip to the area.  I looked it up and found that the stockade is only three miles from our cabin. Laura Ingalls Wilder had an uncle on her mother's side that was part of the Gordon party who came out to look for gold in 1874.  The government had sent Custer and a thousand troopers into the area in early 1874 to look for gold.  It was found in the Custer area in French Creek.  Word got out and although it was illegal, prospectors came to the area later in the year seeking wealth.  The land belonged to the Sioux  due to the Fort Laramie Treaty almost ten years earlier.  When the Gordon party arrived they built a stockade as protection from the tribe who would most certainly be angry when it was discovered that they were there.  The winter conditions were harsh and four members of the group left only to be captured by soldiers patrolling the area.  They divulged the location of the stockade and the soldiers forces the remaining prospectors to leave the area.  Laura's uncle, Thomas Quiner, was part of this group.

    And so we bid a fond farewell to the Black Hills of South Dakota and head east toward the Prairie.  Tomorrow we will stop at Wall, at the Dignity monument in Chamberlin and end up in De Smet.  Yes you guessed it.  Another LIW stop.  Hey, he gets to shoot.  I get my "Laura moments."

Happy Trails!

 

Everything Old is New Again

Log Picture at the Alluvial Fan

        

    Why do things have to change?  I ask this question a lot...mostly in my head, but I've said it out loud several times during the last day and a half.  My family first vacationed in Estes Park, Colorado in 1976, one month before the catastrophic Big Thompson Flood.  It was one of our first vacations to Colorado where we didn't stay at my grandma Pauline's.  It became our family vacation spot and once Ken and I married we vacationed in EP almost every year of our marriage (25 to 30 times at least).  I used to want to live here.  In the early days EP was just a sleepy little tourist town full of t-shirt stores, candy shops (Laura's Fudge Shoppe, mmm mmm), and a couple of stores that sold cheap imported Dresden figurine knock-offs.  Of course the canyon changed after the flood but the town stayed the same until the 1982 Lawn Lake flood.  After that flood old businesses left and newer businesses took their place.  The town made some aesthetic improvements as well thanks to FEMA and insurance money I suppose.  That flood also created the alluvial fan at the top of Horseshoe Park in RMNP.  It stayed the same until the floods of 2013.  That flood changed the course of the river once again and changed the base of the fan. It also damaged part of Devil's Gulch and the Big Thompson Canyon.  Most recently the Cameron Peak Fire of 2020 changed the landscape of the Kawuneeche Valley.  Nature is hard on her landscape.  

    Over the years we developed some traditions, especially as the girls were growing up.  We often stayed at River Spruce Cottages (too expensive any more). We always went to the Lazy B Chuckwagon (closed and now gone).  We always drove up Trail Ridge Road and spent many hours in Rocky Mountain National Park where we took "log pictures" on the same log every year (washed away in 2013).  We often picnicked or cooked out in Endo Valley.  We ate Pizza at Bob and Tony's Pizza (now a Whiskey Distillery) and the adults drank killer margaritas at Ed's Cantina.  Our trip always ended with several trips down the Rainbow Slide (too old for that now but Andy enjoyed it two years ago). Some things are the same, others, as I noted above, have changed.

    One thing that has changed, and not for the better in my opinion, is the number of visitors that now come to the area.  The town is packed with visitors, especially during the summer.  RMNP is over run by tourists who don't think the rules apply to them or perhaps who don't really understand the fragility of the environment within the park.  I know I sound a little like the EP natives who gripe about the tourists coming to town but I think after 45 years I've earned a little tourism status!  I'm also not happy with the rate of development here.  It's becoming a lot like the Branson area.  Every spot that can be developed is being bought up by corporations.  Trees are being cut down, hillsides are being scraped away.  Across from our hotel is the historic Elkhorn Lodge-or what's left of it anyway.  Despite being on the register of Historic Landmarks, the majority of the buildings are being torn down.  In its place will be a hotel, condos, shopping and dining.  Yes it will bring new revenue to the town but at what cost?

    Despite the changes, Ken and I have maintained a few of our traditions.  We arrived yesterday afternoon.  Our first stop was Ed's Cantina because we always eat at Ed's.  Of course we had to go to the Safeway for "just a few things".  We also walked up and down Elkhorn Avenue stopping in a few of our favorite shops.  Today we walked the Alluvial Fan and found a new log bench took our photograph.  Ken suggested we get lunch at Safeway so back we went this morning. We ate it in Endo Valley of course.  We drove over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake.  The burn scar from the fire is unreal.  Burned tree stumps, some almost ben to the ground, fill the hillside.  It totally destroyed the ranger station at the west entrance.  At the top of Trail Ridge, while we were in the park store, it began to pour and then hail, tiny tiny pellets.  We drove in and out of rain all the way down the west slope.  It rained again while we were in Grand Lake.  The rain didn't stop us from getting ice cream at Miyauchi's Snack Bar where they make their own ice cream fresh each day.  Yummy, yummy.  We capped our day listening to Cowboy Brad Fitch (www.cowboybrad.com) sing  an eclectic mix of music at a free concert in Bond Park.  We are great fans of Cowboy Brad and he is another on of our EP traditions.

Cowboy Brad Fitch 

www.cowboybrad.com 

        We did enjoy one change that occurred a few years ago.  Now that the town charges for the best parking spots (boo hiss) we took advantage of the free trolley shuttle to and from our hotel.  We also discovered a new-to-us hotel called the Maxwell Inn.  It is only a half mile from down town so we enjoyed a brisk walk back from the concert tonight.  I had to walk off the ice cream after all!

    Tomorrow we leave one of my favorite places on Earth, despite all the changes, and move on to the Mount Rushmore area.  We've only been there once before, many years ago so no traditions to carry on there.  Maybe we can make some new ones.

8 Wonders of Kansas: The Arikarre Breaks

 

          It's been awhile since I've written anything here!  Trust me, we've wandered quite a bit since my last entry, I've just  been to busy tired lazy to fill you in on our adventures. We have this wonderful book called "The Kansas Guidebook 2" and every once in awhile Ken looks through it and picks a spot for one of his famous "Mystery Tours" or just a day trip to some new place we've never seen.  That wasn't the case today but we did get our background information from the Guidebook before we started out. Today's wandering took us to one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas called the Arikaree Breaks.

         We are on vacation.  This is the first official vacation of my retirement.  It is somewhat special because while I am enjoying my vacation, my friends are back in Wichita enjoying their first few days of school.  I feel a sense of freedom that I've never experienced before.  I kind of like it!  Our journey will take us to Estes Park Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, Wyoming, the Mount Rushmore area, De Smet and finally Independence Missouri. The trip is bookended with two Glock Meets for Ken-one in Greeley Colorado and one in Hallsville Missouri.  

        The Arikaree Breaks have long been on my bucket list of things to see in Kansas.  We had no time schedule to meet on our drive to Colorado today so we decided this would be a good time to take this little side trip.  We headed north out of Goodland Kansas to the town of St. Francis.  The first stop on our tour of Cheyenne County took us a little west of St. Francis to the Cherry Creek Encampment Site.

  

 

          On November 29, 1864 the troops of Colonel John M. Chivington viciously attacked an encampment of women, children and elderly Cheyenne Indians.  163 Cheyenne were killed, the village was destroyed and 600 ponies were captured.  Their leader, Black Kettle, wanted to remain peaceful.  However, the warriors of the Cheyenne, Apache and Sioux were outraged and sought revenge.  Over 1000 members of these tribes assembled in the Cherry Creek Valley of the Arikaree Breaks in northwest Kansas in December of 1864.  On January 1, 1865 the leaders of the assembled warriors decided to attack Fort Rankin and Julesberg Colorado, some 90 miles to the north.  The warriors traveled north  through Devils Gap ( a particularly beautiful section of the breaks) and attacked the fort on January 6-7. 1865.  The small contingent of soldiers were no match for the powerful warriors.  The fort and supply stores were plundered and vengeance was obtained.  Today the encampment area has several metal sculptures created by a local artist to commemorate the gathering and honor the legacy of the Native American warriors.  It is quite easy to look down in the Cherry Creek valley and imagine the 1000 tipis and their inhabitants roaming along the creek's edge.

        We then returned to the town of St. Francis and proceeded north through town.  Shortly outside of town the paved road turned into a narrow dirt road.  Back in the 1980's a local man erected dozens of red disc signs throughout the county to label important sites throughout the area.  There are 14 of these signs along the road through the Breaks.  We stopped at each one and enjoyed the stark, quite beauty of the area.  The highlight of the drive was Lookout Point at the top of the Breaks.  From here you could see for several miles across the canyons and ravines that make up the Arikaree Breaks.  In the quiet, we could hear a cow that was at least a mile away from us,  mooing as she ran to catch up with the rest of her herd.  We walked down the road a bit and simply enjoyed the view.

       The Arikaree Breaks are 36 miles in length and extend from the northwest corner of Cheyenne County to the southeast.  They are two to three miles wide at their widest points.  They were formed over thousands of years.  Glaciers pushed silt and sand forward as they migrated south forming a silty layer of soil called loess.  Over the years wind and water erosion carved this unique series of ravines and canyons creating what we now call the Arikaree Breaks.  They were named for the nearby Arikaree River.  They are now considered to be one of the 8 natural wonders of the state of Kansas.  The area is very arid with short grass and cactus throughout.  It sits in stark brown contrast when compared to the lush green of the Flint Hills 200 miles to the east.  You can easily tell that the area is in the throes of drought.

        Once we had traversed the length of the scenic byway we turned back to the south a few miles and then to the west to pick up the even narrower road through the Devil's Gap area of the Arikaree Breaks.  This was a little anti-climatic as we passed the pinnacle of the scenic view without knowing it so we weren't able to stop and really take it in.  By then we knew we needed to continue west so did not turn back.

        One aside I want to mention.  Last week I traveled Kansas Highway 36 eastward from Concordia to Marysville.  Today I was at the opposite end of Kansas traveling the same highway.  We decided that once we finish our Route 66 adventures, we would definitely need to travel the length of Highway 36 from one end of Kansas to the other.

        We drove on to Fort Collins Colorado and tomorrow Ken will shoot in his Glock Meet at the Weld County Shooting Range.  I think we are in one of the smallest hotel rooms I've ever seen and definitely one of the strangest room layouts.  It's just one night and as Tom Bodine always said, they all look alike in the dark (I think).