Black bears are the largest group of animals in the park.One Thursday we made a trip once more to Rapid City to do a little shopping and to say goodbye to the The bighorn sheep are lead by two large rams.Walmart store there. We also had the oil changed in the car to ready for our travels that begin once more next week. While we were in the area we also dropped by a wildlife park that is called Bear Country to see what it was like.

While animals in captivity are not as interesting as in the wild, the park does a pretty darned good job of creating natural settings and good habitats for the animals and you can see them much closer up than would be the case in the wild. While they have a wide range of animals, all from this part of the country, it becomes very apparent the reason for the name as bears make up by far the largest population of the park.

There is also a section where baby animals are the main feature. All animals are hand fed in order to have them be unaffected by human visitors and so that we could see them better. I would rate this as one of the best of this type facility that I have ever visited and is worth the time and cost to visit.

The arctic fox pups are born in diffeerent colors but turn white as juvenials. This arctic fox pup is still mostly black, but just starting to turn white.

This was my favorite tee shirt from the Prairie Berry Winery!It has been a bit busier here as last Monday our college intern left to return to school, leaving a part-time employee and the two of us to keep things going. With summer on the wane the grass has slowed its growth rate so mowing is not as big a job and the campground is less busy, so we are helping with the maintenance side of things. I have been finishing up the tree trimming that needs done along the lake shore and also helping some with The Prairie Berry Winery is a beautiful building!mowing and irrigation of trees.

We do still have our days off and so are getting in the last of the attractions that are in the "hills" which we haven't yet seen. On Monday we went off to Hill City to do some wine tasting. The Black Hills is one of the areas with a pretty new, but very successful wine business and we wanted to see what they had to offer that we had not previously tried. We visited the Prairie Berry Winery first The Naked Winery was also an interesting place with good wines.and found that they have some really great products that are interesting, but by far my favorite was the best-selling of all their wines. It is made completely from rhubarb with a bit of sugar added and it is great!  We also visited the Stone Faces Winery and the Naked Winery which are all just to the north of Hill City and on US385.

While we were there we also took time to have on last lunch at the Alpine Inn, which must be the best place to eat in all of the Black Hills!

The sunsets here are spectacular nearly every day!  

One of the great things about spending the summer at this park has been the sunsets and sunrise too, if you get up early enough to see them! With sunrise at about 5 am, I have tried to avoid seeing too many of them but sunsets are a virtual light show. We do not get any TV and very little radio unless you have satellite TV, which we do not. Since I prefer the evening light show anyway, that really hasn’t been a big deal for me, somewhat so for Pam. We do have good Wifi and so can get news updates from the cell phone or laptop and that is good enough for me. Sometimes it is nice to not know what is happening on the news anyway!A violent storm is approaching rapidly!

One of the negative aspects of this area is the sudden and explosive weather changes that sometimes take place. We were advised when we arrived that we should never leave camp or go to bed leaving our awning down and that has been very sound advice. Thus far we have not had much hail but areas near us have and we have had brief but nasty wind and rain storms. At times it can come from a beautiful day and arrive with winds gusting to 50 mph or more and driving rains. We have had several storms that dropped an inch or more of rain in less than one hour and once we had 1 ¼ inches in under 30 minutes. We seem to be located on the edge of a weather pattern area where the worst storms touch us along the edges but the worst seems to pass us by.

A double rainbow appears to signal the end of an afternoon thunderstorm.Just as quickly as the storms arrive they move on the weather clears. Aftermath from the thunderstorms tends to be very showy, as our skies seem to be constantly. Rainbows are common. One thing I have never heard any local mention when discussing weather is boredom.

We are located about a mile to the west of the main park complex and across the lake. It is sometimes surprising how much difference there can be in the weather experienced on the opposite sides of the park. Shep’s Canyon area is somewhat sheltered from the main body of the lake by a high ridge and I suspect that this helps to protect us from some of the wind effects. We are thankful for that because our little, light weight trailer moves about more in wind gusts than did the motorhome we once lived and traveled in. I have discovered that keeping our water tank completely full and adding more leveling jacks has helped with that. Our trailer came with only the tongue jack and one on each rear corner. I added four of the screw type jacks, one on each front corner and one near each spring shackle attachment. The lifting of some weight from the suspension has made significant difference.

On Thursday of this past week we made a trip up to Custer Park to get together with a host couple there and all of us then drove into Hill City to have lunch at the best restaurant in the Black Hills, the Alpine House. Should you ever visit and spend time in the area this is a place not to be missed with wonderful German food, steaks, and spectacular deserts. We have learned that we get one desert and share it, or eat desert first!

After lunch we made a visit to the museum of the Black Hills Institute.  They have an amazing collection of fossils from the dinosaur period. It seems that the Black Hills has been the source of some of the most unique finds anywhere. It is very easy to spend a couple of hours looking around even though the space isn’t large but there is a great deal packed into it.

With the start of the big motorcycle rally in Sturgis nearing, both Custer and Hill City, as well as most other towns in the central to northern black hills are now crawling with motorcycles. While most are pretty good folks, it is very common for the tourists in automobiles to feel uncomfortable with some of the riding done by the more aggressive ones in the groups. The area is mostly made up of scenic but crooked roads and most have pretty restrictive speed limits. It isn’t unusual for the riders to become unhappy with being held up by the drivers of cars and some of them go to lengths to display that displeasure and even harass drivers, particularly if a little slow.  If you are not comfortable with them very close to you, riding close behind and passing in bad places, the end of July and early August is not a good time to visit the hills.

Earlier I posted a few pictures from our first visit to the Needles Highway and our experiences there but we now have some new pictures that are truly unique. I believe that I mentioned that tour busses do occasionally squeeze through the tunnels but I now have some pictures of one in the process of this. You need to keep in mind that the tunnel in this picture is only 8 feet, 4 inches wide at the tightest point and about 9 feet at its widest point. This bus did scrape both mirrors at the tightest point and it seems to be what the driver used to tell that he was in the center of the tunnel.

Even though this wasn't one of the largest of luxury busses, it must take nerves of steel to make the transit, and especially so the first time or two. The entry and exit are the easy part as near the center of the trip it squeeses down for a distance of perhaps 30 to 50 feet.

I do believe that if you have any experience driving large vehicles, they are hiring drivers! If you are looking for some seasonal work in the black hills for the summer this just might be what you are looking for.

This sign tells the history of Sheridan, the gold town that the lake covers today.On Thursday we chose to spend the day touring to our north because our area was predicted to have the hottest day of the year, at 100 degrees! Since the altitude in the far north end of the Black Hills is around 5000 feet and more we thought that might be nicer and that proved to be the case. Tuesday had been our previously hottest day at the mid 90's and the evening followed with a wicked thunderstorm which lasted less than an hour but had very high winds, small hail, and more than 1.2 inches of rain. We thought that we would likely be back before the evening storms so headed out on a beautiful, sunny day. This is a beautiful mountain lake of medium size and crystal clear waters.

Our first stop was at Sheridan Lake. This medium sized lake now covers the gold rush townsite of Sheridan and is named for it. It is located to the north of Hill City and along US385. The roads are winding and hilly but easily traversed and the lake has public fishing, boating, and a campground as well as a public marina. It is a very pretty lake with many fishermen.

Pactola Dam was constructed in the 50's for water supply to Rapid City.From there we continued north on US385 and soon approached Pactola Dam & Reservoir. This lake was constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation in the 50's in response to a shortage of water in Rapid City and surrounding area. Today it is also the home to a large federal park and also to a South Dakota state park and is very popular with both boaters and fishermen. There are several This vew of the lacke shows the deep blue of the clear water and mirror relections of the trees.really striking views but of particular interest is the island near the day which protrudes sharply out of the waters to a very rocky top. On top of the highest point there is a flagpole with a US flag proudly flying. I asked in the visitor center about it since there is no real place for a boat to land and was told that the owners of the marina got permission to place and maintain that flagpole at his own expense because he just felt that there needed to be one. It even has a solar powered light for nights. It is a very remarkable site to behold. There is a nice visitor center at the east end of the dam structure with a nice size parking lot and also RV parking. They have a scenic overlook and a picnic ground as well.

The flag flying at the top of a rocky island outcrop is a wonder site to behold.From here we traveled into Lead which is a mountain mining town that is interesting but small and then to Deadwood where casinos and gambling have invigorated the local economy. We then traveled up to Sturgis, where surprisingly to us; there were very few motorcycles yet, like most of the area has, but lots of activity setting up vendor booths and such for the big biker rally to come in August. It seemed as though the bikers are all gathering outside of Sturgis to suddenly descend when the big day arrives! We then followed a series of canyons back south and returned to Hot Springs, via Custer City.

This has been a busy weekend but like most Sundays, the exodus began pretty early. We did have one open site all weekend but strangely someone paid for it from Thursday through Sunday but never did arrive. That does seem too happen at times and once wonders why since SD parks will refund all but the first night for people if they can’t use their site.  It is too bad also as we nearly always turn some folks away on nice weekends. This time we also had four visitors using slots in the equestrian campground which was not in use by horsemen.

Today is also expected to be our warmest day of the year with a high of 940. It is now 3 pm and my thermometer reads 920 so we may well get there. With our humidity at only 25% it really isn’t that bad, especially if you can stay in the shade. The boat ramp has been pretty busy and the traffic has changed from mostly fishermen to mostly water skiers. We cleaned out most of the fire-rings this morning as folks were leaving to get a jump on the week’s maintenance work. Otherwise it has been a pretty lazy day with just watching folks leave and using the computer to check them out. We do have two longer term visitors here and three more due in this evening.

The flag flies proudly from the 1890 flag pole daily.This week we visited Fort Robinson, NE which is one of the best preserved of the forts built to take part in the Indian wars. The fort is now aThe headquarters building built in 1909 today houses the NB hisorical society museum. state park which it has been since the late 1950’s. It was begun as an outpost of Ft. Laramie, WY to protect the Red Cloud Indian agency in 1874. The Ninth & Tenth Cavalry, both black units and called Buffalo Soldiers by the plains Indians were stationed there, starting in 1885 for eighteen years. The current flagstaff was built in 1890 for the main parade ground.

 It is the location where chief Crazy Horse was killed, and later was the scene of the “Cheyenne Uprising.” Some years later it was made the largest remount center for the US Army supplying both cavalry horses and draft animals to the artillery and quartermasters. By the start of WWII it was also the home of the training program for “War Dogs” which was the first use of dogs in combat by the Army. During WWII there was also a POW camp constructed there which eventually housed more than 3,000 German POW’s.These barracks once housed the world's best horsemen, the US Army Cavalry.

Today the park houses three different museums, has two large campgrounds, an active playhouse, riding stables, stagecoach rides, horse drawn tours, bike rentals, walking tours, campfire programs and many other activities. There are buildings of the former housing areas which are available for visitor rentals as are the officer quarters. The main cavalry barracks now hoses a gift shop, restaurant, and some rooms for rental. Some of the former remount stables are now available for rental of those who travel with horses and there are miles of trails to ride.  Another interesting stop is the original Ft. This impressive brick home was occupied by the commanding officers in the final years of the active post.Cemetery, which is still there with most of the stones, even though the military graves were moved to Ft. McPherson National Cemetery in 1948.

There are tours of the park available or you can drive your private auto through most of the areas as long as ou stay on the roads. The park is home to a heard of buffalo and bighorn sheep have been reintroduced to the bluffs along the ridges of the park, although they are seldom seen by visitors. The coyote, NE state animal is pretty common.The old cemeter is still there with many old stones which are facination to browse through. Most of the buildings are original to the post with the period of construction ranging over the life of the fort. Because the post was never totally abandoned there are far more of the buildings still remaining, although some were destroyed to eliminate the need for maintenance in the priod that it was controled by the USDA. Today there are efforts underway to replace the ones of historic significance that were previously destroyed. The base chapple is now in use as a church located in Crawford, where it was moved after being surplussed.

The fort is of special interest to me as my father’s older brother was a soldier who was stationed there for several years in the period of about 1922 to 1925. While visiting the historical society museum I was given the email for a person who was historian there and who has custody now of the fort’s personnel records. Because my uncle was medically discharged and sent home to die, it would be very interesting to see if more can be learned about him as my father actually knew very little.

Ft. Robinson is locates near Crawford, NE and on US20. It is near the border with South Dakota and a short distsnce from the Black Hills.

The road up from US385 gets interesting and scenic very quickly.One of the unique features of the Black Hills is what they call "Needles Highway" or SD87 from between Custer City & Hill City, up and into Custer State park. It is not a drive for one towing or driving an RV unless you are far above the average in driving skills for The rocks are key to the entire scenic drive! narrow roads and tight openings.  Even with excellent skills, this is not a road for the faint of heart! This narration is from the west to east, but either direction is find as long as you drive something that fits through narrow tunnels.

The road is made up of many very tight hairpin turns and has three very narrow tunnels. The first is quite short, only 10 or 20 feet long and is 10 feet 6 inches wide by 10 feet 7 inches tall. What makes it challenging is that it comes at the apex of an outside turn. As you near the top you arrive at Sylvn Lake, where SD89 also comes up from the south and gives an alternate route for those wishing to avoid the tightest of the tunnels. Sylvan Lake is a beautiful spot and has a lodge, campground, and even canoe & boat The name needles is quite apparent in the shapes of the rocks.rentals. We stopped to take a little time to walk around the lake area and it is beautiful! If you enjoy picnics this would be a perfect place to pause for one as well as a nice break in driving. Sylvan Lake area is very popular with tourists so expect crowded conditions and arrive early if you wish to have a picnic table to spend more time. Even with eating in the car, it is picturesque to the point that you should pause even if the traffic is heavy there. Most of that traffic uses SD89 so you won't have jams in many locations of the road we are traveling.

A few miles father to the east there is a scond tunnel that requires a bit more as the width falls to only 8 feet, 4 inches and it is probably at least 50 feet in length but 12 feet high. All of this is interspersed with some beautiful views and facination rock formations. It doesn't take a lot of study to understand the reason for the rocks being called needles as there are many small verticle formations and spires. At the very top is one called This vies of Sylvan Lake is from the picnic area at the east end.the needle's eye which even has a hole completely through it. There are many areas to get off of the road to take pictures and the road is quite narrow but is two way, Of course with many tourists on the road it isn't uncommon for one to be afraid of the outside edge such that you simply must stop to let them squeese past. From tunnel 2 to tunnel 3 is about another mile and you will want to spend some time at the parking area just before you pass through this tunnel as there is no parking space on the east end of the tunnel for about 1/2 mile. This tunnel is 9 feet wide and 12 feet 3 inches high. We did stop at the overlook to look back into the tunnel but the views on the west end are breath taking and not to be missed. After several more miles of beautiful scenery and narrow winding roads you join US16a which bisects The second tunnel seems very narrow, but there is actually plenty of room if you drive slowly.Custer State Park. This is one of those things that I would consider to be "must see" for any visit to the area.

The last tunnel is the most narrow at only 8 feet, 4 inches wide. We did see a dually truck approach from the parking at the west end and after checking mirrors closely, he chose to back into the parking area and return to Sylvan Lake. What really blew our minds was that as we were decending the east side, well below the last tunnel we met a tour bus heading in that direction. Wheter they turned around at an overlook or somehow made it through the tunnel, I will never know but I can say that we were both certain that we would not have traded places with the At 8 feet, 4 inches wide this tunnel is a little tight for full sized vehicles.driver. Since that time we were told by one of the local people that there have been nore than one bus get stuck in the last tunnel and have to be winched out by a heavy wrecker.

Even though it means leaving the RV behind for most of us, I highly recommend that you take the time to travel this very exciting and spectacular road! There are some things which are just too good to miss, even when difficult.

 

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