The Sights of South Dakota

I don't know whether or not you pay any attention to the "To Do"-list I've set up to the right in the menu bar, but if you did you've noticed that I went on a road trip this weekend, to the other side of South Dakota. Donn Grinager, the International Programs Director at Augie, his family, I and 15 other international students went on this annual trip to see the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse monument.

We departed in the school's white "Biology dept." van, and amazingly we all fit into it. A tight squeeze, but it worked. The road trip itself took 5 hours, approximately, and when we got there we drove straight to Mt. Rushmore, even though it was a little after 10:00 pm. The monument was amazing, impressive, and somehow mysterious in the dark, only lit up by 3-4 really strong spotlights. We took our pictures in front of it, got in the car, and drove out to the Outlaw Ranch, where we were going to sleep the two following nights. The four guys got one cabin, the girls another, while Donn and his family shared a third. It was late, after a long ride getting there, and we all fell asleep pretty much right away.

The next day, Saturday, was the big sightseeing day. We started out driving over to the Crazy Horse monument, which isn't actually a monument yet. They've sculpted out the face and arm of what is eventually going to be a native American chief (political correctness) called Crazy Horse riding on his horse, kind of springing out of the mountain itself. Mt. Rushmore could actually fit in Crazy Horse's head, that's how big the monument is. Impressive, that too. After a tour of the museum, group pictures, an informational video presentation, and a tour by open bus around the monument itself, we drove on to Mt. Rushmore. This time bathed in sunlight.

Mt. Rushmore was even better by day, and we spent a couple of hours walking around getting good pictures, some even right under the four presidents' noses, and also having lunch in the on-site cafeteria. They served buffalo burgers, which sounded nasty, so I went for their spaghetti special meal. Not a gourmet meal, but it was okay. After finishing lunch we all got back in the van. This time the destination was Harney Peak. But not by any motorized vehicle, of course not, we were venturing out on a three hour hike...

The mountain trail was not very level, I have to say. But then again, I wasn't expecting a paved road, so I walked with a steady pace all the way to the very top of the mountain. The sense of achievement was great when finally reaching it, and the sights were astonishing. You could actually see 5 different states from that mountain top, it was incredible. After multiple scenery and group pictures, we started our descent. When reaching the bottom of the mountain, after walking around in the shallow part of the lake there for a bit, we got back into the van. The next sight was waiting.

Buffalos. Buffalos are frightening animals. Our next sight was exactly these enormous bulges of fast running muscle, and when we once all got out of the van for that perfect picture, the experience was nerve racking. One loud word uttered, and the bulge would have come charging to kill us all. We got back in the van pretty fast. To relative safety..

We then went back to the Crazy Horse monument, this time it had gotten dark. There we witnessed a cool laser and light show, depicting the history and future of the monument and the native Americans, and then we got back into the van and went out for pizza. A successful, eventful day indeed..

The next day we got packed and headed back to Sioux Falls. Of course, not without experiencing the Badlands. The Badlands is a pretty moon-like area, flat with huge, mountain shaped ridges sticking up all over the place, one of which we, once again of course, climbed. This time the view was different, but still spectacular. We climbed back down, had an Indian Taco (which was great, BTW) at the nearby visitors center, and headed home. On the way we visited Wall Drug, a big cluster of stores in a famous old town called Wall, where I bought a cowboy hat, and we also stopped to feed the prairie dogs (which aren't dogs, by the way) peanuts
It was a successful trip, we got a lot of nice pictures and memories, and got to know the other international students a little better. More and better pictures will come in a few days.

Labels: Pictures

posted by CK @ 21:30