Hi Friends and Family!!!

Roger and I have been having more fun since we left Grandma’s house. We drove south towards South Dakota (makes sense, huh?), heading for the Black Hills.

As we are driving back highways (vs. interstates), we get a much better view of the countryside.  

And most of what we saw was farms, mostly corn and soybeans (Roger thinks it was soybeans anyway…) for miles and miles and miles.   And most of the small towns all had big facilities to store and transport their crops.

We spent the first night in Pierre, SD, which is where  the Oahe Dam along the Missouri River is located.   It looks a lot like the powerplant at Garrison Dam, which we saw on our way to Fargo.   We stayed in a campground in the river bottomland forest just below the dam. It ended up raining all night with lots of thunder, lightning, and high winds. I didn’t like the thunder at all but eventually fell asleep and it was fine.

The next day we first drove through Badlands National Park.   It was still very rainy and windy so we didn’t stop much.  I did make Roger stop and take at least one photo of me there though.

We finally arrived at Custer State Park in the southern Black Hills.   I love Custer State Park and can’t wait to go back.   We stayed at the Center Lake campground, which was nice since it was well away from the busy roads (unlike some of the other campgrounds) and was centrally located within the park.   We had lots of walks, did some wildlife viewing, and a bit of touristy sight-seeing as well.

 

They seem to love dogs here and allow dogs on all their trails  (we have to be leashed of course as to not bother other people or wildlife…not that I would do those things).   Some of our shorter walks were around the campgrounds (our campground and other ones) and along an easy trail near the visitor center.  We took one trail near our campground back into the woods which was great fun….until Roger noticed all the poison ivy.  I had to have a partial bath back at the campsite which was no fun.   The best walks were along the gravel roads in the main wildlife viewing area.   The only other people we saw outside of vehicles out there were park employees and even most of the cars just stayed on the paved road.   People just don’t know what they are missing but it does make for a nicer walk for Roger and I.   🙂

I met some new wildlife friends too. These are pronghorns. They are incorrectly called antelope sometimes but I don’t think they mind.   We only saw a few of these.   We also saw some bighorn sheep ewes and lambs but didn’t get any photos this time.

Of course we saw some old friends as well, lots and lots of prairie dogs and bison.   Roger still wouldn’t let me chase the prairie dogs though.  🙁

 

 

And I actually got to meet a bear!!!!   I thought I’d be scared but Smokey was pretty friendly.   There actually aren’t any wild bears (black bear or grizzly) in the Black Hills.   Sadly, they were killed off many, many years ago and have never been reintroduced here.

 

As I mentioned before, we did a few touristy things.   The Black Hills are beautiful and one good way to see them is to drive the various scenic drives. The trips we took were the Needles Highway, the Iron Mountain Road, and the Spearfish Canyon scenic drive. They are not very long but you have to drive slowly because there are so many twists and turns, including hairpins and some pigtail bridges.  I don’t think I have ever been on such twisty roads before.   By the time we left, Roger was tired of driving them.  There were also a number of single lane tunnels cut right into the mountain.  You had to take turns driving through them.   Some of them were cut so that you’d have a view of Mt. Rushmore as you drove through.  We also stopped at the Mt. Rushmore site so that I’d could have my photo taken.   I think there is room for me next to Abraham Lincoln.

 

ICE CREAM!!! But my all time favorite place in all the Black Hills is the Dairy Twist near Hill City.   I just LOVE ICE CREAM and they gladly served up some into a bowl for me. I wanted a LARGE one but Roger only let me get a small even though he had a large cone….sometimes he is just not fair.

The Dairy Twist is highly recommended for all dogs traveling the Black Hills and is located at the junction of Hwy 16 and Hwy 385 about 4 miles outside of Hill City.   They also have a kiddie size that might be more appropriate for small dogs (but not big dogs like me.).

 


 

Love All,
Simon