I slept really well in the new tent, with my learned Alaskan talent for ignoring bright light while sleeping. The moon is nearly full, so the entire night was well lit. No rain fly for the tent meant that, had we not had a full moon, we would have been able to watch the rest of the stars whirling past.
We started the morning with a small hike over Saddle Pass, which took us up, above the prairie, through the formations to a higher prarie. The whole area is striped purple and gray and tan, very much like a prairie-floored painted desert. Despite steep slopes and heights, we both managed to do the whole round-trip without incident.
Then, after a good breakfast at the nearby lodge, we packed up tent and drove the length of loop drive towards Wall. The badland features encroached upon the road, with fingers of dirt mounds to either side- - sometimes rising above us, sometimes dropping away below. But always nearby, and always interesting.
We stopped at the big-pig dig, which was a big bust. No activity was going on. However, we enjoyed wandering along taking pictures of flowers.
The final overlook was what we actually took for badlands. It looked into a beautiful, dry land with spires that stretched out for a distance that said "this would really suck to have to find your way through". Meanwhile Bighorn meandered about on the nearby mountain.
After a stop at
Wall drug and DQ, we headed off towards Mt. Rushmore. (I almost didn't mention: There's a place across from Wall where I ordered an Indian Taco. Blech. It was OK, but it didn't hold even the tiniest candle to the Navajo Tacos to which I am accustomed -- ex. Cameron, AZ) Despite our general lack of enthusiasm for a defaced mountain depicting political figures, we dropped in: how could we not, if it were so close?
My first impression was that of an airport. The monument is designed to handle an absolutely amazing number of people in its 6-section, multi-tiered parking garage. Then, there's a long walkway with plenty of visitor facilities, that leads past the state flags to an amphitheater and viewing area. The presidents were impressive, looking out from the mountain. It's definitely something to be viewed in person.
We took the little walk around the base of the mountain, where we poked at the geology, smelled the Ponderosa pines (I missed that vanilla / butter smell). A few information signs existed that contained factoids on each president. Under later consideration, if I were to care a bunch of political figures into the mountain, Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and Lincoln would probably be the ones. I'd already come around to thinking "not bad!"
THEN there was the ranger program. We almost left, but the new influx of people convinced us that this was something to check out. The ranger started off with some presidential trivia, and then moved on to discussing the flag. What I didn't know, and most people seem not to, is that the Star Spangled banner was a poem with 4 verses. (Read them all
HERE). The first verse, which is the one we sing at baseball games and such, is actually the one that asks whether the flag was there. The second verse discussed how they couldn't quite tell which flag it was still up on the ramparts. The third needles the British. These three were spoken poetry-style by the ranger. Then she sang the fourth verse, beautifully, which extols Francis Scott Key's feelings upon seeing the flag. It's beautiful, and I can understand finally why it made our national anthem. However, I'm left wondering why we only sing the part where we're wondering if our flag still is up there.
After this, there was a short video (absolutely perfect audio system, blaring out across a possible audience of thousands) discussing briefly the presidents, and the creation of Mount Rushmore. Finally, service members from the audience came down to participate in the evening's putting away of the colors. I doubt there are many flags in this country that are so well taken care of as the one at Mount Rushmore. It was great to have my own patriotism recharged a bit, for sometimes it gets buried beneath the cynicism directed at the current administration.
Finally, after the event was over, we headed down into town to stay at a hotel. The previous day had been hot, and and we were ready for showers. After checking into the hotel at the top of the hill (others were full) we showered, charged batteries, and wandered down into town to find dinner. All dining areas were closed except for one that offered up a buffet. One casual walk past the buffet platters led us to the conclusion that we were better off without. old. very old.
Then back at the hotel, I started to plan the rest of the trip. It looks like we'll need to hightail it past Devils tower tomorrow and start our journey north. Meanwhile, we're both starting to suffer what we can only assume is allergies. You can see the grass seed drifting through the air in South Dakota.
Till tomorrow...
