South Dakota Trip - Episode II - Attack of the Tatanka

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We rejoin our cast on the morning of Tuesday, May 20th. We had many weary travelers from the prior two days - most of us had at least one hour of driving to the train station, 12 hours of train, and 7 hours of driving from the train to Custer. So we were all ready to NOT be traveling :) However, with 2 little girls (10 months and 3.9 years), sleeping in is not really an option, at least for their parents. Erin and I didn't sleep too long either though, and when we got to the kitchen, Dad had pancakes, eggs, and bacon all cooking and ready for us. Yum!

A side note on the accommodations at chez Dad - Dad lives out in the country, right up on the back of Custer State Park, in a wooded area. His house has an original one-room cabin on one end, and the rest of the house (kitchen, 2 bedrooms, bathroom) on the other end. To accommodate all the visitors, he also borrowed his neighbor's very large, very nice RV which was parked in the yard. Sister, brother-in-law, and the two nieces took the large cabin room (which is VERY nice, has lots of space, 3 beds, a couch, and a fireplace), and Erin and I got the RV - which I have to say is my kind of "roughing" it :) The RV had a very comfortable bed, bathroom, filtered water, heat/air conditioning, and a nice space to sit and read, eat, etc. Thanks neighbor Dave!

Anyway, dad decided we needed to stock up on groceries for the remainder of the vacation, so dad, Erin, and I went to the Custer County Market, which had just recently bought out the neighboring natural/organic food store. NICE! - we were able to buy all the stuff we needed for the meals Erin would make, as well as the stuff dad wanted, and the selection was almost as good as the Good Food Store we go to here in Rochester. (and we did actually buy enough food for the rest of the week - we only stopped back once to get a couple small things we had forgotten). On the way back, we stopped at the Bank House Coffee Shop, which I had immediately spotted coming into town, because they served Starbucks coffee - leave it to me to immediately find the only Starbucks within a 50-mile radius :) Fortunately Dad liked the place too, and knew the owner (at night it is also a Steak & Ribs place, more on that later). So dad, Erin, and I all got our triple lattes and mochas, and I was set for a day of adventure and fun in the Black Hills! The weather was sunny, clear, and the temp was great, so it was looking good.

By 10, we got everyone together in the rental van, and headed into Custer State Park (website , detailed map). Our first stop was a horse riding place, wish I had taken a picture of the name, but we wanted to get Keagann a pony ride. The people were VERY friendly and helpful, and since it wasn't quite the major tourist season yet (which starts mainly after Memorial Day), we were able to get a staff-assisted pony ride for $10. Keagann was fascinated by the horses, and of course wanted to pet them all (the two small ponies were her favorites though). There was also a friendly puppy outside the main office, as well as a baby goat! The goat was cute, but even baby goats have teeth and will eat everything, so you have to be careful, but we were able to hang out with both of them for awhile. Erin also made friends with a horse that was tied up closeby where Keagann was riding.



After that it was off to see TATANKA - buffalo. Custer State Park has a wildlife trail (see the map) where you can drive around 12-mile loop in the midst of buffalo and other wildlife. They recommend you stay in the car, but we were able to hop out and get a few pictures (from a safe distance!)

By then we were all hungry for lunch, so we headed back to dad's for some food. On the way back, dad pointed out some trails in the park that he thought would be good for hiking, as Erin and I were planning on going out hiking after lunch to take advantage of the nice weather. So after lunch, with a couple of maps (I'm obsessed with maps as anyone who has been on a trip with me knows!) we headed into CSP to the Game Lodge, which is the beginning of the Lovers Leap trail (website , map). This one looked the easiest on the map, as it was a loop, and was very scenic. The map said it was 1 mile, which was a misprint, dad said it was about 3 - as we found out, it was probably more like 5 or 6 (unless we took a wrong turn somewhere) but that was ok as it was a nice day.

The first part is very uphill, so we took several breaks to enjoy the surrounding beauty. Erin took pictures of all the interesting species of plants, and we dodged several buffalo "presents" on the way up. We got to what looked like the top of the mountain, which was kind of a nice overlook but there were trees in the way, and so we thought it was kind of lame. THEN we went further...and found the real top of the hill :) WOW, the view was fantastic - it was overlooking an entire valley of trees. And you could see why it was called lover's leap, as it was pretty much a straight drop-off. Erin was a little nervous and so we didn't stay up there too long.

That "half" of the hike was about as long as I expected. So we figured going down would take less time because it should be about the same distance according to the map. But when we got to what looked like the bottom, the trail followed (and crossed over) a creek that just keep going and going. Finally we got to a campground and after going through that, back to the original road, and even then we still had to walk a ways to get back to where the car was parked. I can't say for certain how far it was, but it sure seemed like 5-6 miles, given the time we spent. It was still a great hike, but we were for sure done at that point (originally we thought maybe we'd hit another trail on the way back). By then we were all tired, so we ate dinner and relaxed and went to bed.





Wednesday we woke up and it was cloudy but not raining and not too bad. We had designated that day to go do some of the "tourist" stuff near Rapid City. At about 9:30am, after another great breakfast from dad (and stopping for coffee at the Bank House again on my insistence :) we arrived at the Reptile Gardens - a sort of outdoor reptile zoo. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really pretty neat, even being off-season. We got in and watched an alligator show, where the guy was walking around in the midst of a bunch of alligators and poking them with a big metal rod - looked pretty scary until he explained some things about alligators that I didn't know. They are very slow - they have very short legs. They have very bad eyesight and limited range of vision. They can't move their head very far - he demonstrated this by feeding them, in order to eat something they sort of have to turn their head sideways and grab it, and if they don't see it when it drops, they probably won't find it. Apparently they're also very unintelligent animals. So after learning that, the next trick he did, holding the gator's mouth shut, wasn't as impressive - I guess if you hold their eyes down for awhile, they relax and eventually think that they're dead. OK, so I still wouldn't try that myself, but I am reasonably confident I could evade an alligator now if I ever met up with one. There was also a snake show, and I didn't learn anything about snakes that makes me less scared of that makes me like them any more (I did learn that the snake with the deadliest venom actually has a hard time biting and it takes a long time to get the venom into whatever they bite...but it doesn't make want to try to go chase one). There was also the cutest display of prairie dogs - of course they didn't have to go far in South Dakota to find any number of those! Even though they are mean, dirty little animals, they do a funny little shout-and-dance thing every so often - one of them will make this squealing noise, and then all of them will hop and dance. Kinda weird...we got some good pics on that one.





After a lunch of Pizza Hut buffet in Rapid City, we headed to Bear Country, USA, which is a drive-through set of open fields with bears, antelope, elk, reindeer, and a few other random animals - sort of like the buffalo from the day before. This time you don't really dare get out of the car or open the windows though. At the end, there's an outdoor zoo of different animals you can walk through and look at. But we got to do something special - my dad's girlfriend Gwen's daughter works there, and she got us inside the place where all the baby bear cubs were. They were old enough where we couldn't hold them anymore, but we got to get up really close and feed them. They were so much fun - they were almost like cartoons with how goofy they were acting! My camera died right after that, but fortunately I got some pictures. Keagann just LOVED this one!

Since we were in Rapid City, we made a short stop up to Target before heading back to Custer - by then everyone was exhausted, but the party was just beginning...the birthday party that is! Yes, as it turns out, all of our birthdays (Erin, myself, sister Erin, Chris, Keagann, and Laynie) are all in June and July. So dad decided to have a big birthday turkey dinner and birthday cake for us, and invited several friends over to share, including my friend Gina from high school who I haven't seen in years, and who now lives up in Custer with her husband and two kids. Fun! Everyone was REALLY tired after all the fun.

Part 3 to come....