Wind and Wildlife

Thomas' conference starts today and he is busy for most of the day, so I am on my own. I worked on a few things in the hotel room for a bit and Thomas left for his meetings. Around 9:00am I headed out to begin my day. I left Rapid City and drove south on SD79. Then I took a well maintained gravel road (7-11 Road or CR101). This took me to US385. The drive along this county road was beautiful. Full of wonderful scenery and views and filled with wildflowers. Once on US385 I headed north to the entrance of Wind Cave National Park. Along the way I stopped at a couple of pullouts and learned about the park and the wildlife in the area. I also saw prairie dogs and buffalo. Finally I made it to the parking area and the Visitor Center. I first got my cancellation stamps and then picked up some postcards and a patch. Then I got the Junior Ranger booklet and found out about the cave tours. I had to get into a short line to buy a ticket for a tour. They had five choices for cave tours: three regular walking tours - Garden of Eden Tour, Natural Entrance Tour and Fairgrounds Tour and two specialty tours - Candlelight Tour and Wild Cave Tour. I opted for the Fairgrounds Tour.

[Fairgrounds Tour - This 1½ hour tour explores both the upper and middle levels of Wind Cave. Boxwork is abundant along the trail in the middle level of the cave. In the upper level, the trail winds through the larger rooms where popcorn and frostwork can be seen. This is our most strenuous walking tour. The tour enters and exits the cave by elevator and there are 450 stairs along the 2/3 mile route with one flight of 89 steps going up. Cost - $12.00.]

I enjoyed the tour and learned a lot. This cave system is very different than Carlsbad but also very interesting. After the tour I walked a short distance on the Prairie Vista Trail and then I finished my Junior Ranger booklet and turned that in. Then it was time to head back to the hotel to meet Thomas. I took a slightly different route back to Rapid City and drove through the town of Hot Springs. I arrive back at the hotel around 3:30pm and Thomas was back from his meetings and waiting for me so we could visit Custer State Park.

We decided to head into Custer State Park and take the Wildlife Loop Road. We left the hotel and drove down SD79 to SD36. This took us to the entrance to the park. We paid our fee ($20 for a 7 day pass) and then drove about two miles on US16A to Wildlife Loop Road. We drove for a little while and then stopped at the French Creek Natural Area to try for a couple of letterboxes. Unfortunately, we didn't find any of the boxes. It wasn't that they are missing or anything it is just that I couldn't make heads or tails of the clues. The first part of the clues were fine - we got to the gate at the trailhead but after that nothing made sense. We even tried looking under anything that remotely related to the clues. But we still came up empty handed. I have to admit we didn't put a whole lot of effort into finding the boxes because we wanted to do other things. So we continued on.

So we drove the loop and enjoyed the views but wildlife eluded us. Well, we did see a few animals but no buffalo. We saw burros, prairie dogs, one antelope and one turkey and that was it. But the drive was relaxing and beautiful. Once we finished the loop we took SD87 to US16A and headed to Custer for something to eat. We found a parking spot and walked around a little until we found a place to eat. We had a nice relaxing meal and then decided to head back to the hotel. There were boxes in town but we opted to skip them today. So, from Custer we took US385/US16 headed toward Rapid City. As we drove along we could see the Crazy Horse Memorial (we will probably visit that tomorrow) and as we continued we arrived in Hill City. I knew I had clues for boxes in the area but wasn't really interested in stopping until we got out of town and I saw a sign for the Samelius Trail. We turned in and parked. After a short walk along the trail we found South Dakota Bird by Azroadie. I found a nice spot to sit and stamp in and then replaced the box. Now we were ready to get to the hotel. The last part of the drive was quick and once back in our room we showered and relaxed. Haven't really planned for tomorrow. I will work on that in the morning.