Another New State

Saturday 29 August 2015

The road trip rolls on! Today, we planned a shorter journey than yesterday's 407 miles with a hop from Nebraska into South Dakota, another new State for us.

Our hotel in Chadron didn't provide breakfast, so we had some fruit in the room and set off north up the route 385 towards the state line. After nine miles of rolling grasslands we reached the top of a rise, left Nebraska, and then stopped to take a photo of the 'welcome to South Dakota' sign.

Amazingly, once we entered South Dakota, our fairly minor road turned into a four lane highway. Not that there was any more traffic on it! The road ran almost straight for the 13 miles to Oelrichs a very small town, population 150. The town was named after the original landowner, although the Lakota Indians know it as 'Severed Horse Head'. They were just setting up for a rodeo on the edge of town, lots of horses and Cowboys to be seen.

The road continued, now a divided four lane highway, for another 25 miles to Hot Springs. The road ran through miles of pasture land before dropping down to the Cheyenne a River and Angostura Reservoir. Hot Springs was built around the hot springs the town is imaginatively named after. Now enclosed in a modern building, they once bought visitors from miles around. The town dates to the 1890s and has some very grand buildings, but it is faded glory, most people are just passing through en route to the Black Hills, just as we were.

Not long after leaving Hot Springs on route 385 we entered Wind Cave National Park. The cave was 'discovered' when roaring noises were heard underground and eventually a cave mouth was found which made a roaring sound. Now developed for tourists, it still hasn't been fully explored. We stopped at the visitor centre to find out more about the park above ground.

Not long after leaving the centre we came across a large herd of Buffalo. We'd seen odd males earlier, but this herd was a mix of male, female and young Buffalo. We had to wait whilst they crossed the road . We also stopped several times to try and take pictures of Prairie Dogs. Whilst doing that, we also saw Western Meadow Larks.

After a few miles we left the National Park and entered the Custer State Park. This park encompasses most of the the Black Hills area and has several scenic drives. We had to pay $15 for a 7 Day pass. We set off along a wildlife loop, 17 miles long. We saw a lot more Buffalo and some Burros, a sort of wild donkey, but it was nearly midday and the temperature was in the 90s, so we decided to come back later. We stopped again briefly for some lunch at another visitors centre before heading for the Needles Drive, another scenic byway.

This small road climbed up in the pine clad hills wriggling around large outcrops of rocks. At one stage, the road got very narrow as it passed through Iron Creek Tunnel. From here, the scenery got even more dramatic, with huge rock walls topped with rock spires, one viewpoint was called Cathedral Spires.

Then, when we thought it couldn't get narrower, it did. Eye of the Needle Tunnel is narrow and quite low and also squeezes between rock at the far end. At the far end is a small parking area. The main feature here is a rock formation called 'Eye of the Needle'. It was pretty impressive, but rather over run by tourists (like us!).

By now, we'd had enough of sightseeing so drove down to Custer, the main town in the area. Custer, named after the famous Lt Gen George Custer, lies at 5300ft above sea-level and has a permanent population of about 1900. During summer the population explodes as tourist arrive. It's a pleasant, slightly quirky, touristy town with a range of hotels, shops and restaurants. We checked in to the Best Western Buffalo Ridge Hotel. We got a pleasant motel-type room and the hotel has a nice pool and hot tub.

After moving into our room, we went to explore the pool and tub whilst it was quiet, it was really nice and we had it to ourselves.

A little later, just before six, we headed back to wildlife loop in the park. This proved to be an excellent time to visit. In the 17 mile drive we saw a huge herd of Buffalo, White-tailed Deer, Pronghorn Antelope, Mule Deer, Prairie Dogs, Prairie Falcons, Bluebirds, Western Meadow Larks, American Robins and to top it off a herd of around 60 Elk. One bull elk was herding his females and their young whilst two other mature Bulls were hanging around a few hundred metres away. We watched as the light faded and eventually left before it got dark.

On the way back to Custer, I realised that the moon was up and that it was full. I believe it is a 'super' moon, when it is full moon at the same time that the moon is at its closest point to earth. I took a few photos, I'm not sure how well they will turn out.

Back in Custer, we found the only restaurant open was Steakhouse 140. We managed to get ribs and fries before they closed up too!

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