Spearfish was cold last night. Karen’s sleeping bag came in handy as we all dog-piled to keep warm in the sub-40 degree air. Once the sun hit the tent in the morning, things started to warm up, but there was considerable condensation inside and outside of the tent that would take some time to dry.
We had planned to go get breakfast in town, but the relative ease of pouring Cheerios and coffee saved us the walk and the money. As I packed up everything but the tent (which was left in the sun to dry) the kids played in the small diversion canal that feeds freshwater to the hatchery downstream.
Dogs and kids cannot resist this stream.
The D.C. Booth hatchery has to be the most visitor-friendly hatchery in the USA. Sandwiched between the Spearfish Park and the entrance of the City Campground, it is easily accessible, has plenty of educational exhibits and some impressive fish.
Catching fish the new-fashioned way.
Hatchery-sized augmented brown.
A more natural-looking brookie.
We admired the trout and dreamed of catching fish of that size and beauty some day. I’m sure it will happen, but one of my regrets on this trip is that we didn’t really get to enjoy any true western fishing. Our Henry’s Fork day was a cold rain-out and you can’t just stop for a half hour on any good looking roadside piece of water with two young novices and expect results. Their uncle will have to help them with their casting technique so we can take advantage of the many productive western rivers the next time around. Plus, on our next trip we will plan to spend more than four minutes in each place.
We have been keeping a pretty brisk pace. Most folks that we chat with on the road can’t understand how we have been traveling so far so fast. But spending time in the van today with the kids, we talked about how the Sprinter was actually like a rolling museum. The high-mileage days encased by big windows have given them a good sense of the landscape and industry in the areas that we have traveled through. Julia noted that she had done a school report about Lewis & Clark last year and was elated that she actually got to see Astoria. And one of her favorite board games (Ticket to Ride) is based on major train routes in the US, and we have seen plenty of those so far! There are definitely places that we feel that we only needed to see once and others that we would like to come back to and spend more time at in the future.
Mount Rushmore is only about an hour south of Spearfish. We could have taken the quick route via I-90, but I thought it would be more fun to drive through the Black Hills. It really was. We passed through lively Deadwood, SD and saw some other small towns that looked downright closed. In some areas it seemed like all of the profit from some of the businesses happened in the short two-weeks of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and it just wasn’t worth staying open the rest of the year. Seeing the aftermath of the Rally, I am glad that we didn’t try to wedge ourselves into this area on our way west while that was going on!
Make your money in two weeks. Take the other 50 off.
After our so-so experience at Devils Tower yesterday, I was expecting that Mount Rushmore would be yet another overdone tourist attraction. Even up to the point of walking up the stairs to the memorial filled with people, it seemed that this was going to be another over-run and over-hyped NPS attraction. But I was completely wrong. The presentation is tasteful, with just the right amount of patriotism, and designed to accommodate a lot of tourists without feeling too crowded. The “mall” leading to the viewing area was lined with flags from each state. We found the Vermont state flag located closest to the monument and later learned that this was because President Calvin Coolidge had performed the dedication of the monument when construction began.
State flags. Famous presidents. Matching granite. This is a memorial as much as it is a monument.
We have all seen an image like this. But when you see it in person, it is difficult to imagine how the sculptor and his employees managed to carve the faces so accurately.
The Mount Rushmore visitors center had a 15 minute movie about the monument that was exceptionally informative. The video described the motivations of the sculptor, the symbolism of each selected president and the process of carving the sculpture. When you look at what the mountain used to be and what it became, it is mind-boggling to to think about the process and hard work that was required to sculpt the memorial, especially in the 1920’s and 30’s. All in all, the three of us were very impressed, and even moved, by the memorial. We also agreed that more parks should have a 15 minute video to cover the basics.
BOV lunch with Mount Rushmore in the background.
After a quick picnic lunch in the parking lot, we set the GPS for Badlands National Park. Today was hotter than yesterday and there was a haze from the western forest fires that contributed to a bright white stark sky. We drove 30 miles on I-90 and in that distance Julia counted 43 signs for Wall Drug. A cross-country trip isn’t complete without a stop at the famous Wall Drug, so we veered right and followed the signs to the greatest tourist trap a highway has ever seen.
The kids may have ridden one, but I'm still not sure they know what makes a jackalope.
If you have ever seen the movie "Big" you will know (as Kellan does) not to mess with Zoltar.
I refilled my coffee mug for 5 cents, fortified the kids with ice cream for $5, and grabbed our free bumper sticker to paste on the cooler. A few miles later, we were entering the Badlands National Park. As far as I can tell, the only bad thing about this park is the apparent abundance of rattlesnakes. Otherwise, it is candy for the eastern eye. As the sun dropped toward the horizon, we followed the smooth ribbon of tarmac through the park, stopping to check out the views, to climb on strange mounds of dry mud and to take plenty of photos.
Classic Badlands.
Early evening was a good time to tour the park, but looking at the aspect we decided that it would be decidedly more dramatic if seen at dawn.
At one point, we were all so captivated by the scenery that I stopped the van and we all immediately jumped out to take pictures. When I climbed back into the driver seat, my stomach did a flip when I discovered that the van was A.) still running B.) still in Drive, and C.) being held in place by only the parking brake. That situation had the potential to become the report to end all reports.
In this photo the Sprinter is on and in Drive with the parking brake on and nobody in it. This is the stuff that comedy scripts are made of. Thankfully, she held her ground.
It was about 5:00 when we reached the western edge of the park, which is the home to the park’s main campground. We had been considering staying here tonight under the stars, but a few things were nudging me to move on. The first was some pressure to get some actual work done for a couple of clients. (The cell signal near the campground was marginal and even though they advertised free wi-fi, I could see the potential for a frustrating evening.) The second factor was the heat. It was 95 degrees and the sun still had a few hours before it would disappear. The campground was basically a west-facing field and we would bake until the sun went down. The coup de grace for moving along: a lively population of rattlesnakes.
Hey, it's 5:00 PM and 95 degrees. Want to camp here?
Hell no!
The kids were all for my suggestion to get a few more miles under our belts and stay in a hotel tonight. They had stocked up on new movies in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart in Spearfish earlier in the day and they knew that the chances of the hotel having a pool were pretty high. That’s worth a double-five rating on any Yelp, TripAdvisor or Google review. From my phone, I booked a room at the Hampton Inn in Mitchell, SD, about 3 hours away and the kids loaded up their DVD players.
The drive across SD into the darkness was sublime. When FM radio serves you up the Allman Brothers while the sun is dropping in your rearview mirror and bugs are collecting on the windshield, there is only one thing to do: sing so loudly and badly that your kids start laughing at you from the back seat.
Tryin' to make a livin and doin' the best I can...
Our only miscalculation was for dinner. Somewhere between Interior, SD and Mitchell, SD, we traveled into the central time zone. Not a big deal, unless you expected a restaurant to be open for dinner. We had the least satisfying meal of our trip thus far at a truck-stop Arby’s along I-90. Lesson learned. Next time, we will happily suffer carrot sticks and granola bars and just spring for a big breakfast the next morning.
The kids are now asleep, my work is done, and the post is almost finished. I’ll get a few winks myself before we hit the road again. Last night (it’s now early morning) we were discussing whether to go north to Duluth and through Canada to Vermont, or to follow I-90 on the most direct route for home. There’s an argument to be made for each route and at this point, I could go either way. We will see how things feel tomorrow.