Palisades & Pipestone Revisited

Bob was disappointed that we hadn’t stopped by Palisades State Park after visiting nearby Good Earth State Park a few days earlier. When we saw the weather forecast was looking half way decent (at least for the earlier part of the day) he suggested we pack our lunch and go. 

The park was quite busy to the point we even had to wait in line to enter.  With the combined visits to Custer, Good Earth and now Palisades State Parks we will be breaking even on the cost of the South Dakota state park annual pass we purchased for $36 in the Black Hills. (Otherwise we would have paid: Custer-$20; other parks-$8 each for individual visits). The pass doesn’t expire until next May so perhaps we will have a chance to use it again in the spring. 

I won’t go into too much detail since I did a previous post and video from our visit in June. We started by going down the trail and steep steps to walk along the river bank at the base of the cliffs. A secluded picnic table at the top of the hill gave us a nice place to have our lunch afterwards. While we were eating, a long line of antique and classic cars drove by...most likely a car club out to enjoy a get-together at the park.  

From lower trail.

Bob standing next to "Balancing Rock"

Our remaining time at the park was spent on the opposite side of the river. After a little exploring, I found a nice rock to park on while Bob went off exploring. With so many people scrambling on the rocks in the river and on the rock faces, I fully expected to see some falls or splashes but everyone stayed safe. 

Without me realizing it, Bob climbed up King Rock and had this view from above.
(Glad I didn't find out until he was safely back down!)

Looking back across the river to Balancing Rock (see above photo where Bob was standing near the top of the rock.)
The steps were the ones we went down to get to the lower trail.

As the afternoon progressed, the blue skies and sunshine switched to clouds, wind and a dramatic drop in temperature. We moved our car the short distance from the King & Queen trailhead to park next to the 1906 historical bridge. We walked a short trail at the top of the bluff and then walked out onto the bridge to see the view down the river.

View looking down the river.

For the 2nd time that afternoon we encountered this couple taking photos in the park.
Bob asked permission to take her photo, but refrained from asking too many questions! 😲

A wooly worm...a sign of a harsh winter?

The smart thing to do would have been to head home once the weather changed. But thinking this could be our last outing of the year we wanted to stretch out the day a little longer and drove on to Pipestone National Monument. It was raining ever so lightly when we arrived, but we each had a rain jacket and decided we wouldn't let a little moisture stop us.

The visitor center was still closed due to Covid (as it was when we stopped here earlier in the summer). With the nasty weather, we walked the mile-long trail in record time!! The waterfall which had been fast-flowing before was now much smaller. (First photo below was in early June.)

   

As we reached the end of the trail, we could hear a pounding noise and Bob realized it was a group of guys quarrying the pipestone (catlinite.) I grabbed the car keys and went to get warm while he headed over to where they were working. Only Native Americans are able to get a permit to quarry the stone and there is a 10-year waiting list for the annual permits. Quarrying is labor-intensive and may take days, weeks, months, or years to reach the pipestone layer. Bob was quite excited to have had the chance to watch and visit with the guys as they worked.

Quarrying for catlinite (rock used to make Native American pipes.)

At the entrance into the monument we had noticed a VERY LARGE peace pipe on display and stopped to get a photo as we were leaving. 

World's Largest Peace Pipe

Before we could get back into the car, a guy pulled up behind us and said "Want to hear the story behind the pipe?" Turns out the man was Bud Johnson who had built the pipe! The world's largest peace pipe began with a vision shared by three spiritual people and was featured in the May 2008 issue of Reader's Digest. You can also read about it HERE.

Bud Johnson telling us the history of the world's largest peace pipe.

Stopping at Pipestone was an afterthought and did not even seem like a good idea once the weather had gotten worse. But Bob having a chance to witness the quarrying of pipestone and then meeting Bud Johnson turned out to be a day that couldn't have been planned but yet brought what I like to call "souvenir memories"!! 😉 Our visit to Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii was another such day with a chance meeting that we will always remember.

Note: It is a week later that I am getting this blog post online and this is what our yard looks like. At least 4" of new snow but our trees still have green leaves!  😥  A clash of two seasons for sure. Praying that there will still be some decent weather before winter sets in for good. 

Good Earth State Park at Blood Run

A chance to enjoy one of the last warm days of autumn got us out of the house and on the road. And having the annual South Dakota state park pass that we purchased at Custer State Park last month helped us choose our destination...Good Earth State Park at Blood Run. The park is just barely outside the city limits of Sioux Falls...an easy drive for us.

Good Earth State Park (a National Historical Landmark) is South Dakota's newest state park, but the land on which it sits has a history that goes back centuries. Archeologists believe the Blood Run site was used as early as 6,500 BC. Native American cultures were attracted to this settlement for its location next to the Big Sioux River, the abundant wildlife, the availability of pipestone (catlinite) and protection from the winds. The area was an important gathering place for ceremonies and a trading center for many tribal peoples from 1300 to 1700 AD. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 people would have been present at various times of the year. Blood Run is considered one of the oldest sites of long-term human habitation in all of the United States. 

The parking lot was quite full when we arrived but we took our chance and went inside the visitor center (which had just opened in 2017.) Only a couple of other people were inside...and wearing masks...so we took some time to look at the exhibits.

A large buffalo skin structure and wall murals showed what life might have been like to the early inhabitants of the area. 

We were on the look out for one of these boulders, but didn't see any.

Close up of previous sign.

Our main objective was to check out some of the six miles of trails that wind through the woods, prairie land and river bottom in the park. Even with a map, we somehow ended up on a different trail than what we had planned. Thinking we were headed to the Riverview Loop we found ourselves on the Cottonwood Loop instead.

Arrow pointing to Cottonwood Loop trail that we walked.

The beginning of the trail system by the visitor center.

Initially the trail took us through a wooded area and somewhere along the way we made a wrong choice at a fork in the path.

Once we realized we were headed the opposite way, the Cottonwood Loop looked like a good choice.

Beginning of Cottonwood Loop. Much of the trail was along tall prairie grass until we reached the river.

Someone had constructed a small shelter from tree branches. Chief Bob is pretending to smoke his peace pipe.

After almost no rain for the last few months, the Big Sioux River wasn't all that big. 

I used the app "Map My Walk" to record our hike which turned out to be a little over 2 miles. By mid-October, much of the landscape was brown, but there were patches of yellow leaves on the trees and if you looked, little spots of color in the prairie grass.

This flower was no bigger than a quarter.

A little pop of red in a sea of brown.

Along the river bank the sun was warm and the winds were light. Once we returned to the bluff by the visitor center a brisk breeze had us pulling on our jackets and cinching up our hoods to try and stay warm as we ate the picnic lunch we had brought along. 

Our initial plans were to make a second stop at Palisades State Park but instead we headed straight home. A short, but enjoyable outing. 

It was nice to explore Good Earth State Park for the first time, but unless we have an annual pass in the future, I'm not sure we would return. (A day pass is $8.) There are too many other places nearby that are equally good or better for hiking. 

Homeward Bound

 Thursday, September 24, 2020

Our time in the Black Hills was over...a short visit compared to our other trips which are usually two weeks or more. Under normal circumstances we would have spent more time exploring the touristy areas, but this time it was all about the outdoors. It is sad that it took something like Covid to get us to re-discover such a wonderful place close to home, but we for sure will be back again sooner than later!

Most of the food we brought had been consumed so packing up didn't take long and we were on the road fairly early. Our most direct route to get to Interstate 90 was cutting through Custer State Park and it gave us a chance to see some more wildlife. Initially we thought we were going to put a check mark next to one more species on the Custer wildlife list...the mountain goat. Although the horns are similar it turns out these are female bighorn sheep. (The rams have the thick curled horns.) 

This what a mountain goat looks like...all white with a shaggy coat. Definitely not what we saw.
Credit: Wikipedia

As we passed by the State Game Lodge, tents were being set up for the three day arts festival scheduled to begin that morning at 10 am. This festival is held in conjunction with the annual Buffalo Round Up in Custer State Park. 

Credit: custerresorts.com

Traffic was heavy through the park and there were many signs showing the parking areas for the round up the next day. The roundup was scheduled to start at 9:30 am but people would be lining up by 6 am. Seeing the roundup in person would be an impressive event, but being in the crowd with thousands of people does not sound fun to me...even in normal times.

Photo of one section of spectators at this year's roundup.
Credit:  blackhillsbadlands.com

Two different viewing areas were set up on a hillside so spectators could watch as the bison were herded through the valley and into pens. Some of the buffalo would be auctioned off to keep the herd from growing too large and others would be vaccinated and released back into the hills to graze.

The event was live streamed the next day so we were able to enjoy it all on our big screen TV from the comfort of our family room. Here is a link if you want to watch the 2020 Custer State Park Annual Buffalo Round Up. 

The rest of our day was thankfully uneventful. Once the car hit Interstate 90 then it was smooth sailing across South Dakota. We lost an hour when we crossed back into the Central Time Zone but still were pulling into our driveway by 5 pm. 

No future travel plans for us at this time. Hopefully we will sneak in some day trips and even get to put that South Dakota annual state park pass to use before it expires next May. The warm weather we are experiencing now makes it easy to forget that cold and snow will be here soon and then we will begin our long winter of hibernation. 

Here is to hoping that by next spring normal life is beginning to make a return...

Winning the Wildlife Lottery

 Wednesday, September 23, 2020

I had turned off the alarm around midnight knowing Bob would need more sleep after his late night of "elk bugling". And with the alarm, my plans for an early morning visit to Mt. Rushmore were also shut down. If this had been a "must do" activity I would have been disappointed...but it wasn't. Visiting later in the day could still be a possibility, but I knew by then it would be quite crowded. I was determined to avoid being around a lot of people on this trip. I did not want to come home with a souvenir virus.

Even with no alarm, we were both up by 7 am. I think it takes more than 3 days to adjust to a new time zone and our bodies were still under the impression that it was 8 am...long past the time we needed to be out of bed. 

New plans were formulated for the day...a drive through Wind Cave National Park and then the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park. Bob had seen a big herd of buffalo late last night and was curious if we could find them again. We were in the car ready to pull out of the driveway when I remembered the bag of carrots I had brought along to feed the "begging burros"...glad I remembered!

The AirBnB where we were staying was right on the edge of Wind Cave National Park. We entered through a back road and right away ran smack dab into a giant herd of bison. Well we didn't literally run into them, but came close! It was just us and the buffalo and with them totally blocking the road, we had no choice but to stop and spend some time with them. 

We were surrounded on all sides!

There were a couple of opportunities where we could have "maybe" squeezed past the bison, but an hour later we were still sitting there enthralled with the opportunity to be in the middle of these awesome creatures! 

Driving on, Bob immediately spotted a coyote running across a field. He was pretty excited with his find since seeing a coyote is fairly rare. I could barely see the animal but with the zoom on my camera I was able to get a fuzzy photo. The coyote was running through a prairie dog town so it was a "two-fer" wildlife sighting!

While we were stopped watching the coyote, the herd of buffalo slowly started moving in our direction.

Our next safari encounter came soon after with an antelope buck and his harem of does. The group of 7 females was being guarded and corralled by the large male. His actions showed we were making him nervous so we got our photos and drove on.

With the annual Custer State Park Buffalo Round Up only two days away, I had worried that all of the bison might already be penned up and we wouldn't see any. But...as we drove through the Wildlife Loop we encountered two more herds. This road was quite busy with cars as well but at times the only option was to just stop and give the buffalo the right-away. They were not at all intimidated by vehicles and a couple of times we could feel them pushing on the car from behind and even licking it!

A bison car wash.

I had almost forgotten about the burros when we found them hanging out by the entrance to the state park. When one of them wandered over and discovered we were handing out carrots the whole gang followed! I was busy trying to do a video of Bob feeding them out the driver's side window when two more crammed their heads into my window and were nuzzling my neck trying to make sure they got their share. Even breaking the carrots into smaller pieces the whole pound was gone within a couple of minutes! 

And this is why they call them begging burros! 😂

I let out quite the scream when I turned around and had this staring at me!!!

Throughout the morning we munched on the snacks we had in the car but waited till we were back at the apartment to have a proper lunch. I was fighting a bit of a headache so declined the offer to go fly-fishing with Jim, the owner, but Bob jumped at the chance and the two guys took off. 

After a nap I was feeling better and went for a walk down the gravel road. I was just on my way back when the guys returned. Bob had brought back photos and videos to share with me. Jim was able to catch about a dozen fish while Bob watched. I was surprised to see that where they were fishing looked more like a ditch than what I would call a stream.

Tortilla soup was on the dinner menu...an easy dump & heat recipe. I had browned and seasoned ground beef in advance so all that was left was to add cans of tomatoes, beans, corn, etc. Topped with crushed nacho chips and grated cheese it made a great meal which we enjoyed sitting on the deck. 

It was still long before the actual sunset time, but when the sun dipped below the hills the temperature dropped noticeably. We decided to go out for one last drive to see if we could spot any more wildlife. Bob also wanted to show me something that he had discovered when he was out with Jim...an old school house and cemetery. The old log buildings were like visiting a scene from days gone by.

A two-hole outhouse! Not set up for social distancing!

We went down one of the roads that the guys had been on to go fishing just a few hours earlier and SURPRISE...we found ourselves in the middle of a herd of bison again. The buffalo had not been there in the afternoon but now they were grazing and once again blocking the road. If you are counting, this was the 4th time we had gotten in the middle of a herd! 

With no one else around, we just stopped in the middle of the road, turned off the engine and watched and listened to the massive creatures. Grunts, growls, chomping…all around us! Here is just a snippet of what we heard. Turn the sound up and listen...

We watched until the sunset. Not wanting to be on the roads after dark, we reluctantly said goodbye to the bison and started back to the apartment. 

On the way we noticed a couple of cars parked at the pullout where we had seen the coyote and antelope earlier in the day so we stopped. A man in one of the cars pointed out a herd of 17 elk…a large buck with huge antlers and 16 does. They were off in the distance but with the binoculars and my camera zoom, we were able to see them. How exciting! 

Taking a photo at such a long distance with low light did not give good results...but it at least preserved a great memory!

As we were cleaning and packing up back at the cabin, I glanced at a Custer State Park travel guide that we had picked up. A double page spread highlighted all of the wildlife common to the park and I was happy that we had seen all but two species (although technically a couple of the animals we had seen in the Badlands rather than Custer.)

What we did see:

• birds - several different kinds
• bighorn sheep (Badlands)
• prairie dogs
• white-tailed deer…an abundance of these were always in the valley near the apartment
• mule deer…(Badlands)
• elk
• burros
• pronghorn antelopes

 What we hadn’t seen (at least yet!)

• Mountain lions
• Mountain goats

All in all a great day of wildlife viewing!