Day Ten - The Black Hills Experience

48 degrees in the hills this morning ... Burr! OK, so the news said it was 58 in Rapid City, but it was chilly just the same. Nan & I had reservations for the Fort Hayes Chuckwagon Tour so we had to get an early start. Dick & Barbara had other plans so they didn't join us. Thanks to it being Sunday there was no traffic and we were at Fort Hayes in plenty of time for our chuckwagon breakfast. A little background of Fort Hayes. It is the fictitious Fort that Kevin Costner was sent to in the Movie "Dances with Wolves". A fellow by the name of Herman Jones bought the entire set and created a whole village around the Fort. We met two very nice couples at breakfast that we enjoyed talking to the rest of the day. Frank & Kathy and Gene & Darlene, both from California. In fact, Frank & Kathy have friends who will be attending the MAFCA meet in Vancouver too. Small world wouldn't you say.


Our first destination was Mt Rushmore. This is clearly the # 1 attractions in the area and rightly so. The view of the Presidents is spectacular. From every angle you get a different perspective and really appreciate what it took to carve this structure. Interesting fact is that most (90%) of the carving was done with dynamite. As it turned out, Mt Rushmore was the first stop on Dick & Barbara's itinerary too, so we were able to meet up with them.


Our tour was going to take us to all the typical tourist spots, which included drives on scenic roads with Pig Tail (hairpin) turns, tunnels and wooded bridges. Needless to say some of these tunnels were just barely big enough for the bus to pass. Lunch was in Custer State Park at the Game Lodge. I think Custer Park was one of the prettiest areas I have seen. It is noted for it's wild life, but we only saw antelope and deer, no Bisons this day. The Game Lodge was made famous by having Calvin Coolidge use it for 3 months as the summer White House.







It was off to the Crazy Horse Memorial via the Needles Highway. This afforded us spectacular views of Needle peak which looked like they would break anytime. We made a pit stop at Sylvan Lake before attempting to negotiate the last tunnel. Which was so tight the bus had to be carefully positioned to make. We had to go so slow that there was a crowd of people taking pictures of us squeezing through. Let me say that it was a tight fit. Crazy Horse was next and it did not disappoint. The immense size of the statue was made clear by a graphic which showed the heads of the Mt Rushmore Presidents fitting in the hair space behind Crazy Horse's head. The other thing that impressed me was the quality of the building at the visitor center. It was gorgeous. We took lots of pictures and really enjoyed the stop.


Back at Fort Hayes we were treated to a chuckwagon dinner and show. The dinner was pretty good and the show was excellent. A group did all kinds of music; country, western, oldies and rock & roll. One of the highlites was the girl fiddle player who did a great version of Charlie Daniels "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and she was only 15 years old.


What a day it was, so many things to see and someone else was doing the driving. And where else would the owner of this place wind up helping you fix a trunk strap. Yup, he was on the ground under the trunk in no time to fix a strap the broke. It's a long story, but all you need to know is the our sedan was parked beside his 32 Ford Coupe all day right in front of the main attraction.




It was a great day, and I only dove 34 miles. Tomorrow we will be heading to Deadwood and Devils Tower and where ever the motormeter takes us..