As today was Sunday, I planned for activities I felt were sabbath appropriate while still doing interesting things. We were making a turn for home, but I again planned for us to do thing along the way.
We started the day off at church, attending both meetings of the Rapid Valley Ward. It was a nice ward with friendly people.
My plan was to head south, travel through Custer State Park along the Wildlife Loop Road, and drop down to Wind Cave National Park. That's what we did.
The Wildlife Loop Road was terrific. Animals roam freely on the plains and we saw lots of wildlife: bighorn sheep right by the side of the road, pronghorns, prairie dogs, wild turkeys, bison, and burros. It was exciting to see so many of these animals up close.
I could almost touch these bighorn sheep.
These bison were not close to the road.
I hope it would raise its head, but it didn't.
Lounging in the tall grass
Pronghorns
These were much easier to see both because there were more of them,
and because the grass wasn't tall.
There were many, many prairie dogs in this dry prairie.
A flock of roaming wild turkey
The most surprising animals we encountered were the burros.
Burros are not native to the Black Hills.
They are descended from the herd that once hauled visitors
up to the top of Black Elk Peak.
The rides were discontinued and the burros were released into the park.
I think Brandt just said,
"Look! It's burro bum!"
Having driven through the park, we continued south to Wind Cave National Park. Doesn't a cave tour seem like an appropriate Sunday activity? At least when you are on vacation? I thought so. Kent was less sure, but he came along anyway.
Wind Cave is one of longest and most complex caves in the world. It is known for its calcite formations called boxwork which was very unusual. It is also one of the best examples of a breathing cave. Our tour guide was great, sharing lots of interesting facts and stories, taking his time, and keeping us longer than the advertised tour time. I don't think any of us minded. We discovered some of our fellow spelunkers were from Lindon and in South Dakota on fall break too. It's a small world. It's also a dark world in the cave, so the few pictures I took are terrible. I'll pilfer some from the internet.
These two are not my pictures
Kent was our designated last person, bringing up the rear
What the Yellowstone (or Wind Cave) am I doing with my neck?
Our destination for the night was Hot Springs, South Dakota, a small town close to the southwest corner of the state. We arrived while it was still light and hung around our hotel room for a bit. We looked at places to eat dinner and set out to find something. Because it is October, it is off-season and we had a hard time finding any place open that served food. We went into one place but there were lots of people, it was dingy, and there was only one waitress. We got up after a few minutes and opted for something else. What we found was pizza. It was good pizza, but we had had pizza the day before, so it felt like a lot of pizza. When I asked if they had salad, the woman working the register just looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. We didn't get salad.
We ended our day watching a bit of TV.
Drive to Hot Springs; unable to find dinner, had pizza again
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