On the way back from Jewel Cave we drove up the Needles Highway, through Custer State Park. There were three tunnels on this road which were just large enough for a car. The scenery was beautiful.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota
We visited Jewel Cave today. We took a half mile tour through the cave, about 300 feet underground. This cave had much larger rooms than Wind Cave did so it was better for pictures. This cave, as far as rock formations and crystals, ranks right up there with Carlsbad Caverns. I believe there were 759 steps along the tour. It was a good workout.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Devil's Tower National Monument, Wyoming
We drove over to Wyoming today to see Devil's Tower. This rock is 5,112 feet in elevation at the top. This is over 1,000 feet from the point where we were standing. We walked a 2.8 mile trail around the tower and took a few pictures, then walked the closer trail, 1.4 miles which went around the base of the rock. This visit completed our Wyoming National Park tours.
Devil's Tower Continued
more pictures..... take a close look at the last two, there's a climber on the rock.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Custer State Park, South Dakota
On the way home from Wind Cave we passed through Custer State Park. Here is some of the scenery and a few of the residents of the area.
Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
We took a tour through the cave. These tours have been conducted back to the 1800's. There was an old newspaper laying in the cave dated 1893. I really couldn't find much to take pictures of because the path through the cave was very narrow. There were no big rooms. The last picture shows "boxwork" formations. 95% of the worlds boxwork formations are located in Windcave National Park.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mount Rushmore National Monument, South Dakota
A quick stop today to see Mount Rushmore. Just to give you an idea of the size of these busts, the statues in yesterday's blog at presidents park were 20 feet tall. George Washington's NOSE here at Mount Rushmore is 20 feet long. The heads of these presidents are approximately 60 feet tall. We didn't do the hike because I was feeling lazy and we did it a couple years ago so I thought that was enough. We did stop by the cafe there and got some of the best raspberry ice cream. Yummy!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Presidents Park, Lead, South Dakota
Presidents Park was created by an artist, I don't remember his name, after he visited Mount Rushmore. He was disappointed that he could not get close to the statues and that there were only four presidents so he decided to create his own park which had all 43 presidents and would allow visitors to see them up close. Although we took pictures of all 43 presidents, we could only choose a few for this blog
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