We got up early and headed out, skipping breakfast. Should have stopped somewhere as we never did stop for lunch or dinner.
On our way to South Dakota we passed TONS of trains pulling full and empty ore cars.
We must have seen about 200 of them. The wind while driving was pretty strong, it was blowing loose pieces of ore out of the car and into us. And those ore cars were not even moving at the time.
Ok, so I misspoke about the greenery in Wyoming.
We finally made it to South Dakota. We took a back road into the state, so we didn’t get the regular welcome sign. We will try to get it the next time we cross the border. Looks like this sign has taken a few pot shots:
On our way to keystone we realized that google maps lied. It told us it would take over nine hours to arrive. We were already at our turn off at the three hour mark. We decided to go a different route and see Wind Cave National Park
We signed up for the cave tour. This time of year they only offer one tour so it made our decision easy. This is the original entrance that people used to climb down. Fortunately, we didn’t have to squeeze in there 😀
The pictures inside the cave didn’t come out that good, so you can’t see how detailed they are. Wind Cave is quite different from other caves. Instead of stalactites and stalagmites, the cave is decorated with boxwork. Boxwork is a crystalline formation that predates the cave. It was formed when calcite filled tiny cracks within the limestone. Later, when the cave formed, water dissolved the limestone leaving behind the delicate crystal fins that now decorate the cave walls.
To date, the cave is over 120 miles long. Each year, as more of the cave is charted they add to the length of discovered passageways.
After we left Wind Cave, we saw a bunch of prairie dogs.
We headed up through Custer State Park. This was a fantastic side trip. We drove by Bison and Mule Deer. At one point there was an entire heard about 5 feet from your car door.
The road winded out of Custer State park and onto route 16a. This route includes the Iron Mountain Road. A very scenic part of the highway. It has two very unique features. The first is something called The Pigtail Bridge These bridges spiral around just like a pigs tail. It was pretty impressive how well they worked.
The second feature is a set of three tunnels:
The view as you leave the third tunnel is incredible. You have a straight on view of Mount Rushmore. Because of the sunlight, the photo didn’t come out very well. For some reason the photo when uploaded is pixalated, but the file on disk seems to be ok.
We finally made it to keystone and to the hotel. Angie and I were both starving as we had not eaten all day, and it is now about 17:30! We find a nice family restaurant that had pretty decent food, along with an all you can eat soup and salad bar.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and took a soak in the spa before bed. Now that we are finally at our first real destination, the sightseeing can begin!