The Black Hills

Distant View of Rushmore from the Trail

On our last day in the area we took a scenic drive thru the Black Hills National Forest and stopped to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial that's being carved (ie blasted) into a mountain near Mt. Rushmore. The artist has been at it since 1948, and his family is carrying on the work after he passed away several years ago. The intention is to create a monument to Native Americans similar to that recognizing the 4 Presidents nearby. No idea when it's going to be completed. As you can see from the photos only the face of Crazy Horse is complete. Per the model he'll eventually be seen astride his horse pointing towards the lost lands of his people. The Black Hilld were (and are) sacred to Native Americans, and Crazy Horse was something of a spiritual presence among the Indians, so the two are blended here as a suitable memorial to the Indian peoples of North America.


The Original Deadwood Stage on Display at the Memorial

The town of Deadwood is only a few miles north - and is the place where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane held forth in the 1880's, and where Wild Bill took a bullet in the back while playing poker one afternoon in the local saloon. When he died he was holding two pair - Aces & eights - known ever after as the "Dead Man's Hand". Coincidentally, that was our squadron logo in VS-28 many years ago.

Here's the model for the carving on the Mountain

The scale of the Crazy Horse Memorial is really tremendous - all four of the heads on Mt. Rushmore will fit into the space occupied by Crazy Horse's head!


The Black Hills were gorgeous. The drive took us thru Custer State Park, which was full of creatures large & small. Took us half a day to drive 30 miles because we kept stopping at scenic points along the way. Tried to do a short hike but didn't get too far because of the muddy conditions. Still, we've added the Black Hills to our "return someday" list - it's just too pretty, with numerous world class hikes, not to come back for a longer stay.

Creature sightings: The place was like a little Garden of Eden, with herds of Pronghorns, Buffalo, Donkeys (released years ago), elk, and deer everywhere, along with scores of Prairie Dog Villages along the way. Used to think they were rare, but we lost count of the number after a while - it was pleasant just to watch them scurry around from hole to hole, barking at us the whole time.



The Buffalo had just given birth to the Spring calves a week or two earlier


Lots of Pronghorns, but usually in ones and twos. Didn't see any large herds, but they were everywhere


Must have seen about a million of these little guys


Yellowstone is next. Will be staying in Gardiner, Montana just outside the north entrance. Hope the weather cooperates - we'd like to hike some miles on the beautiful trails we remember from last September.