After a bit of a late start (we didn’t wake up until after 7), we stopped at Mount Rushmore, hoping to see mountain goats. Apparently they haven’t been around much recently. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow around the highest peak in SD.
After the fastest visit ever to Rushmore, we headed off to Jewel Cave. Catherine highly recommends Jewel Cave over Wind Cave. Even though Wind Cave gets nearly 6x times the visitors annually, she finds Jewel Cave much more spectacular with a greater variety of formations. However, since Wind Cave was closer to towns and had better advertising historically, it remains the more popular attraction.
The cave is absolutely covered in calcite crystals known as dogtooth spar or nail head spar, depending on their shape. Catherine thinks the crystal encrusted walls may make Jewel Cave her favorite cave yet. The calcite is about 3-6 inches thick and chunks occasionally fall off, leaving showing the depth of the crystals against the limestone walls.
The cave also has more “traditional” features such as curtains or draperies. Catherine thinks these look like they have some sort of slimy fungal coating, but others seem to think these wet things are gorgeous.
Where the paleofill (iron rich ancient dirt inclusions in the limestone) occurs, the features take on an orange or red hue. Here are a few fried eggs.
And what could go better with eggs than cave bacon? A perfect 18 foot piece of it.
Our rather animated guide, Ranger Matt, explained the route to the Big Duh – the biggest room in the cave. It involves a 1100 foot hands and knees crawl through the “Miseries” with the journey including a couple of 15 foot holes to avoid, a 600 foot army crawl through the “Mini Miseries” a passage 18 inches high, and a 8 foot toes and fingers pull through a passage 7.5 inches high. He is hoping to do it in the fall, for the bragging rights. Denise now is completely and totally uninterested in being a caver.
Back on the surface, we did the quarter mile loop at the edge of the burned area (90% of the monument burned in 2000). The visitor center was saved, apparently with some back fires. The Rocky Mountain Wild Iris were pretty.
We headed back towards the Needles / Harney Peak area through Custer State Park on the Needles Scenic Highway. Once again, wildlife viewing Yellowstone style (ie, from the car) occurred. Denise was rather disturbed by the bull buffalo giving her the evil eye about 3 feet from her window. We decided to move on before we could find out if he was as dumb as he looked.
Of course, babies are always a favorite. These geese seemed smaller than the ones at home, but Denise didn’t get out of the car to see if they will defend their goslings with similar vigor.
We stopped at an overlook to view the Needles (the big rock formation with 3 spires).
More impressive than the Needles, is the damage the bark beetles are doing. They simply decimate forests.
We stopped at another overlook which allowed you to climb over some of the granite rocks to get some breathtaking views both of beetle damage (the back hills are brown/black with dead trees)
and looking back towards the Badlands.
Denise noted there was some lose rose quartz and other interesting rocks as well as some fur tree cones that would have been really interesting to collect, had we not been in a protected lands. Those small fur cones could have been tied together with gold string and hung on a Christmas tree.
Next, we stopped at the Cathedral Spires Trail – a quick 1.5 mile round trip hike through some beetle decimated forests around the Cathedral Spires. We saw a Red-Naped Sapsucker which looks similar to a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, but is found in this area and has more red on this head and the nape of his neck. Of course, the wildflowers such as this dog tooth violet, were a hit.
The Cathedral Spires were clearly visible through the clear-cut forest. The tree removal is a desperate attempt to stop the beetles. Catherine thinks the beetles are winning, but there’s been a lot of chain sawing done by over-worked, under-paid park employees.
Catherine still gets to be Sherpa, even with a belly pooching over the back. It’s okay, she thinks it gives her a counterweight. Denise thinks it’s hilarious.
We headed back down the steeper parts of the slope, through the Limber Pines. While common in Canada and in pockets in the Rockies, this is the only stand for hundreds of miles. The small fur looking trees are Limber Pines. Too bad we didn’t realize what we were hiking through to get a good picture of them.
Of course, we had to take a few more flower pictures.
Then we headed through the tunnel at the Eye of the Needle.
Needless to say, it’s a single lane tunnel. The small parking lot on one side already had 8-10 cars in it and was almost full. We have no idea how big a traffic jam will occur in July when the tourist season really kicks off. Ranger Matt said that 30,000 people visit Rushmore on the 4th of July. This place must be a total disaster. Of course, we had to take a picture of the granite formation known as the Eye of the Needle.
Denise saw a turkey on the way to Hill City. Hill City is a rather prosperous town where we are staying. It has several art galleries selling works by South Dakota artists. Denise got her birthday present – a wooden bowl with turquoise inlay by Jeremy Green. We talked with his sister who wants to visit NC and gave us great tips for hiking around here. Neither Keystone nor Custer had anything but junk shops – Hill City is worth a visit.
Denise just saw White Tailed Deer beside the parking lot. We’ve got a thunderstorm skirting us -- a real typical Black Hills thunderstorm. But to Catherine it seems like a typical storm. Hopefully we’ll sleep well with a bit of rain on the roof.
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