Custer, South Dakota

I'm quite sure that Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln didn't sport these mustaches while in office

Our "front yard" here in South Dakota is bigger than back home.

We arrived to South Dakota today - it was our shortest haul yet at 2 1/2 hours.  It didn't even feel like a travel day.  We are certainly liking this area - it is beautiful and Custer State Park (where we're staying) is set up really well.  Plenty of space between sites (the polar opposite of our spot in Thermopolis) and this is clearly the largest campsite we have stayed at so far as well as being the most peaceful.  It's nice enough to let me forget that it is an electric only site - John Diehl back at Ward Melville will know what this means for the "man" of the camper, lol!

Not sure what's in store for tomorrow (Sunday, Aug. 11) but we know we won't be heading up to Mt. Rushmore since the last day of Sturgis is tomorrow.  Might be best to let things settle down - although we're likely to see lots of Harley's again - there were more bikes in Custer than at Devils Tower.

A Tumultuous Day

So we decided on bike riding today (I know that comes as a HUGE surprise to everyone) although, it didn't quite work out.  We headed out to find the Centennial Trail which is over 100 miles long and only a few miles from camp.  No - we wouldn't be attempting the entire trail...  Maribeth, Laryssa, Scarlett, Graeme and I biked to the trail head, while Lisa and Annalise drove there with their bikes.  There's not too much of a shoulder on some parts of 16A through Custer Park so this was the safest way.  I explored the trail on my own and we had to make our first change in plans - a little too rocky, muddy and hilly for Annalise so we settled on lunch at Legion Lake.  I had my first bison burger - pretty good.  Someone could have passed it off as a regular hamburger and I wouldn't have really known the difference.

Lake Legion where we ate lunch

We found out that on Center Lake (only 5 miles from Legion Lake) there were free kayaks and canoes from 1:00 - 3:00 so that became our plan for the day.  After a short tutorial we split 2 canoes and a kayak between the 7 of us - Scarlett, Annalise and I in one canoe; Lisa, Graeme and Laryssa in another and Aunt Maribeth in a solo kayak.  We were told that if lightning were in the area, we would hear a whistle and we should immediately come back to shore.  So in the canoes we go, thunder rumbles in the distance and a second later the whistle blows.  We only made it about 300 feet down the shoreline, but safety first.  We held out for another half hour to see if we could get back in, but the thunder wouldn't go away.

The kids after being beached due to lightning.  Still smilin'!

The sun was still shining so Lisa and I decided to bike back to camp (about 10 miles).  About 7 miles into the ride, I would head off to explore the Centennial Trail alone and meet up with everyone after, weather permitting.  The weather did hold, but about 20 minutes down the trail, Lisa calls me to let me know that she had been stopped by a Park Ranger on the road, flashing lights and all.  She thought she was in trouble, but it turns out that there was a tornado warning in the area and she needed to find shelter immediately.  At that time she was right outside the campground entrance so finding shelter was easy.  Not so much for me - 6 miles out and 3 of those miles would be trail riding.

We were within that lower, red triangle...

Two minutes after her phone call, the emergency tone comes through my ear buds - my Weather Channel app was telling me of the danger close by.  Only a few drops were falling at the time, but I had already turned around so it was time to get on it.  I did stop momentarily to video the bison that was about a 100 feet off the trail, but then it was all business.  With about 2 miles to go, everything let loose.  Pouring rain, marble-sized hail, thunder and lightning.  And some of that hail was the jumbo sized marbles, not the little ones.  And it happened pretty quickly - I went from pretty dry to completely soaking wet within about a minute...  I put together a video and am hoping to get it up on YouTube.  But you know how that goes...  The Go Pro videoed the hail pretty well - all I know is that it is the first time I've had hail hitting my helmet and pinging off my bike.  I hope it's the last...

Hail accumulating at camp once I got back

Once I was back to camp, thankfully Laryssa & Maribeth had already lowered the awning, but the hail was taking it's toll.  And Annalise was in tears because she was scared for me to be out in this storm.  Poor thing - she ran over and hugged me as soon as I was at the door.  It was far too dangerous outside to retract the awning (lightning was close and maybe the loudest lightning I have ever heard) and the hail was making holes in it.  We have about 2 dozen small holes - they didn't careen right through it like meteors, but the sharp ones made small tears and holes before bouncing off onto the grass.  In the end, hail littered the campground like snow - I wish I could have gotten some better pictures of it, but going outside and upsetting Annalise was out of the question.


So now we're settled in to a camper that's nice and warm and the kids are watching Harry Potter on Maribeth's DVD player.  It's funny seeing the kids watch a movie on her 8" screen - it's really no different than them watching a movie at home when it comes right down to it, lol!

Movie night in the camper (we've had a few of those on this trip)

Crazy Horse Mountain, Wild Life Loop in Custer State Park & Mt. Rushmore

Our tour bus coming to pick us up

We started our day at Crazy Horse Memorial - a spectacular sculpture that has been under construction since 1948.  Once completed it will be the largest sculpture on Earth.  To compare it's size to Mt. Rushmore - all of Mt. Rushmore would fit in Crazy Horse's head!

Our bus tour up to the base of Crazy Horse was pretty cool.  We ended up coming back a second time to catch the last bus followed by a laser light show projected onto the side or Crazy Horse.  Grey Wolf was our guide and he was a wealth of information and laughs.  Grey Wolf is a Lakota while he is not allowed to work on the monument itself, he and other Lakota work in other areas of the park.  One of the things we learned is that they are “blocking” out the part of the mountain that will be the horse.  “Blocking” is basically dynamiting huge sections so they can actually begin the carving.  And there’s a lot to block – in the end the tonnage will be in the millions…  At the end of the day, we had a much better appreciation for Crazy Horse, his people and this monument.  Somewhere along the way, I had been given the impression that this monument was hokey, a little wild and that they had run out of money and no more work was being done.

Lisa & Maribeth enjoying the Snake Dance

We found none of that to be true and with at least 3 blasts a week, work continues on the monument.  I truly enjoyed taking in the history of Crazy Horse.  This was a volatile area of the country since Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull were powerful leaders of their tribes that refused to let their way of life and their lands go easily.


In the end, we know how it turned out, but you have to have a lot of respect for them for standing for what they believe in.  Kolczak himself dedicated nearly 40 years of his life to this monument’s creation and 7 of his 10 children have continued that work.  He never allowed Indians to work on the monument itself since he felt that they shouldn’t have to work on their own monument and he has refused any public money for the project.  He was offered federal money twice, but turned it down since he did not want taxpayers to fund it and also didn’t want the federal beaurocracy that would go  along with it.

A custom Harley that was donate to raffle,
then donated back to Crazy Horsefor display by the winner

Crazy Horse during the laser show

Since Kolczak's death, his wife runs the operation from her kitchen table
 in this office -which is also in the middle of the visitor center!

A 1/34 sculpture of Crazy Horse when it's complete

What Crazy Horse  will look like when it's complete

The Kids at our "stop and get out point" of the bus tour.

Custer State Park - The Wildlife Loop

Wildlife Loop at Custer

The "begging" burrows

Laryssa petting a burrow

Part of the bison herd

These two males didn't like each other much.
We watched the one to the left chase the one
to the right establishing his dominance.

The Game Lodge at Custer - the main lodge at Custer.

A High Peak to Climb

Harney Peak Lookout

Headed off to Trail 4 from the parking lot

At 7,244 ft, Mt Harney is the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains – to find a higher peak east of the Rockies, you would have to go to Europe.  So this hike goes in the record books for the Olsen’s.  Lucky for us we started our hike at 6,000 ft or so, but it was a challenging hike for all of us and most of us felt it the next day.  We all agreed that this was our best hike of the trip.  As much as we loved the backcountry hike at Yellowstone, the views of the Black Hills on the way up Mt. Harney were fantastic.  

Graeme peeks in the cave that he discovered early on the hike

 It was a craggy & winding trail where we saw lush valleys, pine forests, deer, and climbers at Cathedral Spires.  Every turn in the trail was a good one and then to feel the chill wind at the Harney Peak Lookout made you realize your elevation.

Mommy & Daddy hand in hand - just like Scarlett likes

Annalise was an excellent hiker -
turns out we weren't far behind the lead group

Our hike up was in two separate groups after the first 1/4 mile –  Lisa, Maribeth, Laryssa, Scarlett &j Graeme in the lead group with Annalise & Daddy behind.  This was only because the lead group was hoping to make a 1:30 rendezvous with some horses for some trail riding.  

In the end, they didn’t make it – this 8 mile hike took us a little more time than we had planned so I had to cancel our reservations from the peak – glad we had service up there!

The older ones were a little dejected to not be able to ride and to rub salt in the wound there was group of horses tied up near the peak and we passed another group of horses on the hike down.   

Little Olsen's picking rasberries along the trail

But it’s amazing how wild rasberries can distract one from disappointment.  We finished our hike with a few raindrops, but were able to make it back to Gigantibeast before it rained too hard.  If you ever make it to Custer, hike Mt. Harney and take trail #4 – you won’t be disappointed!

A view of the Black Hills from the top of Mt. Harney

There was a lot of this clear, silica-like rock on our hike

Annalise with Cathedral Spires in the background - there is a climber at the top of that rock formation

Once we were done and after a picnic in the truck, we headed into Custer (the town) for gas with plans on seeing Needles Highway.  Once we got to Custer, I noticed everyone sleeping (just about everyone – I think Graeme may have been barely awake) so I snuck in a haircut…  Apparently a ½ buzzer in Custer, Wyoming is a little shorter than a ½ buzzer in Hampton Bays – I’m pretty darn close to bald after that haircut!  The kids were a bit shocked when they woke up and I got some pretty strange looks when I yanked off my ball cap.  But, they’re getting used to my baldness – Lisa included.  

Yep - Gigantibeast fit through that with the bikes up top!

So it was off to Needles Highway which was a very cool ride with great views of “needle-like” rock formations hence the name and a pair of one-way tunnels through the rock.

This is how Needles Highway got it's name