South Dakota

Entering my first battlefield national monument...

Being at this monument caused me to pause for a moment

The national cemetery reminded me of the
sacrifice that some made for this country.

I found Oregon! I definitely had to show Oregon
representation at the Mt. Rushmore gateway.

Mt. Rushmore: It always seemed larger in the postcards
Still very impressive though!

I found this sign pretty funny considering that
the trail was very short and very paved...

I was sad to leave Montana behind, but I guess I have to keep moving eastward. Today, Jeff and I spent most of the day driving to South Dakota, going through Montana and Wyoming to get there. Along the way though, we made a few stops and tried to make use of my National Park/Forest pass as much as possible.

Our first stop of the day was in Crow country (Crow Indian Reservation). We ended up checking out the Battlefield of Little Bighorn National Monument (location of Custer’s Last Stand). It was a very interesting sight to see. There was a museum and a historical center there on sight, but what made the sight very profound was to see the actual locations where both Lakota warriors and U.S. 7th Cavalrymen fell (there were markers indicating where they died). On top of that, there was a U.S. National Cemetery located just a few hundred feet from the historical center, with U.S. soldiers from Montana and Wyoming laid to rest there from wars spanning from the Civil War to the latest conflicts.

Our final destination was Keystone, SD, which happens to be really close to Mt. Rushmore National Monument. Jeff and I decided to spend the late afternoon and early evening exploring the monument and the adjacent Black Hills National Forest. It was definitely an interesting sight to see and it was kind of neat to learn how it was made from the visitor’s center there. The funniest thing I saw over there was the warning sign at the head of a boardwalk loop around visitor’s area. It cautioned walkers that the trail was “strenuous”. The entire short path (less than one mile!) was either paved or decked. There were no major inclines or declines either. I thought it was pretty funny considering that “strenuous” level trails in Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks usually involve tens of miles with multi-thousand feet elevation changes and are typically hard to find due to the snow covering them.

Tomorrow, Jeff and I will be leaving Keystone and will be heading towards Sioux Falls, SD. We will be stopping by Badlands National Park on the way over and hopefully we will be able to spend some time exploring that park as well. A quick note about Keystone, SD: It is more like a small theme park than a small town. There are tons of tourists running around the boardwalk area (understandable due to its proximity to Mt. Rushmore, but still…) and the stores look like they came out of Disneyland. I just found this funny coming from National Parks and Monuments where commercialization was kept to a minimum or was not as prominent. Anyways, it was still a lot of fun.