Several months ago, I had decided I wanted to go to the US Strategic Air Command museum in Omaha. Right now they have a travelling exhibit that has reconstructions of some of Leonardo da Vinci's concepts. I decided I would try to see that. There is also a geological formation in western Nebraska that I wanted to see, called Toadstool Park. It was only at the other end of the state, how far could that be? It was also close to the badlands in South Dakota, so I could probably hit both.
So. On Thu evening, I packed up the car and headed south. I drove into South Dakota before calling it a night, and parked in a rest stop for a nap - no point in getting a hotel when you're only going to be there for a few hours, right? I woke up early enough, and got on the road by 8. I stopped in Sioux City for an hour - nice place, I think, very friendly - to see the airplane museum there. They have an Argosy, which is pretty cool, but unfortunately not inside, and not in good shape. I got back on the road, and arrived at Omaha just after noon. However, the museum isn't in Omaha anymore. Due to security concerns, they got booted off the air force base, and are now in Ashland, NE, about twenty miles south. So it took a little longer. They're also not the "Strategic Air Command" museum now, they're the Strategic Air and Space Museum, which I don't think makes much sense, but I guess it works for them.
I got there at 1 pm, and walked into the foyer, where they have an SR-71 pointed right at you. That's a pretty good introduction. The SR-71 is a big airplane, black, and looks like it goes Mach 3 sitting on its posts. They have two big hangars there, stuffed with some pretty big airplanes. The lighting, unfortunately, isn't great, and the airplanes are so jammed in, it's tough to get a decent photo. But they have a lot of good stuff in there, notably a B-36 Peacemaker, a Vulcan, and a B-58 Hustler.
The da Vinci exhibit was a bit disappointing at first - a crowd of kids, half the stuff was broken (not an unrelated fact, of course), and I didn't see any aviation stuff that I expected to see. However, I went back into the museum for a while, and then came back to a different bit - the kids were gone, and I found the aviation stuff, and it wasn't broken. They had a variety of his drawings built in wood and cloth, including a "tank", a glider, an unlikely looking attempt at a man-powered helicopter, and many others. Anyway, it was quite interesting.
I left the museum around five, found dinner, and then headed west. I wanted to get to a town called Crawford, which is just south of Toadstool Park. So it turns out that Nebraska is pretty wide. I got halfway there before deciding to find a hotel, in Ainsworth, and carried on pretty early today.
From Ainsworth, I followed Hwy 20 to Crawford - some quite nice scenery along that route, rolling hills and ranchland - and then took a gravel road north towards the park. The website warned against taking the road in wet weather, and I could easily see why. Army driver training came in handy.
Toadstool Park is in the Nebraska National Forest, although there's not really any forest to be seen. I was the only one in the park, and I got the impression that I was the only person within a ten mile radius (probably not true). I took the self guided trail around the site, my shoes collecting quite a lot of clay in the process. The site is generally clay between layers of rock, and the clay is eroding out, so that various interesting formations are created. I was hoping that it would be a little more Bisti Badlands-like, but it was good. Whether it was worth the drive, it was certainly worth the stop.
I headed north from there, into South Dakota. I passed through a ghost town, Ardmore, that looked like it had abandoned fairly recently. I arrived at the town of Hot Springs SD about 3 pm, and stumbled onto the Mammoth Site. The Mammoth Site (that is the official name) is an archaeological dig where they've found the remains of fifty-eight mammoths and various other animals from 26,000 years ago. The building is constructed around the dig site, and most of the bones are left in place for visitors to see. You can't touch anything, of course, but it's a very interesting place.
I found a Motel 6, just my price range, $40 for a night. I brought my tent, but the wind is howling and it actually snowed for a while, so ... nah. After checking in, I drove up to the Black Hills National Forest, just a bit north. Mount Rushmore is about 45 minutes away, so I thought I could see that today.
Along the way, it started to cloud over and snow, but I was already on the road, so might as well press on, and see if it clears. I came to the Crazy Horse memorial, and even though I couldn't see much, I figured I might as well go in.
The Crazy Horse memorial is crazy. A sculpter had the idea of carving a mountain away to make it in the shape of Crazy Horse, and his horse. It's enormous, hundreds of feet high. They've been at it for fifty years, and they've only got the face finished. They are picking up the pace, though.
I had heard of this before, and I thought they were nuts. But having been there, I can't help but admire their tenacity, and the vision of the original sculpter (who has since died - his wife and seven of their ten children are carrying on). It's an incredible project, and although I didn't throw any extra money in the donation bin, I am a lot more sympathetic.
Anyway, the vis was lousy, but it did clear up enough to make it out. Not so at the next stop, Mount Rushmore. I drove past it, and maybe, I could make out part of Washington's head, but it might have been my imagination, too. Too much cloud, too much snow. It was a nice drive, though. I got back to the hotel, dropped my kit, and went to a local bar and grill for dinner. I had a beer for dinner, called Moose Drool. It tasted okay.
I had planned to go to a couple of caves around the Black Hills area, but I found one was closed - not in season - and the other was only open later in the day, and only a part of it was open. So, never mind. I decided instead to go to straight to Badlands National Park. I expected I would spend most of the day there, so might as well get on with it.
At the park, the first thing I saw was a group of about fifteen young mountain goats, all standing calmly by the side of the road. The road travels through many of the scenic areas - although one road I wanted to take was closed - with lots of viewing points along the way. I would have liked to do some more walking amongst the features, but the terrain was much like it was at Toadstool - clay based, a bit wet, and very slippery. Most of the hills were steeper than the angle of repose (I've been taking a geology course on DVD), and so if you got into a slippery bit, you would slide pretty fast, with nothing to grab onto, and no easy way to get back up. Rather like a mammoth.
Anyway, the scenery was great, there were a few meadowlarks flying around, no bison that I saw, but quite a few deer. Some of the low hills had quite distinct yellow or red rocks, and the higher hills had different coloured strata, ranging from almost white, to pink, to dark brown. Although it was cloudy, the colours came out quite well in the photos.
Since I couldn't walk around much, the trip through Badlands didn't take as long as I expected. I figured I would just get on the road and get home that much sooner. But somewhere along the way, I'd noted that Devil's Tower, in Wyoming, was supposed to be fairly close, so I thought I'd see how close.
It turned out to be quite close, only a couple of hours' drive away. I arrived with an hour of daylight remaining, and managed to walk all the way around it before sunset. Devil's Tower is a rare example of columnar jointing, where magma has solidified and then cracked vertically, and started to break off. That creates squarish looking columns running from the top almost to the base. Pretty cool effect. As it was starting to get dark, I left my offering to Satan at the base and headed off. (Kidding.) There are a few prayer offerings hanging in trees around the base, though - native American thing, not Satanic.
I stayed in Belle Fourche SD on Sunday night, and then drove straight north towards Theodore Roosevelt National Park, by Medora, ND. I arrived there around 1 pm, and immediately saw a herd of about 50 bison right alongside the highway, just doing what bison do - mostly eating and walking, with a couple doing a bit of head butting. The first viewpoint was basically just an overlook, with a great view of the badlands that you otherwise wouldn't see from the main part of the park.
The main entrance was a few miles down the road, at the town of Medora - another town that seems only to exist for the park, as most businesses were closed, early April obviously not being the busy season. The park is divided into a north and a south unit - this was the southern one. The northern one is about sixty miles away, and I had no intention of going there, not nearly enough time.
The south unit has a thirty mile long scenic drive, which takes you around a loop, passing by the Little Missouri River and some of the park's more dramatic scenery. It also seems to miss quite a bit, though - some interesting looking features were quite far away, and I never did get close enough for a decent photo - so it seems like a camping and hiking trip would be a good idea. There are several trails splitting off from the road. Potential hazard - there is bison poop everywhere, including a lot of places you'd think a bison would have no business going. The top of what looked like the highest hill in the park, several hundred feet, had bison poop all around it. They may look slow and clumsy, but they're obviously very agile animals.
I occasionally encountered bison on the way around the drive. I was surprised to see them mostly on their own, I expected them to always be in herds. I also saw quite a few deer, a few feral horses, and several prairie dog "villages". One of the little guys had actually burrowed under the road, and come up in the middle of it.
Coming towards the end of the drive, I came upon a herd of about fifty bison, which were very slowly crossing the road. They were mostly uninterested in me, except for just a couple of them - they stopped in the middle of the road, and gave me a good, hard look. I figured they must be teenage males - you know, think they're tough, figure they have to prove something. I was not keen to have a bison embedded in my hood (or worse), so I let them think they won.
From there, it was pretty much a straight haul home, leaving the park around 4:30 pm, and getting home at 2 am Tue morning, with the now traditional bizarre border crossing thrown in. The guy took my passport, mostly ignored me, but flipped through the pages for a full minute. He didn't ask if I'd bought anything, just asked if I had any firearms, and eventually gave my passport back. Maybe it was all the pretty colours.
Anyway, not a bad trip, not quite what I was hoping for, but, c'est la vie. According to Google Maps, the total distance was 3,600 km over four and a half days, more or less. I think that's a personal best. Along the way, I saw pronghorn antelopes, a golden eagle, and some pretty nice scenery. The golden eagle I meant to mention before. I was just leaving Toadstool Park, and I passed a golden eagle trying to sit on a fence post, but not finding it too easy in the stiff wind. As soon as I turned back to try to get a photo, the thing took off on me, reminding me of the wedgetail eagle in Australia that wouldn't let me get close, either.
