Buffaloes, Mammoths and Mountain Goats!

Crazy Horse Memorial

On Thursday, September 6th, we got an early start for our full day of sightseeing. Heading south through the Black Hills, we caught sight of the unfinished Crazy Horse Memorial. Begun in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculpture will eventually measure 641 feet long and 563 feet high. All that shows currently is Crazy Horse's face emerging from a mountain of rock. Work is currently underway to sculpt his outstretched arm resting on top of his horse's head.

We continued to Custer, South Dakota, a nice town where we turned east to drive into Custer State Park. As we drove through the quaint little town, we saw several painted buffalo statues scattered around in front of businesses, similar to the giant panda statues we saw around Washington, DC, a few years ago. So cute!

The one on the left had a bum leg...poor guy.

Billed as a refuge for wildlife, we saw some huge buffaloes and some goofy prairie dogs as well as white-tailed deer and pronghorns. Making our way out of Custer State Park (with the intention of returning later in the day), we drove south to Wind Cave National Park. Along the way, we saw a pair of buffaloes off in the grass and noticed one of them limping badly on his front left leg. Poor guy. We pinpointed our mileage to the nearest intersection and notified the rangers at Wind Cave about him. We heard the ranger relaying our message about him over her radio, presumably to other rangers. Hopefully he'll be ok.

More prairie dogs!

We opted for the guided tour of Wind Cave, the only method of seeing inside of the elaborate cave. Our ranger tour guide, Maura, led us into the world's largest maze cave, whose name is derived from the wind caused by barometric pressure changes above ground. A high pressure system will cause the wind to blow into the cave and a low pressure system will cause the wind to rush out of it. She mentioned that a 70mph wind was clocked coming out of the small natural opening to Wind Cave once!

Boxwork in Wind Cave

After passing through a circular door, we ventured down about 165 feet underground via several staircases into a close-walled, low-ceilinged cave of amazing complexity. The cave's most interesting feature is the one that makes it truly unique as well. 'Boxwork' is a formation caused by the corrosive action of water dissolving the surrounding limestone and leaving behind the calcium carbonate deposits between the limestone's natural cracks. Maura used a great analogy. She said the process is similar to a building in a wet climate made of sugar cubes and mortar. After several rainfalls, the sugar would dissolve leaving only the mortar intact. And that is exactly what the boxwork looked like throughout Wind Cave, an elaborate honeycomb.

Natural opening to Wind Cave,
below her jacket on the rock

She explained, though, that the water in this cave, unlike in most caves, did not flow through like a river but instead the groundwater level was high enough that the water filled the cracks in the limestone bedrock. Once the limestone dissolved, the cracks became rooms and passageways, ultimately expanding into a cave. After the groundwater level dropped, the rooms and passageways were emptied of water and all that remained were the calcium deposits.

Boxwork in Wind Cave

Another fascinating find occurred about halfway through our tour. Ken had just asked Maura about bats and she said the cave has none because its lack of water and food don't support them. Not 5 minutes later, as our tour group moved through another series of tight hallways, a bat flew right over our heads. The second bat actually grazed the hair on one woman's head, causing her to scream briefly. Maura was thrilled about the bats, and she even saw one of them as well. She told us she is continually amazed at the new things she discovers on each trip into the cave.

She led us all to an elevator where thankfully we didn't have to climb back up the 400 stairs we all came down. Back out in the warmth and bright sunshine, we drove further south to Hot Springs. We stopped for a tasty lunch at Dale's Family Restaurant, a friendly diner full of locals. The bulk of Hot Springs lines the banks of the Fall River that runs through the middle of town. Many of the buildings along the main street are constructed of beautiful red sandstone blocks and we admired all of them.

Bone bed at Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, SD

We headed to the Mammoth Site on the outskirts of town. Destined originally to be the site of low income housing apartments, Phil Anderson bought the acreage and began clearing the land in 1974. When a bulldozer operator uncovered what appeared to be bones, work was stopped immediately and paleontologists were called in to examine the findings. After 3 years of study, the site was determined to be a unique discovery of a sinkhole filled with the remains of mammoths. Mr. Anderson sold the land to the non-profit formed to preserve the site for his original cost with the condition that the bone material remain on site.

Headless 'Murray Antoinette'

The sinkhole formed under unusual circumstances. First, a thick layer of limestone deep underground had formed caves from infiltrating groundwater. When the heavier upper layers of rock collapsed the cave structure, the sinkhole formed and filled with the warm groundwater. This combination resulted in a pool of warm water that proved entirely too irresistible to the mammoths and other animals. The gigantic Columbian mammoths either fell in or entered and then couldn't get back out, and eventually died. Over the course of 300 to 700 years one mammoth after another died in the sinkhole and was covered by layers of sediment. So far, researchers have excavated to a depth of 22 feet, but have measured the sinkhole to be at least 67 feet deep (the drill broke after that so it may be deeper).

Fortunately for the paleontologists who study these bones, the structure of the sinkhole's sedimentary layers is significantly stronger than the bedrock that formerly surrounded it. When the sinkhole filled in completely, the region was uplifted by plate tectonics on the west coast. Eventually erosion caused the surrounding rock layers to weather away, leaving the former sinkhole as a hill until Mr. Anderson's bulldozers discovered its secrets.

We took a guided tour around the inside of the Mammoth Site, a building whose dimensions were determined by the outer edge of the former sinkhole. Inside, scientists have uncovered the bones of 59 mammoths, but they have been left in situ where they perished. 'Murray Antoinette' is a mammoth whose body is completely intact, laying on its right side but missing its head. 'Napoleon Bone-Apart' is a complete mammoth skeleton whose legs and spine were twisted and crumpled. One interesting fact is that all the mammoths found thus far are males.....hmmm.

Mammoth footprints preserved in stone

We learned about the little swirls in the bedrock several feet above many of the skeletons. Apparently as the sinkhole filled and became more shallow, the mammoths that walked across its muddy surface had their feet stuck briefly. The suction required to pull out each foot left a disturbance in the lower layers. Fascinating!

1880s wooden jail

Former City Hall building made of red sandstone

On our way out of Hot Springs, we stopped to see the sandstone buildings more closely and took pictures of several of the prettiest ones. Next to the old railroad depot we spotted a wooden jail. An article inside described its finding. Apparently the jail was found within the walls of a house in town in 1983 when a local man was demolishing it for salvage...very strange! Built of 2x4 lumber and a thick gauge wire in between (to discourage sawing through the walls), the jail is estimated to have been built around 1885. It is the oldest wooden jail in South Dakota. Wow!

After leaving Hot Springs, we headed back to Custer State Park to take in the scenery of the Wildlife Loop Road. A large herd of bison met us only a quarter mile or so into our trip. We watched them walking next to the road and lounging in the grass on both sides of us. So cute! There were about 40 of them in this group.

White-tailed deer

We moved slowly on, behind four large wagons full of tourists who soon came to a stop again. We quickly saw why. A small band of deer nibbled the grass in a large open prairie and though we like regular deer as much as the next guy, we were eager for more buffalo sightings.

Ken drove around the tour wagons, followed by several other impatient cars. Just up ahead we found a HUGE herd of bison. As far as the eye could see to our right, they dotted the landscape all the way to the hills beyond a stand of trees. Hundreds of buffaloes mingled, sniffed the ground (or each other), snacked or sat in the grass. With three other cars stopped to silently gape at all the bison, we sat in awe of them, too.

At several points we could hear one of the buffaloes grunting from deep within his belly, causing the ladies to scoot away from him. A couple of the lady buffaloes agreed to be sniffed, but then sauntered away, too. We watched the silly buffaloes for quite a while until Ken thought we should move on.

Pronghorn licking a rock?

Up the road, we saw a pronghorn intently licking a rock next to the road so we slowed down to chat with her and admire her pretty coloring. Without stopping for even a moment, she continued to lick the rock while simultaneously keeping an eye trained on us. Ha!

Burro!

Burros!

At one point we found five or six burros! These goofy looking characters were hanging out in the center of the road, not moving except to solicit food or pets from the passengers. One even stuck his face in my window...so adorable! We carefully drove through and around them and then saw 2 more up ahead, also standing squarely in the center of the road. According to the park magazine, they are descendants of burros who once carried visitors to the top of Harney Peak. When the burro trips were discontinued years ago, they were released into the state park where they became a huge hit with the tourists (including us). They were hilarious, especially with their silly blank expressions.

More pronghorns!

'Needles' of the Black Hills

When we reached the end of the Wildlife Loop Road, we turned onto the Needles Highway. A pretty drive through the scenery on a winding, narrow road, we lamented that we had seen only 3 buffaloes and a herd of pronghorn on this road, when we suddenly saw the 'needles'. The needles are huge vertical granite spires formed by the intrusion of magma under the deep granite bedrock millions of years ago. When the magma pushed upward (by a ripple effect of the subduction of the Pacific plate under the North American plate), the thick granite layer broke through the upper layers of rock, creating a huge granite outcropping that weathered into the hard peaks we see in the Black Hills today.

Mountain goats!!!

We drove on and saw a car ahead of us had stopped to take pictures, which we assumed were animals of some kind. Shocked and thrilled, we saw four white mountain goats nibbling on the side of the cliff just above the road, so I jumped out to take 10,000 pictures of them. In all our travels, the mountain goat had proven so elusive we doubted his existence, but no longer! We were so excited. We had been teased by road signs with seeing mountain goats since we entered Alaska, but other than through a high-powered telescope, neither of us had yet seen one...and now we get four at once!

One of several tunnels
along the Needles Highway

Needles Eye

Eventually Ken convinced me we should continue. We soon came across the Needles Eye, an interesting formation resembling a large eye in an enormous sewing needle. Along the Needles Highway, we drove through three different tunnels, each so narrow that I instinctively held my breath for fear of scraping either the sides or the top of the car. How fun!

Wild turkeys...everywhere!

At various points around the park we saw groups of wild turkeys, usually a dozen or more pecking at the ground or walking along the roadway together. We hadn't seen wild turkeys since Tennessee, so they were lots of fun to see. A bit later, we turned off the Needles Highway and into Hill City, where we stopped for dinner at the Hill City Diner. The restaurant's surly waitress notwithstanding, the food was quick and tasty, perfect for our unexpectedly late dinner after so many silly animals.

With a very long, but super fun, day under our belts, we returned to the RV in the drizzle and fell asleep to the sound of a soft, steady rain in the woods. Perfect!