South Dakota Black Hills

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Devils Tower. We got their kinda late so we didnt take to many pictures, but its a pretty cool piece of rock. Hundred something climbing routes to the top

The Van barely fit in this tunnel in the Needles - kinda like threading the needle - ha ha ha ha .... ok

This donkey wouldnt even move out of the road

We took this trail that goes up close to it

This is one of the residents of the Prairie Dog Town in the Badlands

This place is all about erosion - and Man has had no influence on how it has eroded - unless you look at global warming and stuff ... well thats a whole nother thing to get into

The feeling of Solitude is easily achieved here - great place to just talk to the wind

Hark! There's gold in them thar Black Hills! Don't ask us where it is, though, cuz we didn't leave with any. I always wondered where Black Hills gold came from, though. Now I know....South Dakota. The place is littered with old mining towns and stories of some of our American legends like Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. Apparently Jane was in love with Wild Bill but we saw some of her pictures and she could've benefitted from a visit to the Estee Lauder counter.

Anyway, the Black Hills have a few other hidden gems that we did find. The Devil's Tower, for one. If you're a climber, this place should be one of your travel destinations. The climbs require traditional gear, though, so Steve and I didn't climb here but if Dave would've been with us it would've been on then.

The area known as the Needles is a bunch of granite spires that look like needles.....see the connection? They were originally underground but the land around them has eroded over time, leaving the spires standing high. Pretty cool.

To be honest, I wasn't very excited about seeing Mt. Rushmore at first. I mean, c'mon, I've seen those stone faces in countless history books and they've looked the same every time. I didn't expect the real deal to be any different. What an unpatriotic American I am. But all of my unexcited sentiments were wiped away once we got there. I was blown away as we sat there in front of the carved mountain. It really is a beautiful piece of work. We also learned some interesting details like Thomas Jefferson was originally sculpted on the left of George but then the sculptor found areas of the rock in Jefferson's face which were more subject to erosion so they blew his face off the mountain and re-sculpted it on Washington's right. Rushmore was such a good experience for me. Growing up in Hawaii, you really don't get a taste of what America is all about. I mean i learned about US history in School, but it never really stuck. It's not until going to Rushmore and seeing the mountain and seeing the huge visitor center there that really gave me a good grasp on the History on America. It was very enlightning to put all the little pieces in my head together. Like learning when the pilgrims got here, and then how they started fighting with the Indians, and then how they fought with Britan, then how we became our own independent country, then they bought this huge piece of property called Louisiana, then how they fought against themselves, etc, etc. Really got to see all the fighting that happened to make this country what it is today. Pretty eye opening.

After Rushmore, we hit the Badlands, so named by the French travellers long ago who thought the area to be unsuitable for travel. It is a combination of canyons and mountains and is unlike any other place we've ever seen. The wind has shaped this landscape and provides some of the most unliveable conditions in the country. This is also the area of many an Indian massacre. Lots of senseless tragedy, really. The Badlands were out of this world. It's this huge area of just nothing but eroded land. Your only companions out there are the sun, wind and rain. Just a wild place. We hiked out into some of the areas and it seems like we were all alone on another planet. It crazy the things you think about when you're in an area like that. Met a cool trucker there that shot the shit with me for a good while. Talk to me about traveling the country and some of his Mid west knowledge. He was a cool cat.

Now were off to the Great Lakes