South Dakota Trip Day Six

Hello Friends,
I’m sorry this blog post is a day late. Our internet connection was down for reasons unknown. So, rest easy, we didn’t fall off the side of a mountain or anything (although it would have been easy to do—no guardrails in many places!) Here is our post for Wednesday, Sept. 9. I'll send pictures later.

We changed up the itinerary, and swapped Wednesday and Thursday plans. Today we went to Hill City and took a ride on the 1880 train – a steam train that runs between Hill City and Keystone. The route took us past the backside of Mt Rushmore. Guess what it looks like? You got it-trees! After the steam train we visited Wind Cave National Park, and took an underground tour. We were 175 ft below ground at the deepest point. Wind Cave is the 4th longest cave in the world at 132 miles of explored passages, and the end of the cave has not yet been found. Wind Cave is home to a unique formation called boxwork. 95% of the boxwork formations in the world are found in Wind Cave. These were formed millions of years ago when South Dakota was covered with an inland sea. The limestone seabed developed cracks, which filled in with the shells of dead sea animals. Over time, these shells compressed into calcite, and eventually the limestone dissolved and just the calcite fins remain today. We got some great pictures from inside the cave. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Dinosaur Park in Rapid City. This park was created in 1932 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is located on Rapid City’s Skyline Drive, which overlooks the city. Life-sized statues of the dinosaurs that roamed here, including Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Tomorrow we are traveling to the Badlands, Wall and Ellsworth AFB.
Susan and Denis