Corn Palace

After our first interstate jaunt east, we stopped at a KOA in Mitchell SD, home of the (almost)world famous Corn Palace. Several versions of this palace have been in existance since the early 1900's. All of the decorative portions are made out of corn. As you might suspect, they grow a lot of corn around here. The landscape is now shared with many, many giant wind turbines.



The Corn Palace is the community center of Mitchell and hosts concerts, and basketball games for the local college and high school.







Well, this might be the last post for this fine trip. After the Corn Palace we camped at a waterfront site on Coralville Lake near Cedar Rapids IA. Unfortunately not much time to enjoy the lake. Back to the Interstate. Next stop is Indianapolis to visit my cousin, and then a long jaunt to Salem.

Badlands National Park

We took the scenic route in Badlands National Park, which is just east of the Black Hills in South Dakota. The scenary looks like the Grand Canyon without the canyon. I think the Badlands name comes from being bad or difficult to cross the terrain.














After this we started making some serious miles EAST to get back to Virginia.

Badlands Hike

We decided to get out of the car and see the Badlands up close.



Well, Debby made it to the bottom of this wood ladder up the cliff face. She went back to explore some shorter trails with wooden boardwalks.



There were several other "signs" that might cause most sane people to turn around. But not you know who.

Minuteman Missile Site

We were able to get a national park service tour of a retired Minuteman Missile site. Only six people were allowed on each tour, so you had to be early to get a spot.

There were several hundred of these nondescript buildings spread around the South Dakota landscape, most relatively close to the Interstate. In the building were security staff, maintenance, cooks, and missile officers that rotated duty 139 feet under ground in the nuclear launch bunker.




Each bunker controlled 10 nearby nuclear missile silos. They were placed far from the coast so that they could launch before a soviet submarine missile could take them out. The bunkers were designed to survive nuclear blasts that weren't too close.




While the most original silos were destroyed as part of a joint disarmament treaty, there are still close to 500 Minuteman III silos serving as deterrent to a soviet attack (not much help against a rogue nation???)




A little humor from the missile guys, mounted on the outside of the vault door.

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore adjoins Custer State Park. We visited in the evening when a patriotic presentation was held and the presidential mountain was lit for the evening.



Nearby there is also the sculpture of Chief Sitting Bull, which will be much larger than Mt. Rushmore when finished (in about 50 years).




Adjoining Custer State Park on the south is Wind Cave National Park. We took a one hour cave tour. The topside are rolling hills. Both parks have a lots of wildlife, particularly Buffalo.

Pinnacles and Sylvan Lake

One of the scenic drives meanders through "The Pinnacles", tall vertical rock formations.






Sylvan Lake is one of the most popular and scenic lakes in Custer State Park.

Black Hills and Custer State Park

After finally departing we arrived at Custer State Park in South Dakota. This park is really big with 6+ campgrounds and lots of scenic drives and wildlife. Here Jeff is sitting in the front yard of this very spacious campsite.

Outside the park are dozens of other campgrounds and little touristy towns.



The scenic drives were designed to go about 25mph. As you can see they were strategically designed to go through tiny tunnels.

Devil's Tower

Leaving Sheridan we entered a very desolate desert area heading towards eastern Wyoming. Felt sorry for the cross country bicyclers we saw (but they chose to do this). In the middle of this desolation there was the oasis of Gillette, WY with nice houses and all the familiar restaurants and stores. This area mines much of the coal used in the USA. Continuing on, the geography improved as we arrive at the KOA campground located below Devil's Tower.



Devil's Tower is another anomaly in America. It's about 800 ft tall and the hike around that we took is a little over a mile. Using binoculars, we watched several pairs of technical climbers ascend and descend the cliffs.



Indian lore suggests that the vertical "claw marks" were made by a giant bear trying to catch children as they escaped the bear. The tower rose out of the ground to protect the children.



The tower was featured in the 80's sci-fi movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" starring Richard Dryfus. The KOA campground shows this movie outside every night. Jeff watched for a while but got cold and returned to camper.

Sheridan Wyoming

These pictures are all of the historic Sheridan Inn next to the railroad. Also went to the Sheridan Museum, but mainly this was a "down day" from camping. Lunch and dinner out, Walmart, liquor store, and walk down main street. And a real bed at the Wingate. The hotel bathroom is 1/2 the size of our entire camper!

Side tidbit: the liquor stores in Wyoming are interesting. Beer, wine, liquor on the shelves on one side of the store and a sit down bar on the other side, and a drive in window. "Yes, that will be a bottle of whiskey and a cold bud to go please." The WILD West.

Medicine Wheel

Medicine Wheel is kinda like Stonehenge. An ancient laying of rocks this is still a religious shrine to native indians. Three mile round trip hike to view.

Big Horn High Country

The summit of the Big Horn's is huge. We spent much of a day exploring the gravel back roads. Many, many RV's were setup in dramatic back country sites, staking out their hunting season territory. Looked like a "Go RVing" commercial.

Sibley Lake

Resident Moose



Nice national park campsite at about 8,500 feet elevation. Not many out-of-staters here. You have to dig to find this jewel.







Took the "required" around the lake hike.

Big Horn Mountain Approach

After departing Cody, we quickly found ourselves in the remote desert. Heading to the Big Horn Mountains, the last high mountain range until West Virginia. Dry and rocky on the approach. Wooded and beautiful on the top.







Shell Falls

Powell

And here's another "Powell Pharmacy"



We concluded three days in Cody with the Cody Rodeo. Heading east to the Bighorn mountains. Back to the boonies.