Theodorec Roosevelt National Park - Medora, North Dakota

August 8 and 9, 2014
Sunny, 73 degrees

After 7 days in Custer, South Dakota, we were ready to move on.  We headed north towards North Dakota.  We stayed at Red Tail Campground in Medora, North Dakota, which is pretty much the only decent park there.  Luckily we were able to get a site on the day we arrived due to a cancellation.  I had called the day before to make a reservation but was told they were full.  It was amazing to see how the site escort managed to get everyone into a site, both small RV's and big rigs.  We stayed two nights at $29.85 per night that included a Good Sam discount.  The showers and bathrooms were pretty good.  Previously we have always used our own shower, but on this trip we opted to use the campground showers and have been pleasantly surprised to find them good.  We passed through Hill City and Deadwood in South Dakota and continued to see lots of motorcycles.

Pretty lake with reflections in South Dakota.

Red Cloud, South Dakota, typical small town in South Dakota.

The Black Hills have turned into wide open spaces.


When our campground neighbors saw us put our North Dakota sticker on our map, they started clapping.  They were members of a local camping club and welcomed us to North Dakota.



Theodore Roosevelt National Park is comprised of three sections, north, south and Elkhorn ranch.  We toured the south section.  The Park stretches across 70,416 aces of western North Dakota.  Abundant wildlife, scenic drives, and miles of trails abound.

The park is just spectacular. It was a highlight of our trip.

Loved seeing the wild horses throughout the park.

 Prairie dogs were everywhere.  They are so cute.

South Dakota - State Dessert

While getting some groceries in Custer I spotted a sign that referred to South Dakota's state dessert called Kuchen.  These were made by www.kuchenkitchens.com. I had never heard of these but always like to try local foods.  Oh my gosh, they were so good.   Dummy me should have bought more before we left South Dakota, but I didn't do it.  All of these were frozen and worked great in a microwave.  I found some recipes on the Internet, but buying these seemed like a better idea

This Kuchen is similar to a cherry pie, but yet the taste is totally different.

This is a cherry Kolache.  Very good with a morning cup of coffee.

The company also makes these tasty sandwich/snack. These were filled with pepperoni and cheese.  Yummy.

Sturgis Bike Rally 2014

We accidentally ended up in the Black Hills of South Dakota at the same time the Sturgis rally was going on.  Some people chose to not go to the Black Hills with so many motorcycles on the roads.  Since we are ex-Harley owners we really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful bikes.  A lot of the surrounding towns really cater to the bikers.  We were in Custer, Hill City, and Deadwood.  Sturgis was about 75 miles from our campground so we didn't go there.  There were plenty of bikes to see anyway.

Custer State Park - Custer, South Dakota

Our campground is in Custer, South Dakota because we wanted to be on the south side of the Black Hills since we had already been to the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and Wall Drugs which are north and east of Custer.

One day we took a drive through the wildlife loop of Custer State Park ($15).  We probably would have seen more wildlife if we had gone early in the morning, but I still got some nice photos.

Pronghorns - no zoom used.  They were right beside the road.

Wind Cave National Park - Hot Springs, South Dakota

Friday, August 1,  2014
Sunny

This National Park was on my bucket list for quite awhile.

Wind Cave National Park is a United States national park 10 miles (16 km) north of the town of Hot Springs in western South Dakota. Established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt, it was the seventh U.S. National Park and the first cave to be designated a national park anywhere in the world. The cave is notable for its displays of the calcite formation known as boxwork. Approximately 95 percent of the world's discovered boxwork formations are found in Wind Cave. Wind Cave is also known for its frostwork. The cave is also considered a three-dimensional maze cave, recognized as the densest (most passage volume per mi3) cave system in the world. The cave passed Hölloch cave in Switzerland on February 11, 2006 to become fourth-longest in the world with 119.58 miles (192.45 km) of explored cave passageways. The cave's current length is 131.04 miles (210.89 km), with an average of four new miles of cave being discovered each year. Above ground, the park includes the largest remaining natural mixed-grass prairie in the United States.     Taken from Chimani National Parks App.

We passed through this park on our way to Custer, SD where we will be staying for a week in Broken Arrow campground.  The prairie landscape is beautiful along with the Black Hills.  We planned to take the cave tour but decided against it because we have been through four caves previously and no cave could compare to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  Also, the 700 steps sounded too strenuous.  However, the scenery in the park was well worth the trip.

This is one of my favorite photos.

Imagine our surprise when we came across these buffalo on US 385 which passes through the park.  No entrance fee is charged.