We are
camped at about the 4500 foot level in a beautiful setting next to a mountain
lake (Legion Lake) in Custer State Park, a huge park in the Black Hills just
east of Custer, SD, a huge park about 15 miles wide and over 20 miles long of
forests, mountains, lakes and right in the middle of several natural wonders in
the West. We are here for six days and
our first day was to settle in and explore the surroundings.
Our first
hike was to the Cathedral Spires at the north end of the park. It was a short hike (three to four hours),
the vertical distance was less than 900 feet (from about the 6100 ft level to
about the 7000 ft level) but a little strenuous but some beautiful vistas. We had a chance to try out our new home-made
walking sticks, our hiking backpacks and our new vented hats that we will use
for the rest of our hikes in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. It also gave me a chance to break in some new
hiking boots (the same type I wear all the time).
We also took
our time to visit some of the sights in a very leisurely manner - it's great
when you don't have to hurry - retirement is the best thing that can happen to
someone, especially when one is still in good enough health to go out and do
things like we are.
We went to
visit the Crazy Horse memorial that has been under construction for the last
seventy years. It is beginning to look
like the model sculpture, and from what I understand the arm and part of the
hose should be done in the next ten years.
There is no formal completion date.
I think the owners of the place are being a little arrogant and selfish
by not accepting government and corporate contributions for its
construction. But I guess it is their
livelihood and they don't want to lose any of the current and future revenue
stream.
We also
visited Mt Rushmore, the original mountain sculpture in South Dakota and it is
still a very impressive sight. Although,
when Crazy Horse is complete, it will completely overwhelm the Mt Rushmore
Memorial in size. To give an idea of the
difference in size, the four heads of the Rushmore memorial would fit in just
the head of the Crazy Horse memorial.
One of the
most impressive sights is Devil's Tower.
No man-made carving can outdo what nature has done. Imagine this:
Millions of years ago, when this part of the country was a large sea and
there was a lot of volcanic activity, a large fissure cracked open deep below
the North American tectonic plate, a mountain size extrusion of molten lava
began to move from the earth's mantle and it solidified as it extruded through
the shallow seas. Millions of years
later the land rose and the surrounding sea deposits eroded away leaving this
spectacular tower of stone. I was
already to rock climb it, but alas, there were rules against it and permits to
obtain and we simply didn't have enough time to get all the permits we
needed. A great excuse for me because I
am simply not in the prime of life to "rock climb" - too old, too
fat, out of shape and didn't have the proper equipment to do it. It is possible to climb it, but you have to
have a guide and the right equipment to even attempt it. I guess I'll just simply tell people that I
didn't do it because I did not have the right equipment - I love that convenient
excuse! Adrian and I did climb the rock
field, and only to the level allowed. In
the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" Richard Dreyfus and Melinda Dillon managed to
climb to the top, there is no way!
Unless they found a secret path that no one else has found.
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