There Is A Lot To See

Ellsworth AFB, SD  -  Things have been real busy.  The 5 or 6 hours making circles through the local parks and drives will take it out of you. The result is

Carolyn throught she had to get this shot.  Mid 80's with a 12 to 20 mph wind and less than 20% humidity makes for very nice snoozing. I call them my power naps.  5 to 10 minutes and I'm ready to go again.

Needles Highway, Custer State Park - we made several trips along this drive.  It was our favorite drive.  There is barely room for 2 full sized vehicles to meet and at one time I had to back up about a city block to allow a rented Class C to come through.  We probably could have made it but there was no guard rail on the lower side and being rented (not that I'm any better) I gave him some room.  We saw the Cathederal Spires.

The Needles Eye area, Custer State Park.

The Wildlife Loop, Custer State Park - The picture at the top of the blog came from there.  The cows were with their calves (I guess that's what you call them) and Carolyn thought it was cute so here is one of those.

There was a nice pronghorn going up a hill, barely saw him, but if you blow it up you can tell.

We also went by Sylvan Lake, Custer Sate Park.  It is a small lake, more like a pond, but presents a nice picture.

The Iron Mountain Highway, Custer State Park was a nice drive and had good scenery.  It has several tunnels and loops that cross each other.  Some of the tunnels opened out to a view of Mt Rushmore.

And that is just some highlights.  There was a lot more and the scenery was fantastic.  Temps up in the Black Hills were almost 10 degrees less than down around the Rapid City area.  The first day up on the Needles Highway we left Rapid City at 68 deg and it got down to 47 deg when a storm blew up and had a little rain and hail.  It was 75 when we got back to town.

Yesterday was 108 deg in Rapid City.  We went to Crazy Horse to see a night blast and when we got there it was 85 deg and very comfortable.

That is about all for tonight, getting tired.  Will post more tomorrow and see if we can clean up this visit.  There has been alot.