On the Monday we were in South Dakota before we went WWOFing, Chip and I arose at 5 a.m. (I’m not kidding you) to see the Custer State Park Buffalo roundup (again, I’m not kidding).
I am not a morning person.
Anyways, the buffalo roundup happens once a year in Custer. Dozens of cowboys and cowgirls, who think they’re skills are up to the test, round all of the buffalo in the park up, in one hoof-stomping, rodeo-riding, buffalo-stampeding frenzy. Out of the herded buffalo, those that can live on the resources in the park in the winter stay, and the rest go to the chopping, er, auction block.
The line to get into this was incredible. Incredibly INSANE!
People seem pretty excited to see the buffs, no?
After about, oh, three hours of waiting, the buffalos came thundering down the hill!
Epic. If only these buffalo knew what they were running towards…
We decided after all our monumenting, we needed some excitement. Real, live, excitement. Drumroll please…
Bear Country.
This is without a doubt the stupidest, most tourist trappy activity we have done so far. Ignore my crying in the video, I had a GREAT time! You get to drive your car around a giant park and look at all the beasties roaming around, not in cages, so you can scare yourself silly when the animals come up to your car window and look ready to attack!
Also, we got a little note when we purchsed our tickets that informed us September is a very dangerous time to visit Bear Country, because it is MATING SEASON. This would explain why a elk/antelople/deer/beast almost rammed the car when we looked at his special lady for too long.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, TOURIST-EATING BEARS AND BEASTS as seen from the PASSENGER SEAT!
Why is this thing not my pet?
Bear guards.
Bear traffic jam.
Baby bear feeding time!
Ok, so it’s been like a week since we left Mount Rushmore and went to…
CRAZY HORSE MONUMENT! But bear (country har har) with me. We’ll just do a little time travel, so you can get the full effect of our South Dakota splendor.
Anyways, the Crazy Horse memorial, which we went to after Mount Rushmore, was started in May of 1947. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski was invited by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear to sculpt Crazy Horse.
Ziolkowski was quite the mountain man, no?
Crazy Horse was an Indian chief who fought for Native Americans in the United States, never signed a treaty with the government and was stabbed in the back by an American solider in 1877.
Crazy Horse is a work in progress. When it is finished it will be the biggest monument in the world.
Seems like they have a bit of mountain left to blast…
At least they aren’t using this thing anymore to blast out chunks of rock:
Don’t even ask me how this worked. I have no idea. I’m also going to go with it didn’t work too well, considering they have basically the entire monument to finish.
Our journey kept going after Crazy Horse! Read on!
Saturday began bright and early at Mount Rushmore. Do you know all four Presidents?
Due to waking up at the crack of dawn Chip and I got to view the glory of the presidents crowd free.
We were looking into the sun, as you may be able to tell from my nearly closed eyes.
Now, time to get up close and personal with the presidents.
So noble!
After Mount Rushmore we kept on driving to…
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