Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Where the Buffalo roam....

We woke up this morning to another cold day. There is nothing like waking up to wind at 40 MPH and the temperature at 30 degrees. We headed south to Keystone,SD to the site of Mount Rushmore. The weather didnt get any better there either but at least it was clear.









We then headed to the Crazy Horse Monument. This statue is not complete but has been under way for over 50 years. No one knows when it will be completed because the project is funded solely on donations and admission/concession profits. You can only see the face of Crazy Horse now but the second picture shows what the statue will look like when its complete. When it is done, it will be the largest statue in the world.





The area between the two monuments is mostly rolling hills and full of wildlife. The town of Custer, SD has access to the Wind Cave Park and also the Custer State Park. We took these pictures to give everyone an idea of the terrain out here. It was really beautiful out there today.









We also found a Mammoth Archeological site outside of Custer in a town called Hot Springs. Years ago, a local hotel owner broke ground to build a new hotel and found no less than twelve different mammoths buried in what they believed to be a sink hole filled with water roughly 25,000 years ago. The site we saw is only excavated during the summers so what we took pictures of is the actual site, just done up for tourists.







On our way home, we took a northern route to be able to see more of the two parks. We had seen tons of deer throughout the day but we finally saw the good ones on our way out. Oh, and a buffalo is the same thing as a bison - so we found out.









This was the best view we had of all the bison we saw. You can sort of make out the black shapes of around 150 bison in this valley. Obviously the picture didnt turn out as we had hoped.



We head out to Colorado in the morning. We will try to get some pics up of the last leg of our road trip and of our house when we can but that will depend on when we can get the internet setup in our house, hopefully Thursday!

2 comments:

LABLUVER said...

Hey Allison and Will !!
You guys have done a great job with the pics and the blogging...keep up the good work !
Know you must be getting excited about the arrival in Colorado!Enjoy your "last leg" and keep in touch. Much love to you both
Aunt Betty

Dorothy said...

Love the bLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ecsp love the Allision jumping picture of mt rushmore!!! Its great!!! Hvae fun setting up the new house!!! Keep warm!!!!