The Mueller's: October 2017

Day 1 - Friday, Sep 1st

Prairie City, IA -> Oacoma, SD

Boring! We left after school today to get some of the driving out of the way and give us more time on Saturday/Sunday to explore. We drove to west Iowa and followed I-29 up to I-90 to Oacoma, SD. Six hours of uneventful driving ended in a late night and we finally turned in around midnight at a local hotel.

Day 2 - Saturday, Sep 2st

Oacoma, SD -> Minuteman Missile Silo -> Badlands -> Bear Country USA -> Keystone, SD & Mount Rushmore

Saturday was packed with activities with a lot of driving in between. Today we left our hotel and drove for about two hours to get to the Badlands. The landscape started to look a lot different the further west we drove. I always look for this subtle change when I drive west. The crops change from endless corn to pastures and fields of sunflowers as far as the eye can see. Long treeless stretches trick the eyes as the horizon creeps further away in this new ecological zone.

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

At the Interstate exit for the Badlands, you are greeted with a small building. This building serves as a museum for the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. What trip west is complete without exploring an underground nuclear ICBM missile silo left over from the Cold War! Unfortunately, tours of the actual missile silo (several miles down the road from the museum) were booked for the next six weeks, but the museum was very interesting. I recommend taking a few minutes to stop here if you are ever driving by on I-80. It also serves as a good pit-stop before the long drive into the Badlands.

The Museum

Ben and Ava got to make paper rockets!

The Badlands

Heading south from the missile silo through some winding roads takes you through some distinctly new and unique looking surroundings. Again the scenery changes and you realize that you are heading somewhere unlike anywhere else... We wind our way through patches of what seem like desert and formations of strange rocks jutting from the ground. Within minutes we start to see strange looking landscape off in the distance.

"Kids, those are the BADLANDS!"

(Ava entertained us with pronunciations such as "badwands" and "mount mushmore".)

How could you not go on a hike in this fascinating environment! We drove by lots of trail heads, but we eventually pulled into a small parking lot for the start of Saddle Pass Trail. The four of us set out on a dusty and difficult trail through the rocks and massive boulders, up a steep incline. We had a pull Ava up quite a bit, but she was a trooper! Tiff and her went back down after we ascended about halfway, but Ben and I took it all the way to the top!

Our Destination!

That's where we parked... waaaay down there.

Bear Country USA!

We finally made our way north and west out of the Badlands and pointed the car toward Mt. Rushmore! On our way out of the badlands we saw prairie dog villages as far as the eye could see! The little guys were running all over the place. This was significant because we live in "Prairie City" right next to the Neal Smith Prairie and the students have a unit on prairie dogs. Lewis and Clark also studied prairie dogs on their way across the country; they were new to science in the early nineteenth century.

We could see the mountains looming over us, guarding the horizon in the background, but we could not yet see the monument yet. We had heard about Bear Country USA on our way to Mt. Rushmore and we decided to stop. Hundreds of bears wondering around, playing, drinking and walking across the road as you make your way through this drive-through zoo. You first navigate through several other animal pens prior to the entering the black bear pen and I couldn't help thinking about the paddocks from Jurassic Park! It was a wild experience for sure; I think it was worth the $50 per car price-tag. I think.

Wall Drug!

The world's largest contiguous gift shop! That about sums up Wall Drug. Here you can find anything that you ever wanted in a gift shop, and some things you did not even realize that you want. We had to stop since we were right next to it and now we can say that we did so. It was also lunch time... We traipsed all over the place after lunch in search for some fool's gold for Ben. He was obsessed with finding some however our efforts proved rather worthless (or foolish).

Mount Rushmore!

Or as Ava called it: "Mount Mushmore". We started this day about 90 minutes east of the Badlands. We stopped at the Minuteman Missile Museum, spent hours in the Badlands, stopped at Wall Drug for some light shopping and lunch, and slowly crept through the Bear Country USA; that ended up taking about two hours. By the time we made our way closer to Keystone and Mount Rushmore it was nearing dusk. We had been told that the best time to see the monument is in the morning, but I figured we could head up there for a second time on the next day in the morning too.

The road leading to the monument curves and twists around the forests of the Black Hills. Each time we turned the car we tried to glimpse the special mountain and catch sight of the massive effigies. At last we spot them. The four presidents dominating the landscape, commanding over the forests below.

We had just enough time before dark to walk down the path to the base of the mountain on which the monument was carved. This path winds around to Borglum's (the artist) workshop and studio and past one massive air compressor motor left behind and preserved. The park actually stays open until 10:30 PM because they have a special ceremony during which they turn on massive lights that shine on the faces through the night. This ceremony was an amazing experience however, so I'm glad that we were able to observe it. A park ranger presides over some trivia, a short film about the presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln).

The most poignant part for me was the recounting of Francis Scott Key's experience and observations that prompted him to write the poem from which our Star Spangled Banner is based. I do not think that I had ever heard the larger work within rests the anthem we know so well. Finally, the ranger asks all active and former members of the military to come to the stage from which she chooses six to help her retire the colors formally. The whole event is a very stirring display of patriotism that I will not soon forget and one in which everyone should partake at some point in their lives.

One of several massive air compressors - air hoses ran all the way up the mountainside from far below. I feel sorry for the poor soul that had the task of finding leaks in those lines!

The stage that hosts the lighting ceremony

Day 3 - Sunday, Sep 3rd
Keystone, SD -> Iron Mountain Road -> Wildlife Road through Custer State Park -> Needles Highway -> Crazy Horse

Wow, what a long day yesterday! We decided to leave the mountains today and get some hours behind us so that we wouldn't be in the car for the entire ten hours in one sitting on Monday. Before leaving we had to see some bison in Custer State Park, zig-zag through the mountains on the Needles Highway and say hello to Crazy Horse of course.

Iron Mountain Road (16A)

This is one of the most intriguing and picturesque highways I've ever driven, and oh what fun it is to drive on! This narrow highway curves around through an extremely rough mountainous area, all the while giving countless breathtaking views of Mount Rushmore. You have to coax your vehicle through three different tunnels painstakingly carved into the mountain and lined up perfectly to give you another view of the monument as you emerge. As the day progressed however, the increasing haze from northern forest fires continued to obscure the views.

We stopped a few times and looked for a good spot to gaze upon the monument one last time. We hiked and hiked and figured it would appear at some point. Our effort was rewarded when we found this amazing perch seen in the video below. Can you spot the faces on the mountain in the video?

Crazy Horse

The Crazy Horse monument is massive, but not quite as organized as the government-sponsored Mount Rushmore monument. They also do not let you get nearly as close to the monument without paying more than the $30 it costs to get your car into the larger site. Within the grounds are many different Native American exhibits, artifacts and gifts. Artisans craft various crafts and jewelry right in front of you in several different locations. The original designer and artist built a log cabin on the site that has now been preserved and incorporated into the grounds.