A day of play at Custer State Park

Posted on May 30, 2014 by liv2rv

In mid-May, the state of South Dakota waives admission fees to all their state parks, as well as having free fishing, so we took advantage of our day off and spent the day at Custer State Park for fishing and exploring. Custer Park covers 71,000 acres and is home to the largest free-roaming bison herd, estimated at 1300 (and growing). There are over 60 miles of hiking and horseback trails available, and four man-made lakes for fishing, swimming and boating. There are several campgrounds, and lodges for rent.

The State Game Lodge is one of the many lodges available for rent. This one is the most famous in the park, because President Calvin Coolidge came for a visit and ended up spending the entire summer in 1927. It became known as “the summer White House”. President Coolidge was impressed by how much fish he would catch every day, not knowing that the park rangers were stocking the lake each night!

State Game Lodge

We started out our day out driving on the 21 mile long Wildlife Loop Road, where we saw many buffalo.

where the buffalo roam

Sometimes you just have to stop and wait for the big guys to pass.

coming thru!

We also saw many newborn buffalo, as this is certainly a growing population in the park.

wait up Mom!

Pronghorn are also present in the park, although this was the only one that we saw during our visit. We watched him or her stop and dig a hole, then poop in it….thought that was rather polite!

Pronghorn

And there are lot’s of prairie dogs roaming around as well.

prairie dog

After the loop, we headed up to the Mt. Coolidge Firetower and Lookout, which is at an elevation of 6023 feet. You can drive your vehicle all the way to the top, but be cautioned it is a gravel, narrow road without shoulders. I was hanging on tight to the door handle all the way up, hoping no one was on the way down, when I started to wonder why we grip tightly to door handles. If we went over the edge, would this really save me?! The view at the top was spectacular, although it was obstructed by four cell towers surrounding the lookout (although we found we can get 5 full bars of 4G!)

wonderful views

strong 4G here!

We ventured on and headed over to Center Lake, to try our luck at fishing. We had a nice spot in the ‘day use’ picnic area.

Center Lake day use area

I did not have any luck, but Dan managed to catch a few rainbow trout. They were too small to keep, but we will eventually get our fishing licenses and come back again. Looking forward to some tasty grilled trout this summer.

not a keeper 😦

shut out!

Dan tried a few areas to fish in, while I went off exploring (Dan’s on the right of the picture below)

nice spot to fish!

NEEDLES HIGHWAY SCENIC DRIVE

Needles highway goes through Custer Park, and has three tunnels that our very narrow, including one that is supposed to be 8’4” in width. We have talked to several people with dual rear wheel trucks that had no problem going through, so we decided to head on this road, although Dan was a bit skeptical. It is a very pretty drive, and if you are in this area, it is a “must do” item.

amazing views on Needles Hwy

We followed behind several antique cars that were driving through the park. I don’t know what these are, but there were about 12 of them driving together, and they were all having fun and stopping along the way.

some cool cars

The first tunnel has a width of 9 feet, so this wasn’t a problem getting though.

9 foot width

It was the second tunnel, by the Cathedral Spires (elevation 7050 feet), that was the one Dan was concerned about. Many of the tour buses go through these tunnels (and have the scrapes to prove it!), and I think they have actually widened the tunnels over time. I walked through the tunnel to make sure no traffic was coming, as this was a long tunnel, and not something you want to have to back up in. Dan slowly started in, and since there was no oncoming traffic, he just took his time going through. (Challenge accepted Phil!!)

hmmmm

a bit tight?

no problem!

challenge accepted!

We stopped at Sylvan Lake, another beautiful lake in the park, where they were setting up for a wedding that evening.

Sylvan Lake

There are so many more things to see and do at the park. This would be an ideal place for camping for a week, something we will keep in mind for future visits to this area.

Quote for the day: “A pessimist sees a dark tunnel. An optimist sees light at the end of a tunnel. A realist sees a freight train. The train operator sees three idiots standing on the tracks.” – Unknown

A little history of Crazy Horse Memorial

Posted on May 20, 2014 by liv2rv

Kachina

As promised in my last blog, I would provide some history on Crazy Horse Memorial, where we will be working this summer. Korczak Ziolkowski was born in Boston, and resided in Connecticut. In 1939 he came out to the Black Hills to work as an assistant to Gutzon Borglum, who was in charge of carving Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Korczak was fired from the job, and the letter from Borglum is on display at Crazy Horse Memorial.

Korczak went back home and worked on a sculpture, Paderewski: Study of an Immortal, which won first prize for sculpture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear invited Korczak to carve Crazy Horse Memorial, and wrote “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, also.” Korczak did meet with the Chiefs in 1940, and began studying Crazy Horse and the Native American culture.

There is a photo of Korczak meeting with Chief Standing Bear in the museum.

Korczak and the Chief

From 1943 – 1945, Korczak volunteered for service in WWII, and accepted the Indians invitation after the war ended. He used his own money to purchase the land in the Black Hills and he starts building a log home on the property in 1947. He had several volunteers helping, among them Ruth Ross, who came from his home state of Connecticut.

June 3, 1948 the first blast occurred on the mountain. Korczak promised the memorial would be a non-profit project, and he would never take a salary or government funding. This is a photograph of what the mountain looked like in 1948.

1948 before 1st blast

And some photos over the years:

By 1982, the tunnel is visible, the top of the mountain was blasted off for the arm, and the right side of the mountain was blasted off, as they are beginning to go down the mountain to block out the head of the horse.

1982

By 1993, work had switched to focus on the head of Crazy Horse, which is partially completed. The tunnel under the arm now goes through to the other side.

1993

By 2005, the face was complete, and a substantial portion of the right side of the mountain has been removed, as they continue going deeper to carve out the head.

2005

This is a photo how it looks today:

May 15, 2014 view

Korczak worked alone on the mountain for several years, and suffered multiple injuries and several heart attacks over the years. He married Ruth in 1950, and they had 10 children. Korczak passed away in 1982 at the age of 74. His wife took charge of all activities at the memorial. In 1987 the focus shifted from carving the horse’s head, to the face of Crazy Horse, at the direction of Ruth.

In 1998, the face was completed, in time for the 50^th anniversary of the first blast on the mountain. Due to some substantial donations in recent years, work has accelerated and continues on the head of the horse and the hand of the outstretched arm. They have been blasting down the mountain, and are around 340 feet down, to block out the head. It may, at times, look like nothing is being done, but there are photos in the visitor’s area that show the progress over the years, and it is quite dramatic. Since the memorial is carved in the round (3-dimensional), some of the work is not visible from the viewing deck, as it is on the back side of the mountain.

There is so much history involved in the memorial, and I simply cannot do justice to the story in this short blog. Both of us have talked to many visitors over the last several days of work that were amazed at the story behind the memorial, how big the place is, and how difficult a task it is to blast and carve out a mountain into Crazy Horse. If you want to learn more, please visit their website at Crazyhorsememorial.org

WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO?

When you arrive at the memorial, we recommend you visit the excellent movie playing in the theatres that documents the history of the memorial. Then you can browse through The Indian Museum of North America and look at many Native American exhibits. There are two gift shops, one displaying items all hand crafted by Native American Indians, and the other with your standard souvenirs. The memorial has made a special effort to try to purchase items made in the United States, whenever possible.

museum

Here are two of our co-workers, hard at work in the gift shop!

Ruth and Rudee

lot’s of t-shirts

The original 1:34^th scale model made by Korczak is on display on the large viewing deck, and is a popular spot for photos.

1/34th scale model

There is a covered porch area that has a scale model of what the entire complex will look like in the future, along with a large bin of rocks that have come from the mountain blasting’s. The rocks are free (donations accepted), and reminded me of Lucy’s rock collection in the movie “The Long, Long Trailer.” You can then enter into part of the original log home of the Ziolkowski’s, which has many antique items on display. There is also a two-story Native American Educational and Cultural Center and Korczak’s artist studio.

Mrs. Ziolkowski is a huge sports fan, and has many sports memorabilia on display, including a size 24 shoe from Shaquille O’Neal. They also made a tracing of the shoe on the ground, and I put my foot in the outline for comparison.

There is also the Laughing Waters restaurant and snack bar, which has an extensive menu, including gluten-free and vegetarian selections. In the summer, they have various Native American artists perform concerts and dances on the viewing deck. And thanks to a generous donation from the Ray and Joan Kroc Foundation, (founder of McDonalds), they have a very popular nightly laser light show on the mountain. We are looking forward to seeing that when it starts up at the end of this month.

Quote for the day: “When the legends die, the dreams end. When the dreams end, there is no more greatness.” – Korczak Ziolkowski

Orientation day at Crazy Horse

Posted on May 16, 2014 by liv2rv

Wednesday, May 14 was “back to work” day!! We were both excited to start our new adventure for the summer, and it will be nice to have money coming “in”, instead of always going “out”. The first day is just orientation, filling out tax forms (only Federal since South Dakota has no state income tax), along with going over the basic rules that you have with any job.

Dan’s mom always took a ‘first day of school’ photo, so I thought I should get a ‘first day of work’ photo to continue the tradition!

Back to work!

We watched an excellent film on the history of Crazy Horse in one of the 2 theatre’s in the Visitor’s Center of the Memorial. If you ever come to Crazy Horse, we highly recommend viewing the movie as the first thing to do in the complex. It goes over the history of the Memorial, and has interviews with the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski (pronounced ‘jewel-cuf-ski’), who passed away in 1982, as well as his wife Ruth.

Then we took a tour of the many buildings in the complex, and then headed back to our meeting room for more orientation. We had an excellent complimentary lunch in the Laughing Waters Restaurant, followed by the highlight of the day, a van tour to the top of the monument.

I plan on a separate post about the history of Crazy Horse, as well as what is all available to see and do on-site. There simply is too much to cover in one post.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE MONUMENT

The first blast on the mountain was June 3, 1948, with 10 tons removed. When completed, the memorial will be 563 feet high, and 641 feet long in the round. The face of Crazy Horse is 87 feet, 6 inches. In perspective, the heads on Mt. Rushmore are 60 feet tall.

Korczak refused to take any money from the state and federal government. This policy remains in effect today, and the family has turned down several grants from the government. He did not want the memorial to remain unfinished, like Mt. Rushmore, after they accepted money from the government. The original plan for Mt. Rushmore were for more complete profiles, at a height of 285 feet. Another difference between the two, is Mt. Rushmore was carved on a mountain and Crazy Horse is blasting a mountain into a monument.

The memorial is supported entirely through admission fees, gift shop sales and private donations.

THE RIDE TO THE TOP

Our orientation group was able to take a van tour to the top of the memorial. For the general public, there are two ways you can get to the top. Twice a year, they have a Volksmarch, where the public is invited to walk to the top for a small donation of $3.00. It is 6.2 miles (10K) round trip. The other way to the top is with a private van tour, which costs $120.00, with $100.00 going as a tax-deductible donation to the non-profit foundation.

The roads are all crushed gravel, made from the rock blasted off the mountain. There is a ‘graveyard’ of old equipment, that they use for parts to repair current machinery.

The graveyard

There are deer and mountain goats that live up in the hills around the memorial. We saw some deer, along with this little critter. It is called a Marmot, which is similar to a woodchuck. The animals don’t seem to be bothered by the regular blasts.

Marmot

They are working on the hand, and the nose of the horse. This view of the outline of the hand is not visible to the general public, as it is on the back side of the monument.

working on the hand

This picture is directly on top of the hand, and shows the red lines where they will be blasting out for the hand.

markings for future blast

The face of Crazy Horse.

standing on arm

We had to wear hard hats, as they were working below.

This is an old shark tank which was donated to the memorial. When they are blasting on top, the workers will stay inside this to avoid getting struck by flying debris.

sharks?!

The view from the top….spectacular!

view from the top

To put the size of the memorial in perspective, this is the view from our campground…

view from our campground

And this is the view of our campground from the top of Crazy Horse.

CG from Crazy Horse

This is the view of the visitors complex.

Visitors Complex

The rock formation below is where Korczak is buried, as well as his daughter Ann, who passed away in 2011.

burial site

We did make time at the end of the day to stop back into the restaurant to sample Kuchen, the state dessert of South Dakota, as well as some Indian Flat Bread. Both were delicious.

SD State Dessert!

Indian Flat Bread

Dan commented that it was the best 1^st day orientation that he has been a part of!

Quote for the Day: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

Initial impressions of the Black Hills

Posted on May 13, 2014 by liv2rv

After 2 long days of driving (to stay ahead of the Winter Storm Watch), we arrived at Heritage Campground in Custer, SD in very heavy fog. Phil came over and welcomed us and we caught up on things since we last saw them at Amazon. Late Wednesday night it began snowing, and we were thankful we did not have to drive in the snow with the fifth wheel.

Heritage Village CG

view from CG

We can see Crazy Horse from the campground, even on a winter morning.

Crazy Horse from CG

view from CG

Makena and I were up early Thursday, taking pictures of the area from our campground, as well as scraping off a few snow-covered vehicles in the campground (I missed doing that all winter!). It was a beautiful and peaceful morning, and we are very happy we decided to come to the Black Hills for the summer. We have made a long ‘to do’ list of the area’s attractions that we plan on accomplishing this summer.

First, a little facts about our new ‘home’ state of South Dakota (remember, one should never stop learning!!). The population of the state is 814,180. Pierre (pronounced “peer”) is the capital, and the nickname is The Mount Rushmore State. The highest point is Harney Peak. At 7,242 feet it is the highest point east of the Rockies. The state dessert is Kuchen, a coffee cake. South Dakota is home to the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota. There are nine tribes from these three dialect, representing about 62,000 Native Americans.

We are in the area referred to as the Black Hills, as it encompasses 1.2 million acres of the Black Hills National Forest. The hills are primarily Ponderosa pines, and the valleys have Black Hills spruce. Many visitors to the area inquire about the orange trees in the forest, and those are the ones killed off by the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic. The population in the Black Hills area is around 250,000, with Rapid City being the ‘big city’ at 69,200 people.

Custer State Park, at 71,000 acres is also nearby, and is home to over 1300 bison, as well as elk, mountain goats, burros and pronghorn. It has lots of fishing, hiking, biking, canoe/kayaking and horseback riding available.

Thursday night we went out for dinner with Phil and Rudee, at a nice restaurant in Hill City, about 9 miles away. They drove us around the area, past Mt Rushmore (never gets old seeing that), and to check out the rock formations on the back side of the monument (since this is a PG blog, I probably should leave out those photos, but Dan put them on Makena’s Facebook page!!!). We stopped in for a brief tour at Crazy Horse, and met some wonderful co-workers. They really have a large complex with many interesting things to see and do. I will have much more on Crazy Horse after we start our jobs there.

Friday, once the snow started melting, we ventured out into the city of Custer, which is about 4 miles away, and checked out the area and did some grocery shopping at the local market. They will have a farmers market in town on Saturdays, starting in June, so we hope to check that out. Friday night we went out for a fish fry near Hill City, with two other couples that we will be working with, Dick and Cheryl, and Phil and Sandra. Phil and Sandra have been full-timing for 13 years!

Saturday we took a drive on 16A, which goes thru Custer State Park, and up to Iron Mountain Road, which is a very scenic 17 mile road, with 14 switchbacks, 3 tunnels and past the 4 Presidents. We basically had the road to ourselves, which made for a pleasant drive. We were able to stop and take pictures in the tunnels which is something that won’t happen once tourist season is in full bloom.

Custer is famous for their buffalo, but we only saw two on this drive.

There are several lakes in the park.

ready for fishing!

After leaving Custer State Park, you enter right into the National Forest. On 16A, when you see the first park sign, that is when you get your first glimpse at Mt. Rushmore, from a distance.

Custer, SD

Mt Rushmore is just above the hood of the truck.

Mt Rushmore in the distance

Here is a closer view.

1st glimpse of Mt Rushmore

Black Hills

Black Hills & Presidents

scenic views

There are also some fun tunnels to go through, with two of them giving a view of Mount Rushmore.

No problem with this tunnel

tunnel with a view

coming thru with Presidents in view

There is an overview/stop off where you can see Harney Peak in the distance. They have several hiking trails to the top. We are pondering the 6 mile round trip hike. ( I think it would be easy to do if we had a scanner and a cart to push and pretended we were at Amazon!)

Harney Peak

Iron Mountain Road (16A) is a must-do drive, but don’t bring your RV!

Not an RV friendly road!

After 16A, we turned West on Hwy 244, which goes right past Mt. Rushmore, so we took some more “drive-by” photos.

Mt Rushmore from Hwy 244

There is a turn-out down from the monument, where you can get a profile view of George Washington.

profile view

The scenery here is breathtaking and we look forward to exploring many parts of this majestic area. We would like to travel on the Needles Highway (Hwy 87), but there is one tunnel that has a width of 8’4”, and we did a rough measurement of our dually pickup, and we think it is 8’7”. So we will hold off on that drive for now!

Sunday was a cold, blustery day with constant winds around 25mph. So it was a perfect day to do laundry, and go through the many tourist brochures we had picked up. In the afternoon we visited with Steve and Joan and had a wonderful time getting to know them as well.

Monday we checked out the library in Custer, which not only has free wi-fi, but seems to be the social hub of the community, based on how chatty the librarians were with the patrons. It had the ambiance of a coffee shop, but no food or beverages allowed!

We took Makena on a long walk along the George S Mickelson Trail, and picked up annual passes at the visitors center in Custer. All user fees support the trail. The trail follows the old Deadwood to Edgemont Burlington Northern rail line, which was abandoned in 1983. The trail was originally called the Black Hills Burlington Northern Heritage Trail, but was renamed in 1993 after the death of Governor Mickelson, who supported the trail and dedicated the first 6 miles of it in 1991. All 108 miles of the trail were completed by 1998.

Tomorrow (Wednesday May 14) we have our orientation at Crazy Horse, and will find out what our schedule will be for the summer. We look forward to a fun summer getting to know our co-workers more, as well as visiting the many attractions in the area.

Quote for the Day: “Once a year, go someplace you have never been before.” – Dalai Lama

Just catching up

Posted on May 9, 2014 by liv2rv

We had a busy 3 weeks while “home” in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more of “we need to get this done,” than a social visit. After running around to several dealers, we did receive an acceptable offer on my car, so that is one more personal item that we have disposed of! The de-cluttering continued with going thru all the drawers and cupboards in the camper, and getting rid of more stuff. There is still a lot more that we would like to dispose of, but we will save them for our next major clean.

We did manage to get in some family time, as we made it back in time for our nephew Kyle’s 30^th Birthday party. It was nice to see all of the friends and relatives at his party, and we can’t thank Dan’s sister and brother-in-law enough for letting us park our rig at Camp Meyer during our stay!

Happy 30th Kyle!

We drove down to the Milwaukee area and spent a few days with my sister Margie, husband Greg and niece Molly. They have 2 dogs and 2 cats, so Makena was a bit nervous. Although she did manage to make her way up to their bedroom each night and crawled under the covers with them, much to the anger of their cats!

Easter weekend we drove up to Minnesota with Dan’s sister, for our niece Brooke’s Bridal Shower. Dan’s brother and sister-in-law Gary and Julia are looking forward to Brooke and Chris’s wedding later this summer! It was a brief visit, but we enjoyed getting together with family.

Brooke’s shower

A bridal fanny pack?

After many months of searching, Dan found a bicycle, and I had a long overdue tune-up on mine. We will be right next to a 108 mile bike trail in South Dakota, so we hope to ride a few times a week (have to get back in shape!) We did find time to have lunch/dinners with friends Angie and Dave; an excellent fish fry at Beer Belly’s in the Milwaukee area with friends Mike and Karlyn; and a great lunch with a former college roommate, Mary. We also were able to squeeze in a night with Jonell’s brother and sister-in-law Brian and Annette along with our Thursday night Bible study group. It was great catching up with everyone!

We also had dental visits, truck maintenance and a veterinary visit for Makena (just routine, no problems). We were able to make a spur of the moment surprise visit to our former neighbors Brenda, and the Kierzeks. On a sad note our friend Mary Jo’s mom passed away, and we were able to attend her funeral in Shawano.

We are thankful to have the time to do all of these things, although we still left a lot of “until next time….” We were hoping to have time to stop in Dan’s hometown of Oconto Falls to visit with his parents and other friends and spend more time in Milwaukee to visit more friends and former co-workers. Originally, we were planning on attending a rally in Indiana in mid-September after we finished working at Crazy Horse on September 12. However, the Packers schedule came out, and the home opener is September 14, so we are now thinking of going back to Wisconsin for a week or two until we start back at Amazon in the fall. Hopefully, we will be able to complete some of our “until next time …..”

We arrived at our “summer home”, Crazy Horse in Custer, SD on Wednesday May 8^th. Thanks to the generosity of Phil and Rudee of workingrvers.blogspot.com, we have a booster antennae so we can post our blog. AT&T put a new cellular “tree” up (yes it is a tree, not a tower), so they get excellent service. We have Verizon, and were barely getting 1 bar of 3G. We are now up to 3 bars, thanks to the booster. We will be looking into purchasing one soon.

There is so much to see and do here in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We plan on more frequent blogs. As always, we thank you for following along on our journey. If you are planning on coming out to this area over the summer, please let us know. We would love to get together!

Quote for the Day: “I am so busy doing nothing…that the idea of doing anything – which as you know, always leads to something – cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.” Jerry Seinfeld

I am so busy doing nothing… that the idea of doing anything – which as you know, always leads to something – cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.

Jerry Seinfeld

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

Monthly Archives: May 2014