Wind Cave National Park and other South Dakota Wonders

Spanish first, English translation follows:

Hola!  Cuando nosotros dejó el Parque Nacional de Teddy Roosevelt iremos a Wind Cave.  Antes de ir a Wind Cave nosotros paren en el Torre del Diablo. El Torre del Diablo era muy fantástico!  Mira como un oso arano el costado! Esto era uno de los leyendas de la Torre. Hay muchas pero esto leyenda era esencialmente que una oso perseguido dos niños, y los niños rezo para ser salvo. Un torre disparado con ellos en la parte superior y el oso no puede tocar lo, entonces arano el costados.  Era fascinante!  

Después de esto nosotros ir a la sitio de RVs y relajar el resto de la dia.  El proximo dia nosotros iremos a el Monte Rushmore. Esto era muy increíble, pero no puede ser muy cerca a eso porque hay mucho construcción.  Luego fuimos a Crazy Horse. El monumento de Crazy Horse era muy guay! El hombre Crazy Horse era un guerrero feroz! La estatua era muy grande, y símbolo el en un caballo apuntado a la distancia.  Los élderes de la tribu Lakota pregunto a Korczak Ziolkowski para construir el monumento. El convenido y ahora el familia de él está terminado su trabajo. Después de esto, iremos a la RV para comer almuerzo y relajar un poco.  Luego iremos a la cena en un restaurante en Custer Parque de Estados. Mi cena era ok, pero donde nosotros comemos era fantástico. El parte de la estructura que nosotros estamos en se llama el “Casa Blanco Comedor” y era muy bonito.  Cuando terminamos la cena nosotros caminen en un corto caminata. En la comenzando hay una bisonte en la caminata! Era muy grande y está comen un pequeño árbol! Era muy chistoso. Después de esto nosotros caminan más y encuentran muchos cabras de montañas!  Era muy agraciado y bonitos. Dos tienen collares de radio para pista ellos. El único cosa que nosotros veremos en la caminata era un otro bisonte. Esto bisonte era en la derecha, hay un acantilado en la izquierda, la bisonte están caminen hacia nosotros! Paremos, y despacito el bisonte caminan pasenos.  Termina la camina y regresamos a la RV.

El proximo dia iremos a Cueva de Viento Parque Nacional.  Una cosa que yo no menciona. Las cuevas de la Cueva de Viento y Cueva Joya están cerrados.  Esto era porque las ascensores no estan funciona (para los dos cuevas) y necesitan dos éxitos en la cueva para emergencias.  Entonces solo hay un éxito sin las ascensores entonces ellos necesitan cerrar las dos cuevas. Cuandos nosotros aprendimos que las dos son cerrados nosotros ir en un 1 milla caminata.  No puedes ir en la 4.2 milla caminata porque hay mucho hiedra venenosa. Después de la hermosa caminata iremos a la RV para comer almuerzo. Hazel y yo comer nosotros almuerzo en un base secreto en las rocas.  Era muy divertido. Cuando terminas la almuerzo nosotros juegan en la base hasta finalmente regresamos para ayudar los padres con la cena. Todos los cosas en la cena era vegetales, pero era bueno. Luego nosotros manejan a Custer Parque de Estados otra vez y ver más bisonte.  Después regresamos a la RV y dormir. Próximo era Badlands Parque Nacional!

Hi again!  So a couple of days ago we left Teddy Roosevelt National Park and proceeded on to Wind Cave, with a few stops along the way.  Our first stop was the incredible devil’s tower! The legend of Devil’s Tower says that long ago two Indian boys heard a small animal and went to investigate.  They followed the sound for a long time before coming upon a herd of antelope. Upon discovering what made the noise they turned around to head back to their village and discovered they had no idea where they were.  So they trekked day after day, searching for their village, living off of berries. On the fourth day, they felt as though they were being followed. Sure enough, when they turned around, there in the distance lurked Mato, the bear.  This was no ordinary bear. He was huge, and the boys would only make a small mouthful for him. Unfortunately, he smelled them and came in search of that mouthful. Mato began closing the distance between them and the boys prayed to Wakan Tanka, the Creator, to save them.  All at once a cone of rock shot up from the ground, carrying the boys on top of it. The bear reached up, but came just short of the top. Frantically, he began scratching all sides of the rock, desperate to get up. The boys watched as Mato became tired, finally gave up and went off into the distance .  Then Wanblee, the eagle, who had always been a friend of the Native Americans, let the boys grab hold of him and flew them to safety. That was only one of the many stories of Devils Tower, but the most popular. Pretty interesting, right? Well, it was cool and huge, so I was satisfied. Then we drove the rest of the way to our campsite, near Wind Cave, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

The next day we woke up around 7:30 and went to Mt. Rushmore.  This was super neat, although a little disappointing. We couldn’t get very close to it, due to construction.  I did learn a cool fact though! Did you know that Thomas Jefferson was one of the first people ever recorded to make an ice cream recipe!  I mean, I knew he was great, but this is just heroic! I mean, can you imagine a world without ice cream? Oh, the horror. After taking a short walk around it, we said goodbye to Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and T. Roosevelt’s faces and continued on to Crazy Horse.  Now this was something.  I had never even heard of Crazy Horse but apparently he was the man back then.  He was an Indian warrior for the Lakota tribe and made even the fiercest white soldiers peed their pants.  He could turn the tables on almost any battle. Almost.  The last battle he fought in was the Battle of Little Bighorn against George Custer, where he was heavily outnumbered in men and weapons.  Finally, but not before killing Custer, he surrendered. They took him into Fort Robinson, where he was killed in a scuffle between soldiers trying to imprison him.  It is said that when Crazy Horse died, the whole Indian Revolution started to give up. Like I said, he was a big deal. Hence, why Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota Elder, requested a statue of his head built amongst those built at Mt. Rushmore.  The Mt. Rushmore sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, refused. Then they asked another sculptor, Korcak Ziolkowski who agreed to sculpt it and spent the rest of his life doing just that. Below, on the left, is a picture of what it looks like now and on the right, what it will look like in the future.

 After eating lunch in the RV and resting a bit, we went into Custer State Park Game Lodge to eat an early dinner.  My dinner was okay, but where we ate it was definitely the best part of the meal. We ate in a section of the dining room called the “White House Dining Room” because a couple of presidents ate there.  After dinner we took a lovely walk that started out with a bison scratching his back on a baby tree and in the process trampling it. I kid you not, by the time it was done there were 3 different sections of the tree scattered around.  And this was no small task; the tree was easily as far around as my Dad’s forearm and the bison acted as though it were a twig. After that we kept walking until we saw Mountains goats. They were really cool and were so graceful on the cliff edges.  Then it started to get dark so we turned around to head back. On the way back though, we encountered a small problem; a bison was to the right of us, a cliff to the left. It was headed our direction so we couldn’t go backwards and going forwards meant going past it and possibly startling it.  We were thoroughly stuck. Finally we decided to creep slowly forward, trying desperately not to provoke it. At last! We were free! After that little stand off, we went home.

The next day we went to Wind Cave.  One little detail I forgot to mention.  Wind Cave was closed. So essentially the main attraction of the National Park was closed due to elevator malfunctions.  You might wonder, as we did, why this would result in a closure, because surely there are natural entrances? Well, according to the law there must be at least 2 entrances/exits in case of an emergency, such as a cave collapse.  With the elevators shut down there would only be one exit, which is why it is closed. So upon learning that it was closed we decided to take a 1 mile moderate-strenuous hike to a beautiful lookout. It was a nice leg-stretcher and the overlook was beautiful.  We then went home and ate lunch. Hazel and I decided to eat our lunch on our super cool base in between some huge boulders. After that we played a little there and then finally went back to help Mom and Dad with dinner. Then we went for another drive through custer state park, saw more bison, and went back to the RV to sleep.  Next thing you know we’re driving to Badlands!