Wanderung 3

Rocky Mountain Ramble

May - July 2003

June 5th - Custer State Park, South Dakota

We slept in until 8, but then had to really hustle to fix a pancake breakfast, clean up, and pack everything to drive over to a Ranger-led geology walk at 9 a.m. We did make it, barely, and the walk started off pretty normally with explanations of the geologic history of the Badlands and how those fantastic shapes are created. But as we walked out and looked back, the shapes were highlighted against some very black clouds, which worried us a bit. The ranger finished his talk just as the first raindrops started to fall, and it soon became a regular cloudburst. The rain immediately turned the ancient sediments into mud, so footing became very treacherous. Trying to hurry was impossible, so we just had to take our time walking back, which resulted in our becoming thoroughly soaked and that was exquisitely uncomfortable because this wasn’t a “warm rain”. Indeed, the rain was freezing cold and we were even pelted by hail at one point—ouch!


 

As you can imagine, we were both very grateful to climb back into the truck and turn up the heat full blast as we drove west toward Rapid City, South Dakota. It was about an hour’s drive and by the end of that time we were damp if not dry. After a quick lunch at Taco Bell we felt ready for a Volksmarch and decided to do the downtown Rapid City route.

The Rapid City Volksmarch consisted of a large loop to the east followed by a smaller loop to the rest. The starting point was the historic Alex Johnson Hotel that was in the famous Hitchcock movie “North by Northwest”. The downtown area had life-sized statues of some early and recent Presidents on the street corners. We enjoyed that a lot because each of us could guess at which President it was as we were approaching and then found out if we were right or not.

The first loop was through a typical residential area. During the second loop thru a park and along the Rapid Creek it started to once again rain and despite our rain parkas we immediately transitioned from warm and damp back to cold and wet. We were so bedraggled that when we stopped at a park pavilion to dry off, the homeless folks there gave us advice on where to get free food and shelter in the town! After the rain let up a bit, we continued walk back to the Johnson Hotel thru a vibrant looking downtown section. All in all we thought the downtown was interesting but the first part of the walk lacked any real point of interest. Still, if you’re in the area and looking for a relatively easy city walk, this was definitely a 1 (mostly flat and level sidewalk) and would be suitable.

Refreshed by the walk, we drove south and then west to Custer State Park where we had reserved a campsite for the weekend. The Black Hills truly look black from a distance—we saw dark pine trees covering the slopes as we approached the park and later learned that this were Ponderosa Pine. The sight of tall, dark pine trees covering gentle mountain slopes reminded me very much of the Black Forest section of southern Germany. The main difference is the Black Forest has been a managed forest for several hundred years while the Black Hills is mostly a natural ecosystem. Fortunately the rain let up by the time we reached our campsite, so we could set up the tent and screen house without getting soaked yet again, and even had the time for a nice evening campfire.

Copyright 2004 by Robert W. Holt and Elsbeth Monika Holt
Prolog Map Epilog

May 2003
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
June 2003
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
July 2003
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31

Return to the Wanderungs Homepage.
Sign the Guestbook or Read the Guestbook.
Comments about this site? Email the Webmaster.
Contact Bob and Monika at bob_monika@hotmail.com.