Photos:
http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3879706007/a=38054161/
Jen and I were heading out to see some of her family in South Dakota, so we decided to stop at some places along the way. First stop was at Scott's Bluff in Nebraska. It's a bluff that you can drive up, and get a pretty good view of the surrounding area (which is pretty flat...) It's pretty, but I was joking with Jen about the strenuous and "dangerous" hike we did; which was a full quarter mile in length... It was a bit chilly and windy that day; but still sunny at this point.
The next stop was Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska. This was a waterhole that dried up, so there was fossils of lots of creatures from the Miocene Epoch of the Tertiary Period of the Cenozoic Era (about 19 million years ago; after the age of dinosaurs.) One of the cool things there was the Daemonelix spirals; essentially, they looked like rock corkscrews. First thought to be fossil remains of giant plants, it was later identified as fossilized casts of spiral burrows made by ancient beavers called Palaeocastors. While we were hiking there, the snow started to fly.
Continuing on, we drove through some of Wind Cave National Park (by the time we got there, the caves were closed) and saw some buffalo. We then headed to the Crazy Horse monument; which I had seen more than 20 years ago on a family trip. I was surprised that it still looked the same to me; I didn't recognize a lot of progress (but I could be mistaken.) Makes me wonder how much they work on it; or are they just cashing in on folks wanting to see it in production... We then continued through parts of Black Hills National Forest, through Deadwood, and finally to Dorothy's.
The next day, we drove to visit more family. Some of her family lives adjacent to the Badlands, so we visited with them; saw their ranch, and learned that the movie Starship Troopers (among others) was shot near there. Will have to re-watch Starship Troopers again and pay attention to the landscape... We then went to the Badlands National Park, and saw some bighorn sheep up close. Got a neat pic of the edge of a storm rolling in too; with two distinct cloud layers. It was coming our way though, so we continued on.
Stopped briefly at Wall Drug, since Jen hadn't been there before. Interesting place. Got some pictures of Jackalopes, a popular tourist gig there. Got hit by the storm we saw, and had some hard rain and even some hail on our drive back to Dorothy's.
We went to the sunrise church service, and then on the opposite side of the spectrum; headed over to gamble at Deadwood afterwards. Said our goodbye's and made our way back home. It was a fun and relaxing weekend; and got to spend some quality time with family...
Hope you enjoy the
pics!
A.J.
Photos: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3879706007/a=38054161/
Group Room (multiple albums): http://ajoutdoors.snapfish.com/snapfish