Traveling to South Dakota 2026 Day 7, 8, 9

We traveled from Ashland, WI to Sault St. Marie, a distance of 346 miles. We decided to stay two days in town, at our favorite hotel, the Holiday Inn Express...free hot breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausage, yogurt, fruit, etc.) and it has a great view of the river and the bridge going to Canada. 

We enjoy eating at the Lockview Restaurant, downtown, which is right across the street from the locks, and if a big freighter goes into the first lock you can see it right from the restaurant windows. The restaurant food is sometimes really great and other times just so-so.

 A freighter in the first lock

We LOVE watching the freighters so that's what we did for two days. Sparky loves talking to people at the observation deck right there at the locks, finding out where they come from and throwing out a few tidbits about the freighters she finds out from the app, Marine Traffic.

The freighters are nicknamed the "Salties" (for the narrower ones entering from the Atlantic Ocean thru the St. Lawrence Seaway). They are smaller because the Seaway's lock system is narrower than the Soo Locks. The "Salties" typically measure up to 740 feet in length and have a more pointed bow. They also have multiple deck cranes. The "Lakers" are exclusively freshwater ships that can never leave the Great Lakes so they are the massive, 1000+ footers. We love hearing their booming horns as they pass through the St. Mary's River.

St. Mary's River at Veterans' Park

Our other favorite spot to view the freighters is at the Veterans' Park on the outskirts of town, where the St. Mary's River narrows signficantly and the freighters come by a stone's throw from the shore--at least that's what it feels like! The Veterans' Park is just about right next door to the Aune Osborn RV park.

We went to the park on three different occasions to watch the freighters and a little boy of about 10 was there each time waving a Canadian flag and hoping the big boys would blow their horns if he made the universal gesture of pulling his fist down in a pumping motion. Usually the freighters sound the horn when moving through the river channel but not this time. 

Kewadin Casino

For our last night in the Soo,  we chose to eat at the Kewadin Casino, at the Black Rock Bar and Grill. The meal was terrific! We did not try our luck at the casino, it's just not our thing, but we do enjoy a good meal. It's a beautiful casino, lots of wood inside and a cool art gallery as you enter. Check out the one arm bandit machines! There were other examples of native american artwork displayed in the hallway leading to the casino. 

Benny's Cafe

The next day, we traveled to St. Ignace, where the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. It's a small town of about 2,000 people and has cute little shops and restaurants that cater to the summer boating folk and of course, tourists passing through. We ate a burger at Benny's Cafe, a time capsule diner, a soda fountain shop. The burgers were great! Our hotel for the night was the Breakers Resort and Beach Bar, right on Lake Huron, with scenic views of Mackinac Island in the distance. 

Lodging is not cheap for a lakefront room--276.00. The only drawback of our one night stay was midges, those pesky little flying insects that swarm in the summer. There are two types--biting and non-biting. People refer to the non-biting ones as gnats. The biting ones are no-see-ums. AND, locals call the larger non-biting ones muffleheads. (!) Sparky would love to know where that came from! If you encounter the biting species, it is the females who bite. The midges are related to mosquitoes and their bites are worse than a mosquito because their mouthparts slice into your skin. Tiny, but painful! There were clouds of them here and there and seemingly everywhere. It's that time in the summer where you are going to encounter bugs and more bugs in northern Michigan. 

Huron longhouse

There is a Museum of Ojibwa Culture in St. Ignace and it is amazing. It sits on the grounds of a 17th century Huron village and has the burial grave of Father Marquette, a Jesuit missionary and explorer, and an authentic traditional longhouse on the grounds with beautiful metal sculptures depicting the roles in the clans. 

Sparky loved seeing the costumes of the dancers, especially the jingle dancer costume. The jingle cones were originally made from snuff and chewing tobacco tins rolled into cones. There are between 200-365 cones on a dress and when the dancer moves, it creates a very melodic tone. One foot is always touching the ground, maintaining a physical connection to the earth. The jingle dance is very popular at pow-wows and often performed to bring spiritual healing and pride at stressful times and events.

Also inside there are immersive exhibits, personal stories and recordings-some that detail the treatment of the tribes through the years and the government's efforts to take away their culture. Very interesting yet disturbing reading at the same time.

If you are ever in St. Ignace, check out Jose's Cantina, right next door to the Breakers. The food is great, but we didn't get a chance to eat there. It comes highly recommended from family members. We did eat at the Gangplank Pub and Grub, with a protected outdoor patio and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere, the food, and our cheeky waiter.

The next morning, we headed for home, planning to drive all the way, and we did! A six hour drive from Mackinac Island for a distance of 343 miles. Gaylord, MI is on the way home, and there is a resident elk herd there in a large enclosed area, should you want to see some Michigan wildlife.....We wanted to get home and relax so we didn't stop this time. 

The trip was wonderful, the weather was great, and now it's time to settle down for a bit and enjoy (?) the summer...Ahhhh-h-h-h...the nineties....Uh, Eldy, when is our next trip up north? Sparky wants to know.....Until next time....

                                        Sparky and Eldo

Traveling to South Dakota, Day 5, Day 6

Day 5... We drove from Rapid City in the direction of Sioux Falls SD, which is a total distance of 350 miles, but only 63 miles in, to see the Badlands National Park. The Minuteman Missile National Historic site is along the way. The "Dignity" sculpture is along the way, on the Missouri River, mentioned in our last blog. AND--the Corn Palace in Mitchell, which has murals made entirely of corn and grain. Sparky tried to get Eldo to stop by there, but it was too "corny" for him to see it again. HA! You also pass through Wall, SD on the way to the national park. Wall is the home of THE famous Wall Drug Store, which is now a completely commercialized whopper property of 76,000 square feet of cowboy wonderland. If you like Buc-ee's, you're gonna like Wall Drugs. It's a piece of South Dakota tourism. There's an art gallery, a chapel and 50,000 square feet of shopping. The Art Gallery restaurant seats 520 people. You can get 5 cent coffee, free homemade donuts, and free ice water. It draws more than 200 milllion visitors each year. Too touristy to go back more than one time for us, we did it on a visit years ago. So we kept going until we got to the park. On the way in, we finally saw a bighorn sheep! A lone sheep but hey! Still cool. Right by the side of the rocky hillside and on the Badlands loop through the park.

The scenery is amazing if you like rocky geological features. Some might say--meh! It's just a bunch of rocks. But we loved the hiking trails in visits past, the colors of the rocks....and it's just a totally different landscape to take in.

The wildflowers just starting to bloom in mid June are pretty awesome, too....The prickly pear cacti, the prairie roses as mentioned before....

The loop is a spectacular 35 mile road which takes about 1-3 hours to drive depending on how many times you stop. We stopped at all the viewpoints...Sparky has photos of rocks and more rocks...lol. She was going to attempt a hike at the Door Window Trail, but at 11:00 AM it was jam packed. The parking was completely full. On we went....

We saw one pronghorn and baby!

We ended up in Watertown, SD for the night. It's a great stopping point. We stayed at the Hampton Inn suites and there were beaucoup restaurants nearby within walking distance. Sparky picked Firehouse Subs....for Italian sandwiches for supper. The hotel/motel was wonderful, free hot breakfast again--scrambled eggs and sausage, yogurt, fruit, waffles, pancakes, etc....The next part of the trip was really special for Sparky. We were going to head to Minnesota and drive far out of our way as far as making our way back to Indiana, just so Sparky could see some Dambo trolls in Detroit Lakes, MN.

Day 6...After driving 185 miles from Watertown, we were in Detroit Lakes, a boating community in the northwestern corner of Minnesota. There are more than 400 lakes within 25 miles of this city of about 10,000 residents. In the summer time, here come the boaters and population swells to about 13,000. It is home to five Thomas Dambo trolls. 

Dambo is a Danish recycle artist who builds colossal trolls out of recycled materials. He travels around the US in an RV with his family, picking sites for his wonderful trolls. Some of his installations are permanent, and some are moved from city to city after a time. They are usually in a forest or by a river, and sites are carefully chosen to add a little challenge to the hunt. He wants you to hike a bit, explore lesser known trails, and be in nature more. Sites near local scrap wood are favored since that is his primary building material and local volunteers help him build his works. You might have to hike a short distance, wander around a river's edge a bit, (Benny the Beard Fisher in Germfask, MI) or look carefully into a secluded forest opening, and there might be one! 

He has a dream of having one eventually in every state in the US. His works are treasure/scavenger hunts so to speak. Each troll has a story and a puzzle to solve to find the next one. It's a fantastic journey for kids and grownups to solve the riddles to find each one. You can "cheat" a bit and google to get directions to trolls, if you are in a hurry, but for families on a leisurely trip, it's more fun to work your way through the puzzle clues and solve them together. Each regional exhibit has a unique scavenger hunt where you read poems, match symbols on troll necklaces or decode riddles. How fun! They are so quirky looking and have such cute stories at each location.

Jacob Everear

While at one of the trolls in Detroit Lakes, Jacob Everear, Sparky met a young boy about 10, on the path to the installation. She asked, "Is it much farther?" He was very enthusiastic and encouraging. "It's just up ahead. Be sure you tell him a story in his ear!" and grinned a big grin. That's what you are supposed to do, climb on this guy and whisper stories in his ear. 

Alexia

We saw four out of the five trolls in the lakes region.  One of the trolls (Long Leif) was not accessible due to some kind of construction in the area. They are all within just a few miles of each other. The first one to see and to start your journey troll hunting in Detroit Lakes is Alexa. Here is a quick summary of how it all begins....

There are always colorful purple and yellow wooden birdhouses perched on the trails leading to the sculptures. And the birds actually use them!

Sparky loved Frida, the barefooted troll....

Look at the size of her hands!

Frida was in a newly created sculpture garden with art installations along a hiking trail. It was called Ortenstone Gardens and Sculpture Park. It was 50 acres of AMAZING! Not just because there was a troll there, but also because of the beautiful art displayed in the forest on hiking trails and in the meadows.

There were lots of art installations on the trails....

How about this one? "Ear to the Ground"....It's supposed to make you think deeply and quietly about our planet. It made Sparky feel a little creeped out, but the white river stones covering the sculpture gave it a peaceful countenance.

One of Sparky's favorite pieces of art was the horse sculpture at the beginning of one of the trails.

Next up, Ronny Funny Face in the woods in a park at another location....You can't help but grin when you see these..they are so interesting and quirky, guaranteed to make you smile.

After viewing Ronny, we headed to Marquette, MI, which was on the way east to our destination of Wisconsin for the night. Sparky always wanted to get a photo of one of the ore docks there, there are two-the Lower Harbor Ore Dock and the Upper Ore Dock. The one in the photo is the Lower Harbor Ore Dock, decomissioned in 1973, but still cool to see. Twice a year (November 21 and January 20th) photographers flock to the dock (haha, couldn't resist), to capture the sunrise moving and becoming visible through the opening for a "perfect" shot, around 8:30 AM. The upper ore dock on the north end of Marquette, is still being used. In its heyday, Marquette was one of the largest shipping ports for iron ore in the US.

Marquette Lower Harbor ore dock

Right after visiting the ore dock, we headed east and stayed in Ashland, WI for the night. Once we settled in for the night, Sparky discovered we had missed another possible troll sighting in Elk Horn, IA, the Fjord Ferryman! (It was 84 miles from Des Moines). Elk Horn is the place of a Danish Museum, so an appropriate place for Dambo, the Danish artist, to place him on the prairie. There are also three more trolls in Clinton, IA, 283 miles from Elk Horn. Maybe we need a midwest plains trip, Eldy! (Hmmmmm...is all he will say for now)...or how about Maine's Booth Bay Botanical Gardens where there are FIVE trolls. Now there's a nice trip! They do move around, some of them are not permanent installations, so you have to check ahead of time to make sure they are still there. There are three in Ohio, a few in Kentucky....And there are SEVEN in North Carolina. (Uh-oh....says Eldy.)

from the internet

We could have stopped in Iowa on our way out west, but we didn't know. Oh, well...Sparky was DELIGHTED to have seen as many as we did. Eldo would have probably preferred to visit baseball sites like the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA, but he was game to drive to see the trolls and he knows Sparky was really happy to have visited them. Thank you, Eldy! It was so fun!

We find up our spur of the moment trip on our next post, in Sault St. Marie, visiting the Soo Locks and the freighters and our former RVing spot on the St. Mary's River. We are almost back home....See you later!

Traveling to South Dakota, Day 4

 

The Needle

our Bronco coming thru!

Day 4...Time for the Needles Highway...A 14 mile scenic drive totally inside Custer State park in South Dakota. It has sharp switchbacks, granite spires, and narrow single lane rock tunnels. The most famous tunnel, the Needles Eye Tunnel is 8' wide and 9' 9" high. Big truck? Forget it! Glad we weren't traveling in our former Dodge Ram dually. You have to buy a state park pass to enter Custer State Park. It's 30.00 for seven days and we made it worth it, visiting the park three times! It was 48 degrees this morning when we set out--refreshing!

This guy didn't even pull in his mirrors-- brave!

Here you can see the granite spires....

Here you get a little better perspective of the size of the rock formations....

We continued back into the park on the 18 mile wildlife loop once again....We saw 4 pronghorn close to the bison center. And we encountered the "Begging Burros". Sparky almost said "Begging Burritoes", haha. (she always has food on her mind, laughs E.) The first time through the park, the burros were out in a field and couldn't have cared less about the tourist/drivers passing through. They normally come up to your car and stick their noses in your window. This is one of the few exceptions where you are allowed to feed wildlife in the park. Today.....the burros were up close and personal on the southeastern portion of the loop road. 

You can feed them apples or carrots, but not the baby ones, otherwise your fingers will get nipped! There were a lot of people out of their cars and in and amongst the burros, so we kept going. It was more fun years ago, when people stayed in their cars and the burros came right up to you. Today, little kids out of their cars, were getting scared and unsure of how to feed them as the burros can be quite persistent and follow you around!

We saw a sign for bighorn sheep so we went looking for them and drove around Jewel Cave Monument. We didn't stop there as there were no sightings. Phooey! On we go....

We drove on the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway which includes the Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road. This is one of America's top ten scenic byways where there are cool bridges and views of Mount Rushmore through tunnels and around bends in addition to the Needles. We did not visit Rushmore, we've done that in previous visits so we kept going. But we did stop for photo ops! More pronghorn...

Here's a view of Mt. Rushmore from the byway...

On the drive, you can see Mt. Rushmore through the tunnel at the other end. We've seen people lay down in the road when there's no traffic coming for a shot of the monument thru the tunnel from a different perspective. Sparky contemplated that for about a few seconds, but cars kept coming behind us so we kept going. (Don't worry, I wouldn't have let her do that, says E.) HA!

Oh! Sparky would be remiss if she didn't share some of the local flora, so here you go....This is called yellow salsify.

A LOT of prairie rose were in bloom all over the park...This is a close up, they are much smaller in the fields.

Sparky was really surprised to see grassland prickly pear blooming everywhere...in South Dakota? Yep. Something you normally see in the southwest desert, but wouldn't think you'd see in a northern state. These were more sparsely scattered, but still everywhere!

There were a lot of thistle poppies blooming as well. Man, do they have sharp, sharp stems! They also have toxic sap, which is poisonous to livestock and humans.

Crazy Horse 2026

On the drive to and from Custer State Park, you pass the ongoing Crazy Horse Monument. We took a shot from the road, again, having visited the monument previously, we had other destinations in mind this time. It's coming along since our last visit. The construction crew has added more modern tech equipment such as robotic track saws which cut through the rock with GIS mapping. This allows them to carve seven times faster than the Mount Rushmore methods. They are now working on the horse's mane and head, Crazy Horse's right shoulder and hairline. No completion date has been set, but the 563 ft. project began in 1948.

Eldy schlepped Sparky around the park and surounding areas for a total of 172 miles today. What a guy! We returned to Rapid City where we were staying, and decided to return to Wild Sage Restaurant next door for a second time, it was that good!

Tomorrow, we head to the Badlands National Park...