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...

Traveling to South Dakota 2026

Sparky had been a little down in the dumps, so Eldo knew the best medicine was to plan another trip! He quietly and patiently researched best points usage for cheaper stays and threw out some ideas...how would Sparky like to go to Custer State Park and South Dakota? Well, that's a no brainer! SURE! Sparky and Eldo both love nature and looking for wildlife so off we went. We decided at the very last minute after thinking about the southwest, (too hot), Bar Harbor, ME-(too crowded), and a few other places. We decided to drive instead of fly, to see the country along the way.

The first day we drove to Des Moines, Iowa, a distance of 422 miles. We stayed at a Drury's Inn, which has not only free breakfasts, but free dinners AND three free drinks at Happy Hour each day. The drive is beautiful farmland, quite flat all the way, but everything was so green and there were a LOT of wind turbines the closer we got to Des Moines. Sparky finds wind turbines interesting and she enjoys looking up facts while we are driving. Onshore turbines are taller than the Statue of Liberty. The TIPS of the turbines reach speeds of 100-180 mph! Sparky had a hard time wrapping her head around that, because they look like they are turning so slowly! If the wind is too gentle, under 7-9 mph, the blades won't turn. If the wind is over 55 mph, they shut down to prevent equipment damage. If the electrical grid is receiving enough electricity, wind farms will curtail the number of turbines operating. Some of them are shut down even right next to another one due to possible maintenance needed. Many modern wind farms use camera or radar monitoring systems to detect protected or migratory birds and that curtails the number in use as well. Did you know that the fourth largest wind "farm" is in Indiana? And lastly, a typical wind turbine generates enough electricity to power an average home for an entire day in about 46 minutes. WOW!

Day 2, a LONG driving day--we drove to Hill City, SD, a distance of 645 miles. Gas averaged $3.49. The most interesting part of the drive was the amazing and beautiful rest stop at Chamberlain, SD right at the Missouri River. There is an amazing stainless steel sculpture there, 60 feet tall, called "Dignity". She represents the courage and perserverance of the Lakota and Dakota Native Americans and is standing right in front of the Missouri River.

At night, there are LED lights in the quilt panel sections that light up. The grounds and the outside designs of the building were so beautiful as well.

The inside of the rest stop was like a museum. It was wonderful and amazing! That boat hanging from the ceiling is a keel boat-a shallow water, freight boat poled or rowed by early settlers. The boats were the heavy haulers of frontier times. We could have spent a lot of time there, but had to move on. In Hill City, we stayed at the Golden Spike Inn...It was dated, but pleasant and comfortable just the same.

Day 3...Exploring Custer State Park...We drove the wildlife loop, the Wind Cave loop, and the Peter Nordbeck scenic byway. We saw LOTS of bison and LOTS of prairie dogs! Get ready for lots of bison and prairie dog photos, haha.

Bison in the fields....bison by the roadside...

Baby bison....

Some dumb lady reached out her window and tried to pet a bison walking right by her truck. Gr-r-r-rr.....Luckily, nothing happened, except he reared back.

Bison visiting the Visitor's Center...

Sparky has about a 100 photos of buffalo/bison and prairie dogs, be glad she isn't sharing more, says E. You've seen one, you've seen them all...OH! What about the bison nursing? Nah, we will protect the mother and baby's privacy but it was cool to see....

By the way, is it bison or buffalo? Sparky, always the teacher, says bison is the preferred term, scientifically, in North America, you are supposed to call them bison, as true buffalo species are native to Africa and South Asia...but ok...locals said buffalo as well, so Sparky gave up trying to correct Eldo on that one! (She was relentless! laughs E.) But guess what? There really are some differences...Bison have the massive hump over their shoulders, thick shaggy coats for winter, shorter curved horns. Buffalo don't have the prominant shoulder hump, have thinner, flatter horns, and shorter hair. (She just has to have the last word! sighs an exasperated Eldo.) Final word--you can call them either one. HA!

We saw quite a few pronghorn...males and females and a baby fawn! We think this is a male....

By the way, they are not pronghorn sheep but sometimes are referred to as American antelope. They are related to goats and antelope. They are the fastest land mammal in North America. They can reach speeds of up to 60 mph and can maintain speeds of 35 mph for up to 4 miles. They are the second fastest land mammal in the world. Within 5 days of birth, they can outrun a human! They have incredible endurance, and unique shedding horns. The horns have a distinct forward pointing prong or branch. Both the males and females have horns. Males have the bigger, more prominant ones, the female's are much smaller, sometimes only a bump. They can spot moving things from up to 4 miles away! One more thing--they migrate 150 miles one way between Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park each year. 

One more photo/video of a nice looking pronghorn...It was interesting that he dug a hole, then appeared to pee in the hole, then pooped! More than you wanted to know, we're sure.

Sparky found out a few new things about prairie dogs...She knew that they were social and have an extensive underground system divided into "neighborhoods", but she didn't know how sophisticated their communications are. They have warning calls that describe a specific predator, a different bark for coyotes, humans or hawks and even the color of a person's clothing! WHA-A-T??!! They greet each other by touching noses--it looks like they are kissing!

Their "bunkers" have different "rooms" for sleeping, using the bathroom, and having babies. The largest colony was in Texas, spanned over 25,000 miles and contained 400 million prairie dogs. 

We were sorry to see Custer State Park sustained a LOT of damage from a very bad winter storm this past December, where winds sometimes reached speeds of over 90-122 mph. The wind snapped off thousands of pine trees right in half and twisted other trees around to the ground. There was really extensive damage to the trees in the Black Hills area. The massive pine trees were snapped off just like matchsticks, twisted, or completely uprooted and slammed to the ground. This photo doesn't even begin to show the extent and severity of the damage. We were shocked at the magnitude of the damage. The damage was caused by high winds shifting opposite directions in 24 hours, loosening the trees and then whipping them back. Sixty to ninety mile an hour winds lasted for 4-8 hours. Glad we weren't in the area then!

We headed back to town (Rapid City) and found a wonderful restaurant right next door to our hotel, called the Wild Sage. It was terrific!  Most beautiful salad I have ever seen and the rest of dinner was just as great! 

A great way to end a great day, with a wonderful meal. And with that, we will see you later...Up and coming....The Needles scenic drive, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, more Custer wildlife, the begging burros and the Badlands!

Traveling through Alaska Days 9, 10 The End!

 Day 9... We signed up for the Kenai Fjords boat tour. It's much nore expensive now than the last time. It was 275.00 a person for about 6-7 hours out on the ocean. We've been on it before, but we never get tired of seeing the beautiful whales and wildlife on that trip, and the spectacular glacier views, so off we went! We hadn't been five miles out of the harbor when we saw our first humpback whale! 

He did a little whirl and twirl around and then he was gone....

We saw otters....They are too cute! Sparky did not know some specifics about them so she was happy to learn some new things today. Alaska is home to about 90% of the world's sea otters. Did you know they have a little pouch of skin under their arms that act as a storage bag? They keep little snacks in them! They are one of the few known non-primates to use tools. They bring up rocks from the ocean floor and use them to crack open hard shelled prey. They don't have blubber but DO have the most dense fur with up to a MILLION hairs per square inch! They have a super fast metabolism and eat up to 20-25% of their body weight every day. A group of otters is called a "raft"...To keep from drifting away in the ocean current, they will hold hands with each other and/or wrap themselves in seaweed and kelp. An otter pup's fur is so dense they can't dive underwater until they get their adult fur. They can live their whole life without ever leaving the ocean. They spend many hours cleaning their fur to distibute the oils throughout their fur. They weigh 75-100 pounds...

We saw mountain goats on the rocky hillsides above us..too far away to get a photo...We saw puffins fly by in front of us..They looked like little footballs. Again, too fast a fly-by to get a photo. We saw the Steller sea lions. Pee-ewww!  Man, do they STINK! From quite far out....

Two Dall porpoise jumped over the bow. They were so fast and left just as quickly. Onwards to Ailalik Glacier and Bear Glacier...

The ship gets in fairly close to the Ailalik glacier...it is always a thrill to see the humongous height of these beautiful glaciers. 

We saw three humpback whales in total today...and to celebrate,  Sparky decided to have a glacier margarita! Here's how they are made...One of the crew was on ice chunk capture duty. 

He scooped up a big chunk of iceberg ice and brought it in to be chopped up and served in frozen drinks of your choice. How cool is that? (see what I did there?) tee-hee....So Sparky had a Ailalik Glacier Margarita, haha.

When we got back, we ate at Ray's restaurant in Seward, the food was just ok, but there's a wonderful view out the window onto the bay. 

After dinner, we had missed the last free shuttle back to the campground. Well phooey! BUT--Seward does have three taxi services and we managed to get one to get us back to the campground. We could have walked, it was slightly less than a mile away, but we were too tired to do that.  One restaurant that WAS recommended by several locals, that we missed, was The Primrose, in town. Ah, well...maybe next time...(hint, hint, Eldy....) He says, maybe, in about two years time, which has been our average between visits. 

Tomorrow is our last full day in Alaska....we will be heading back towards Anchorage to fly out on Saturday morning.

Day 10...Driving back towards Anchorage. First, we stopped at Potter Marsh. It's a fantastic area for bird and wildlife watching with a lot of boardwalks to explore in and around the marsh. We have been there four times and only seen a moose once--make that TWICE! Today--a bull moose! Moseying his way fairly quickly across the marsh. 

Potter Marsh

Turnagain Arm Inlet

After a nice visit at the marsh, we headed to Palmer, AK to spend our last night. Staying in and around Anchorage was a bit expensive, and Sparky did not want to stay in a "parking lot" like Cabelas or a Walmart, so we picked Bear Creek Campground to try first, near Anchorage. Bear Creek is right beside the Turnagain Arm inlet. 

The Turnagain Arm is a dramatic 40 mile long inlet in the Gulf of Alaska. It's known for its extreme high tides, stunning scenery and wildlife--moose, beluga whales and Dall sheep). At Bear Creek, there's a great trail right behind the campground. BUT--sites were short and the small campground was quite busy, so we headed out and picked the KOA in Palmer, instead, with a view of the mountains in front of us.

KOA Palmer, AK

While checking in, Sparky went to pick up some candy bars, and overheard a gentleman checking in, give his phone number and it was the same area code as Eldy's! It turns out he is from the Elkhart/Bristol IN area and just lives a couple of miles away from us! Wow! Small world for sure! He drove up the Alaskan/Canadian Highway (the Alcan) on his motorcycle. Although paved, it's one of the roughest roads and toughest on your vehicle, should you decide to drive from the US to get to Alaska. It's due to the many frost heaves, potholes and construction areas. It's a 1387 mile trip! It runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Delta Junction, AK. Amenities and automotive help are sparse, so it's not for the timid traveler. The guy we met was retired and tenting it at the campground. Quite the traveler! Eldy enjoyed having a long conversation with him, once he found out he was from our area.

Sparky busied herself with packing up and finishing up last minute details and a good book. While the guys were talking, Sparky was sitting outside reading and somebody's darn carbon monoxide detector started going off. Those suckers are LOUD! After about 20 minutes with the alarm still going, (it ebbed and flowed decibel-wise with which way the wind was blowing), Sparky went over the the fellas and said, "I wish I knew whose rig that was! Why don't they shut the darn thing off and air out their rig?!" Uh, Sparky, says Eldo, that's our rig. Oh, crap! Sparky had set off the propane gas detector again by microwaving some popcorn and had bumped the loose gas stove knob again. Geesh! Once again, we aired out the rig and the alarm silenced itself. That is a real design hazard if you can bump a stove knob and start the gas flowing that easily!

Alaska Airlines

Our final destination--the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage was just a 40 mile drive the next morning. That airport is the third largest cargo airport in the world. Sparky loves that airport. So many cool things to see there.

The glass panel of the salmon swimming upstream-"Migration"-by Luftz Haufschild is one of Sparky's favorite installations at the airport and it is really beautiful. It features hundreds of individually cut strips of glass laminated into a steel base to represent the outdoors of Alaska and the annual migration of the salmon.

We always get a photo of the airport's resident moose while we are there.

First we had to fill our propane tank and gas tanks before turning our rig in, so we did that. We turned in our rig and Great Alaskan Holidays checked it over and we got the green light to head to the airport on the company shuttle van. 

several planes hanging overhead at the airport

We were flying from Anchorage to Portland, to Dallas, to South Bend. Our Dallas flight got cancelled but we were rerouted to Charlotte NC, then to SB. We made it! But our luggage didn't.  Two days later, however, we got our baggage and settled back in at home in Elkhart, IN. It was a really really great trip! Sparky didn't think about being ill- not once the entire time we were away. That was an added blessing! 

Thanks for following along. We aren't done traveling yet...We'll post again one of these days..Stay tuned!

Traveling Through Alaska Day 2026 Day 7, 8,

Day 7...It's a travel day today...42 degrees this morning. Refreshing! We started out by seeing a moose carcass on the side of the road. About 17 miles outside of Valdez, we saw a female moose! Another female moose a little further down the road was trotting from the roadside up into the woods! We kept going...then two MORE young moose, they looked like twins and were hanging out together. Total: FIVE moose on the Glenallen Highway today. 

Eldy decided to drive all the way from Valdez to Seward for a total distance of 420.7 miles! We decided to stay at the KOA campground outside Seward for one night, and then move over to the Seward City campground on Resurrection Bay for the next night. The price for the KOA was 77.00 for a back row spot, level, full hookups, nice laundry and beautiful stone showers and the eagles were back at the nest this year, raising fledglings. We saw a LOT of activity last time we stayed at the campground, this year, not as much. The magpies are around, we did see quite a few of those....They are a big bird!

As part of the "up and around" circuitous trip back to get to Seward, the drive is spectacular through the Copper Center area and the Wrangell Mountains which are in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park area. If you are wanting to visit this national park, you CAN drive into it, but access is limited to two unpaved gravel roads and do not connect to one another. Most standard rental companies do NOT allow driving on these rough, unpaved gravel roads. Both roads are historic, riddled with potholes, and occasional exposed railroad spikes. Flat tires are common. One of the roads, the 60 mile McCarthy Road, leads partway to the famous mining town of McCarthy, home of the Kennecott mines. You have to park your car when the road ends, cross a footbridge, then take a local shuttle or walk into McCarthy/Kennecott. The other road, the Nabesna Road, is 42 miles, and travels into the northern, more remote wilderness. There are no gas stations or services along either of these roads. Talk about remote!

As always, the views take your breath away...This is Mt. Wrangell....14,163 feet high...It's an active shield volcano! The range is almost entirely volcanic with Mt. Wrangell the only currently active volcano. Extensive snow fields feed long glaciers. We saw quite a few glaciers on our drive!

Sparky was hoping for lupine blooms, but only saw dandelions and little patches of forget-me-knots just starting to pop out.

Exit Glacier

Day 8...The KOA campground outside Seward is just a few miles from Exit Glacier and Sparky was determined to do a decent hike while traveling through Alaska. The next morning, we headed to the Exit Glacier visitor's center, in the Kenai Peninsula. The glacier sits inside the Kenai Fjords National Park. It's the only part of the park that is accessible by road. The glacier is about 8.6 miles off the Seward Highway, and about 12 miles northwest of the town of Seward.

You can take the easy way up.... It's about .9 miles directly to the overlook, or you can take the scenic route, which has a more strenuous rock clambering route as you get towards the top of the overlook. Sparky took the more challenging route and hiked a total of 2.4 miles round trip. It was fabulous! It got much more chilly and VERY windy as the trail climbed, Sparky almost lost her cap!

The trail is cool because it shows the rapid retreating glacier over decades with marked signs, starting in the entrance to the park at the year 1815. Just relatively recently, aerial and GPS tracking began in 2005. The glacier's pace of retreat is rapidly accelerating, and Sparky could remember the difference from two years ago....

Exit Glacier is not one of the prettier glaciers, it's silt laden and dirty looking, but to be able to walk towards it, is still pretty cool.

The view near the end of the trail looking down was beautiful as well.

We drove back to the town of Seward, and checked into our camping spot for the night at the Seward City Campground which is situated right on Resurrection Bay. Tomorrow, we start winding down our travels, it's almost time to head home, but we are going to close out in style by taking a Kenai Fjords boat tour to hopefully see some whales and other wildlife! 

Sparky explored around the beautiful town of Seward..There is a lot to see in Seward..

on Resurrection Bay

The library....It's a beautiful building...the tiles on the building sides change reflection color all day long, depending on the sun.

A viewpoint on the bay....

There is a free shuttle that will take you all around town and you can pick it up at many different locations near the campgrounds and in town. When cruise ships come in, the shuttle starts earlier in the morning but ends at 7:00 PM no matter what. (Ask us how we know, and how we found out there ARE taxi companies in Seward, about three that we know of!).  It's a mile walk from the campground on the bay to downtown, but if you are tired, a ride is most welcome, so keep the free shuttle in mind.

mural downtown Seward

Seward has great food trucks, great restaurants, and great stores to get Alaskan souvenirs. Sparky got in 20, 697 steps that day! Whew! Her tootsies were TIRED!

We will see you on the cruise out on the bay tomorrow......