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!