Pikes Peak

We are staying in Colorado Springs, CO at the Air Force Academy RV Park. Since the sky was clear we decided to take the 38 mile round trip drive up the Pikes Peak Highway to the summit. WOW what a drive that was. The temp was 70 down at the base and 30 degrees at the top. The views were fantastic....14,110 feet up. There are only 53 mountains in the Rocky Mtn chain that are over 14,000 feet and this one is the only one you can drive to the top. We did it in the PT Cruiser. Life is Good!

Badlands of the Dakotas

We left South Dakota yesterday and headed south...but before we left we had to visit the "Badlands". We missed this in 2002 when we came through...it is just south of I-90...east of Rapid City. It reminded us of Death Valley a little bit. About 75 million years ago, this area was a shallow sea. Over time, the area became cooler and dryer...the sea disappeared and left this moon scape area. Even though it looks like nothing lives here, there are Coyote, porcupine, bighorn sheep, bobcats, magpies, bison, rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets and fox. Around the area is lots of prairie grass to feed these animals. This is a cool place to visit.

Mt Rushmore

No trip to the Black Hills is complete without a visit to the "Heads".

Crazy Horse Memorial

We had to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial again. (We were here in 2002) The first blast to carve this mountain was done in 1948. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski's vision started this project and wife, his children and grandchildren carry on the work today. The memorial is financied entirely by private donations to the nonprofit Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. This is really worth your visit if you are in the Black Hills area.

Custers State Park_The Needles

We took an afternoon drive through the Black Hills of South Dakota. Here are a couple of pictures I took on the drive through Custers State Park. The top photo is one of the many tunnels we passed through in the car(wouldn't want to have tried with with the RV...I believe this tunnel was 8'4" wide. The bottom photo was taken of The Needles on SR 87. Beautiful drive.

Deadwood, SD

Ed finally got to visit Deadwood. Here he is on the streets of Deadwood, SD...only about 130 years too late!

Devils Tower

"Bear Lodge" as the American Indians called it....or Devils Tower...the name given it by Colonel Richard Dodge in 1875. First thought to be the core of an ancient volcano, but recent data suggests it is instead an igneous intrusion...cooled magma. We enjoyed the visit today. We hiked the 1.3 miles around the base of the Tower...taking pictures all the way around. We saw 2 people climbing the tower..they were about 1/3 the way up. We are staying in Beulah, WY which is about 1 mile from the South Dakota state line. The next couple of days we will check out Spearfish and Deadwood, SD...Maybe even Sturgis too. The weather has turned cool the past week. We have had rain a couple times this week with more to come in the next few days...but that won't stop us from enjoying this beautiful area of the Black Hills.