July 13, 2006

July 13, 2006

Today our plan was to bike along a section of the Michelson trail, which runs thru the forest atop an old railroad line. Because I am still feeling a little under the weather we skip it and head north for more leisurely activities. In the town of Custer, we see a rock shop that might be interesting. We stop for a quick look. In the parking lot, are collections of minerals similar to the ones we saw on the hiking trails, only these are boulder size. They are cool and would look neat in our next front yard, but I am not sure how we would get them home. Inside the shop are smaller but finer specimens and various art objects. We think about buying a pair of pretty blue mineral bookends but right now we are not looking for more items to put in storage.

A few more miles down the road we come to the Crazy Horse Monument. Analogous to Mt. Rushmore, this is a mountain sculpture of the Sioux Chieftain. It has been a work-in-progress for over 50 years and little noticeable progress has been made except for the face. It is supposed to be a tribute to Native Americans but the museum inside is very poor. It is not much more than a haphazard collection of unrelated photos and artifacts. There is precious little about Crazy Horse himself. Most of the large complex is devoted to a restaurant and various gift shops. Instead of visiting, take a picture from the road.

Further north we pass pretty Pactola Lake. Like the other handful of lakes in the Black Hills, they are manmade but very pretty as they sit within the granite cliffs. Next to the lake is one of the Black Hills Forest visitor centers. It has some interesting tidbits about the discovery of gold in the region. Tonight we are staying in a private campground just south of Deadwood. To accent the fact that this is now gold country, we see a husband and wife panning for gold in the very tiny stream running alongside our RV campsite.