Wind Cave National Park

Click here to see the full post on the web with pictures.

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

We had a long, seven and a half hour, uninteresting drive from Grand Teton National Park to Custer, SD. We made a brief stop in Cody, WY for lunch at a hangout called Sherrie’s Place. I had a burger with fresh fries and Deborah had a San Jose (a sandwich with turkey, bacon, swiss, and tomato on sourdough) with sweet potato fries. The food was homemade and delicious and the portions were huge. We like to find places like this where locals eat so we can soak up some of the local charm.

Custer will be our base of operations for the next week. There are a number of things to see and do nearby. We’ve actually been to the area before during the summer of 2004 when we flew cross country in our Piper Aztec but we didn’t visit either of the area’s national parks.

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

South Dakota has the largest Bison population in the United States and Custer State Park has the largest Bison herds in South Dakota – and it was just 15 minutes from our hotel. Before we got to the park entrance we encountered a place to purchase entrance tickets to the park. Neither of us remembered having to pay to enter the last time we were there. Cost of entry was $20.00 and was good for any State Park for seven days.

We drove Wildlife Loop Road and started looking for bison. We managed to find a single, small deer and eventually found one lone, large, male Bison far afield. We were more than a little disappointed and headed over to the visitor’s center to find out what was up. We were told that the bison were not in the park that day but a spotter mentioned that we could find them off route 87.

Just outside the visitor’s center traffic was stopped. A mountain goat was standing in the middle of the road trying to eat something off of the pavement. We stopped in the middle of the road and watched for a while before pulling off to the side to let the cars behind us pass. A UPS truck drove right up to the goat and honked his horn a few times and the goat ran off into the woods. We were a little angry.

We weren’t completely sure where to go until we saw a jeep tour vehicle in front of us. He had a full load of passengers and was going in the general direction we thought was correct. We decided to follow him. Soon we came to a large clearing full of bison. Traffic was stopped in both directions because quite a few of the animals were standing in the middle of the road. Jackpot!

For the next hour and a half we wandered slowly up and down that portion of the road observing, videoing, and photographing to our hearts content. At one point a park ranger came by and turned on his siren. The bison moved off the road and the cars that wished to moved on. As soon as the ranger left the bison were back to their old tricks. The herd was at least 50% females most of whom were caring for youngsters. There were also quite a few immature males and a handful of full grown males. If time permits we may go back again later in the week.

For lunch we went back into Custer and ate at The Custer Wolf. Deborah had a falafel burger with side salad and I had pasta Alfredo with spinach, and shrimp. Both dishes were way above average. We both thought it might have been the best meal we’d had in a week.

After lunch we walked up and down the main street in Custer. We found a bunch of touristy shops. Our research indicated that there were quite a few interesting choices for dessert. We opted for homemade ice cream at Horatio’s. They had about a dozen artisanal flavors. Deborah had the peanut butter and I had the amaretto crunch. The ice cream itself was smooth, sweet, creamy, and delicious. The peanut butter was fantastic but I thought the amaretto was a little too subtle. Next time I will try the cherry pie flavor.

Thursday, June 30, 2022

This morning we visited Wind Cave National Park. We had a 10:20 am reservation to tour the namesake cave. The cave is an integral part of the Lakota People’s Creation Myth. It is the exact place that they emerged onto the Earth and is still venerated and visited by the tribes. At over 160 miles in length it is one of the ten longest caves on the planet and it is thought that only 5-10% of the entire cave has yet been discovered.

Our tour, which lasted about 80 minutes, took us almost 200 feet down through a series of narrow passages and into several large rooms. The cave was formed over 100,000 years ago when carbonic acid ate through parts of the limestone. It is famous for its abundance of rare Box Work formations. We were told that 95% of the world’s box work formations can be found in this one cave. Unlike so many caves we have been to before this one was not wet and had no stalactites or stalagmites. After the tour we checked out the gift shop and headed back into Custer for lunch.

We tried to eat at Calamity Jane’s but were told that the kitchen was backed up and we’d have to wait at least 30 minutes for our food. Rather than wait we decided to give The Purple Pie Place a try. We thought that they had mostly ice cream and pies but were delighted to see that they had a dining room too with a full menu. Deborah ordered the chicken pot pie and I had the French Dip Sandwich. The pot pie had a crust on the bottom and pieces of crust floating in what could really have been called a chicken stew. It was, however, delicious. The French Dip was completely average. Afterwards we had a piece of cherry and a piece of peach pie topped with vanilla ice cream. The pie crust was made fresh in house and was quite delicious. The inside was likely out of a can. The vanilla ice cream was neither creamy or particularly flavorful.

We needed some supplies so after lunch we drove over to the only grocery store in town: Lynns Dakotamart. It was a nice, clean store with a good selection of items. Given that it was the only game in town and considering its remote location we were not surprised by the outrageous prices.

Friday, July 1, 2022

We took the day. In the morning we watched Wimbledon on TV. For lunch we got some indifferent pizza at The Pizza Mill. We ordered a pepperoni and onion. The pepperoni was placed under the cheese so it never got crispy. Neither the pepperoni nor the pizza itself had much flavor. We didn’t expect NY pizza but we did expect something that was good based on the fact that the place was very highly rated.