Active South Dakota with Road Scholar

This trip was interesting. It included hiking, biking, kayaking, and riding a horse. I went with Angie, a girl friend from college. We were the ‘babies’ of the group (early 60s).

Our first hike was a 2.5 mile hike to Buzzard’s Roost. The elevation change wasn’t much (~450 ft) but it was a bit tough with the elevation in 4500’ versus Florida’s elevation 20 feet above sea level. Plus, the smoke from the Canadian fires was quite apparent and made it look like we were in the Smoky Mountains. I wore a mask for part of this hike and my eyes watered some. Luckily, the smoke was better for the rest of the week.

The 2^nd hike was a bit shorter (2.1 miles) on Prairie Trail in Custer State Park.

Our 3^rd hike was to Cathedral Spires in Custer State Park (4 miles) and our longest. This one had about the same elevation change as the others but was ~7,000 feet above sea level. Wonderful views on this trail plus we had a clear day.

Along the trail was a mine. The tour guide thought is was a tin mine but google seems to think it was a mica mine. I saw plenty of mica on the short trail to the mine so I’ll agree with google this time.

We did a ridiculously easy 9 mile bike ride on Michelson Trail. The first 5 miles was slightly downhill so I was on the brake more than I pedaled. The last few miles I had to pedal but it was mostly flat. The views were excellent, however.

The horseback ride was also very easy. The horses just walked along a trail. The biggest issue was keeping them from eating grass or following too closely to the next horse in line. Crossing the creek and seeing deer along the trail was the highlight. The picture shows me just before the creek. The horse ahead of me decided to spend time drinking and we had to hold them inline. So the challenge wasn’t the creek, it was trying to hold the horse in place for that time.

The kayak trip was the most exciting. It was thundering and sprinkling before we were to start so we had to wait 30 minutes after the thunder. At that point half of us got out on the water but then it started to rain. We continued to kayak the lake for about a half-an-hour with the rain stopping and starting.

The next group went out while we switched to hiking around the lake (just a mile). However, it started to hail after we went half-way so we finished the hike. Luckily the hail stopped fairly soon. I used my rain coat a lot that day. Exciting and the lake was gorgeous.

Road Scholar trips are always educational. We had someone talking about geology and another discuss natural resources. The area is interesting with igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks all within a fairly small area. My favorites were mica and the tourmaline gemstone. I didn’t realize but pink tourmaline is my birthstone (but the tourmaline is black in this area).

One evening, two Native Americans told us about their life and performed a dance.

I plan to do more Road Scholar trips but I’m going to be more careful on the activity level.

Sightseeing in South Dakota with Road Scholar

I took another trip with Road Scholar this month. South Dakota had WAY better weather with 50-70s versus Florida’s 80-90s with high humidity and threatening hurricanes. BTW, Idalia hit our area as a tropical storm less than a week before this trip. So, no issues at home or the airport, it was just a bit worrying as the forecast for the storm was developing.

This trip had some sightseeing which was interesting to compare to our visit 12 years ago (1,2).

Our first stop was Mount Rushmore. We had time to walk the Presidential trail and a nature trail and did a little of the museum. Later we returned for the Lighting Ceremony. Personally, I liked eating the Thomas Jefferson ice cream.

The Badlands was very cool to see. I found the place where I watched sunrise 12 years ago. This whole park is somewhere you can visit multiple times and see more each time.

We hiked two trails in the park and drove through to see the sights. Got to say I liked the last hike the best of the whole week. With Road Scholar with a single activity level, your group has to stay fairly close. That meant all week I'd hike a pretty good pace for awhile, then we had to wait for the group to catch up. Depending on the temperature, I took off a layer to hike then had to put a layer back on to wait. They let us hike at our own pace for the last hike. Given all the morning hikes I used to do by myself, I just hiked alone at a fast pace for the whole time. YEAH!

At far as I could tell, Wall Drug was exactly the same. The jack-o-lope had been painted slightly differently. The dinosaur was the same. I’ve decided it’s a place you should see once in your life...twice was only to sit on the jack-o-lope. The picture of me wearing pink was from 2011.

I was the most surprised at Crazy Horse Monument. In 12 years the only difference was they competed a hand. At the same time they explained how technology was speeding up the work. Personally, I don’t think I’ll live to see the completion. The 1st picture below was from 2011.

BTW, turns out Wind Cave that we visited before was closed due to a broken elevator.

New things for me included walking a historical trail in town (Keystone). This wasn’t part of the formal trip but we walked into town since we had extra time when we arrived. The trail had a very good museum along with old stores and homes. This was a log school house from the 1890s. Somehow they fit 40 students into it!

We drove through Custer State Park to see the bison. Of course, we also saw stupid people including people who would leave their car and get close up to take pictures of the large animals or the guy who drove through on a motorcycle because, hey, that’s the safest way to drive around the bison on the road. The smartest seemed to be the people with sunroofs. They could take good pictures but still be safe inside the car.

We also saw prairie dogs, burros (picture), and stag horn antelope. Later in the week we saw deer and turkey. I was frustrated by the antelope which I don’t remember seeing before. The bus driver didn’t slow enough to see them well even though they were fairly close to the road. We saw a couple more later in the week but again, we drove too quickly for more than a glance.