Hot Springs
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2006
1
6
8
Trip End
Jun 18, 2006
Hot Springs,
South Dakota,
United States
Friday, June 16, 2006
The scenic bypass took us into Custer State Park, which claims to have the largest bison herds in the US. They say that they can support 1500 grazing bison, and they produce about 500 babies each year so they ship some out of the park each fall to keep the total down to 1500. We drove through the wildlife loop road, and we weren't disappointed by either the scenery or the animals. Early on we saw a lone bison and a group of wild donkeys, along with various kinds of deer and wild turkeys. As we drove on we encountered a "bison jam"-a herd of moms and babies that were blocking the road. It was a good-sized group, and you definitely don't mess with them when they're crossing the road! The babies are red, rather than the dark brown of the adults, and look a lot like cow calves. A couple of the bison walked right next to my open car window. Fortunately, they didn't expect any handouts.
The road continued on into the Wind Cave National Park, where we saw two more herds of bison-one of which was very large and included males in addition to the females and babies.
bison herd
(Before this, the only males we'd seen had been lone bison.) The larger herd had at least 200 bison in it. It was utterly fascinating to see so many at once. There also were prairie dog towns and more deer of various sorts, along with the pretty scenery.From the national park we headed to the town of Hot Springs. This is a town where they discovered a number of mammoth fossils (there's a Discovery Channel show on this find) and they have a center called The Mammoth Sit-which is the actual excavation site. We started out there. The excavation site is an old sinkhole that had a pond over it. Apparently this pond had very steep sides and over time a number of mammoth got stuck and died in the pond. As the pond filled in, the mammoth bones, along with bones of other various critters, became fossilized.
The site was discovered in the 1970s when a housing developer came upon some bones. When he learned what they were, he sold the land to a group so that it could be excavated properly. This group has been excavating since the 70s and has already discovered at least fifty mammoth remains, although there are only two relatively complete skeletons. Now most of these weren't the cute fuzzy little wooly mammoths, rather they were Colombian mammoths which were significantly larger that today's elephants. They've also found remains of camels and llamas, which I can't entirely picture roaming around South Dakota. It was very interesting to walk around the site-seeing what they've done so far and how much of the site still hasn't been touched.
bison jam
They excavate for six weeks each year and use the remainder of the year to process and analyze the findings.We spent the afternoon in Hot Springs at their local water park that is fed by the hot springs. This water park has been there since 1890 and touts 87-degree water. Over half of the water park is indoors (which this pale lady really liked) and they have three waterslides. Emily wasn't too keen on the slide that went straight down, but she did try it. She (and Paul and I) went down the two curvy slides a bazillion times. We also spent time just floating in the warm water. While we were there it started to rain so they closed the outside portion of the park (including one of the curvy slides), but we were still able to stay in the indoor pool. It was quite fun and especially nice to not come out smelling like chlorine (which they don't have to use since the water has so much salt and minerals in it).
We drove back to Keystone on the same scenic bypass that we came down on. We saw a lot more deer than we had in the morning and still encountered bison herds including another "bison jam." We also saw quite a few wild turkeys. As we were about to leave the Custer State Park we got caught in a "donkey jam," too. Being donkeys, they were stubborn and wouldn't move out of the road despite the five or six cars that were stopped. Of course, it didn't help that some of the other folks were feeding them. Emily and I got out of the car and went up to the donkeys. They were disappointed that we had no food, but we did get to pet their ears and take a number of close-up pictures. The donkeys never did move out of the way so we all had to wind our way around them.
Back in Keystone we had dinner and ice cream. We're all re-packed for moving on tomorrow.
Comments
Water Slides
One of my favorite water slides is at the Westin LaPaloma
in Tucson. Very high and curvy. On hot days, it's so fun to splash into the icy water below. The best time to use
it is midweek in the afternoon, when no one else is there. It eliminates the danger of me crashing into some poor child who hasn't gotten out of the way quickly enough, and people seeing me frolicking about in my bathing suit. Thanks for the travelogue, and welcome home. By the way, we'll be in Tucson the 4-8th of August, if you want to come slide!
Love, Cathy
Re: Water Slides
Unfortunately, my year of slavery starts in July so we'll be unable to join you in Tucson. Maybe I should just send Emily along with you...she can cover all frolicking for you!