Spearfish, South Dakota

The Elk at the Wylie Park zoo were cooling off in the pond, preparing for the hot weather!  When we arrived and unhooked at Wylie, our landing gear wasn’t sounding too good.  We replaced the motor a few years back, but it was sounding bad again.  So I researched the problem, and we found out that you need to grease the inside of the gears…so off to Tractor Supply to buy some 90W oil.  But we were too late and the gears failed…so off to Tractor Supply to buy some bottle jacks!

After a few calls to dealers with no parts in stock, we called Venture, the gear manufacturer, and had the parts sent overnight to our next stop in Spearfish.  With the bottle jacks in place, we got the trailer jacked up and onto the truck.  We were ready for our drive across South Dakota.  We  crossed back over US Highway 12, which we crossed a few weeks ago, but this time the “build-up” was a muddy mess!

This area of the road was completely flooded and they built it up with a gravel surface.  We crossed it a few weeks ago when it was dry and in much better shape!  This single track, rutted, mud track is one to avoid.  Although it is posted 20 mph, we were only able to go about 10-15!  After safely crossing, the fog eventually burned off and we traveled west to get to the northern Black Hills.  We arrived at Chris’ Camp in Spearfish about 20 minutes ahead of our part.  Good timing!

Thankfully Chris is gifted mechanically and was able to fix our landing gear!  (Make sure you check your system and grease it periodically, if it’s a Montana it’s not a sealed system. )  The Spearfish Arts Festival is this weekend and we decided to take in some of the local flavor.  The campground has a small petting farm with daily feedings for the kids to enjoy!

With the mercury rising, we also checked out the Spearfish Aquatic center and are becoming connoisseurs of local water parks!  A trip to the art festival on Saturday led to some red faces and we retreated back to the air conditioning.  Summer has arrived in the Black Hills with temps in the mid 90’s.  Perhaps a drive through the canyon with the meandering creek will cool us off!

Travel Days

Where have we been?  We left Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota on Friday morning.  We were treated to one last look at the Bison herd on our way out of the park.

We absolutely loved staying at the Game Lodge campground!  While there we rode the trail over to the Grace Coolidge Campground, along the creek.

We made our way over the swollen Missouri River at Pierre, South Dakota.  On our trek east on Hwy 12, we drove over a section of the road that was built up with a dirt dike to get across due to the flooding!  We arrived in Aberdeen, South Dakota at our namesake campground, Wylie Park.  Wylie Park is great for kids with lots to do- a small zoo, storybook land, playgrounds galore, bike paths, mini golf, a lake, go-karts.  We only stayed overnight and continued north to the Red River State Recreation Area in East Grand Forks, Minnesota.  This is a "usual” stopover for us, but I had to call ahead to make sure they weren’t flooded!  The campground was still OK even though the Red River was rising.  Tonight we’re on the border!  One night in Baudette, Minnesota and tomorrow we cross the border into Canada and will be on our way to Lake of the Woods!

See you soon U.S.A.!

Custer State Park- Bison, Burros and Rainbow Trout

We settled into our campsite at the Game Lodge Campground at Custer State Park.  We have a wonderful site with a huge yard and wildlife for neighbors!  This big bison above and his 4 bachelor buddies decided this was a good place to call home for a few days and they’ve been hanging out about 100 yards from our fifth wheel!

We took a drive around the Wildlife Loop Road and came upon the burros.  They are the only wild animal in the park that you are allowed to feed, and they know it!  They orchestrate burro road blocks, sticking their noses into your windows to see what treats lurk in your vehicle. 

Of course this time of year there are adorable babies.  The burros were not native but were released into the park many years ago after they were no longer used to transport visitors to the top of  Harney Peak.

Along the route there were also pronghorn grazing on the lush green grass and white-tailed deer playing in the meadows.  The herds of bison must be grazing elsewhere, so we will look for them.  We stopped at the Coolidge General Store to obtain a fishing license and were able to get some fishing tips.  So today was fishing day!  We hiked into the Grace Coolidge area, along the creek.

We stopped at various pools along the way, took a break for lunch and were ready to fish our way back, when the Rainbow Trout got hungry!

Caleb caught some good sized trout and kept Chris busy putting them on the stringer.  Fresh trout for dinner!

Another beautiful day in South Dakota,  we have so much to be thankful for!

Black Hills, South Dakota

We’re now in the Black Hills of South Dakota, one of our favorite places to visit.  We stayed a couple nights at Broken Arrow RV and Horsecamp and will be moving into Custer State Park today.  This is a picture of the Cathedral Spires area on the Needles Highway.

For Father’s Day, we made our way over to Jewel Cave National Monument.  Jewel Cave is believed to be the 2nd longest cave in the world.  We have taken the Discovery tour before, so yesterday we signed up for the Lantern tour.  If you look closely, you’ll be able to see the faces of two cave explorers!

The way was lit by oil burning or LED lanterns.  We climbed up and over rocks, stooped down to get under passageways, and felt our way through the darkness in this Limestone cave covered with Calcite crystals.  Caleb thought the exploring was very fun!

Stay tuned for North American Buffalo!

Black Hills- Spearfish Canyon, Air & Space Museum, DC Booth Fish Hatchery

We took a drive through Spearfish Canyon and along the way stopped at the Roughlock Falls.The area is beautiful- lush and green!
We followed that with a trip on Sunday to the South Dakota Air & Space Museum…with Chris as our “tour” guide.
This was one of Caleb’s favorites.

Can you see Chris & Caleb by the sign?  That plane was massive!
Later in the afternoon we ventured into Spearfish to the historic DC Booth Fish Hatchery.  This was the first hatchery in the country!
Caleb posed with this ancient ranger.
There were trout of all sizes and an underwater viewing area with the “Big Ones”.
 Tomorrow we head to Chadron State Park in Nebraska for Caleb’s 10th Birthday!!
 

South Dakota- from Cabela's to the Corn Palace!

We left the Red River SRA of East Grand Forks, Minnesota and hit the interstate. Destination? Cabela's of course- Mitchell, South Dakota. It was in the mid 80's when we pulled into their RV lot, so the windows opened up and we went inside to shop! With a thumbs up to stay in their RV lot for the night we headed back to the rig for some dinner. Hmmm...it's still pretty warm...their's a Culver's custard shop in sight...so the brave adventurer's Chris and Caleb headed out to secure us a frosty treat for dessert!

While in Mitchell we had to stop at the famous Corn Palace! So on our way out of town in the morning we turned this way and that to meander to the famous site. Transportation seems to be the theme this year with an airplane, segway, ship, bicycle and motorcycle. No RV?

It was smaller than we had imagined, but it was a good stop and see. Workers were putting finishing touches on the arrangement on the lower right of the picture above.

Then back to the interstate. Destination? The Black Hills of course! We have stopped in this area every summer with the 5er and have always found enjoyment. So where are we? Right now we're in Sturgis. The famous motorcycle rally doesn't start until the first week of August so we are not among the bikes. We plan to explore (read more pictures) the northern Black Hills...Spearfish Canyon, the South Dakota Air & Space Museum, perhaps Reptile Gardens, and guess what? There's a Cabela's here too! Caleb says if you rearrange the letters, it spells his name, so he has dubbed it "his" store :-)

Bison, Pronghorn, Deer and Donkeys- Oh my! (Custer)

We found the Buffalo! What an awesome sight seeing these huge animals ... up close! I made sure my window was up, not that that would help too much. We have enjoyed our stay here at Custer State Park. Chris celebrated his birthday yesterday with a bumbleberry pie from a wonderful local pie and ice cream shop. That was after he and Caleb went on a 6 mile bike ride through the park and on the Mickelson Trail.
We made sure that our hike today was far from any buffalo. We hiked part of the way up the Devil's Tower Trail.
While hiking we saw beautiful wildflowers and butterflies!
We climbed up the fire lookout tower this afternoon for a panoramic view of the area before proceeding through the wildlife loop.... where we saw Pronghorn- not Antelope. We also saw more burros, some young bucks and does, and a lone Bull Bison.
Tomorrow we have to say good-bye to Custer State Park and start making our way towards Arizona. This was our last multi-day stop for the trip with several travel days ahead of us. Every year since we've traveled with the 5th wheel, we've made a stop in the Black Hills. This is a majestic area full of beauty and great history! I'm sure we'll be back again! :-)

Wildlife where? (Custer State Park)

This beautiful spot is our location for the next couple days in Custer State Park at the Stockade South campground. Why is it that a 35' rig doesn't look so big until you pull into a spot like this? Our excellent driver got us positioned beautifully as I guided with the walkie-talkies.
The CCC built the Stockade Lake and this is the stream past the dam for the lake.
Stockade lake has a variety of fish and we saw several boats on the water. But we did neither of those activities today... we were on the hunt for Bison!
Here is another view of Stockade Lake... the bikes are out and Caleb has been riding up and down the hills of the campground.
Off to the Wildlife Loop Road we went in search of Bison. But, they happened to be hiding from El Tourista at this time of day. So at the recommendation of a park employee we took the dirt road just past the airport. Although there seemed to be little wildlife on that road as well, it was a beautiful drive with not another car in sight. We did see this little buck who seemed surprised to see us!

Wylie Park- Aberdeen, South Dakota

Our journey on the red roads (color in the atlas) brought us to Aberdeen, South Dakota! The photo above is our site at Wylie Park Campground. With the spelling the same, I was sure the place was built just for us and we just didn't know it! But, they charged us just the same. $27 dollars a night basically gets you a theme park! They have paddleboats & canoes, Wizard's balloon ride, miniature train ride, Storybook Land, The Land of Oz, Lake and Beach, Carousel Rides, Miniature Golf, Bumper Boats, Zoo, Go Karts, and Bike Rentals. The facilities are excellent in the campground. This park is run by the city of Aberdeen... impressive.
Grammy- this picture is for you! Caleb is stalking the turkey and chicken that are wandering the cornfield behind him. They have lots of climbable structures at Storybook Land. There are paved bike paths that take you all around- even around the zoo. There are buffalo, elk, reindeer, prairie dogs, oh my! They also have a petting zoo. There are structures from lots of nursery rhymes all around the park.
This climbing wall was also there. The majority of the park is free entrance, but there are some activities that have an extra fee. Caleb was able to climb the wall twice for 2 bucks.
Monday was deemed water day! The Aberdeen Aquatic Center has an awesome pool equipped with water slides (raft slide, body flume slide, and enclosed body flume slide), leisure pool with kids play structure and splash zone, lazy river and large lap pool with 1 and 3 meter diving boards... $16.50 bought us a great day on the water!
The weather was ideal at 80 degrees. The water was refreshing. Caleb ventured to the high diving board. The first time, he got to the edge, looked down and backed down the ladder. But by the end of the afternoon, he was pleading to go "just one more time." I preferred the raft slide onto the lazy river myself.

5er news: Our WFCO converter is ready to give up the ghost. I'm pleased to pass along what a great company Best Converter RV Electrical Supplies is to work with! Randy was able to answer our questions and steer us the right direction. They will ship general delivery for us to pick up along our route. After checking with the local RV service companies, it was worth it to order.

Tomorrow we will head towards East Grand Forks, Minnesota. They were flooded earlier in the year, but are "open for business". So we will see how Red River State Park compares to the last time we were there. Then, on to Baudette to pick up our converter before crossing the border into Canada. We're sending good thoughts for warmer weather up on Lake of the Woods before we arrive! Caleb is in gear for swimming!

Driving the Red Roads

What is that? No pictures!? What was I thinking?
We've been driving the "Red Roads" for the past two days. We headed out of Buena Vista, Colorado on Friday morning to beat the bikes. No... not motorcycles, a bicycle tour was going to be coming through town. We decided playing pinball with the fiver and the bikes might not be a good plan for summer vacation, so we beat them out of town! We drove North on the "Red Road" up to Leadville and over Freemont Pass to a "Blue Road". You see, Red Roads are U.S. and State highways... usually two laners. Those Blue Roads are Interstate Highways. We prefer Red Roads. We have always found easy places to fuel up and are able to enjoy the scenery of small town America. The Blue Road on Friday was I-70 west of Denver... a road that makes me nervous. The truck and professional driver did just fine! But none the less, I was relieved to be off that stretch. Onto another Blue Road I-76, to Sterling, Colorado for the night. As we pulled up to the Gate Station, out of the mountains and into the flatlands, the heat was evident.

"We'd like a vehicle pass and a site with electricity please," said Chris.

The attendant replied, "Do you have reservations?"

To which we said, "No!"

"Well..., " she said, "we have 1 site available."

"We'll take it!" .... it was 2:30 in the afternoon!

Apparently North Sterling State Park is a popular weekend destination for boaters of all kinds! We hooked up to our electrical site and before we could sit down, Caleb was suited up to hit the beach! We walked up a trail around the reservoir to the swimming beach. The mosquitoes were looking for a feast, but I disguised myself as a beach towel. The dark afternoon thunderstorms were moving in, so we tried to find a short-cut back to the 5er. With a bit of a jog, we beat the storm.
Saturday morning we left early for our 13 mile drive back to the Blue Road in town to fuel up and hit the road. We stayed on the Blue Road until we reached North Platte, Nebraska and then we hit the Red Roads for the remainder of our day. Well, almost. We had tentatively planned to stop for the night in Nebraska, but the day was young and we kept driving. Ahhhhh ... South Dakota. Laundry was on the agenda for the evening so we stopped at a KOA.
Tomorrow we will spend a bit of time on the Blue Road just to get to our next Red Road. Our plan? We are aiming for Aberdeen, South Dakota for none other than Wylie Park. How cool is that?

Independence Day weekend excitement!

On the 4th of July, we took a short drive to Custer State Park. The picture on the left is Caleb and I panning for gold. Caleb's treasure hunting spirit wore down quickly as the process takes patience. And also because we didn't hit the jackpot! The mountain goats below were right by the side of the road having a picnic lunch. They were kind-of shaggy.

We also drove up the Needles Highway in the park. Chris finds it quite entertaining to take the dually through these narrow tunnels...and I get quite nervous. But there was a tour bus a few vehicles ahead of us that fit through just fine. We drove down to the end of our campground road at sunset to take in the Custer fireworks. They were nothing in comparison to what we had seen at Mount Rushmore, but it was an enjoyable show.



On July 5 we went south towards Hot Springs. We stopped at Wind Cave and were lucky to get in for a Natural Entrance tour with only about a 30 minute wait. The photo above is the - you guessed it- natural entrance to the cave. Wind Cave has the largest amount of boxwork of any cave in the world. We chose the tour that climbs down the 300 steps and rides the elevator back up :-) It was awesome! Only approximately 5% of the cave has been explored based on the information scientists have gathered. When we entered the cave was breathing in but by the time we were finished with the exploration, it was exhaling. It strives to be in a state of equilibrium with the outside air. From wind cave we came upon some Buffalo that were clearly moving toward Custer for the day. We went the other way, into Hot Springs for some lunch. After we were fueled up, we continued to the Mammoth Site. Here is an active dig of a sink hole. They have discovered 56 mammoths so far, both Columbian and Wooly mammoths.


Caleb's favorite part of our day in Hot Springs, was our stop at Evans Plunge. Evans Plunge is fed by spring water which completely turns over every 1 1/2 hours. Most of the water park is inside, but there is a portion outside. Caleb preferred the water slides! The water stays at 87 degrees- just about perfect. We've had a great couple days here in the Black Hills. We continue to explore the national forest and national park campgrounds to decide where we could stay on future trips.