I haven’t been blogging for a while so I have a lot of catching up to do. We spent 3 weeks in South Dakota, making our way across the state, eventually arriving in Sioux Falls where we established our residency, registered to vote and obtained new driver licenses.
We started our trip in Hermosa at a little campground called Heartland RV Park. There were a few sightseeing trips we took as well as some rockhounding.
First stop was a town south of our campground, Hot Springs, where we went to the Mammoth excavation site. About 26,000 years ago a sinkhole opened up, filled with water and due to the “hot springs” remained unfrozen.
This water source and the vegetation that grew around the hole drew Columbian and Woolly Mammoths, camels, wolves, and giant bears to its edges. Many fell into the sink hole and were unable to crawl back out.
Mammoths are big….
Next stop was the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. Here wild mustangs, common and rare breeds run free. Rescued, unwanted, unusable mustangs roam the sanctuary created by Dayton O. Hyde. His story and the mustangs is to long for me to tell but if you are interested, download this PDF and read all about them.
Following the Sanctuary trip we headed over to Custer National Forest where we saw antelope, buffalo….
and prairie dogs. John was all excited to go hunting afterward.
Can’t go a few days without rockhounding so we were off to find some Fairburn agates. Well we didn’t find any but we did find some “cowkids” with their grandpa moving a herd of cattle.
Next stop Kadoka. It was prairie dog hunting time!!!
