After an… interesting… trip across the state of South
Dakota, we finally settled in for some rest with Carries parents near Hill
City, SD. For the past, well, year
really, we’ve been doing nothing but pack, organize, plan, repair, remodel, and
pack some more in preparation for a major journey. Add to that the thought of
moving 1,500 miles away from many of our friends and family, and 2015 and the beginning
of 2016 were stressful to say the least. As you can imagine we were ready for
R&R now.
Our first couple of days in the Hills we simply rested. We
gathered what essentials we needed and then settled in to watch movies, enjoy
some great food, and spend time with family. Yet, knowing that it would be
quite some time before we made it back to South Dakota again, we also wanted to
enjoy some time as tourists.
We set out on our first Black Hills expedition with a quest
to visit as many rock shops as we could in a day.
Now, you may not know this about Carrie and I, but we are
amateur rock hounds. We aren’t extremely knowledgeable about geology yet, but
we’re learning. We can generally tell an
agate from a quartz from a granite. We know a bit about selenite, tourmaline,
garnets, hematite, and a few other gems & minerals. Mostly we know what we
like in the “Ooo, pretty” range of rock hounding. In short, we both walk around with rocks in
our pockets…. which of course is better than rocks in our heads!
So, we spent our day in Keystone at the Rock Shed, Hill City
at the Dakota Stone Rock Shop and with the very nice ladies at the Things That
Rock rock shop. Finally we ended our rock shop tour in Rapid City at our
favorite shop, Indigo Iris Rocks and Stones. We found some great treasures to
take on our trip at each stop! We concluded our day with a drive through the
hills and a brief stop at Horse Thief Lake for a stretch and a bit of
photography and a quick visit to see George (the side of Mt. Rushmore). (click pics to enlarge.)
Our next outing was to visit what is easily the worlds
largest art project and will be the worlds largest monument when it is
completed. It has its own art and history museum and is a tribute to a great
leader of North America. Most of you have probably guessed it. Need more? It is
a memorial to a man who fought for his people and was ultimately killed while
under a truce agreement to visit his ailing wife. This is also a monument that
is being built with no government money at all. It is funded strictly by
visitors, sales, and donations. Yes, we spent part of an educational day at the
Crazy Horse Monument.
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We viewed the massive monument to Chief Crazy Horse, then we
went inside to learn about him, the monument, and Native American Tribes of the
area. There we were, surrounded by art works and history, and Cody… Cody found
a gun. Granted, it was a very finely crafted and artistically engraved rifle.
Next he found a tomahawk, then some pistols, a club, a bow, a sword…. there
could be a trend here. Yes, Cody is 16.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the monument, museum, and
gift shop and we thought we’d continue our stay with a lunch at their on-site
restaurant. It was Easter Sunday and not too busy, but we certainly weren’t
alone. Imagine our surprise when we learned that the restaurant at a tourist
destination, that you have to pay to get into, was offering seating by
reservation only. Yes, with no public notification that we could find… and I
did look on their website before we left… they were offering seating only by
reservation. Oh, and it would be an hour and half wait. Deciding that the rather small $19 per person
buffet didn’t look or smell all that good anyway, we chose to dine elsewhere.
The sad thing was that half the seating area was empty. There were easily 10
tables open that were being unused.
Beyond that, it was a very nice trip and I highly recommend
visiting. Cram everyone into a single car when you do. There is a per person
fee, but there is also a cheaper car load entry fee.
Going back to our love of rocks, our next expedition was to
a place that was on Carrie’s “bucket list”… the Fairburn Agate Beds. Consulting people in rock shops, a book about
the agates, and another about rock hunting, we had a fairly good idea of where
we were going. Take this certain road out of the town of Fairburn for twelve
miles. When you see the 4H Picnic Grounds sign, turn in and park. Easy, right?
Well, it’s important to understand that maps from the 1940’s
are not always accurate. It’s also important to understand the only constant is
change. So there we were, 12 miles out
of the almost ghost town of Fairburn, looking for a roadside sign. At sixteen
miles we still hadn’t seen it and had run out of road. Fortunately we hadn’t
run out of luck. A local rancher drove up in his pursuit of a wayward bull. We
had, in fact, just seen the rather self-impressed bull standing in the road
about a mile back and told him so. When asked about the agate beds, however, we
learned he was a new hired hand in the area and didn’t know about them.
So, we turned around and tried again. We found a gumbo
filled mud hole of a driveway that looked like the right place on the map.
There was no 4H sign, but there was a National Grasslands entrance sign.
Knowing that the agate bed was within the Buffalo Gap National Grassland, this
was a positive, er, sign. Determining that the truck would likely sink to
somewhere near India if we tried to drive in, Carrie and I jumped out to do
some recon. We avoided the prairie quicksand and walked about a quarter of a
mile to where the trail met French Creek. There were the occasional tell-tale
signs of someone sifting gravel through a qualifier, so we thought this might
be the place.
Now for those who haven’t gone out to play with rocks or
prospect for gold, a qualifier is a pan with holes in it. Smaller rocks go
through, bigger rocks stay. You do this through a series of progressively
smaller qualifiers and sift the good stuff out of the sand and dirt. The result
is a sandy pile, which we found a few of.
What we didn’t find was anything that looked like something that might
be called an agate bed. We did find a few nice quartz pieces and some bits of Prairie
Agate, but not very much.
Returning to the truck, we learned that Merlon had gotten
more information from a young boy who lives in the area and, in fact, he was
helping the previously met hired hand to escort the proud bull back to his
pasture. The 4H sign was apparently a sign of the past. It no longer existed
and we needed to turn in at the French Creek Campground sign. A new sign of the times I guess.
We did this, found the sign directing us to the agate beds,
and still felt a bit lost. A dirt road crossed, well disappeared under really,
French Creek at this point and disappeared over a hill side. Still nothing that
looked like agate beds here, but we had hope. The five of us crossed the creek on foot, not
sure if driving the truck through was a good idea, and started up the path.
Cody went on ahead at a faster pace. After a bit, I decided to join him.
The short path soon turned into somewhere between a mile and
half and a thousand miles to get to the agate beds. Yet, we did indeed find
them! Before us was a collection of hills, ravines, and washes just covered in
quartz and agates and other interesting stones. It wasn’t so much a matter of
it being difficult to find something to pick up, it was more a matter of
wanting to pick up everything! Never have I seen a more beautiful collection of
minerals, especially quartz, so concentrated in an area and just laying on the
ground. The quartz in particular was what some call prairie tumbled. They were
all rounded like river rock, and very smooth.
Cody went back to inform Carrie and her parents that the
beds were more than just a mythical legend while I started the hunt for a
specific kind of agate, the illusive Fairburn Agate. After a time Carrie, Kathy and Merlon arrived
with the Dodge Ram. It seems that a much smaller vehicle had made it back
there, so they figured the Ram should surely make it. It did and we were
grateful.
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| Carrie & Shawn. Pic by Cody. |
We all spent the rest of the afternoon filling five gallon
buckets with geologic treasures and having a wonderful time. We might have found
a couple of partial Fairburn Agates, but we definitely found Prairie Agates,
quartz of many kinds and colors, and so much more. This place is definitely on
our visit list the next time we come back to the Black Hills.
Our last big goal was a bit out of this world, yet not. It
was to a place that “means something”. According to stories, there are those
who traveled millions of miles to visit there. According to legend, a giant
bear was behind its creation. We drove, with Carrie’s parents, through the heart
of the Black Hills. We passed the past glories of gold and fortune. We emerged
upon the high plains to the north and turned west toward the arid lands of red,
of mesas and canyons, of tumbleweed and pines.
Turning north again on our
journey, we topped a hill where it was revealed in the hazy distance. Like a
mirage, or perhaps an omen, it loomed above the surrounding terrain. Through a
valley, around a bend, and up another hill and it was closer, yet still far.
Even at this distance it was huge, a geologic Rex surveying its domain. It grew
larger, almost impossibly large, as we reached the gate that gave us access and
audience with the cold monolith. “Devils Tower National Monument” the sign
read.
As a child this was a place of wonder and dreams for me. I
grew up with the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” making a massive
influence on my young psyche. My fascination with UFO’s and aliens… and Devils
Tower… barely waned in the following years.
This would be my third visit I think. This ancient volcanic creation was
as impressive as I had remembered. The only thing that would have made it
better would have been a hike with Richard Dreyfuss…. Or maybe Giorgio
Tsoukalos.
The wind was cold this day, however, and more snow was
threatening to roll in. Thus, our stay was not as long as others I’ve made.
Carrie, and Cody and I made the walk up the sidewalk leading to the boulder
field at the tower’s base. Kathy &
Merlon joined us most of the way. Cody, clearly having a degree of mountain
goat coursing through his genetics, immediately started to climb the boulder
field. However, the winds of March soon convinced us to enter the visitor’s
center and gift shop. Yes, we bought
stuff.
Our visit to the tower complete, we returned to South Dakota
and the north Black Hills city of Deadwood! Being March, the town was fairly
quiet. The historic buildings, locked in eternal stately poses, could be
enjoyed, and photographed, as we took our time walking the storied streets
without crowds to hinder us. The ghosts of gamblers, miners, and working girls
watched on as we explored the modern remnants of what was once a very rough
place. We took the time to visit a few
gift shops, peaked into the fateful Saloon #10, showed Cody a bit of what a
Deadwood Casino looks like, and took many photos.
By this time, there was talk of a large winter storm bearing
down on the Hills, so we felt it best to return to the Heart of the Hills.
After a long scenic drive, we arrived back in Hill City to enjoy a delicious
meal at the Hill City Café and then back to the acreage for a long winters nap.
The Black Hills, especially in the summer months, has
something to offer for most everyone. It is a tourist region, so everything
costs more. Yet, it is worth a visit to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse
Monument, to the shops of Keystone and Hill City, the shops and casinos of
Deadwood, and so many other attractions and locations. Even the winter has offerings with skiing in
the north, four wheeling, snowmobiling, and more. It’s a wonderful place to
visit but a challenging and expensive place to live.
We will always love the Black Hills and will miss the beauty
of the pine covered landscape. Yet, we know this is not where we belong long
term. It’s hard to come to grips with where one doesn’t belong, especially when
it’s a beloved place like the entire state of South Dakota. We will return to visit, but our future lies
elsewhere.
The journey continues….
