Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 100

Sam and Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 100

Mid-West 

5/7/09-5/12/09 – Black Hills, South Dakota

Uh, Ask My Mom

Sam and I took many drives around the Black Hills National Forest, Needles Highway and all through the area.  Besides looking at the scenery (fabulous), we look for wildlife and rocks. We found plenty of both.

So Cute

Wildlife:  Back in Oregon, even around Imnaha, we would give the kids a quarter for each deer that they spotted.  If we would have made that deal here, we would have been broke the first day. Hundreds of deer. Everywhere you look – deer.  Sam says they are white tails and they must be very smart, because we see no fatalities on the roads.  Elk is spotted on almost every outing.  Healthy, healthy big elk.  Bison by the herds.  Bison with little (Ha!) buffalo calves and fighting teens.  Bull bison with heads so big, you wonder how they can hold them up – but they do.  So proud.  Antelope that are so big and beautiful, and everywhere. Wild donkeys and their spotted, cute colts.  Mountain goats. Mountain sheep. One pretty red fox.  Wild turkeys. Marmots. Prairie dogs and their towns. Birds, ducks, geese, osprey.  You could not go through this area without seeing wild animals, unless you had your eyes closed for hundreds of miles. I also want to mention the non-wild, long-horned, Texas long-horned cattle.  All colors – all with very long horns.  I would be having extreme nightmares if I ever had to milk any of these critters.

And A What?

Rocks:  When you hit the South Dakota border, you begin seeing “shiny” rocks, mountains, gravel, roads, whatever.  The mica and iron pyrite assures that you will think of this area as a ‘Wonderland’.  We got rocks!  We visited rock stores.  We load up with rocks.  We can hardly make it to the grocery store without stopping to look at rocks.  We are hooked on rocks.  Sam drives up behind Mount Rushmore-behind Keystone and finds an old dirt road to help us up the mountain.  After clearing the path of a downed tree, we come upon an old mine shaft.  We know better then to go in, but we look at the rocks all around it.  We come home with a few.  When we get back home, you will have to check out our front lawn and back rock garden.  Pretty!!!  Sam is hooked and going to get into lapidary and jewelry.  I plan to make out like a bandit!

Pages Of Mica, Rocks, Rocks, Rocks!