A few years ago, we were on a streak of being away on vacation for Peanut’s birthday (which is the third week in August). Partly this was because I like to push our family summer travel as late as I can – anticipation is more fun than the post-vacation comedown – and partly it was because she got attached to the idea of a trip “for her birthday.” But in the past couple of years, the kids have been starting school on her birthday week, so the Peanut party has shifted to home base, and we’ve been traveling a week or so earlier. The fun bonus to this is – we’ve been able to be on vacation for our wedding anniversary a few times now. When we planned our summer 2022 travel, we aimed for that week as both the last possible travel week before school and anniversary week. And I knew I wanted to plan something extra special for our actual anniversary.
From everything I’d read, Badlands National Park seemed like just the extra special adventure I had in mind. The park is described as otherworldly, like nothing else, totally unique – sounds right to me.
Our first stop – after the obligatory run into the visitors’ center to hit the potty and pick up Junior Ranger booklets – was the Door and Window Trails. These are two separate trails located next to one another and accessible from the same parking lot. The Window Trail is very short – really just a quick jaunt to an overlook (where a kind stranger offered to take a family picture for us, and did such a nice job that the picture became our Christmas card image for 2022). But the Door Trail extends about a mile or so, via a few interspersed yellow posts (it’s not really a trail…) directly into the desert.
I couldn’t get enough of the colors. It was very hot out – even with a little bit of cloud cover giving some relief – and the contrasts between the orange and taupe of the badlands and the bright blue sky were just spectacular.
Almost immediately, we spotted a bighorn sheep atop a distant butte, and then – just a bit further off in the distance – a second one. Sadly, I didn’t have my zoom lens with me! Bighorn sheep are always exciting.
The kids had fun climbing rocks and scrambling up and down the little embankments – this was a fun trail for them. You do have to have your wits about you – it’s easy to get lost in the unfamiliar landscape, since there isn’t really a clearly marked trail – but if you’ve got parents paying close attention, the Door Trail is a great choice for a family.
From the Door, we headed over to the Window and snagged that family photo, along with a few more snaps of the Martian-looking landscape – too cool. And then it was back to the (air conditioned!) car to cruise along to our next hike.
Check in with me next week for the final Dakotas post! And then it will be off to somewhere COMPLETELY different – travel posts continue!
Great Expectations has been on my TBR pile for so long, it had almost become my white whale. As I told my friend Susan years ago, “I don’t want to read Dickens, but I want to have read Dickens.” (There’s a difference.) My grandmother loved Dickens and read his entire bibliography, and years ago she gave me her collection of his complete works bound in green leather – which I’ve been moving from house to house ever since and occasionally picked up a volume or two. But I couldn’t really get past my teenaged impressions of Dickens: A Christmas Carol is okay, at least it’s short, but I didn’t see the fuss about the rest of it. After two good Dickens reading experiences in a row, now – I loved The Pickwick Papers – I may have to revise my opinion of Dickens in general.
Great Expectations is, in its most basic terms, the story of young Philip “Pip” Pirrip and his “expectations” – with all the anticipation and reversals of fortune they bring. When the novel opens, Pip is a young boy living with his adult sister (who has “brought him up by hand,” whatever that means – it’s not clear to Pip) and her husband, blacksmith Joe Gargery. Pip is destined to be Joe’s apprentice and eventual partner in the smithy, but in the meantime he wanders the marshes around the small, unhappy family’s cottage. While loitering in the cemetery one day – visiting the graves of his long-dead parents – Pip encounters a convict, escaped and on the run from “the Hulks.” The Hulks are brooding, terrifying prison ships that dock just offshore, and occasionally a prisoner escapes, swims for shore, and makes off through the marshes. They are usually caught, and Pip’s convict is no exception – although he makes a good attempt at freedom, with Pip’s (terrified, extorted) help – namely, a Christmas pie and Joe’s metal file, with which the convict saws off his leg irons.
Pip does his best to forget the frightening experience of meeting the convict in the marshes, and his fortunes take their first turn when he is summoned to attend at the home of Miss Havisham, a wealthy old woman who lives in a mansion in the nearby town. Pip and his family are baffled at the summons, which come out of the blue – but a poor young boy with no prospects does not disobey a summons from Miss Havisham. Not knowing what to expect, Pip presents himself at Miss Havisham’s mansion, where he is let in by the elderly recluse’s adopted daughter, the beautiful Estella. Estella’s beauty appears to be only skin-deep; she is haughty and cruel, looks down on Pip as “common,” and scorns to be in the same room with him. Miss Havisham, for her part, sits in a state of suspended animation, wearing a crumbling wedding gown and surrounded by a mummified nuptial feast and a set of clocks that she has stopped at 9:20, precisely the hour she was jilted at the altar.
Miss Havisham directs Pip and Estella to play cards, and then quizzes Pip on his feelings for Estella.
“You say nothing of her,” remarked Miss Havisham to me, as she looked on. “She says many hard things of you, but you say nothing of her. What do you think of her?”
“I don’t like to say,” I stammered.
“Tell me in my ear,” said Miss Havisham, bending down.
“I think she is very proud,” I replied, in a whisper.
“Anything else?”
“I think she is very pretty.”
“Anything else?”
“I think she is very insulting.” (She was looking at me then, with a look of supreme aversion.)
“Anything else?”
“I think I should like to go home.”
(Miss Havisham would take a good deposition. That “Anything else?” – masterful exhaustion of the witness’s recollection.)
After presenting himself regularly to play cards with Estella, Pip is summarily dismissed one day when Miss Havisham declares that it is now time for him to be apprenticed to Joe, and he can expect no further help or support from her. By now, though, he is thoroughly spoiled for a blacksmith’s trade, and instead craves an education, the status of a gentleman, and the prospect of winning Estella’s cold heart for his own. Little does Pip know that his fortunes are about to shift again; one day a prominent lawyer appears on his doorstep and notifies him that he has “expectations” – a mysterious benefactor has left him a fortune and desires only that Pip should move to London and be educated as a gentleman (in keeping with his new station). The lawyer, Mr Jaggers, arranges for Pip to lodge with Miss Havisham’s cousin, Matthew Pocket, to be tutored. In London, Pip befriends his tutor’s son, Herbert Pocket, and his lawyer’s chief clerk, and speculates about who his mysterious, anonymous benefactor might be.
Everyone – Pip, Herbert, the rest of the Pockets, Estella, and Miss Havisham’s grasping relatives, believe that Miss Havisham herself is Pip’s patron. Pip latches onto the idea that he is “intended for” Estella, and that they belong together. When summoned to Miss Havisham’s side again, she quizzes him on his impressions of Estella and exhorts him to love the haughty girl.
“Is she beautiful, graceful, well-grown? Do you admire her?”
She drew an arm round my neck, and drew my head close down to hers as she sat in the chair. “Love her, love her, love her! How does she use you?”
Before I could answer (if I could have answered so difficult a question at all), she repeated, “Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!”
Pip persists in his understanding that Miss Havisham is his benefactor and that she intends him to marry Estella even after Herbert discloses Miss Havisham’s true designs vis-a-vis Estella. Having never recovered from being jilted at the altar – by a cruel scoundrel who ruined many lives, as the history becomes clear – Miss Havisham adopted Estella with the intent of bringing her up to break as many hearts as possible in revenge. Estella herself is cold and frequently describes herself as heartless – yet she feels something for Pip, because she actively discourages him from pressing his suit or from loving her. Estella explains to Pip that he is the only man she cannot bring herself to lead on or deceive. But she doesn’t need to – Pip leads himself on. Yet he’s not always completely lacking in self-perception.
The unqualified truth is, that when I loved Estella with the love of a man, I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I loved her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.
I won’t divulge whether Miss Havisham really is Pip’s mysterious benefactor, what happens between Pip and Estella, or anything more about the plot – it would ruin the delight of speculation, if you haven’t already read this wonderful story. (I will say, because I can’t resist patting myself on the back, that I worked out for myself who Pip’s patron is.) Pip is a self-important fool who misses the obvious all around him, fails to value his earliest and truest friend – his brother-in-law Joe Gargery – and lets his sudden wealth go immediately to his head… but he’s endearing all the same, and I found myself rooting for him despite my best judgment. Estella is cold, cruel, and proud – she is exactly what Miss Havisham raised her to be – and yet I rooted for her, too. This is a meandering, engaging novel about seeing the true value in people, however humble their origins – but it’s also just a cracking good story. I’m so glad I got around to it at last.
Maybe I like Dickens after all…
Have you read Dickens? What’s your favorite of his novels?
So it’s Tuesday – whoops! I usually post my weekly recap of what I’ve been reading first thing Monday morning, but this is just a really busy week and I was in the zone yesterday. I just sat down at my computer and started working straightaway and – to be perfectly honest – didn’t think about this post at all. I’m lucky I thought of it today, really. This whole week is unusually hectic, with multiple errands to run, a choral concert for Peanut, a baseball game for Nugget, packing Peanut for a field trip on Friday and a weekend away with her Girl Scout troop, and wrangling details of a big family project we’re in the thick of right now. (Not to be mysterious, but – I’ll be able to tell you about it next month, I hope.) And as with any unusually busy week, the week leading up to it is busy too as I try to organize everything in advance so as to beat back the inevitable overwhelm.
With all of that, I’m actually surprised I read as much as I did. On Monday last, I finished The Color Purple and was absolutely blown away by it. More to come in a Classics Club review, but – wow. Then continuing my pattern of alternating between a Classics Club read (I’m down to three-and-a-half left to go, as of press time!) and a lighter palate-cleanser, I picked up The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim. This was a re-read for me; I’ve actually read it a few times, and it gets better with every round. Perfect spring reading, too – especially because there is a fence on my way home that is draped with wisteria at this time of year, and I always think “wistaria and sunshine” as I drive past it on my commute.
I wrapped up The Enchanted April (really must watch the movie this month…) on Saturday and picked up East of Eden off my library stack. It’s a 601-page tome, so I’m expecting it to take me most of the week, but I’m trying to get in at least 100 pages of reading each day, and as a result I’m halfway through already. It’s definitely keeping me turning pages – and I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to this; it’s been on my TBR for ages. Not to tempt fate, but at this rate I think I should get through it before the weekend and things are looking good for finishing the Classics Club Challenge – only three books to go after East of Eden – by my deadline of July 27.
Last weekend was pretty relaxing – resting up for this busy week – but we did get out to the trails for some fresh air. The eagles at our local park have THREE chicks!
While we didn’t get to spend a week in Wyoming as we were planning, I was pleased to discover that we’d be close enough to the state – albeit the other side – to make a day trip there from South Dakota. We were all excited about the prospect of adding a third state to our vacation agenda and exploring the gorgeous and fascinating Devils Tower National Monument.
Devils Tower is a massive rock tower rising out of the Earth and hundreds of feet into the sky. While there are many legends about how the tower came to be, the one I like best is the story of a group of young Indigenous boys who were being stalked by a massive bear. The Earth itself rose up to save them from the bear, and the deep grooves down the tower are the bear’s claw marks, made while the boys looked down from above. (The grooves are also popular for “crack climbing” – not on our agenda for this time!)
Views of the tower – I couldn’t stop snapping pictures!
We hiked a trail that wound around the entire circumference of the tower, taking us out onto the hills behind the monument and overlooking a grand river valley, then back to the visitors’ center.
Still want to make that Yellowstone trip happen – someday! In the meantime, we got our Wyoming fix in a pretty darn spectacular way, if I do say so myself.
Next week: our final park of the trip! It’s an extra-spectacular one, so I’m breaking the recap into two blog posts. Check in with me then!
Visiting Bull Run Park and hiking the Bluebell Trail is one of our favorite, can’t-miss, spring traditions. (Shoutout to Only In Your State and Facebook clickbait for first alerting me to this total treasure!) The Virginia bluebells bloom every year in early to mid-April, and they can be found growing in parks all around northern Virginia – but I don’t think there’s a park anywhere that can rival Bull Run Regional Park for sheer proliferation and glory. (And because someone always comments – these are Virginia bluebells; I am aware that they are not the same bluebells that grow in England. Different flower. I didn’t make up the name, okay? It’s just what we ungrateful colonials call them.)
This year, the bluebells’ peak coincided perfectly with Easter Sunday, and since I am always happiest in the church of the great outdoors, it seemed like the perfect holiday activity.
I think we might have actually been a day or two past peak, but you really couldn’t tell. It was a riot of blue all over the forest floor, on both banks of the great Bull Run.
Because it was also Easter, the park had set up an “Egg Scavenger Hunt” all along the trail, with huge wooden cutouts painted in seasonal designs. More organized families were coloring in the eggs on an official form. We just took pictures. (And got to go home without two extra pieces of paper…)
There were also signs with bunny-themed jokes. Nugget especially appreciated this sports-themed groaner…
Every year, when we hike this trail, it’s a muddy, sloppy mess. This year I was organized and packed both the kids’ wellies and my own. And then of course Nugget had outgrown his boots and the trail was perfectly dry anyway. At least my feet looked cute.
Growing by the entrance to the trail – before the bluebells in all their glory – was another treat: a forest floor studded with violets. I don’t remember seeing violets on this trail before – white starflowers, yes, but violets, no. Violets always remind me of my grandmother and the flower walks we used to take together; there was one stretch that we named “Violet Vale” in honor of our mutual favorite book, Anne of Green Gables. I think that Grandmother leaves me little signs and gifts, and this definitely felt like one:
Happy (belated) Easter, and happy (belated) Passover to all those who were celebrating earlier this month! Welcome, spring!
Good morning! Happy new reading week, friends – hope it’s a good one ahead.
Last week was definitely a good reading week around here. I finished up Beloved on Monday evening – after years on my TBR, I’m so glad to have read it at last. Full review coming for The Classics Club – at least, a full plot recap and a few thoughts. There’s so much in Beloved that entire courses can be taught on it, so I can’t even hope to do it full justice in a few paragraphs – but I tried my best. Needing something a bit less intense after that read, I turned to The Swan: A Biography, the last of Stephen Moss’s bird biographies that I hadn’t yet read. (The last for now, I hope – I’ve enjoyed all four books in the series and I do hope he continues it.) Steve said: “You can’t write a biography of a species.” I disagreed, and so have the many other people who have bought and read and loved these books, I’m sure.
The end of the reading week, and the weekend, was devoted to The Color Purple – another one from my Classics Club list and another one that I’ve been meaning to read for way too long. It was an incredible read – I was completely blown away by it. Every character was fully drawn and real, and even those who seemed completely vile for most of the book had their redemption. I’m going to have to write a review for the Classics Club and I have no idea how to put into words how very, very wonderful this book was.
It was another intense one, though, so another palate cleanser is on deck. Since it’s April, I think a re-read of The Enchanted April is in order, so I’ll be picking that one up tonight and reading it with a view of the flowering trees in my yard. Not quite wisteria in a crumbling Italian castle, but we make do with what we’ve got.
Speaking of spring, we’ve got eagle chicks again! A couple of months ago, we hiked at our local park and saw the eagles furiously renovating their nest, so we hoped wewould see chicks again this spring. (They didn’t nest last year, but had two healthy chicks a couple of years ago.) We took a hike on Sunday and – there they were!
When we quickly changed our summer vacation plans from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks to a last-minute Dakotas road trip – and especially when we booked lodging ten minutes from Mount Rushmore – I knew that the famous monument would be on our agenda. We wouldn’t devote an entire day to it, of course, but the kids were looking forward to this. For my part, I had mixed feelings about it. Mount Rushmore has never been high on my list of must-see American landmarks, for one thing, and for another… the idea of seeing four white men’s faces blasted into a beautiful mountain with no regard (at the time the monument was sculpted, at least) for First Nations or Indigenous spiritual needs was… off-putting.
But it was ten minutes’ drive from our campground, and we weren’t planning to spend much time there. We arrived – the place was swarming with people – checked out the visitors’ center, bought bottles of water for the kids (Nugget promptly lost his) and set off for the short, paved trail past the monument.
It’s a relatively easy walk, and the kids liked seeing the rockfall from the blasting. Nugget also got a kick out of looking up George Washington’s nose.
We tried to approach Mount Rushmore from a place of thoughtfulness. We talked about how none of the Presidents who appear on the mountain gave their consent for their images to be used, how the blasting altered the unspoilt beauty of the mountains, and how these hills are sacred to Indigenous populations. To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure how much the kids retained. But I tried, and now we’ve done Mount Rushmore.
From Mount Rushmore, we drove a short distance over to a very different monument: Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse was a Lakota leader who prophesied that he would return to his people “in stone.” Many years later, a Polish artist was commissioned to design and begin construction on the Crazy Horse Monument to honor the leader. The artist’s family still live and work on the unfinished monument today; for years now, only Crazy Horse’s head has been visible – they have just started in on his arm and hand.
We didn’t take the bus ride close to the monument, choosing instead to spend our limited time puttering around the Native American cultural center and listening to an Indigenous musician sing to a small but appreciative crowd (he introduced himself and shared some details about his tribe, and I’m sorry to say I’ve forgotten where he was from – I was a little stressed about something going on at work, and was distracted all day because of that). I couldn’t help wondering if the Crazy Horse Monument would have been finished by now (it’s been a work in progress for decades) or at least further along if the stories, history, and identity of First Nations and Indigenous people were as highly valued as the white faces on Mount Rushmore. Seeing the two monuments back-to-back was a really thought-provoking experiment.
Have you been to Mount Rushmore or Crazy Horse Mountain?
Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for March, 2023.
South Pole Station, by Ashley Shelby – While still in Antarctica, I read this fun novel set at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station – which came recommended by Sara. The novel follows a painter who goes to the South Pole on an artists’ and writers’ fellowship and navigates tricky station politics, big questions about science, “ice” romances, and personal trauma. I loved the story, which packed a surprising amount of food for thought into a novel that read like fluffy fun – it was a good read for the Drake and the long flight back home.
American Gardens, by Monty Don and Derry Moore – Needing to look at something green after all that (beautiful!) ice, I picked up American Gardens, a coffee table masterpiece by Monty Don, with photos by Derry Moore. Don and Moore travel the United States trying to understand the breadth and scope of American gardens. It was a delight from the first page to the last – and made me want to go on my own trip to visit some classic American gardens. (Or at least to finally get to Dumbarton Oaks, which is practically in my backyard.)
South!, by Sir Ernest Shackleton – Having read hundreds of pages on the disastrous Scott Expedition, I wanted to learn a bit about the marginally more successful Shackleton expedition. (Marginally more successful in that not quite as many people died.) It was really interesting – and Shackleton wisely confines his writing to the very exciting events of his expedition (it’s not a daily diary like Scott’s, which tended to drag) but by the time I got into this, I was kind of ready for a change from polar literature.
Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens – Read for my Classics Club Challenge, and also because I’ve had this classic novel on my TBR pile for – literally – years, I loved following the story of Pip and his “expectations.” It read like a page-turner, but was poignant and thoughtful. Full review to come in the next couple of weeks.
Slightly Foxed Nos. 75 and 76, ed. Gail Pirkis and Hazel Moore – After reading Great Expectations for almost two weeks straight, I wanted something bite-sized – a palate cleanser, if you will – before moving on to another doorstopper. I was also behind on my issues of Slightly Foxed, so that made perfect sense. As always, these journals were a delight to read and exploded my TBR pile.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2), by J.K. Rowling – Nugget and I have been reading our way through the Harry Potter series before bed each night, and we wrapped up Chamber of Secrets in March. There’s nothing to say in the way of reviewing these books that hasn’t already been said before, many times. So I’ll leave it at two thoughts: the illustrated versions are such a delight, and what fun it is to experience Harry’s story anew through Nugget’s fresh eyes.
The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkein – Another one for my Classics Club challenge – I am closing in on the last few books now! Full review to come, so I won’t say much here – but this wasn’t really for me. The Silmarillion is Tolkein’s origin story and account of the “Elder Days” of Middle-Earth – the backstory behind The Lord of the Rings. Since I did not grow up reading LOTR, and was never really immersed in Tolkein’s world, most of this went over my head and I enjoyed it less as a result.
So, eight books in March. I’ll confess myself a little disappointed – I was hoping for a higher total. But everything I read was worth the time spent over it, and I can’t discount the fact that there were two Classics Club tomes in this month’s reading – Great Expectations, which I loved, and The Silmarillion, which I didn’t. Otherwise, American Gardens and the two Slightly Foxed issues were the highlights of the month, which tells me that I am definitely ready for warmer weather and garden season (and for reading in the garden season). April ahead – yay! – and I have a stack of spring books, am hoping to work in a re-read of The Enchanted April, and am planning more Classics Club reading. Check in with me for more spring reading as the season unfolds!
First up, some housekeeping: if you’re navigating to my page in your browser (as opposed to in Feedly or reading as a subscription) you may have noticed that the URL has changed. Instead of messybaker.wordpress.com, you can now find me at messy-baker.com. (I think you should be automatically re-routed if you enter the old URL, but this is the first time I’ve changed my internet address in more than ten years of blogging – so bear with me, because I don’t know what I don’t know!) The reason for the change is just that I was sick of seeing ads at the end of my most recent blog post – it may not have been as big of a deal if the ads were at all relevant to my content, but they weren’t, or at least the ones I was seeing weren’t, and some of them were quite off-putting (tape for your athlete’s foot, anyone?). In researching how to make the ads go away, or at least be somewhat related to my content, I found that for $4/month I could upgrade to an ad-free experience for everyone who reads in their browser, and that was totally worth it to me. So the new URL is because I have upgraded to a paid plan and you should no longer see ads on the site. Happy Monday to one and all!
Bit of a slow reading week, but a good one – I’m wondering if the slower reading speed was due to the fact that I spent most of the week over The New York Stories of Edith Wharton, which I started on the way to New York City last weekend and didn’t finish until this Friday. I’ve noticed that I seem to read short stories at a slower pace, often setting the book down between stories to absorb and think about them instead of whipping through page after page. Maybe the answer to my general difficulty with short stories is in not trying to read a volume like a novel – a story a day, read with a longer-form book also on the go, might be a better approach. I have a volume of Agatha Christie short stories on the table to pick up soon, and I’m thinking I’ll try this out: a short story with my coffee every morning, and reading something else in the evenings. Am rather interested to see how the experience will be different.
Anyway, I was reading something else alongside the Wharton stories – still working my way through Horizon, on audible. It took the entire rest of the week, but I finally wrapped it up over the weekend (turning, with relief, back to my podcatcher). In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the best place to begin with Barry Lopez. It was massively long and jumped around in both time and geography – really interesting and well-written but I expect not a great introduction to his work. I probably should have started with Arctic Dreams, his most famous work, but I chose Horizon because it has a section on Antarctica. The rest of the weekend’s book time was devoted to Beloved, another one from my Classics Club list and another one that has been on my TBR for ages. I’m almost done and will finish it up today – it’s been an intense read, so I’m planning something a little lighter as a recovery book before I pick up The Color Purple, which is also on my library stack right now.
The Virginia bluebells are at peak right now! We enjoyed a beautiful ramble through the woods on Easter Sunday, checking out the blooms. If you’re local, you probably have a few more days to see them – do try to get there while you can!
Another must! As we have started traveling more with the kids, visiting national parks has been a big part of our family travel. I’d like to get to them all – that may not be realistic, but it’s a goal. And when planning the Dakotas, I knew right away that we wanted to stop by Wind Cave. How often do you get to visit a park that’s equally spectacular above and below ground?
If you’re planning to go to Wind Cave, note that tickets to go into the cavern are timed, and they’re first-come-first-served. In order to be in the first group down, we left our campsite right after breakfast and were at the visitor’s center doors when they opened. We got tickets for the 8:00 a.m. tour – success!
(Dress warmly! It’s cold in the cave!) The underground tour was fascinating. Wind Cave is one of the only places in the world where “boxwork” cave formations can be found – that’s the honeycomb-like structure in the top right photo. And it has over 95% of the boxwork in the world. By contrast, the stalagmites and stalactites that I remember from childhood visits to Howe Caverns in upstate New York – don’t appear at Wind Cave at all. Super interesting and cool. The kids were enthralled.
After the cave tour, we finished up the kids’ Junior Ranger workbooks and they took the oath of office. No days off!
Wind Cave might be most famous for its underground wonders, but it’s also gorgeous above ground – and well worth seeing. We asked a ranger for a hike recommendation – just something short, since we had other stops to make and were hoping to squeeze in a wildlife drive and try to find some bison. She pointed us to a small spur trail and, following her directions, we headed off into the park. The trail climbed up through serene forest and then came out of the woods at a fire tower with this amazing view.
(Lest you think that all of our hikes were perfect, we had a mid-hike tantrum to contend with, and it was not the kid you might have expected. They’re all human. That’s my hot take for today.)
Now – I know what you’re thinking. What about that wildlife drive? Did you see bison?
Wind Cave is a fabulous park for spotting wildlife – in fact, that’s why I really wanted to go. Sure, I expected the cave tour to be interesting (and it was) but here’s the thing about Wind Cave: it’s a relatively small park – only 44 square miles – and contains a disproportionately large number of animals, especially big mammals, for that area. So the odds of seeing something cool are quite good at Wind Cave – as we discovered on the drive in, when we spotted hundreds of prairie dogs. We stopped to ooh and ahh, because they’re always so stinking cute, but we were after something bigger this time. And we found something bigger.
Our first big mammal sighting: a herd of pronghorn antelope! They were so cool – elegant and gorgeous. We stopped the car and stared out the open windows for a good long while, taking in the sight.
As cool as the pronghorn were, they weren’t our ultimate wildlife sighting goal. So we kept going, scanning every hill for characteristic brown backs. And then FINALLY…
We found them! Our long-sought American bison herd!
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. (Pardon any blurry shots – I was snapping away!)
I wish I had gotten some better pictures! Not sure what was going on with my cameras, but at least the camera between my ears was in proper working order. I’ll never forget the sight of these amazing, majestic animals. And after striking out on bison in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and not seeing any in Custer State Park either, it was beyond exciting to finally get the bison sighting we’d been hoping for all week.
So – a truly epic day at Wind Cave! Starting the day out in a completely unique underground landscape – one that looked very different from other caves I’d seen before – and then moving on to a hike with a beautiful view, and finally… the cherry on top… getting to see pronghorn antelope and bison at last. I think that’s about as perfect as a day can get, right?
Next week, we continue our South Dakota adventure, visiting two very different monuments. Check in with me then!
covered in flour 