Sightseeing Day:
- Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary
- The Mammoth Site
This morning up early as planning to drive about 80 miles south to Hot Springs, SD, to view the wild mustangs. Called to see if we could get reservations for the tour. Yup. We could go on the 11 AM tour.
Now we are dashing around to get out the door because we were told it would take us 2 hours to get there. I warmed up two frozen sausage, egg, & cheese croissants and we were off at 8:45 AM.
On the way, we saw some unusual hay stack--almost like the old haystacks you'd see from the 1800s. We had not seen any like this on the trip so far. The terrain began to change from green hills and pastures to more barren hills and dryer grasses and sandy ground.
This sanctuary is waaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere. It is about 10 miles off the highway on a dirt road. We finally arrived at the ranch. We were so speedy, we had 45 minutes to kill. See Dave's excitement at having to rush around and get there way too early!
But, he entertained himself with--what else--watching birds! Of course, there were horses around but they were out in the corrals.
Soon enough we and three others were loaded into a small school bus and began our trek. Our guide was a ranch hand who had been there, I think, since the dawn of time. He was quite funny at times, and at others, we had political lectures to deal with--about American Indians, about cigarette smoking, about teenagers, etc. But, we did have a good time with him. He was very knowledgeable about the ranch, the owner and founder who is in his 80s and still lives on the ranch, the flora and fauna, and the history in the area--not to mention the mustangs and other rescued horses.
The horses were amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed this tour. While driving out in this desert area, we had no idea we were on such a plateau. When we stopped, we were on a huge cliff overlooking the Sioux River. This river was a major encampment of the Sioux (Lakota) Indians and the area had been covered with buffalo. Quite impressive.
Another vista overlooked a movie set. Dave and I think the guide said the set was from the movie "Crazy Horse." Guess we'll have to rent that movie as it was mentioned while we toured the Crazy Horse Monument and at this sanctuary.
This sanctuary was started in the 1950s (I think) and has taken in quite a few mustangs that were in trouble. They have also taken other horses, but I don't know one type from another--something about some Spanish horses, too. I did learn that wild mustangs have markings on their legs, so I tried to capture that in the photo. The stripes are almost like mini-zebra strips on the lower part of their legs.
We were able to get out in some places to pet the mustangs (some are more used to having people around and don't run away). Other horses do not want anything to do with humans. The sanctuary sells foals to recuperate some of their expenses. They now have too many foals, so they were in the process of rounding up the stallions and putting them in corrals to reduce any new population.
It was really funny to watch a stallion that had been rounded up that morning. He walking around his corral when we approached in the van. Then, he ran into the stall. As we parked and the guide began talking to him, he peeked his head out of the stall to watch us. The stallion would turn his head away, but cut his eyes back at the guide. The guide informed us he was showing us he was really mad. I haven't been around horse too much (other than weekly riding during college), so I never knew they had such personalities.
Dave spotted a large group of wild turkeys and the bus ground to a quick halt for a photo op. Usually we only see turkeys 2 or 3 in a group. So, it was cool to see so many together in one spot.
Check this cool picture of the mule deer. I couldn't help sharing it. She was protecting her twin fawns by trying to lead us away from them. No, we did not see them. But our guide assured us that they were hidden in the grass.
After our tour, we drove into Hot Springs to have lunch at Dairy Queen.
Next stop was the Mammoth Site. This is a site that was found when construction was started for a housing development. The builder scraped some dirt and noticed a huge bone. The site was sold back to the state for the builder's cost and an palaeontology dig began. The number of bones was significant because the area was once a water hole. The mammoths slipped in to the hole and because the sides were so steep and slippery the mammoths were unable to get back out. A few other animals were also found in the pit, such as a bear and possibly a lion.
Very few bones have been removed--only those that were exceptionally significant and needed to be put in a vault. The dig is on-going and it is expected to take another 40 years to complete. This is one of very few in the United States where bones are not removed.
Of course, we stopped for a blizzard to slurp on our long drive back to camp! Bless those Girl Scouts for their cookies invented to put in my blizzard!
We didn't have dinner as we were still full from lunch and blizzards.
We are trying to decide if we are taking off tomorrow or staying one more day to do laundry and catch up with the blog entries, etc. So, guess we'll decide in the morning.
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