May 2013 - Saskatchewan here we come: June 9, 2013 - Our first full day in the Black Hills

Once again we have started the day in glorious sunshine; not a cloud in the sky. This campsite offers an "all you can eat" pancake breakfast for $2.99. This sounds pretty good so we hustle over there about 8:00 AM. We can only eat 2 each and then learn that they are only $1.00 each. Tomorrow we will only pay $1.00 each cause really they are so big that's all you can eat.

Off we head, firstly to the Crazy Horse Memorial site. The sculpture, started by Korczak Ziolkowski a Bostonian of Polish descent in 1948, is still in the process of being sculpted. Since his death in 1982, his wife Ruth and 7 of their 10 children continue the work. This project has never solicited or received any government funding and continues on moneys raised by private means. When complete, it will be the largest mountain carving in the world.

a plaster casting of what it will look like

The finished face of Crazy Horse

work in progress

A little side stop ensures a good fire tonight with a box full of tinder dry pine from one of the many piles of pine beetle killed and fallen ponderosa pine. Some of the hills are just brown with timber not yet taken down. What a crime; very much like our pine forests in BC.

another bonus

From there we head to Jewel Cave Monument where we take the lantern tour and are the only 2 people with our native American park ranger guide, Vance Thunderfire. It's a gruelling hour and a half descent into the cave where they show you how it was accessed in 1941.

Jewel Cave entrance for lantern tour

this passage is called "Fat Man's Misery"

a long way down

a long way up

me and Vance Thunderfire

Next is a drive down the Needles Highway on our way back to our campsite. We aren't sure where the name comes from until we start getting into the rocky peaks that look like needles. Incredible! Sylvan Lake in on the way and it is beautiful; half of it surrounded by towering boulders.