Category Archives: Adventure

Adventure, Badlands National Park, Fiction, Lysa's Blog

Climb to Badlands Mountain…part II

badlands sunrise

The next morning, Kristiana couldn’t wait to begin their adventure up Badlands Moutain. Finally it was 6:00 a.m. the agreed upon meeting time so she went to meet Mellisa at the Yellow Mounds. Mellisa was already there. “Well, Good Morning. Are you ready?” “As ready as I’ll ever be!” Kristiana said excitedly. “Well let’s start our journey then. I hope we live to tell about this someday, even if we don’t make it to the top. We would have at least tried.”

Heading out from the goldmounds

Mellisa lead them on their way on the trail to the top of Badlands Mountain. The first boulder came crashing down just five minutes after they started climbing. “That was fast! I wasn’t prepared for boulders this soon.  Oww! I caught a bone in my foot. Give me a few minutes to get up… Ok let’s go!” “That was faster than I had predicted.” commented Kristiana. “It must have not been to bad an injury.” “I brought some herbal medicine from Ancient Hunters overlook that we collected yesterday” replied Mellisa. “The Ancient hunters used this same remedy when they were wounded. Now let’s move a little faster to try and avoid some of these boulders. Just let me know if you get tired!” “Ok.” Kristiana said.

Falling Boulder

Shortly after the first boulders they saw the first trap.”Watch out!” screamed Mellisa. “That’s the first trap. It’s a very small pit though so I think we can just jump over it. I’ll go first.” Mellisa jumped and got to the other side easily. “Now you jump over it.” Kristiana jumped but this time, a giant plant leaped out of the pit and ate her.  “No! I will kill you plant!” Using her strength, Mellisa snapped the plant at the base and raised the head up so she could get Kristiana back. She pried opened the mouth and pulled Kristiana out. Fortunately Kristiana was fine, just a little slimy. “That’s just the first trap, and the easiest. So try to be a little more careful next time” said Mellisa. The girls continued on with their journey.

Blue Dragon

Finally, after hours of avoiding traps and boulders, the girls got to the middle of the mountain. Mellisa was the first to sense the dragon was coming and wasn’t very far away. “Here comes the hardest part, making friends with a dragon…”Sure enough, a blue dragon came zipping around the corner. Using her powers of persuasion, Mellisa started to communicate with the dragon. *We are not your enemies, we just want to become friends* The dragon slowed to a stop in front of them. *You can communicate with me!? Very well then, I may like you, and we can be friends* *Can you take us to the top please, we just want to see it, even if there is a treasure we don’t care about it. We just want to see what the top looks like* *Well, you could be trying to trick me, but you seem like very nice girls I could trust. I guess I could fly you up to the top. Climb up on to my back* *Oh, Thank you sooo much!* The girls got onto the dragons back and took off for the top. They felt the nice breeze in their faces as the dragon gliding up the mountain. ”I can see the White River Valley from here!” Shouted Kristiana “And I can see Castle trail, that’s the trail we took to the mountain!” They zipped around corners, into tunnels, and then finally they flew towards the top of the mountain. The dragon made a jolt upward towards the top.

To Continue Click Here…

Adventure, National Parks, Troy's Blog, Wind Cave National Park

Going Underground in Wind Cave

Wind Cave National Park Entrance
Wind Cave National Park Entrance

Wind Cave National Park is not one of the parks on our monopoly board but it is close to Mt. Rushmore and one that peaked our interest. As I continued to research this park I became a little nervous and unsure about taking any of the excursions into the cave as I tend to get nervous in dark, tight spaces. Many other people go into this cave and come out unharmed so I should be able to do the same. Several days were spent mentally preparing for this adventure and how I would have to think about things if a bout with claustrophobia presented itself. I’m used to riding in elevators both above ground and several stories below ground so that is how I planned on dealing with being 300 – 400 feet below ground. Just image being in a parking ramp that is under a building. I’ve experienced underground parking areas numerous times so this should be fairly easy to do. Let’s see how well this works.

A Prairie Dog Greeting
A Prairie Dog Greeting

The drive from Custer, SD to Wind Cave is beautiful. This is located in the black hills so there are lots of pine covered hills and valleys to wind around and through continually challenging us to examine the landscape as it quickly passed by. In order to get to Wind Cave we drove through Custer State Park which also has a lot of great scenery and could take many days of exploring but we were focused on our destination so there were no stops before reaching Wind Cave National Park. While stopped at the entrance sigh we were pleasantly greeted by a mule deer off in the distance and the barking of many prairie dogs as there was a town close by. Continuing on we quickly came upon a traffic stop due to a herd of buffaloes crossing the road. They were in no hurry as I’m sure this is a daily occurrence and possibly entertaining to the buffaloes to see how many people they can get to stop and watch. After several minutes an opening arrived for us to drive through without the danger of one of these large animals colliding with us or many of the other people stopped and observing this magnificent sight. On towards the visitor center.

A Buffalo Crossing
An Inconvenient Buffalo Crossing

Despite the main attraction – the cave, this park contains thousands of acres which include pine covered hills and vast prairies. The cave was our primary interest so we wanted to leave enough time to adequately explore it before experiencing some of these other attractions. Once at the visitor’s center a tour into the cave was decided upon and purchased. Our wait was not long so the few moments before going down into the earth were spent looking over the displays and learning about the formation of Wind Cave. There were a number of tours available which would have been interesting but we chose the Fairgrounds tour which is about ½ mile long and explores some of the great formations in this cave. As time approached for this adventure we met at the designated spot where a ranger was waiting to guide us to the elevator that would drop us into the cave. This elevator only holds a small number of people so we had to wait in line until everyone was lowered several hundred feet beneath the surface. I tried to be towards the back of the line to minimize the amount of time spent waiting underground before entering the cave passages. Our opportunity to go down arrived and we entered the elevator. If there was a time for claustrophobia, this was it being packed in this little box slowly descending to a place natural light does not exist.

Part II, click here….

Adventure, Badlands National Park, Troy's Blog

Beginning in the Badlands (part II)

Badlands Entrance
Badlands Entrance

We rose early, quickly took in a continental breakfast courtesy of the hotel we stayed at, and headed south on 240. We traveled through Buffalo Gap National Grassland and came upon our first entrance where we decided to stop and take the requisite photo next to the Badlands National Park sign. Back in the car heading further into the park we stared at the unique landscape unfolding in front of us. Sage Creek Rim Road was the first turn off we encountered requiring a quick decision: do we continue on or take this turn. Sage Creek Rim Road it was hoping to find a spot nearby in order to stop and study the list of events and map that where handed to us at the entrance in order to get a bearing on where we want to go. Our first stop was at the Hay Butte Overlook where the map and events list were quickly forgotten as we got out of the car and focused our attention at the amazing hills sitting before our eyes. This is a moment forever engrained in my memory as I was struck by the beauty of colors, textures, and shapes creating this incredible landscape. I could no longer feel myself standing as this moment became very spiritual for me while I became a part of this place that has existed for thousands of years and will continue to be here long after I am gone. After accepting this, my attention turned to other family members taking in all there was to see. Down in the valley roamed one loan buffalo. Our first wild buffalo experience. The day had just begun and I had experienced all that I expected. What more could there be?

First Sights of the Badlands
One of our First Views of Badlands National Park

We could have spent the entire day just exploring this one area in the Northern portion of the Badlands but there was much more to see. Grudgingly I returned to the car as we looked over the list of events. Ohh, there’s a ranger program starting in 15 minutes that sounds interesting. Unfortunately we were 30 minutes away from the meeting place so this wouldn’t work. The next ranger program of interest didn’t start for over an hour at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center so maybe that would be a good place to start. Everybody returned to the car allowing us to head back towards 240 which would wind through the Badlands and end at the visitor center. There were many places that begged for us to stop as the scenery continued to be amazing and show us different views. We resisted in order to get to the visitor center to learn more about this park. Once at the visitor center we began looking over the models on display showing the evolution of the Badlands.

Junior Ranger Program
Becoming a Junior Ranger

During the course of this examination we stumbled upon the junior ranger program. Wow! A program directed completely at children. The kids received a booklet and needed to complete a certain amount during their adventure and then explain what they had learned to a ranger. Once the ranger is satisfied with all the kids learned, the potential junior ranger pledges to help keep the park as it is so other can learn and enjoy this special place. Upon completion of the pledge they receive a junior ranger badge. Both of our children decided to accept the journey to become a junior ranger. Fortunately, the ranger program we had made this trip for was a junior ranger program which would help them earn their badge. As the program wound down it was time for the board signature. I quickly headed towards the car to get our National Parks edition of Monopoly board and rushed back where the rest of the family was sitting. We asked the ranger for an odd favor – to sign our board on the Badlands property. He did so with an excited demeanor. Lysa and Kristy completed their necessary requirements and received their first junior ranger badge. Our first park complete! Time was passing as if with a purpose and we were starting to get hungry. What is available for food nearby? There was only the restaurant in the visitor’s center providing a meal without having to travel some distance. In we went for a bit of food, something to drink, and some refreshing cool air. After some rejuvenation we headed back out to explore a trail or two before the next ranger program of interest. There were two ranger programs on our agenda for the remainder of the afternoon and many stops throughout the Badlands just to enjoy the landscape.

Beginning in the Badlands part III….