Rushmore Cave

We visited Rushmore Caves today, it was discovered back 1876 gold rush. They are still discovering new passages today. The Black Hills are home to the 2nd largest cave system in the US. The Black Hills are one of the oldest mountain ranges in the US. Geologists believe this cave, with its world-class big room, began forming 60 million years ago.

A Real Ghost Town!

We got a tip from a local that there was a real ghost town in the hills near by! So we set out on a hike down some fire roads and trails and final came across it. We didn’t find any ghost. It was an old gold mine that never worked out. There were still some vertical mine shafts that were halfway collapsed.

South Dakota Air and Space Museum

We visited the South Dakota Air and Space Museum today at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

This is the underground control center for a Minuteman Missile Silo

This is an interesting story about Bismarck the dog, click on the text to enlarge it.

Recognize this fellow? We’re getting there. :)

Black Hills, South Dakota

Here’s a peek at the area we manage, we’ll post more later. It took a little bit of work to get it cleaned up and ready to go. Things are settling down now and we have more free time. These are some pictures of Deerfield Lake.

This is our new 'office' sign!

Our front yard!

Deerfield lake is a fisherman’s paradise

Our back yard!

This is our commute to work, the only traffic here are the antelope, deer and cougars. The game & fish officer tagged a 170 lbs cougar just down the road from us. So I let Jane walk the dogs now. >;p

Oh hail…. The Black Hills get some severe thunder storms, we had pea size hail. Some of the other counties had golf ball and baseball size hail!! Our NOAA radio goes nuts here at lest 3 times a day! Most of the time the days are in the low 70’s and the nights are in the mid 50’s.

Got a J O B? Oh my…..

Black Hills, South Dakota update

We’ve signed on here in the Black Hills National Forest to manage 2 campgrounds, 2 day use areas and a boat ramp on Deerfield Lake. We’ll be staying here till the end of the season around the middle of September. We get VIP passes to all the local entertainment and National monuments. We’ll try to update you once a week on our excursions. From now on we will be Ranger Rob & Jane at your service, remember… only you can prevent forest fires!

Our campsite (White Tail) is located at these coordinates: N44 00.691 W103 48.177
The other campground (Custer Trails) and boat ramp coordinates: N44 01.490 W103 47.889

Badlands South Dakota

We’re here at the Badlands staying in Interior SD, (pop. 89) this really is the middle of nowhere.
The Blog has finally caught up with us! We get free high speed WIFI here at the Badlands Ranch. We stayed here a little longer waiting on a package from PetMeds for the dogs and trying to get some tires fixed and replaced. We have one tire that has gone bald and I went to replace it with the spare and the spare’s valve stem was broken. Better to have found out here in the campground than on the side of the highway! The closest tire shop is over 70 miles away. I was able to get the spare fixed but no one has a replacement tire. We’re leaving for Hill City in the Black Hills, SD tomorrow so we’ll look there.

Here are some shots of the Badlands Ranch & Resort we are staying at

Here's our site

The pictures we are posting of the Badlands can’t come close to what it really looks like in person. We spent a couple days hiking and driving thru them, the colors are incredible! The Prairie Dog towns have hundreds of Prairie Dogs running around, they are fun to watch. We saw some rabbits, Prong Horn antelope and plenty of snakes!

This is one of the hikes we went on thru Saddle Pass, the kids loved it! You can hike right up the canon wall!!

We visited Wall Drug, if you’ve never been here you’re missing out! Wall Drug started back in 1931. They had no business whatsoever, until they came up with the idea to give free ice water to all the travelers that were headed to the Badlands. That was the beginning, now during summer months they have as many as 20,000 visitors a day! Luckily it wasn’t that crowded when we were there! The kids love playing in the water park!

Prairie Dogs in their ‘town’

Sunset and rain storms over the Badlands.

All the photos and movies are posted on our Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r_staffordjr/sets