“Take only memories, leave only footprints.” It’s an old backpacker’s mantra and at some point, the photographically inclined morphed it into “Take only photographs, leave only footprints.” Probably Kodak. (remember them?) I don’t shop. We might have established that already. But even a guy like me wants to bring home a little trinket or tchotchke from…
We had a campsite reserved, but with 100 degree days in the forecast, we made a last minute change. Two miles from our national park site was a private campground with air-conditioned camper cabins. As luck would have it, someone had cancelled and I snapped up the room, proudly announcing the good fortune to my…
Long before the sunrise photographers arrive, the world is beautiful. The details are subdued, the air is still, and I like to imagine how the light will fall on the landscape and reveal the scene. For me, it’s a time of wonder and anticipation, especially when the place is new to me. At the end…
Two quotes from Theodore Roosevelt: “This broken country extends back from the river for many miles and has been called always by Indian, French voyager and American trappers alike, the Bad Lands.” “Nowhere, not even at sea, does a man feel more lonely than when riding over the far-reaching, seemingly never-ending plains; and after a…
I never realized I had driven past the missile silos so often over the years. You can see one from I-90, but unless you know what you were looking for, it’s just be another nondescript building on the prairie. The central plains were a safe place to house our intercontinental ballistic missiles during the Cold…
I’m not a shopper, so it is hard to get me excited about a store. I will likely end up as one of those old men who sits on a bench eating ice cream or feeding pigeons as my wife shops. Every Smokey Mountains has its Pigeon Forge. Every Niagra has its strip of saltwater…
It’s quite a goal to turn a mountain into a sculpture. The Black Hills have done it once, and 17 miles down the road, they are doing it a second time. Mount Rushmore was started in 1927. South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson wanted to attract visitors to the state and approached Gutzon Borglum to…
Sing with me… “Oh give me a home,where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play.” And the mountain goats. And the wild burro. And the elk. Good grief, there is a lot of wildlife in Custer State Park! We made three trips through Wildlife Loop Road, an 18-mile paved route through classic…
I like a dirt path. Too much time with city pavement under my boots makes me crabby, so it was good to hit the trails in Custer State Park. I’ve always thought the place deserved national park status with its varied geography and bountiful wildlife, but I guess if I were South Dakota, I would…
WideEyedRambler 