Well, we are finally in the Black Hills of South Dakota and I am super happy we are here. We will be circling around Custer for the next month checking out the different campgrounds.
It has been super hot - mid to high 80's and we have been riding mostly in the early mornings when we can.
The folks at Broken Arrow are as nice as can be. Very welcoming.
They even have a pastor who lives in the campground and leads Sunday morning prayer services.
We were invited to attend while we were checking in. I explained that we are Jewish and we attend services with our congregation at home on-line. I am pretty sure we are the only Jews he has ever met.
The horses are in decent sized stalls with cover. This is nice because of the heat and we have been experiencing thunderstorms on and off in the evenings.
We had a terrible thunderstorm Tuesday evening. It was quite the light show. South Dakota does not mess around when it comes to thunderstorms. Another thunderstorm Thursday night.
The campground does not allow you to tack up your horses at your campsite, but they provide FREE! golf carts so you can haul your tack to the barns and tack up there. This is a real awesome amenity. We feel quite spoiled - especially when we have been driving our truck to the barn with our tack.
There are hitching posts next to the barn. I didn't appreciate this so much until we had to tie up the horses to the fence posts when we were at Fort Robinson.
Only about half the people staying at this campground have horses, so I do appreciate that they have this sign posted. While I don't really mind people petting our horses, I don't want anybody feeding my horses anything without my knowledge. Horses have sensitive tummies and they get stomach aches easily.
Campsites are full hook-up and pull-through. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring. They also have free WIFI. The WIFI is awesome. We have been able to stream shows and Ari can even play his on-line video game.
You leave any garbage out in the morning at the end of your camping pad and staff comes by and picks it up.
There is also a laundry area and showers.
You can see the Black Hills in the distance.
Our first ride was on the BE trail. It was very pretty, not too difficult, mostly through pastures.
We went into Custer to see the sights. They have buffalo statues at the ends of every street.
I love when towns do this with different painted animals. Los Gatos has their cats. Chicago has bulls. Norfolk has mermaids. Suffolk has beehives.
Our second trail ride was to Beecher's Rock. This was a really nice ride and I highly recommend it.
It's a little more interesting than the BE trail. The rock formations are fabulous and the views from the top of the ridge are awesome.
Ari loves a view.
On Thursday we decided to take the day off riding (temps were in the high 80s. Instead, we decided to tour Wind Cave National Park. The Lakota Indians have a creation story tied to the cave. The story goes that the Great Spirit created the earth, but before the earth was created, the Lakota tribe lived inside this cave. Once the earth was ready for human occupation, the Lakota tribe came up to the surface to live.
This is the opening in the cave where the Lakota tribe emerged from. Supposedly after the tribe had exited the cave, the opening was shrunk down so nobody could get in or out.
We did the moderate cave tour which runs a little over an hour. We got to the park around 10:30 am as the first tour starts around 10:40. To our surprise, the place was packed. Apparently people started lining up for the cave tours before they even opened. We ended up getting tickets for the 1:40 pm tour. Our campground is only 20 minutes from the park, so we drove back to our campsite and had lunch and then came back for the tour.
The cave tour was not a lot of talking from the ranger - basically you just walked through. It is a dry cave, but cool (we were looking forward to being out of the heat). There are none of the more common cave formations - like columns, stalagmites, etc. But the cave was quite impressive and the tour was definitely worth it.
There are buffalo and elk in the park. You can horse back ride in the park, but you need to get a free permit from the ranger at the visitor center. The park is adjacent to Custer State Park and Centennial Trail runs through both parks. We got a permit since we will be camping at Custer State Park at the end of the month and I would like to ride Centennial Trail.
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