Union Grove State Park - Beresford, South Dakota

 

Union Grove State Park might be referred to as the little sister of Newton Hills State Park.

The horses are in good-sized corrals up a hill above the equestrian campground

There is a nice picnic pavilion for equestrians to gather

There is a single wheel barrow provided for all the corrals.

Previous equestrians did not clean up after their horses, so Ari and I spent some of our time cleaning out the manure to make it a little nicer.

We have electric hook-up only.

There is a single water pump next to the vault toilet. Luckily we have enough hose to run the hose all the way up to the hill to the corrals, so we don't need to carry heavy buckets of water up hill.

The camp host saw us as we were riding on the trail and he came by later to say 'hi'. He told us he won't clean up after campers, so it is basically on us to maintain the equestrian campground.

We are the only campers, so we are fine being responsible for ourselves.

The trails here are very limited, maybe an hour's worth of riding, but they are well maintained, nice and easy trails.

Newton Hills State Park - Canton, South Dakota

 

We drove past the entrance to the horse camp as it is not labeled horse camp. We drove to the state park entrance and were told to turn around and go back a half mile to this entrance.

There is an RV dump at the park entrance, so if you need to dump your gray and black tanks, you have to go into the state park, dump your tanks and then come back out to go to the horse camp.

Each campsite gets one large pen for your horses. There wasn't anybody using the campsite next to us, so initially we put Lennox in that pen and Mercutio in the pen belonging to our campsite.

Wheelbarrows are provided for each pen. You are instructed to fill the wheelbarrow and someone will come by each morning to dump it for you.

Later when another camper took the spot next to us, we set up our portable corral next to Mercy's pen. Lennox got to stay in the portable corral and he was quite happy.

We were expecting some showers, so we put up our shelter in Mercy's pen to give him some cover from the rain.

We had electric hook-up only. There was a single water pump for the entire camp, but we had enough hose to get water from the pump to our pens.

Our Winegard worked fine, so we had internet.

The campsites were shady and nice. 

There are about 10-12 miles of trails, so not a lot of riding. But the trails are easy and flat in a pretty wooded area with lots of wild flowers.

I put Mercy in the lead and he behaved really well for all three rides that we did.

It seems like the tune-up work Ari did with him helped immensely. He was a lot calmer.

He spooked a few times - once at a squirrel and one time an apple fell down from a tree right in front of him and that surprised him. However, he didn't just take off and start running away. Instead, he startled and then recovered, which is much better.

Sioux Falls - the largest city in South Dakota with about 200,000 people - is about 30 minutes from this campground. We took an afternoon to explore Sioux Falls and we were not disappointed.

Of course, you can't visit Sioux Falls without going to Falls Park, where you can see a large collection of water falls.

It is a lovely park, plenty of parking and easy to find.

This would be a great location for a yoga or meditation class.

We went into the downtown area to walk around and see the public art.

There was a patisserie! Oh my stars, a real patisserie!  I splurged and bought beignets and croissants for our breakfast for the next few mornings. Then Ari and I shared this lovely chocolate mousse with a gold flake decoration.

This is a statue of a trapper. 

Porter Sculpture Park - Montrose, South Dakota

 

On our way to our next campground, we made a slight detour to the Porter Sculpture Park. This was an excellent way to break up our drive, have a lunch break, and feast our eyes on some wonderful art.

Wayne Porter, the artist, was actually sitting in the gift shop and talking with all the guests. He is an affable, delightful man.

He keeps the park open except in the winter. During the winter months, he runs his sheep farm and creates his art.

He has a wonderful sense of humor and is a bit of a philosopher.

He is self-taught and his work is amazing.

I think the butterfly piece was my favorite.

Entitled "Pain and Joy"

Pain and joy can co-exist

But neither lasts forever.

The butterfly flies away.

The thorn is removed.

Entitled "Dream Afraid to Be Ridden"

The horse can not run.

It can only rock.

It can only be free when it is ridden.

Some pieces are quite complex with a lot happening.

This one made me think of the nursery rhyme - Little Miss Muffet - but no tuffet.

This captures the terror and exhilaration of childhood.

Not all of the pieces have a poem or story attached.

This piece is entitled "The Ballerina"

It has a story of a woman who cleans the auditorium as the ballerinas rehearse. The cleaner dreams of dancing on the stage. Her dreams are golden that she gathers in her bucket.

Some of the pieces are just joyful.

This was my second favorite piece - "The Yankee Ron" has the story of Wayne's brother, Ron, attempting to ride a donkey they use to guard their flock of sheep. Wayne tells his brother he is going to create a statue of Ron attempting to ride and Ron says, "That's fine, just make me taller."

This piece is entitled "The Red Hammer"

Anything worth building may break a few hammers.

This piece is entitled "Mirror Image"

Humans are like wild boars. We are more alike than different. Wild boars will attack each other for no reason.

This rock isn't one of his artworks, but he has a sign next to it.

This piece is entitled "The Wise Man"

The wise man sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil...but in order to reach this point of enlightenment, he has been mangled by life.

The artist has entitled this piece "The Magic Dragon".

Apparently, locals and tourists have often proposed in front of the dragon.

No title for this one, but I would call it "Incredulous"

"Cracked GoldFish Bowl"

Said one fish to the other,

"Let us find a way out...explore"

Said the other,

"We are goldfish, we live in a bowl."

"Yes, but there must be a crack, a door, a soul"

But, they never found one.

But, they swam far.

"Buzzard Row"

They are reincarnated politicians, ready to pick the bones of their constituents.