The Last Days

Friday was the day we had to check out of our awesome rental house.

We debated on whether to find somewhere else to stay in South Dakota before going home or just get moving since I had to work Monday morning. I wanted to find somewhere to stay but James was the voice of reason saying it would be really nice to be able to have a day at home to unpack before going back to work. We decided to check out a few more things in the area before heading toward home. We got everything packed up in the car and then went to breakfast at the same place we went on Wednesday in the town of Custer. This time I had the acai bowl and James had pancakes. Then we ordered some pastries to go.

Bear Country was about half an hour from Custer in Rapid City. I had gone there when I was probably 7 which I had assumed was right after they opened but actually they’ve been around for 50 years. There is a big entrance where a guy met us and told us what animals they have there now and where to find them. They also have an area at the end (with the gift shop of course) where you walk around and see other animals that are in smaller enclosures. They have window cleaner there by the entrance because you aren’t allowed to open anything while driving through, which makes sense. The guy said if the animals smell food they can come up and break your window and since we had pastries in the car we didn’t push it.

The reindeer were first up and they were cute. They all looked like they had little shoes on their feet. Then we passed by some sheep and elk. I couldn’t get a good shot of the elk but I do have a few of the sheep. These were males so they had the full curled horns unlike the ones we saw at the Badlands.

There was one mountain goat as well. It was in a pen by itself and didn’t seem to mind. While we were driving around I saw his enclosure coming up and this big goat on a rock in the center. For about 10 min I thought this was a statue since it didn’t move at all but turns out, that was the goat. It did finally move but not by much. I guess he likes his perch there above everyone else. He even kind of sits at the top of a little incline so he can really stare out over everyone. They also had some large cats but they were behind a fence for safety.

They keep the bears toward the end and they had so many! There were black and brown bears. They didn’t have any cubs in this area. The other animals had babies like the sheep and the buffalo. I think the guy at the front said there was one other newborn there but I can’t remember which animal it was. Anyway, the bears were so cute. They were just roaming around all over the place. At one point we had one lumbering after our car. He wasn’t menacing or anything, I think he was just going that direction. We came up on a big traffic jamb in this area. To be fair there was a lot to look at and one of the bears was taking a bath so I kind of think everyone was stopped there to see it.

The buffalo and antelope were at the end. I didn’t get any good pictures of those either. The antelope were pretty far away and we had seen a lot of buffalo in the wild already. So we parked and went around the walking area. They don’t allow any pets (even service animals) in this area so they don’t interact with the caged animals. Only a few of the pens were fully enclosed, most were just fenced in and I think if something caught their attention they could get out.

They had wolves, bear cubs, prairie dogs, and otters in this section. They were all adorable. Two of the bear cubs were sleeping in a tree and the one kept yelling like it couldn’t figure out how to get back down. The other one sleeping finally woke up and got down the tree and then the little sad one followed his lead.

After seeing these little fur balls we got back on the road. When we were in the Badlands, James wanted to go to this kind of off road trail he had heard about, but we didn’t have time. So we decided to go and give it a try.

It is called Sheep Mountain Table Road. Anyone can drive about half way down it and then you hit a sign saying you need a high clearance vehicle to continue. You are driving in between the land features at this point which was really cool.

When we got down to the high clearance signs we saw a minivan parked an no one around. We figured someone was out walking around. So we go down the trail and James keeps saying “we’ll see how far we make it” because he had watched some videos that looked like it might be more than the Bronco could drive through. I think it was fine.

Every time there was something that looked too hard to go through there was a little path to go around the area. We made a few stops to look at the area again but this time less traveled.

After adventuring for a little while we saw a man walking the trail. I would say he was in his 60’s just trucking right along down this path on foot. We passed him and then he caught up to us at the end of the trail. We ran into a spot that we couldn’t go across with the Bronco but it turns out we were very close to the end anyway. After walking down to the end I’m glad we stopped when we did because the trail just stops at a drop off and then you’re surrounded by the sights. It was really cool to see. I walked down taking a video and when I got back James was talking to the man on the trail. He was from Ohio and seemed very nice. James wanted to get one of the RC cars out and drive it a little. The man came back up the trail in time to see us and he thought it was cool. I wish I had gotten his name.

James and I walked back to the end of the trail just so he could see it too. Then we got back in the car and, really, started the drive home. It’s weird to think we drove from the Badlands to home but that’s what we did.

Once we got on 90 we found a little place to eat dinner. Nothing fancy, it was really the only place to eat for a long way. I had chicken fingers and fries, James had a roast beef sandwich with gravy and potatoes. At some point we decided just to get home and not stop overnight. We took turns driving as we do and got home around 10pm on Saturday night. We unpacked the car, got a much needed shower, and passed out shortly after. It was nice to have a whole day to unpack the bags and do laundry.