Days #662-668 of Our Epic Trip

8-25-2025
H: 70ºF L: 46ºF
Boondocking, Stage Rd, Black Hills National Forest, Custer, South Dakota

We had an eventful day. On our way to South Dakota, we stopped at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. The columns are made of basalt and they are the world’s longest and largest natural rock columns. A truck driver we met recently while dry camping in a Walmart parking lot climbed this rock formation. We saw three climbers while we were there.

We also had an open discussion with two Jehovah Witnesses about being vegan. We asked how Jesus would kill an animal. We asked given that Adam and Eve were vegan in Eden and if the Rapture, which is eagerly anticipated, is supposed to bring us back to Eden, why wouldn’t they want to live as Eden-like as possible right now? We asked if the Bible is all about love and compassion, why wouldn’t they extend that love and compassion to animals?

The Devils Tower overlooks a field full of prairie dogs. I love watching these little guys! I witnessed one prairie dog, who was guarding his den, put his paw on the head of another prairie dog and push him/her back into the hole. I watched as they communicated with each other using barks and “wahoos”.

While it was fun watching the prairie dogs, we witnessed a 7-8 year old boy chase prairie dogs and kick dirt at them. He chased them into their dens then waited for them to poke their heads out of their dens only to kick dirt in their faces. I confronted the boy and he just ran from me. His mother called him back to the car. I yelled at the parents that it is not ok to let their kid chase and terrorize animals. The mother gave me an apologetic gesture as they pulled away. I believe these people were from Europe based on the non-English language I heard the mom speaking.

Parents: If your kid is anything but kind and compassionate toward animals, you need to be concerned as you may have a budding psychopath on your hands. I absolutely will confront your kid if I see them mistreating animals while you just sit by.

Once we got set up on our Black Hills National Forest campsite, we went for a walk. There are beautiful, sparkling rocks all around the area.

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8-26-2025
H: 75°F L: 48°F
Boondocking, Stage Rd, Black Hills National Forest, Custer, South Dakota

We drove into Custer, SD and we saw a lot of big, beautiful rocks including Bear Rock. It was the site of the “pioneer locating station for mining claims in 1876” according to Custer County Historical Society.

We walked around downtown Custer, SD. We found a barber shop named “A Dude’s Place” covered in petrified wood.

A knowledgeable man at a rock shop told us about Custer Cemetery where gravestones are covered in rocks and gems. These gravestones were obviously a fad at some point. We can’t believe all these pretty rocks were still in place. Personally, I was making a list of all the rocks I wanted.

We drove to Keystone, SD where the World’s Largest Bigfoot can be found. This is a Dalh’s Chainsaw Art creation.

We drove by Crazy Horse Memorial on our way to Mount Rushmore. We will visit Crazy Horse another day but it was an impressive sight from the road.

We decided to just drive by Mount Rushmore and not go in since this National Memorial is run by a concession company. That means that, even though we have an America the Beautiful pass which provides free entry to national parks, somehow a commercial company is in charge here and assesses fees. We feel a national memorial celebrating our great presidents should be free to all Americans. So we just took pictures from the road.

It’s such beautiful landscape that in some ways Mount Rushmore seems like the defacement of public land. I wonder what the two honored presidents still alive during the creation of this memorial, Lincoln and Roosevelt, thought about the giant depictions of their heads. Were they slightly embarrassed?

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8-27-2025
H: 76ºF L: 55ºF
Boondocking, Stage Rd, Black Hills National Forest, Custer, South Dakota

Daniel has had seeing the Crazy Horse Memorial on his bucket list for a long time. He gets choked up every time he relays the story of Crazy Horse being asked, “Where is your land now?” The response? “My lands are where my dead lie buried” as he pointed to the horizon.

The enormous project of carving a mountain into Crazy Horse and his horse was started in 1948 by Korcsak Ziolkowski at the behest of Lakota chiefs including Henry Standing Bear. Ziolkowski and his wife, Ruth, had 10 children whom they put to work – five boys working on the mountain and five girls greeting visitors. Ziolkowski passed away in 1982 but his children and grandchildren continue to work on the project.

The entrance fee is $30 but there is a lot more to see than just the mountain carving. There is a museum on Native American history and culture, daily performances, Ziolkowski’s cabin, a restaurant and gift shop, and a great movie about Ziolkowski and the project. The campus even has a university, The Indian University of North America. You can pay an additional $5 per person to take a bus to the base of the mountain or $125 per person to take a van to get face-to-face with Crazy Horse.

My favorite parts were being able to take a rock from the memorial and learning that kids played frisbee with buffalo poop in the 1800s. Daniel’s favorite parts were touring the Ziolkowski’s cabin and a video about Ziolkowski.

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8-28-2025
H: 69ºF L: 55ºF
Boondocking, Stage Rd, Black Hills National Forest, Custer, South Dakota

We saw a tiny mouse yesterday or rather the boys found her. They were gentle with her. She was walking under our camper and car and I was worried she might set up shop inside our camper. She disappeared yesterday but showed up again this morning. She’s so tiny – either a baby or a breed of mouse I’ve never seen before. I easily captured her and moved her further into the woods. When I released her, she didn’t move. So I offered her my hand and she climbed on. She felt cold so I held her cupped in my hands until she started to move around. Then I gave her water in the cap of an almond milk container. Since she had perked up, we put her near a tree stump where I had stacked some pretty rocks. Hours later she was still there, sitting on the stump next to my rocks. So I made her a house where she would be more protected and hopefully be able to keep warm. We left for the day but when we came home I heard her squeaking and found her near her house. She was cold again so Daniel and I held her until she warmed up and then gave her some oatmeal. She loved the oatmeal. I put her back in her house while I made dinner but she came wandering out and Peter nosed her too hard. She was injured and couldn’t walk. After more holding, warming, feeding and watering, she seemed to be on the mend. We kept her inside where she would be safe and warm hoping she would make it through the night.

During our adventures today, we passed by Bo the Bearded Buffalo. He was created by the same chainsaw artist who made the World’s Largest Bigfoot. I like Bo even better. He had so much detail from the buttons on his overalls to the red hankie in his back pocket.

We also went to Wind Cave National Park in Hot Springs, SD for some wildlife viewing. We saw a lot of prairie dogs and a couple bison. The bison are so cool. They walk so slowly like they don’t have a care in the world.

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8-29-2025
H: 66ºF L: 53ºF
Boondocking, Stage Rd, Black Hills National Forest, Custer, South Dakota

The sweet little mouse didn’t make it through the night. Daniel thought we should give her a name and for some reason Rachel popped into my head. We found a little bonsai-like tree growing out of a rock and laid her to rest under it.

We went to Hill City, SD to visit the CCC Museum of South Dakota and see the largest Smokey the Bear. At the museum, we learned the young men of the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930s were paid $30 per month but $25 of that was sent home to their families. The men were not only taught a trade like road, bridge, and dam construction but were also given an education. Most shocking was how quickly Franklin Roosevelt’s legislation was enacted. From start (FDR ordered staff to create a plan) to finish (establishment of the first CCC camp) only took 39 days. The legislation passed both house and senate and landed back on the president’s desk in ten days. About three months after the first camp was built, there were 1300 CCC camps around the country.

The museum we visited was free, although donations were welcomed, and focused on the work the CCC did in the Black Hills area. Other interesting facts we learned included: basic hygiene and social graces were taught, the newly enrolled men were sent to Army forts for physical conditioning, and the men were also instructed on culture, character, and citizenship.

We also saw the World’s Largest Smokey the Bear in Hill City, SD. This is another creation of Dalh’s Chainsaw Art.

We walked around downtown Hill City, SD. It is just a small town with tourist type shops except for an antique store that advertised it sold “Antiques, Collectibles & Guns”. I found a metal horse sculpture I really liked.

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8-30-2025
H: 70°F L: 62°F
Dry Camping, Murdo City Park, Murdo, South Dakota

We took the boys for a walk around the forest surrounding our campsite. There are big, crumbling rocks protruding from the ground. Some of the rocks have bonsai-like trees growing from them.

We moved to Murdo, SD today and stopped in Rapid City, SD on the way there. It’s a larger city but we had zero Verizon cell service so that was a little weird. We went to the Hotel Alex Johnson which was built in less than a year and opened in July 1928. Alex Johnson worked in the railroad industry and was an admirer of Native American culture and the Black Hills of South Dakota. The interior is decorated with Native American motif and is quite pretty…except for the swastikas. Yes, that’s right, swastikas on the floor tiles. Apparently, the left-facing symbol is used in other cultures including Native American culture where it’s called whirly logs and represents good luck, prosperity, and healing. The right-facing symbol was used for the Nazi party. That all sounds great except Nazi Germany started using the swastika in 1920 and it had been used before that by far right, antisemitic nationalist movements. The hotel was built in 1927-1928 and was also designed in the Germanic Tudor style to honor the “heavy German immigration to the Dakotas” according to the hotel’s website. On a basic level, it just seems like a bad decorating choice. I wonder how many times a week the hotel staff have to explain those “swastikas” to guests?

We walked around downtown Rapid City, SD which seems to be a nice area with fun shops and vibrant breweries.

We stopped in Wall, SD to charge and found the World’s Largest Jackalope also created by Dalh’s Chainsaw Art.

Near the end of our drive today we drove through rain and were rewarded with a small rainbow.

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8-31-2025
H: 77ºF L: 62ºF
Dry Camping, Cracker Barrel, Sioux Falls, South Dakota

We learned that Verizon had a service outage so that’s what happened in Rapid City, SD when we didn’t have cell service.

We had a long drive today and are dry camping in Sioux Falls, SD at a Cracker Barrel.

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Stats

Expenses:

• Tesla Cybertruck fuel: $121.89
• Tesla Model X fuel: $0
• Campsite: $0
• Camping memberships: $38.26
• Food: $144.12

Tesla Cybertruck miles driven: 554.5 (421.8 kWh)

Tesla Model X miles driven: 788.1 (197.7 kWh)

Number of people asking about the Tesla pulling the camper: 1

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