1200 Miles West

How many of you can say you have been to the highest point in South Dakota? Thought so, no too many. During our trip to South Dakota we were able to get out and enjoy our first hike of the year. I like my walks in the woods to be challenging so I chose a hike up Harney Peak in South Dakota to make sure our hearts would at least pump a little.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are very scenic with interesting rock formations, beautiful pine trees, and a nice green plushness as compared to Colorado.

One of the neat things along the hike were the Cathedral Spires. Yes those are people on top of those rocks. Fools.

We started at about 6000 feet (we live at 5400 in Colorado) and hiked up to the peak at 7242 feet. With the ups downs on the trip though, my GPS says we gained almost 2000 feet of elevation overall. The view from the top was spectacular and supposedly you could see five states: South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Montana. On the day we were there though, someone forgot to turn on the dotted lines so you could pick out the state borders.

There is a lookout tower on the summit that the Forest Service manned until 1967 to keep watch for forest fires.

Here we are, the happy couple, on the peak. I must say that Erin hardly complained at all during the seven mile round trip. Yes, my shirt is a nice bright orange and doubles as a safety signal in an emergency.

We had a great time during our hike and I look forward to the thirteeners and fourteeners we’ll summit this summer.

Mountain goats and white tailed deer, oh my!

We snapped this picture driving down the road. What’s surprising is that these guys weren’t even phased by the cars that were driving by.

Hiking in Custer State Park we rounded the corner to find two white tail deer grabbing an afternoon snack.

I was the driving force behind us heading to South Dakota over the long weekend as I wanted to see Mount Rushmore. I had heard stories of it’s gander and majesty, but growing up in the Midwest, a trip to the Black Hills on a Summer vacation was not high on the list.

As we headed up the hill coming out of Keystone, SD here was my first exposure to the great masterpiece:

Even from the car at this distance, I could already appreciate the hard work and dedication that went into building this monument.

Mount Rushmore is a memorial that symbolizes America, and Americans should never lose sight of their cultural beginnings. -Gerard Baker, Superintendent.

It was fitting that we spent Memorial Day visiting one of the greatest monuments in American History. I won’t bore you with all the details of who built it, why it was built, or how long it tool to construct, but if you have the chance I would strongly suggest that you take time out of your busy schedule to visit this piece of our history that we can all be proud of.

For those of you who are interested, here are some facts that I pulled off of the nps.gov site that I found interesting.

Did You Know?
There were approximately 400 workers that worked at Mount Rushmore during the carving process from October 1927 to October 1941. Also throughout this extremely dangerous work there were no lives lost.

Did you know that the figure of Thomas Jefferson was started on Washington’s right? after 18 months of carving the figure of Jefferson had to be dynamited off the mountain and restarted on the left of Washington.

Mount Rushmore is named after a New York City Attorney? Charles E. Rushmore was sent out to this area in 1884 to check legal titles on properties. On his way back to Pine Camp he asked Bill Challis the name of this mountain. Bill replied, “Never had a name but from now on we’ll call it Rushmore.”

Over 90% of Mount Rushmore was carved by using dynamite. Dynamite blasts removed approximately 450,000 tons of rock from the mountain.

That there is a cave in the mountain behind the heads on Mount Rushmore? It is called the Hall of Records. Gutzon Borglum and his workers started the drilling in July of 1938 and work was halted in July of 1939.

Still new to the State of Colorado, we decided to venture out during our first three-day weekend of 2008 and check out the Black Hills of South Dakota, so on Saturday morning we jumped into the car and headed North.

The farthest North I had been was Fort Collins, so as we ventured into the outskirt of Wyoming I was excited. I’m not sure why I was excited, especially seeing as a majority of the drive (3+ hours) looked just like this ————>

I’m not saying that it’s not beautiful country up there, but if you don’t stop and get gas or use the bathroom when they advertise the option, you may be out of luck.

Mike had done some research ahead of time, so we knew where we were staying and approximately how long it would take us to get there. Thank goodness for the GPS!

After about 4.5 hours in the car we hit South Dakota and the Black Hills. We wound through the hills (I can call them that as I live in CO where we have REAL mountains) and finally arrived in Deadwood, SD. It was like stepping back in time as Main Street looked as it may have over 100 years ago.

The town is the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickock who was shot in the back of the head by Jack McCall while playing poker at the No. 10 Saloon on Aug 2, 1876.

The introduction of gaming has enabled Deadwood to preserve its historic buildings and dramatically increase tourism. The lure of gaming is not the only draw to Deadwood; people are also fascinated by its unique, colorful history.

We definitely enjoyed our time in Deadwood and would highly recommend it to anyone. We contributed to the economy, although I would have liked to walk away with one of the jackpots. Maybe next time!

I can’t say that things have been too chaotic or that I haven’t had time to blog, I just haven’t.  No excuses!

Today we returned from South Dakota where we spent time hiking in the Black Hills, visiting Mt. Rushmore and gambling in Deadwood.  Took over 50 pictures during the trip, so stay tuned as I will post updates this week.  I promise.

We were worried that we’d have to wait until September to get grass, but fortunately it was installed today!

They’ve also installed the sprinklers and the tubing for the drip system. They will be back in approximately 2 weeks to finish the job. Stay tuned as we’ll be posting pics once the patio has been installed, the trees are in place, the flowers/bushes are planted and the rocks are in place.

Here’s a couple more views so that you can see the unfinished part of the yard:

Below are the updates from Brightkite that Sara and I submitted via our phones during the 5k. You may want to start at the bottom and work your way up!

Also, sorry the quality of the photos aren’t that great…but what do you expect from when we used our Crackberry?

Last Wednesday we were treated to a night out at the ballpark by Sara. For Mike’s b-day she bought us two tickets to the game and two beers!

It appeared to me that there were more St. Louis fans in the audience then Rockie’s fans, but during the bottom of the 7th inning the team took charge of the game while down 0-3 and pulled out a 4-3 win!

We participated in the Home Run for the Homeless 5k this weekend and by doing so we each get two free tickets to future Rockie’s games. I wonder who we’ll take???

Had my tank actually been empty, I think I would have spent at least $60 to fill it up!  When I bought my Jeep five years ago, I could fill it up for between $25 and $30 bucks…where did those days go?

Today, Sara and I proved that we are Iron Girls as we participated in the Iron Girl 5k run/walk at City Park in Denver. It was another early morning, but thankfully it was much warmer today. After finding each other somewhere around 16th and Steele we proceeded to check in. This was by far, the best organized event that I have been to in a long time.

We took some time to walk around the tents, got our Aflac ducks and then decided that we didn’t want to carry our t-shirts and what not with us during the walk so we jogged back to the car to ensure that we didn’t miss the start of the race.

It was a beautiful day for a walk and we averaged approximately 15 minutes a mile. Not back for a Sunday stroll. After the race we walked around a little more before we the following picture was snapped.

For those of you who heard me talking about the event ahead of time, I was hoping that I’d end up with a shirt that had the Iron Girl logo and the duck, but this was even more thrilling as Sara and I got to pose in front of a giant one with our race medals on!

Check out this brightkite link to a picture that Sara snapped with her camera after the race - this sums up the day perfectly!  (At some point I need to learn how to use brightkite!)

Looking forward to next Sunday when Mike, Sara and I participate in the Home Run for the Homeless which is another 5k run/walk that will take place at/around Coors Field. Although, if Sara doesn’t figure out if she’s registered or not, it may just be Mike and I…I hope I don’t have to walk alone!