Traveling America By Van: Custer
By: John Kumiski
One of the places I wanted to visit during our trip was the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Here the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes combined forces in a last-ditch effort to protect their homes and way of life. Pitted against them was the US Army's Seventh Cavalry, led by General George Custer. Most readers already know how the battle ended.
The National Cemetery at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
In spite of winning the battle, the Indians ultimately lost. Those that weren't massacred ended up living in dire poverty on reservations.
The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument tells the story of the battle from both sides. I was surprised and gratified that the Indians have a presence here, with stones marking where their warriors fell as well as a monument dedicated to those who fell in battle here.
Memorial stone at Little Bighorn Battlefield.
Naturally, there are monuments and stones for the US Army soldiers, too. The National Monument is also a national cemetery, where soldiers from many conflicts are interred.
This is not a place you visit to have fun. The tone here is somber and dignified. We learned a lot about the battle and the people engaged in it. I felt a deep sorrow that such an event had to happen, even as I knew that it had been inevitable.
If you find yourself in the area, the Monument is certainly worth visiting. Give yourself at least two hours, with three being better.
Our campsite that night was in Hardin. It was not particularly memorable (although it had the largest bathhouse and shower stalls of the trip), but the sunset that evening was incredible! Sky colors quickly came and went as the earth and the clouds moved. I shot a lot of frames, and kept perhaps six.
Sunset from our campground in Hardin.
Morning found us rolling east on the interstate, headed to Belle Fourche. Have you ever heard of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally? I had, but didn't know much about it. It certainly wasn't on our radar. We walked right into the 81st Annual, a massive event with tens of thousands of participants.
The first Sturgis event, sponsored by Indian Motorcycles and held in 1938, consisted of a single race with nine participants. That humble seed had grown into an enterprise that has an $800 million economic impact on Sturgis and the surrounding communities. I'm all for it, but don't want to be in the middle of it. But we were, so we made the best of it.
Our first excursion into the Black Hills was on South Dakota Highway 14A, through the Spearfish Canyon. A beautiful drive, there were thousands of bikes using it. We could not stop and leisurely enjoy the scenery because there wasn't any room at any of the pull-offs. Bikers had the place surrounded! So we drove straight through, and headed to Mount Rushmore.
These folks need no introduction.
A Mount Rushmore visit is free. Parking, however, is fourteen dollars. In spite of the rally there were plenty of parking spots. In the national monument, though, thousands of people crowded the concourse. Few were wearing masks. Your reporter has a respiratory illness and dares not contract COVID. Our stay was short.
Belle Fourche was far enough from Sturgis that we were easily able to find a campsite. Like the last one, it was not particularly memorable. But again, we had a lovely sunset that I tried to capture with my camera.
Sunset from our campground in Belle Fourche
Morning found us tooling down to Custer State Park. On our first day in Texas, near the beginning of our trip, we'd met a woman who told us, "You have to visit Custer State Park!" We were following her advice. It turned out to be good.
We got to the entrance to find a special rally price of twenty dollars per vehicle, cash only. Although there's no way to know, it would not surprise me to hear that the park pulled in a million dollars during the rally. There were that many motorcycles there.
After a stop at the visitors center we followed the wildlife drive. Less than a mile in, we ran into a bison-induced traffic jam. The road was blocked by all kinds of vehicles and motorcycles, all wanting to watch the herd of bison that was there.
Buffalo are dangerous.
We wanted to watch, too.
If you visit YouTube and type "bison attacks" into the search box, you can see how crazy people get around these animals. Bison are large and powerful, wild and unpredictable. They are certainly not pets! Fortunately, we witnessed no attacks, but you could see why they happen.
And there were so many bison. It was more amazing than the Bison Range. After that first herd we found another, and then another. The prairie dog town was interesting, too, and we stopped to watch. Prairie dogs are cute. But a prairie dog cannot command attention the way a bison can.
Bison are large, powerful animals!
At the end of the state park, we entered Wind Cave National Park. We'd never heard of it. There was a bison herd immediately. We ignored them and went to the visitors center.
The Wind Cave is one the largest cave systems on the planet. The park offers tours. We took one.
According to the creation story of the Sioux people, their ancestors came out of a hole in the ground. That hole exists- it's the tiny, original entrance to the Wind Cave. Now it's in a national park, a tourist attraction.
The hole from which the Sioux nation sprang, according to their legends.
The current entrance has a heavy, locking door. Tourists then follow a dimly lit path that goes down, down, down, hundreds of feet into the earth. The guide tells the story of the cave's exploration and exploitation as the tourists marvel at its wonders. It truly is wonderful, too, although it's hard to get pictures in there. Two hours later, everyone takes an elevator back to the surface and goes about their other business.
We went back to Custer State Park, and got on a lightly used dirt road. We saw no bison there, but did see deer, pronghorn antelope, and thousands of prairie dogs. Then we came out onto the main wildlife drive and got to see more bison.
Although Custer lost his life battling Indians, he's still a larger than life figure in eastern Montana and western South Dakota. It's a fantastic area to visit, well worth the trip. I'm glad we got to experience a bit of it.
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