Sturgis 2013 -the trip home.

After a wonderful week in Sturgis, Hill City and Rapid City it was time to head back home to southeastern South Dakota.  But we couldn't pass up making a few stops as we went.  The first stop was at the Badlands.  If you have not seen the badlands it's another one of those wonders of nature that has you shaking your head.  South Dakota is know for it's vast open prairie grasslands, mountains on the west side of the state and rolling hills and valley on the east side, but the badlands is this arid, spiky rock formations that have such unique color variation.

I could spend days wondering through the eroded buttes being totally amazed at the sharp angles and colors that pictures don't seem to be truly capture. 

And no stop is complete if you don't make a stop at Wall Drug, which we stopped  at on our way to Sturgis.  Wall Drug is place know for multitude of gift shops, free ice water and 5 cent coffee, but the comical part is the billboards on the way. 

This one is right at the beginning of our trip at Sioux Falls.

As your driving along you see all kind of different road side billboards advertising Wall Drug and one of these days when our grandchildren are older I'm going to have them count just how many signs they see along the way. 

Finally we arrived our destination and surprise there is motorcycles everywhere. 

And no trip is complete if you didn't see the famous Jackelope.  The local legend of the half Jack Rabbit half Antelope creature. You can even hop up in the saddle to get your picture taken. 

The final stop of the trip was Crazy Horse Memorial.  This is such an outstanding dream of Korczak Ziolcowski tribute to the Sioux Indian nation and the dedication of the Zilocowski family carving this monster of sculpture into a mountain.  Korczak started carving in 1948 and today his sons are continuing his dream to hopefully one day to be completed.  

 You either take the hiking path up to the top and walk around on the arm section and get right up to the head or you can the bus part of the way and then hike the rest.  From a distance you can the see head is large, but once your up there your just a gasped at how big it really is. People look like ants next to the head. 

Next time we are there we will stop by at night when they do a night blasting and a light show where they use lighting and projections of what the mountain will eventually look like completed.  So cool!!

It was so nice to come home and see the mother Friesian and her new foal out in the pasture.  This little guy was born the day before we left, so see him romping around made coming home such a joy.  

I wasn't the only one glad to be home after a week being gone, several of the other horse starting kicking up there heels and running to where I was standing just like they were say...yeah mom's home!!

Thank you so much for coming along with us on our vacation and I'm already looking forward to next year.