Did We Eat Yet?

 Two days, three states, and 1,008 miles on the rental car.

Leaving LAX the good way, over the beach.

I flew to Denver to start my adventure of tight schedules and early mornings. If only there were a Del Taco (for the vegan burrito with french fries in it) and Starbucks (for tea) next to each other near my Airbnb on Saturday morning. Yep, Denver can do that.

From Denver I drove to Wyoming and then crossed the border to a new state–South Dakota! I rented a Toyota Yaris (or similar) and then refused the Subaru upgrade at check-in. But they gave me the Subaru anyway for free! (I suspect that means they’d rented all their Yari.) I’d always wanted to try driving a Subaru. I can see why people buy them if they plan to go on a lot of outdoor adventures.

The first stop was The Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota, which is an active dig site for mammoth bones.

Imagine a matriarchal society on the plains of what will one day become South Dakota. When young males start to show signs of becoming troublesome adults, they are kicked out of the herd. So they wander in the cold looking for food until one day they find a pond! The pond is warm (90-95 degrees, probably because it is fed by a hot spring), and grass grows in the spearfish red shale around the pond’s edge. But the pond is a trap. The spearfish red shale is slippery, and once the young males are in the pond munching grass, they can’t get out again. So now we have a concentration of young male mammoth bones at a dig site. (If they’d stayed with the herd, they’d benefit from the long-term memory of their mothers who had seen and remembered that the pond was dangerous, and who warned those with them not to be tempted by the grass. Which is why there are no older or female mammoth bones in the pond.)

This is the short-faced bear.

You can see that the short-faced bear was significantly larger than the bears we have now (he’s standing in the back trying to eat birds out of the tree).

 After visiting the mammoths, I drove Needles Highway toward Custer State Park. I’d heard that bison still wandered everywhere, and it turned out to be true! (And adorable since it was baby bison season.)

Cathedral Spires in Custer State Park, eroded granite pillars that look awesome. The rumor is that the idea for Mt. Rushmore came from Cathedral Spires–if nature can carve needles out of granite, maybe we can carve famous westerners. (Work on Mt. Rushmore started four years after this revelation.)

The road winds up the hill and goes between the pillars.

And sometimes the road goes through the pillars.

Sylvan Lake is at the other end of Needles Highway. It was full of enthusiastic late-summer swimmers, making me wonder how cold it gets in January.

If you ever wondered what Mt. Rushmore looked like while it was being carved, I give you the Crazy Horse Memorial. Eventually it’ll be Crazy Horse in the saddle with one arm raised pointing forward. (You can see his horse’s head outlined on the right side of the mountain.) The memorial has been in progress for 71 years (Mt. Rushmore took 14 years), perhaps because it makes more money as a tourist trap then it would as a completed memorial. (The gate guard seemed surprised that I only wanted to drive in and take a photo, but he didn’t charge me the entrance fee as a result. If you’re interested in doing the tourist activities, the fee can be substantial.)

Speaking of! I half-expected Mt. Rushmore to be over-hyped, but it is impressive. 

Here it is! When I first thought of this trip, it was because I wanted to see Mt. Rushmore. I stood for a while and watched the light/shadow change as the sun went down. So cool. But the awesomeness is tempered by knowledge of the original inhabitants of the Black Hills, inhabitants who might not appreciate being kicked out of their sacred land to watch while the mountains are carved up. (The New Yorker just published a Crazy Horse-centric article on that.)

Supposedly the Mt. Rushmore cafeteria scene in North By Northwest was filmed on a sound stage, but this looks enough like it that it felt familiar.

 I ended the first day in Rapid City, South Dakota, which has bronze statues of past presidents on its street corners.

I arrived in Rapid City ravenously hungry, and was fortunate enough to find Tally’s Silver Spoon which had a vegan cheese sauce that tasted amazing.

Day two started at Harriet & Oak, a cafe/roastery in a lofty space big enough to park a baby blue VW bus (the Oakswagen).

My veganized chai latte.

My dragon fruit smoothie bowl (topped with house-made granola, fresh fruit, coconut shavings, and pepitas).

After breakfast I drove a few miles outside of Rapid City to Bear Country U.S.A. It is a complete and total tourist trap, but it is so cool. 

Basically it is like a drive-through zoo featuring local animals.

And it has a lot of bears in the bear section!

If you’ve seen Disney’s Brother Bear, it looked like that scene where they all meet up at the waterfalls, but in real life.

And at the end of the drive-through section they have a walk-through section that features smaller local animals and baby bears! (The baby bear video is at the end of this post.)

After a short road trip (that took me through Sturgis a bit too late for the motorcycle rally and a bit too early for the Mustang rally), I made to to Deadwood, South Dakota.

Deadwood’s history reads like a good western, complete with a gold rush, illegal settlement, opium dealers, lawlessness, and the cemetery where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried.

Mt. Moriah Cemetery, on a hill overlooking town. 

Wild Bill Hickock’s grave. The rumor is that he suspected someone was out to get him when he sat down to a card game in 1876. He asked twice to switch seats so that his back could be to the wall, but he was shot from behind by Jack McCall. (McCall was later hanged.)

Gifts left for Wild Bill. 

The legend of Calamity Jane is muddled by her autobiography which makes some claims that history can’t prove (either because history wasn’t paying attention or because there are conflicting accounts). But regardless, she was tough–the rumor is you’d have an easier time fighting two men than facing her.

 And finally, from Deadwood I headed back to Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower, a 867-foot-tall igneous rock butte and the country’s first national monument. I couldn’t get over how huge it is–you can see it for miles on the drive in.

Once I passed the entrance to the monument (it was free for the 103rd anniversary on August 25!) I noticed people stopping their cars and staring into the field. On the way back I finally figured it out–prairie dogs!

 The hexagonal columns that make Devil’s Tower. There’s still some debate, apparently, as to how it was formed.

Driving back to Denver, trying to outrun what was turning into a thunderstorm.

Made it to Denver! This is the view from the Union Station Whole Foods.

The week before the trip I saw this article about a vegan arepa restaurant opening in the Whole Foods in Denver. I hadn’t had an arepa before, and it was amazing.

Baby bears!