Day 6 - Valentine, NE to Cave Wind National Park, SD

Again, I woke up before dawn. Apparently I'm turning into my friend Marissa, which if you know her, you'll know what I'm talking about. But waking up when I did had its upside. The wind was blowing in a very reminiscent way, signaling that rain was coming. So I got up, packed up my truck, reattached the bike rack, and headed out. Moments after I pulled out of the campground driveway, the rain began to fall heavily, not a moment too soon. Valentine's only open place before 6am was a truck stop with a McDonald's attached, so it would be a coffee and Egg McMuffin for breakfast. How people eat McDonald's on a regular basis is beyond me. Beyond the obvious health issues, it just doesn't taste particularly good. But I guess it would have to do in a pinch, and pouring rain at 5:45am in Valentine, NE counts as a pinch. Here was today's route:


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Much of Nebraska seems very flat, but I've been steadily climbing since I crossed the Missouri River yesterday, so that even before hitting the Black Hills in South Dakota, I'd already surpassed the highest altitude I'd hit east of the Missouri River. Yesterday, I wrote about how treeless the terrain is. Here's what it looks like, a little after dawn.


My first stop of the day was Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There's not much there, but a large sign notes where the massacre took place. Depending on the resolution of your screen, you might be able to read it if you enlarge the pics.



This is pretty much what the area around Wounded Knee looks like.



At the top of the hill is a small cemetery and church. In the cemetery are the graves of those killed in the massacre.



My first glimpse of the Black Hills! Finally, after crossing most of the plains, I start to see mountains.


And looking the other direction from the same spot.


About 9:40 this morning I reached Wind Cave National Park. In short order, I was underground. The cave is impressive. Only about 5-10% of the cave is known about, which is based on some calculations, which the ranger leading the tour said were too complex to get into. Nevertheless, the part of the cave that is known comprises 132 miles of cave packed into a space under about 1 square mile on the surface. It's an intricate, maze-like cave. I took a lot of pictures inside, but in the end they just look like pictures of a bunch of rocks, which, in essence, they are.





After touring the cave, I backtracked to Hot Springs for some lunch. On the recommendation of the ranger leading the cave tour, I stopped into the Flatiron Coffee Bar. It's a tony little place with good sandwiches and free wifi, and thus the blog is updated. Hot Springs itself is quaint, and everything seems to be built of the same sandstone.




Tomorrow, I tour the Black Hills, stopping to see Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood. Then it's back into the plains and into North Dakota, hopefully staying in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.