Left for South Dakota early Friday, June 6, and saw one interesting site during a layover at the Chicago airport... definitely an attention grabber.
Having researched things to do in advance and wanting to make the most of an all-too-short weekend trip, I did a bit of driving Saturday in order to see Devil's Tower (actually across the SD border in Wyoming). I wasn't disappointed! Almost 12 miles out, I could see the tower stood out as distinctly different than the surrounding hills...
Still a few miles out, the tower loomed increasingly arger...
Up close, the tower was stunning, at least in my humble opinion!
Favorite pic was one of the last I took during the day, as dark clouds rolled in around the tower.
During the round trip SD to WY drive, I counted over 70 deer (mostly whitetail and pronghorn) playing in the open hill country. Saw so many I didn't think to take pictures, but did stop to enjoy the view of two toms fighting over a group of hens.
Also drove the Sturgis, Spearfish Canyon, Deadwood, and Lead areas and took a few photos along the way of natural beauty that caught my attention.
Sunday morning I ran the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon. With 29 states down, it has to be one of the prettiest courses I have run though also a tough one! The course only had one hill and with a relatively gentle slope... just too bad it was a 13 mile hill
Between the altitude and the hill, I was gasping enough at the half-way point that my uphill run was slightly faster than my downhill climb down
This said, the views made up for the pain and, again, I was left loving the course...
Saved visits to Mount Rushmore and Custer National Park for the post-race afternoon.
Was really amazed at the rough, swirled appearance of the uncut/rough rock surrounding the Presidents. Made me all the more appreciative of the work that it took to do the massive rock carvings...
As darkness dropped on my final day in SD, I raced through Custer National Park. Final vision from the trip was from Sylvan Lake -- as with so many of my previous state trips, I was left with too little time to cast a line, but seeing sites such as Sylvan Lake have me looking forward to a 50 states fishing attempt
