The Man has served as the symbol for Burning Man since its very beginning in 1986 when Larry Harvey and Jerry James built a stick man to celebrate the summer solstice at Baker Beach in San Francisco. His fate was preordained. He would burn. And, like the Phoenix, he rose again the next year and has been doing so ever since. Here, the 2023 version of the Man is emerging from a dust storm, which is much more common than the rain that captured the world’s attention this past week.
Burning Man always opens at 12 AM on Sunday morning in late August to begin its weeklong celebration of art, music, and lots of other things and ends on Labor Day Weekend. Peggy and I have never joined the midnight madness but we usually do make it in at a more reasonable hour on Sunday. This year we were busy in Sacramento catching up with family and friends so we went in on Monday. The result was that we ended up out in the boondocks of Black Rock City at 5:30 and J street, or Jackalope as J was named this year. Only one street was beyond us, Kraken.
Each year, the powers that be at Burning Man pick a theme for the year that serves as the base for the street names and much of the art. This year it was Animalia, representing the “animal world and our place in it.” The photo below shows the street names.
I took this photo from the map of Burning Man we were given when we entered. The small blue numbers off to the right are the distance from the Man. We were at 5800 feet, over a mile away! The white numbers in black represent art installations. I knew what Jackalope, Kraken and Bigfoot were. My memory of Dingbat was what Archie called his wife in the TV series All in the Family. I had to look the rest up. How about you? The Esplanade is Black Rock City’s Main Street and retains its name every year. It separates Black Rock City from the open Playa.This is the official map of Burning Man 2023, which was home to over 70,000 people. On the top left side, you will see a blue triangle that I added. That was where we lived on Jackalope. The Man is at the center of the map. The small circle south of it is the Temple. Note all of the art installations! The city is organized on a grid pattern with the streets heading toward the Man numbered clockwise and the intersecting streets organized by alphabet and name. Not shown here, is the extent of the Playa that extends much farther to the south.
Our focus today is on the Man and the Temple, which are two locations that almost all Burners visit. But first I want to post one more photo of our ‘escape’ from Black Rock City on Sunday which we found after our last post. Unknown to us, a photo/video was taken of us exiting Burning Man that ended up being shown on NBC 26 news out of Green Bay, Wisconsin (and I suspect other media outlets.) This was the last stream we crossed just before reaching the paved road. It gives a new meaning to ‘streaming media.’ I’m glad I couldn’t see us doing this in real time— and even more glad that Peggy couldn’t. LOL.
Peggy found this photo of us escaping from Burning Man 2023 posted on the ImagineMKE17 Trailer Facebook page.
One of the first things we do when we arrive at Burning Man is head out to see the Man and Temple. Usually it’s by bike. But the crank on my rented bike was being cranky, so we walked. The following photos represent our journey. They were all taken by either Peggy or me.
The Man was surrounded by a beehive-like structure that was in line with the Animalia theme. This photo also places the Man in his dramatic backdrop of the Black Rock Desert.A close up of the beehive with the Man in the background. Note the object dangling from the beehive.It served as Burning Man’s concept of a wind chime. Grin.The ground level of the beehive included xylophones that people could play!
Leaving the Man we hiked out another half mile to the Temple. We’d revisit the Man at night. Our hike out to the temple was delayed:
By this dust storm. No kidding, this is what a Burning Man dust storm looks like. The wisest thing to do is just hunker down and wait for it to blow over. Not doing so will get you lost. Peggy and I once spent over two hours along with at least a thousand other Burners trying to find our way home when we had been to an event way out by the fence on the outer edge of the Playa. When we could finally see the the Man, we discovered that we had walked in a huge circle. Thankfully, Burning Man keeps a fence around the area. Otherwise, we might still be wandering. Or worse.The Temple finally began to emerge from the dust storm.The Temple is a special, sacred site for Burning Man participants. Thousands leave messages to loved ones, friends, and even pets who have passed on. Several are shown on the front here. When the Temple burns at the end of the event, the messages are released to the sky, giving a degree of closure to those who left the messages. Year after year the Burning Man organization and volunteers design and build beautiful temples, each one unique.
As I mentioned above, Peggy and I revisited the Man at night. In addition to being a symbol of the event, the Man serves as a beacon for Burners. As shown on the map above, three major routes that are lined with lamp posts lead out to the Man from Black Rock City . During dust storms Peggy and I tend to stay on the routes since the posts provide valuable landmarks.
The Man can be seen from anywhere on the Playa or Black Rock City. It is lit up at night and even more special than it is during the day.The beehive begins to come into focus as we neared the Man. The bright square is the Xylophone.A close up of the beehive that I thought was pretty cool.These lit steps provided a pathway into the structure under the Man. They turned red when someone stepped on them.A final view of the 2023 Man for this post. Our next blog will begin featuring the great art from this year. You won’t want to miss it.
St. Cloud, Minnesota: Right now, Peggy and I are on one of our wandering adventures, rambling across North America, rarely knowing where we will be the next day. Long experience with a nomadic lifestyle has taught me that one gathers a lot of blog material when out on the open road. It has also taught me that there isn’t a lot of time to blog. (There are reasons why nomadic societies rarely create great civilizations.) So rather than try to pound the proverbial round peg into a square hole (which is what I usually do), I’ve decided to take a break from blogging for a couple of months. Peggy and I will be back in September with tales of our trip to Burning Man 2023. The tickets are in the mail!
“Hello Curtis Mekemson!
We are excited to let you know that your Burning Man 2023 Animalia tickets were shipped…”
Oh boy, we get to go be animals— we are excited as well! It’s been a while since we have been to the mind bending experience that takes place in a remote Nevada Desert the last week in August. Expect some fun posts. In the meantime, we will sign off WP today with a walk through the Aswan, Egypt market.
We started our visit to the market with a stop at an exotic spice market…Where they served us Jasmine tea and bread…Along with a selection of their spices to sample. Out in the market place, spices were being sold in a less formal (and less expensive) form. The dark spices on top are Jasmine buds. Want spicy hot? The small red peppers up front will provide it!Not so hot, but good. I’m a big fan of yams. Yum. Peggy isn’t.Since the market is only a couple of blocks away from where riverboats are docked, tourist items featuring Ancient Egyptian themes could be expected.But there were also more African based themes such as these masks. Aswan marks the beginning of Nubia, much of which was drowned out by the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser. African sculptures were available as well. They remind me of what peddlers would bring by my house when I was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa. The Bush Devil that I brought home with me from West Africa and featured on the front cover of my book is an example. If you are missing me over the next two months (grin), you can download my book and read it. The book will take you from the craziness of UC Berkeley and the student revolution of the 60s to the jungles of West Africa. Just Google “The Bush Devil Ate Sam” and various sources will be listed.Most of the items were to meet the needs of the local population, however. Like these chicken cages, for example. Looks like a serious sewing machine to me. Does your sole need to be saved?Or do you need a new robe? Had this man not been standing while being fitted for a robe, I would have thought we were looking at a butcher market complete with a butcher block. Maybe it had been repurposed… Women in Aswan are likely to be dressed in the traditional Muslem garb featured for sale here. Third from the left represents the most conservative.But we also found a pair of teenage girls strolling through the market on the Nile who were a reminder of the ubiquitous nature of modern culture, right down to cell phones.
That does it for today. As always, Peggy and I appreciate your following Wandering through Time and Place and truly enjoy the friendships we have made along the way and the great blogs you share. We will see you in September!
Since we’ve been posting on Egypt, here’s a sign for The Elvis Wedding Chapel at Burning Man 2014. We will return to our Egypt and National Park posts in September as well as blogging about Burning Man where I have gone 13 times and Peggy 10.
There is lots to see and do in western South Dakota. I have written about it in ten posts over the past few months. We visited there last fall starting with Badlands National Park. I’m doing a wrap-up today with a few of the things we saw that didn’t fit in my other posts. Let’s start with Big Foot. All photos in this post were taken by either Peggy or me.
First up, is the World’s Largest Bigfoot, which is located in the small town of Keystone, South Dakota, located 4 miles away from Mt. Rushmore. It’s one of a number of interesting carvings at Dahl’s Chainsaw Art.As you probably know, Peggy and I have a thing for Bigfoot. The world’s only Bigfoot trap was located about 3 miles from where we lived in Oregon. We found this fellow in Custer, South Dakota. Judging from the look, it appears that Bigfoot has a thing for Peggy as well. Should I be jealous? But what about the creature on top of his head? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think I don’t have to be worried about a guy who walks around with an octopus as his hat. Here’s the big fellow in Dahl’s Chainsaw Art yard.He looks friendly. Big smile, crinkly eyes. And the beard would make a fabulous nest for a very large bird. But the question here is how big is Bigfoot’s foot? I came across a fresh print once about 18 inches long and three inches deep that had me thinking, “Bigfoot running.” It was blurry, however. Most things Bigfoot are. Nothing blurry about this…Bigfoot children were also found at Dahl’s playing on a carousel. There is a good chance that Bigfoot kids are born with beards, including girls.Not Bigfoot. But hey, it’s the 4th of July weekend and what’s more patriotic than a motorcycle carved as an eagle? Just ask a biker. A bald eagle and a flag are shown in the background just in case there’s any question. Happy Fourth! This bike is symbolic of an even more important event to Bikers: The Sturgis Rally, South Dakota’s top tourist event and one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the world. Sturgis is just 50 miles away from Keystone. I’ve never been to a rally, but it is just quirky enough, I would be tempted if I were around in August. While we are on “BIG,” this is reported to be the World’s largest Smokey the Bear. Also made by the Dahl brothers, it is located in Hill City, South Dakota. My favorite model demonstrates the size. Close up of Smokey Bear’s face.Hill City also housed the Museum of the Black hills Institute that Peggy and I did a post on. Not surprisingly, it had a pterodactyl on top.We also found this beautiful horse sculpture in Hill City. It reminded Peggy and me of similar sculptures at Burning Man, where we will be in two months.
And finally, to conclude:
A girly girl squirrel/prairie dog…A buff, boy buffalo…And Peggy with her new alien friend that we found at Devil’s tower.
Next Monday’s post will take us back to Egypt and our journey up the Nile where we find ourselves in Luxor at the Temple of Karnak.
The Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota is a huge sculpture carved out of granite that is about 1/3 finished after 75 years of work. We visited it last fall on our three month trip around the US. All photos in this post are taken by either Peggy or me unless otherwise noted.
I was taking a reflection shot of the Crazy Horse Memorial in the window of the Laughing Water Restaurant when I got this interesting double reflection. I decided to call it Crazy Horse’s Ghost.
If you are visiting Mt. Rushmore, a trip over to the Crazy Horse Memorial is also worth doing. It’s not far— a distance of 17 miles that shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to drive. In ways, the memorial was built as an answer to the presidential monuments. As the Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear noted when he contacted the sculpture, Korczak Ziolkowski, “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too.”
Standing Bear also believed that the Black Hills were an appropriate place to build the memorial because they are a sacred area to American Indians. I first became aware of this perspective several years ago when I read the book, Black Elk Speaks. Written by the poet and writer John G. Neihardt, as told to him by the Ogalala Lakota medicine man Nicholas Black, the book captures Black Elk’s vision of the unity of humankind and the earth. The book takes the reader back in time to the vanishing culture of American Indians, but also contains a powerful message for people today. It has sold over one million copies. As Black Elk completed his story to Neihardt, he pointed to Harney Peak and identified it as where his vision took place. Harney Peak, located between Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, has now been renamed Black Elk Peak.
As for Crazy Horse, he definitely fits the definition of being one of the great heroes of American Indians and is recognized alongside other well-known leaders such as Geronimo, Red Cloud, Tecumseh, Sitting Bull and Cochise. Born in 1842 near present day Rapid City, his father was also an Oglala Lakota medicine man. His mother was a Brule Lakota and the sister of Spotted Tail, a noted war chief who later became a statesman traveling to Washington several times on behalf of the Lakota.
Crazy Horse was raised at a time when white treasure hunters had discovered gold in the Black Hills and were invading the area, breaking treaties that had ceded the land to the Lakota/Sioux. It was also a time when the once abundant buffalo herds were being methodically wiped out and the various tribes being forced on to reservations, threatening both their freedom and way of life. Not surprisingly, the Indians fought back, and Crazy Horse played a key role in this resistance, eventually leading up to and including the Battle of Little Bighorn.
As a young man, he went on a vision quest where he had a dream of a rider in a storm with long flowing hair who instructed him that he was not to wear a war bonnet or take scalps in battle. As the storm faded, a red backed hawk flew over the head of the rider. His father interpreted the dream to mean that Crazy Horse would be a great leader in battle, which turned out to be true. He died in a scuffle when he was being led to a stockade and a soldier bayoneted him on September 5th, 1877.
There are no known photos of Chief Crazy Horse who worried that a photograph might capture his spirit. This wood carving was done by Korczak Ziolkowski from descriptions given to him by people who had fought beside Crazy Horse.This photo at the Crazy Horse Memorial is from a 1948 reunion of the survivors of the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. They would have fought alongside Chief Crazy Horse. Seated from left to right in the photo, they are Little Warrior, Pemmican, Little Soldier, Dewey Beard, John Sitting Bull, High Eagle, Iron Hawk, and Comes Again. (Photograph by Bill Groethe.)
When Chief Standing Bear contacted the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in the early 1940s on behalf of the Lakota chiefs, Ziolkowski agreed to take on the project. He moved to the Black Hills in 1947 to locate an appropriate place for the monument and kicked off the carving in 1948. It is still on-going today, 75 years later. Ziolkowski continued the work until he died in 1982 when the project was taken over by his wife, Ruth. When she passed on, her children and grandchildren continued building the monument. Today the effort is overseen by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. As of now, only the face has been completed and stands at 87 feet tall. His outstretched arm, which is presently being worked on, is 263 feet long. His finger will be 29 feet long. The horse will stand 219 feet high, the mane 62 feet high, and the ears 54 feet long.
This painting of Korczak Ziolkowski is located at the Crazy Horse Memorial.
Feelings among the Lakota are mixed. Many see it as the memorial it was meant to be, celebrating Crazy Horse and American Indians. Some, however, believe it does not recognize Crazy Horse’s humility and is as much, or more, a memorial to Ziolkowski and his family. Whatever the conclusion, it has kept the Ziolkowski family gainfully employed down through the decades and generations.
Peggy and I camped out at a small but gorgeous campground no more the a half mile away from the Crazy Horse Memorial. This shot provides a distant view from the campground road. The hole is located under what will be Crazy Horse’s arm. The horses head can be seen in a dim outline on the lower front.This close up which includes workers beneath Crazy Horse’s head provides a perspective on size.This working model of the memorial by Korczak Ziolkowski is located outside of the museum and gift store.A side view of the working model.And a bronze model, also by Korczak Ziolkowski.A museum included as part of the memorial includes numerous Indian works of art and artifacts. I was intrigued (and amused) by this piece from Alaska.I’ll conclude with this painting of Ziolkowski at work on the Memorial. The painting is located in the Memorial’s museum.
Next Monday it’s back to Egypt and the pyramids, sphinx and camels of Giza.
And no, I’m not talking about the two legged type so prominent in today’s world. They’re too scary for this blog. I’m talking about the behemoths that wandered the world between 65 and 245 million years ago. The small display area of Black Hills Institute in Hill City, South Dakota is packed full of them. If you have children, be sure to take them there. They will love it. Heck, if you don’t have kids, take yourself! Peggy and I visited as part of our three month road trip last fall.
Can you imagine any more dinosaurs or replicas being packed into a small display area?
Peggy and I didn’t know what to expect when we visited the small dinosaur museum in Hill City, South Dakota. It’s located maybe 30 minutes away from Mt. Rushmore and not much more from Custer State Park. We had some time to kill, so why not. What we found was an absolute delight. Normally I take museums seriously, carefully noting what I am seeing and photographing. Not this time. While the museum is worthy of such attention, it was so crammed full I wouldn’t have known where to start. So Peggy and I just wandered around admiring big teeth and taking photos. Following are the results. Enjoy.
Definitely not taking dinosaurs as seriously as one should. I included this photo of Peggy shoving her head in a T-Rex’s mouth in an earlier post. We made sure no museum personnel were in the room or T-Rexes were hurt, but it’s probably on surveillance tape. This would have been a good scene for the “Night at the Museum” movies. Imagine them all coming alive. It would be great for a nightmare as well. My, what big fangs you have. Okay, I get how these chompers might frighten a potential dinner to death, but how good are they when it comes to eating the meal?These would be better for chewing. The head looks like you could hit it with a baseball bat and not do much damage. Run!And check out how these teeth lean backward. Once you were in this mouth, it was a one way street. There was no way out except through the stomach.And one certainly wouldn’t want to face these teeth! Has me thinking about Sobek, the crocodile god of Egypt.Maybe smaller teeth work if you have lots of them with a serrated edge— and cool armor. But enough on toothy set. Now on to some of the marvelous creations of nature that prefer eating green things.Even if you were a vegetarian, you would want protection from those who weren’t.A good old-fashioned goring might do the trick.Or possibly just looking weird and being hard to digest would suffice.A final shot of flying, leaping and running! It’s no wonder our small precursor mammals were good at hiding and waited for a ‘miracle’ meteor to wipe out the competition.
That does it for today. Next Monday we will be back in Egypt visiting one of Egypt’s first pyramids.
It’s impossible not to feel awe when traveling through the towering Cathedral Spires of South Dakota’s Custer State Park. They so impressed Peter Norbeck, the governor of the state from 1917-21, that he personally scoped out a route on foot and horseback that would feature the best views. Known as the Needles Highway, it’s also famous for its narrow tunnels hewn out from the granite rock. We visited Custer State Park on our RV trip around North America last fall. All photos in the blog are taken by either Peggy or me unless otherwise noted.
They tower above Custer State Park, silent sentinels made of granite. Once they were chosen as the site for the presidential carvings that dominate the nearby Mt. Rushmore, but the granite lacked the solid mass that was needed. It may have been a gift, given their outstanding beauty. While I like Mt. Rushmore, I prefer these rocks au naturel.Visitors to the Cathedral Spires of Custer State Park wind their way through the granite pillars on a narrow, curvy road that barely accommodates two larger vehicles on sections. The road provides up close and personal views of the granite monuments.Every spire has its own personality.Towering spires like this gave the Needles Highway its name.Rock garden with breaching whale?Rock climbers look for challenging rock faces to scramble up in the Cathedral Spires. Peggy and I just looked for faces.Our active imaginations have no problem finding them… The nose, small mouth below it, eyes above, and baseball cap gave away this fellow. (There’s a chance he had a duck billed platypus on his head instead of a cap.) Part of the fun of the Needles Highway is maneuvering along the narrow, curvy road. The tunnels bordered on scary. This sign announced that one tunnel was 8 feet, zero inches across. Our truck is 8 feet, zero inches across! Fortunately, our mirrors folded in by 7 inches on each side. I had 14 inches to squeeze our large F-150 through. Woohoo! I almost peed my pants. My normally talkative driving advisor was strangely silent. She may have been praying.Beware, all ye who enter here! Once you start, there is no backing out.The ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ The road snaked off to the left.Even this larger square tunnel seemed skinny.I thought this photo was interesting. I didn’t spot the colorful abstract until I was processing our photos. It’s a reflection off the hood of our truck showing the exit and road of the square tunnel. At least that’s what I assumed it was. Maybe it was a gateway to another world with a monster bird hoping to dine on Curt and Peggy a la carte.I’ll conclude today with two more photos. This one with its gnarly old dead tree…And a closer view of the ‘Cathedral Spires.’
Next Monday, May 15, Peggy and I will be back in Egypt with a trip out to the ancient city of Memphis, near Cairo, where we will visit the colossal statue of Ramses II lying down, and then return to Cairo for a tour of the Museum of Egypt, which was out the back door from our hotel. There will be more of the history of Ancient Egypt, some treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, a cow goddess, and much more. (So much that I may turn it into two posts.)
The Monday after that, May 22, we will take you on a tour of even more colossal monuments than Egypt has, the presidents on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. It’s located 10-15 miles north of today’s post on the Needles Highway.
Given that 2,000 buffalo roam on the outskirts of Custer City, South Dakota, it’s not surprising that the town has a buffalo fixation. We found one on every corner!
This colorful creature was one of many buffalo sculptures we found in Custer City.
Over the past several years, Peggy and I have been in a number of communities that feature sculptures of animals. Several have been buffalo, but we have also seen bears, cows, horses, elk, and sandhill cranes. I’ve little doubt that other communities feature dogs, cats, pigs and rhinos. Rhinos? Apparently you can find a hundred of them in Cape Town, South Africa. We love the unique, colorful, sculptures. Like murals, they are attractive to locals and visitors alike, and encourage both community pride and tourism.
This ghostly buffalo…Was a lesson in buffalo anatomy, as well as a possible Halloween treat. All of the buffalo featured ‘keep off the buffalo’ signs like the one beneath the buffalo’s chin. I could see tourists climbing on top or plopping their 5-year-old on top for photos. Rare white buffalo were considered sacred by American Indians and played important roles in their legends.One side of the white buffalo sculpture featured horses that were used by the Indians for hunting buffalo.Several buffalo featured local scenery.And buffalos, including a painting of a very colorful buffalo escaping from a forest fire.This large brown fellow featured another large brown buffalo and a buffalo herd. We really liked the way the buffalo’s shoulder provided a three dimensional effect for the painted buffalo.A more abstract painting on another sculpture featured a buffalo, horse, possible medicine man, mountains, desert, and a lightning storm.A dramatic scene that featured a Native American with his dog and two lurking wolves.The artist for this buffalo sculpture in Custer City featured mountain goats, including one romping on top of its head. Note the scene on the back…It’s a scene from along the Needles Highway in Custer State Park, which is named for its dramatic rock formations— a must-see of the park. Mountain goats live there. We will feature the narrow, curvy highway with its gorgeous scenery and tunnels our truck could barely fit through in our next South Dakota post two weeks from now.
Next Monday’s post will feature the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Isis plus the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis near Cairo.
Flying down from Seattle to Sacramento last Monday, Peggy and I were awed by Mt. Shasta and a lenticular cloud that was hanging above it.
On Monday, Peggy and I flew from Seattle, Washington to Sacramento California. It was cloudy through Washington and Northern Oregon, which was hardly a surprise given the weather in the West this year. In mid-Oregon, however, the clouds suddenly parted. We enjoyed great views of the Three Sister volcanoes and the iconic Crater Lake.
As we crossed into California, I told Peggy to hold her breath. Mt. Shasta was coming. We would be flying to the East of it. We didn’t have a clue what the weather would be like. Shasta could be cloud covered, partially covered, or totally clear. What we got was a rare treat, a lenticular cloud was perched on top of the mountain. While Peggy oohed and awed, I grabbed my camera to snap a few photos.
I love Mt. Shasta. It’s one of the most beautiful volcanic mountains in the world. I’ve been driving by it for decades as I made my way from California to Oregon and back. I even climbed the mountain in 1979 with my 75 year old friend, Orvis Agee, who’d been up it so many times that he was known affectionately as ‘The Old Man of the Mountain.’ For my own 75th birthday in 2018, I had spent two weeks of my 750 mile backpack trek down the PCT enjoying spectacular views of the mountain as I made my way south from Mt. Ashland to Burney Falls.
It was my intention to slap up a quick post on our Monday fly-over but we were in Sacramento for a personal and sad reason. Peggy’s sister, Jane Hagedorn, and my friend of 50 years had unexpectedly passed away. We had come in from Virginia to attend a celebration of life memorial and help her children for a couple of weeks as they sort though things and prepare for the memorial. So, I put the post off. I actually forgot it.
Until Saturday. I was reading a blog I follow by Bubba Suess, hikemtshasta.com, and he had photographed the same lenticular cloud and others from the ground. I suggest you jump over to his web site and click on his blog at the top. He had photos from both Sunday and Monday. They are amazing, especially the flying saucer lenticular cloud! They inspired me to put up my photos as well.
Jane drove up to see us several times while Peggy and I were living in Oregon, sometimes with her husband, Jim, and sometimes by herself. She considered our home and property as a retreat. Along the way, she would pass by Mt. Shasta. She shared our awe of the mountain’s beauty. She was a faithful follower of my blog and I know she would love this post on Shasta. This one’s for her.
A distant view.Closer… The squares are mainly cattle ranches.And a final view.
My post on the buffalo sculptures of Custer City, South Dakota that I was going to run today will be posted next Monday. My post on the history and mythology of Egypt will be on the following Monday.
We got to spend a lot of ‘up-close’ time with buffalo and donkeys at Custer State Park in Western South Dakota. We didn’t have a choice. They blocked the road.
I’m sure you have noticed. Peggy and I have been alternating our Monday posts between our US travel and overseas travel. The US posts tend to focus on nature while our overseas posts usually focus on culture and history. These are only guidelines, however, as Captain Jack Sparrow might note, not hard and fast rules. Today’s post is on the buffalo and donkeys of Custer State Park in western South Dakota. Next Monday we will visit the Black Forest of Germany. All photos in today’s post are taken by either Peggy or me.
These buffalo, lazing about on a hill in Custer State Park, actually aren’t buffalo. They are bison, or Bison, bison, bison, according to their taxonomic classification. If you want to find true buffalo outside of zoos, you will need to go to Africa or Asia. Actually, these guys could care less what you call them. I’ll stick with buffalo, which is what the first European, a French trapper, thought they were when he came across them in the 1600s.
Western South Dakota is truly worth visiting. Peggy and I checked out Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and the Black Hills Institute of Geologic Research with its great collection of dinosaur bones on our trip through there last fall. We also slipped a few miles across the border into Wyoming to visit Devil’s Tower. We’ve already done posts on the Badlands and Devil’s Tower. Including today, we have six more posts on the area, which reflects how interesting we found it.
Buffalo on the move. Here we have a mom and calf.They were moving across the road, and blocking traffic, much to the delight of visitors.It was a family affair…Our large F-150 Ford pickup didn’t look so big when one crossed inches in front of us.And why did the buffalo cross the road? To get to the other side, of course. Grin.And join their herd. There were a bunch. But imagine these numbers being in the millions, which is what you might have seen in the early 1800s. By 1900 their numbers had dropped to around 500 and they were close to extinction, wiped out by settlers and hunters from the East for their hides and for fun, and because of a US army policy that wanted them eliminated to destroy the primary food source of American Indians, in one of the darker moments in American history. Massive land grabs followed that led to the elimination of the buffalo’s traditional grazing patterns, which was an equal if not greater factor in their brush with extinction. Fortunately, a few ranchers became deeply concerned about their extinction in the early 1900s and did what they could to save the buffalo. It’s an effort that continues today with a number of interested parties participating— ranging from the government, to Native Americans, to environmentalists, to ranchers, etc. The buffalo now number in the thousands and are no longer seen as an endangered species. The tourist potential of the buffalo has certainly been recognized and exploited. It comes with a caveat, however: Keep your distance. While buffalo aren’t particularly aggressive around people, they are wild animals. If you get too close and a buffalo feels threatened, it may charge. Every year or so, tourists ignore the rule and end up getting gored or otherwise injured. This guy’s stance and swishing tail suggest that you shouldn’t mess with him. In other words…I’ll conclude with this magnificent bull buffalo we found in Wind Cave National Park, which actually abuts Custer State Park on the south. A bull can weigh up to 2800 pounds and run 35 miles an hour. Irritating him is a definite no-no.
Would you like to have your own buffalo? How big is your backyard? I’m serious. The annual buffalo roundup was taking place at Custer State Park while we were there. The maximum number of buffalo the park can hold is limited to around 1500 given how much land the animals need for grazing. All of them, except the large bulls, are rounded up and herded into corrals where they are sorted according to sex, size, age, health, etc. Enough are then sold off to keep the herd healthy. You can buy one. Bring your truck. The whole roundup is a big deal. Cowboys from all over the West (and probably beyond) volunteer to help. But first, they have to apply and prove they have the necessary skills. There’s a long waiting list. We were going to go until I learned that some 20,000 people would be there. We’d have to show up three hours early and could be expected to be stuck in traffic for at least an hour afterward. We watched the video instead.
This brings us to the donkeys. I like them. Next to dogs and cats, they are my favorite domesticated animal. We even have one. He travels with us…
Eeyore, looking out the window in awe of the wild donkeys.
The past 12 months of our travel could have been called the Year of the Donkey. They were everywhere it seemed— certainly in the remote lands of the West where they roam wild. Theirs ancestors served as pack animals for hopeful gold miners. We also saw lots of them in Egypt where they have worked for thousands of years pulling carts, serving as pack animals, and even providing transportation. They still do. We even discovered one in Germany’s Black Forest, as you will see in next Monday’s post.
They were waiting for us in Custer State Park, They knew where the tourists would be stopping to let the buffalo pass. But unlike the buffalo, whose intention, I noted, was to get across the road, they held drivers hostage.
Unlike the buffalo, the donkeys blocked the road purposely— in search of goodies.Having caught the driver’s attention, they moved in for the kill— or at least a carrot. These donkeys were working together and were probably a bonded couple. All they got was their photo taken.Donkeys are known to love carrots, but apparently, young donkeys can choke on them.This cute youngster that Peggy and I found in Oatman, Arizona, had a “no carrot” sticker in its nose, much to its disgust.Our two rogues had better luck with the next vehicle they stopped.And, given the circumstances, decided that two heads were better than one.A different perspective. The age old question of how many donkeys can stick their heads in a driver’s window was answered beyond a doubt. It was carrot time!This fellow stopped by to check us out. “Take your hands off the wheel and hand over your carrots.” We didn’t have any.This one was our favorite, however. What’s not to love about it with its sway back and whacky look…And bent ears. He gave Eeyore the evil eye, thinking he had eaten all of the carrots, which was probably true.
That’s it for today. Next week it’s on to the Black Forest of Germany and the wrap-up for our Rhine cruise.
If I were in charge of making mountains, I would use the Grand Tetons as a model. A blogging friend of mine told me that the first time she saw them, she started crying. They inspire that kind of awe.
Just before we reached Yellowstone NP on our four month trip around the US last fall, we drove through Grand Tetons National Park. I’ll be featuring photos Peggy and I took of the Grand Tetons and the Absaroka Range today.
As Peggy and I drove across the 9,658 feet (2,943 m) Togwotee Pass, we were excited. We were in the Rocky Mountains and had just crossed over the Continental Divide. We were back in the West! Rivers would now be flowing into the Pacific Ocean. Soon we would get our first views of the Grand Tetons— not that there was anything shabby about the scenery on pass.
As we passed over the Continental Divide at Togwotee Pass, our excitement grew. This area receives over 25 feet of snow a year, a figure that can climb as high as 50, which I suspect it has this year.It was in October and the aspens near the pass were displaying their fall colors.The Absaroka Range, which can be seen from the pass, provided a backdrop for this grove. The range serves as the eastern boundary to Yellowstone NP.My father once painted a picture of the Absaroka Range.Professional photographer Glen Fishback took this photo of my dad painting the Absaroka Range in the 1980s. Pop, as we knew him, had wandered around the country with his sister, Eleanor, a few years earlier. I took this photo through glass so I couldn’t capture it as well as I would have liked to. Glen used my dad as a model and this photo ended up in a national photography magazine.A final Highway 26 road shot of the Absaroka Range. The Grand Tetons were waiting.
The Grand Tetons are a baby range, relatively speaking, less than 10 million years old. Compare that with the Rockies at 50-80 million years or the Appalachians at over 300 million. That’s what gives them their rugged, good looks. Erosion hasn’t had time to wear away their jagged peaks. Earthquakes along the Teton fault on the east side of the range are responsible for their height. Plate tectonic movement, which is stretching the region in an east west direction, is responsible for the earthquakes. When the tension becomes too great, an earthquake takes place, usually of 7 to 7.5 magnitude, i.e. big. Seesaw-like, the mountains rise and the valley next to it falls along the 40 mile fault, with each earthquake averaging around 10 feet of up and down movement. It is estimated that the mountain range has risen some 26,000 feet with 6,000 feet showing above the floor and 20,000 buried under it. Geologists estimate that the last major quakes were about 5,900, 8,000, and 10,000 years ago.
The Tetons were looming above a dark conifer forest in our first views with a hint of the colors to come.Aspens were soon adding larger splashes of color. The high peak in the center is Grand Teton, after which the range is named. It has an elevation of 13, 775 feet.Mt. Moran dominates the northern section of the Tetons and rises 12,605 feet above sea level. The orange colored leaves are from cottonwoods.Our road ran next to Jenny Lake and provided some great views of the Tetons.Ducks were busily eating on the lake.The only photo we took of the park that didn’t feature the mountains.A final photo of Mt. Moran from Jenny Lake. Next Monday’s post will be on the German town of Breisach along the Rhine River.
