All pics here.
Ahhhhh.
This formation is called The Needles.
Mount Rushmore. I believe you can just make out a head on the upper right of the mountain.
Sweet, sweet Wyoming far off in the distance.
On the way down.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Mount Coolidge
Mount Coolidge is named after the president, who had a summer house in these parts. It is the second highest point in all of the Black Hills. I drove up there to take pics both Sunday and Tuesday. The view is grand from up there, as I'm sure you'll agree.
All pics here.
Ahhhhh.
This formation is called The Needles.
Mount Rushmore. I believe you can just make out a head on the upper right of the mountain.
Sweet, sweet Wyoming far off in the distance.
On the way down.
All pics here.
Ahhhhh.
This formation is called The Needles.
Mount Rushmore. I believe you can just make out a head on the upper right of the mountain.
Sweet, sweet Wyoming far off in the distance.
On the way down.
Animal pics from Sunday
After talking to the people from Hot Springs at the parking lot and taking some pics of the fire Sunday, I drove up one of the most beautiful roads in all of America, South Dakota State Route 87. These are some pics I took of animals along the way. When I thought I'd lost my pics Tuesday afternoon, I did the trip again and got in even more pics, which will be posted later.
All pics from SD 87 here.
This little girl was grazing along the side of the road without a care in the world.
A little further down the road, this bambi was chillaxing in the shadow.
This buck was watching me calmly from up the hill.
A ton of meat let out a yawn...
... and went to sleep.
All pics from SD 87 here.
This little girl was grazing along the side of the road without a care in the world.
A little further down the road, this bambi was chillaxing in the shadow.
This buck was watching me calmly from up the hill.
A ton of meat let out a yawn...
... and went to sleep.
More forest fire pics
Right, I promised you some more forest fire pics from Sunday, and here they are. I should hasten to add that for a few, horrible hours, I've actually thought that all my pics from Sunday were gone - fire pics, nature pics, animals, the lot. Fortunately it turned out that the memory card was fucked and that I could upload when using the camera directly, instead of using the memory card. I also have a reserve card with me, and that one is working like a dream. Phew.
I took these from a parking lot a few miles south of Wind Cave (north of Hot Springs), except for the chopper pics, which are from the same area as the Friday pics. All pics from the fire, new and old here.
A chopper taking off... and landing ten feet further down the field... I have no idea why.
I took these from a parking lot a few miles south of Wind Cave (north of Hot Springs), except for the chopper pics, which are from the same area as the Friday pics. All pics from the fire, new and old here.
A chopper taking off... and landing ten feet further down the field... I have no idea why.
Quote of the Day
Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public.
- Theodor Adorno
- Theodor Adorno
Mammoth Site
The main attraction in Hot Springs where I was staying, is the Mammoth Site. It is basically an in situ dig place, where you can walk around and actually watch archaeologists dig in the dirt for bones. It's a huge building erected over what was once a sinkhole, where possibly dozens of mammoths fell in and drowned over a period of some hundreds of years. They still have quite a few years of digging to do before they reach the bottom.
Afterwards you can enter the museum, where they have some cool replicas of skeletons and such. You can also overdose (I know I did) on information posters about chemistry and anatomy and whatnot. Eager little snots can sign up to come and be part of the digging crew every summer and they have several demonstrations during the day, such as learning to throw with an atlatl (look it up, ignoramus). All in all, good value for the 8.50 you pay for the ticket.
All pics here.
This is not a replica, it is an actual, fuckin' mammoth skull they are unearthing. How cool is that?
Skeletons in various states of completeness are unearthed, weighed, measured and taken casts of.
This giant greets you in the entrance hall.
This one stands just inside the museum.
I believe this is a giant short jawed bear, the biggest bear ever to have wandered the earth.
A cast of a mammoth jawbone. You actually get to hold one of these in the dig hall. I learned that mammoths had only four teeth, two below and two upstairs and that they had six sets in a lifetime. Iffin they had worn down their sixth pair they would generally starve to death pretty fast.
People learning how to throw an atlatl.
Afterwards you can enter the museum, where they have some cool replicas of skeletons and such. You can also overdose (I know I did) on information posters about chemistry and anatomy and whatnot. Eager little snots can sign up to come and be part of the digging crew every summer and they have several demonstrations during the day, such as learning to throw with an atlatl (look it up, ignoramus). All in all, good value for the 8.50 you pay for the ticket.
All pics here.
This is not a replica, it is an actual, fuckin' mammoth skull they are unearthing. How cool is that?
Skeletons in various states of completeness are unearthed, weighed, measured and taken casts of.
This giant greets you in the entrance hall.
This one stands just inside the museum.
I believe this is a giant short jawed bear, the biggest bear ever to have wandered the earth.
A cast of a mammoth jawbone. You actually get to hold one of these in the dig hall. I learned that mammoths had only four teeth, two below and two upstairs and that they had six sets in a lifetime. Iffin they had worn down their sixth pair they would generally starve to death pretty fast.
People learning how to throw an atlatl.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Quote of the Day
The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
- Carl Sagan
- Carl Sagan
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Fire! Fire! Fire!
Thursday afternoon I drove up along the edge of the Black Hills to Deadwood, where I was supposed to spend a week. It was not to be. I had severely underestimated the needs of a creaky, rotten 41 year old body, especially when placed in a late Victorian building where they were still renovating. I lasted exactly one night before writing a polite note to the house owners and driving on down to Hot Springs to a Motel 6.
A little south of Custer I thought I was driving in to bad weather, as the skies looked cloudy and the temperature was dropping. As I got a little further I discovered that what I had taken for clouds were in fact a forest fire, and that the main road to Hot Springs was closed. As I took another route south, I pretty much drove along the edge of the fire and witnessed fire trucks and helicopters come and go.
There's nothing like watching a helicopter come out of the fog to dip into a small pond right beside you and take off again to make the ole' adrenalin pumping. A little further along the road a whole herd of cattle had broken through the fence and were being rounded up by people on horseback, just like in the old west. I stopped on the roadside to take some pics, but was abruptly hounded on by a cop who yelled "keep moving, keep moving".
As I got a bit away from it all and looked back, I saw huge pillars of smoke rising high into the air, almost like a nuclear detonation. The adrenaline was getting back to normal levels and I began thinking about the people and the properties that might get lost in the fire; all because some slob hadn't bothered to put out his sigarette or something.
I finally arrived at Motel 6 and got to talking to the people at the reception, who asked me about the fire. I answered as best I could, refering to road numbers and places I remembered from the map. One elderly lady reminisced about a huge fire they'd had in the area in 2007, and kept asking me questions. Finally I said "I don't know ma'am, I'm just a Norwegian tourist", at which point she said "oooh, I thought you were local, what with your knowledge of roads and such. And you don't have an accent!". I also got to talking to a family who had been evacuated earlier in the day and were now staying at Motel 6.
Sunday I drove up towards Wind Cave, some way to the north of Hot Springs, but when I'd gone a few miles I saw there were fires all along the horizon. I stopped in at a parking lot, where a ranger was handing out maps and explaining what was closed (Wind Cave) and not. I got to talking to a lady of around 55-60 about the fires and again we chatted for a good five minutes before I told her I was Norwegian. Again I got the same reaction: "But you don't have an accent!".
At the same time, her husband was using the binoculars and pronouncing with great authority about helicopter types and plane models, etc. At first I suspected he was just rambling on, but it turned out he was a US army veteran who'd been very close to getting posted to Norway back in the day. We talked some more and I was strongly advised to go see Coolidge lookout, the second highest point in the Black Hills. I'll post pictures from there when I get to Billings on Wednesday.
As I'm writing this, fires are still ravaging parts of the Black Hills, but as yet not parts inhabited by people, not to any great degree anyway. No one has been killed or injured, thank fuck. The cause of the fires are lightning strikes - they get them some mighty powerful thunderstorms up here in the summer, but usually there;s little rain to accompany them. The whole country has been suffering from heat and dry weather, so this was a question not of if, but when it would burn.
All pics here.
I remember thinking "they're burning MY forest". I loooove the Black Hills.
Fire personell.
Chopper and water bag.
This was on an otherwise completely clear and bright afternoon.
Doing the cowboying on horseback, just like in the old days.
The cop whut harried me off.
Mighty clouds billowing up into the air.
A little south of Custer I thought I was driving in to bad weather, as the skies looked cloudy and the temperature was dropping. As I got a little further I discovered that what I had taken for clouds were in fact a forest fire, and that the main road to Hot Springs was closed. As I took another route south, I pretty much drove along the edge of the fire and witnessed fire trucks and helicopters come and go.
There's nothing like watching a helicopter come out of the fog to dip into a small pond right beside you and take off again to make the ole' adrenalin pumping. A little further along the road a whole herd of cattle had broken through the fence and were being rounded up by people on horseback, just like in the old west. I stopped on the roadside to take some pics, but was abruptly hounded on by a cop who yelled "keep moving, keep moving".
As I got a bit away from it all and looked back, I saw huge pillars of smoke rising high into the air, almost like a nuclear detonation. The adrenaline was getting back to normal levels and I began thinking about the people and the properties that might get lost in the fire; all because some slob hadn't bothered to put out his sigarette or something.
I finally arrived at Motel 6 and got to talking to the people at the reception, who asked me about the fire. I answered as best I could, refering to road numbers and places I remembered from the map. One elderly lady reminisced about a huge fire they'd had in the area in 2007, and kept asking me questions. Finally I said "I don't know ma'am, I'm just a Norwegian tourist", at which point she said "oooh, I thought you were local, what with your knowledge of roads and such. And you don't have an accent!". I also got to talking to a family who had been evacuated earlier in the day and were now staying at Motel 6.
Sunday I drove up towards Wind Cave, some way to the north of Hot Springs, but when I'd gone a few miles I saw there were fires all along the horizon. I stopped in at a parking lot, where a ranger was handing out maps and explaining what was closed (Wind Cave) and not. I got to talking to a lady of around 55-60 about the fires and again we chatted for a good five minutes before I told her I was Norwegian. Again I got the same reaction: "But you don't have an accent!".
At the same time, her husband was using the binoculars and pronouncing with great authority about helicopter types and plane models, etc. At first I suspected he was just rambling on, but it turned out he was a US army veteran who'd been very close to getting posted to Norway back in the day. We talked some more and I was strongly advised to go see Coolidge lookout, the second highest point in the Black Hills. I'll post pictures from there when I get to Billings on Wednesday.
As I'm writing this, fires are still ravaging parts of the Black Hills, but as yet not parts inhabited by people, not to any great degree anyway. No one has been killed or injured, thank fuck. The cause of the fires are lightning strikes - they get them some mighty powerful thunderstorms up here in the summer, but usually there;s little rain to accompany them. The whole country has been suffering from heat and dry weather, so this was a question not of if, but when it would burn.
All pics here.
I remember thinking "they're burning MY forest". I loooove the Black Hills.
Fire personell.
Chopper and water bag.
This was on an otherwise completely clear and bright afternoon.
Doing the cowboying on horseback, just like in the old days.
The cop whut harried me off.
Mighty clouds billowing up into the air.
Wounded Knee
The massacre of Wounded Knee was the last military confrontation between the U.S. Army and the Sioux nation, and contrary to some loony left stories I've read in various Norwegian media, it was not a planned massacre but a tragic accident. To this day it remains highly debatable who fired the first shot.
Anyway, the place is strangely little developed for an important historic place in the US, and I think I am going to blame this on the fact that it is still on injun land. If this was on regular US land, I think there would be a visitor's center, with bathrooms and wi-fi and coke vending machines. There would almost certainly be a McDonalds nearby. I had read that there was supposed to be a museum on site, but I couldn't find one when I went down there on Thursday.
As it is, a few dusty old injuns keep an "information office" under an awning, while some younger 'uns sell trinkets up by the graveyard. There's a huge placard the size of a small billboard, with the story of the massacre written out on both sides. It is all very dusty, low-key and may I say third-world countryish.
As with most "native land" in America, the Sioux reservation around Wounded Knee is generally piss-poor and with the highest concentration of religious loonies anywhere outside the darkest bible belt of the south. This is what happens when a people and their culture is defeated utterly by a superior one and can't seem to fathom what has happened and deal with it in a rational manner.
The injuns on the American reservations remain stuck in a horrible mixture of stupid old customs and new religion (from which they tend to take the most idiotic elements) and seek the intoxication of either the liquor bottle or Christianity instead of getting a proper education and a good job and fuckin' get ON with things like the injuns outside the reservations have done, and with good results.
All pics here.
Wounded Knee. "Information office" to the left.
Overview pic.
Graveyard monument. I have NO idea what the Menorah, nor the Swedish flag are doing there.
Anyway, the place is strangely little developed for an important historic place in the US, and I think I am going to blame this on the fact that it is still on injun land. If this was on regular US land, I think there would be a visitor's center, with bathrooms and wi-fi and coke vending machines. There would almost certainly be a McDonalds nearby. I had read that there was supposed to be a museum on site, but I couldn't find one when I went down there on Thursday.
As it is, a few dusty old injuns keep an "information office" under an awning, while some younger 'uns sell trinkets up by the graveyard. There's a huge placard the size of a small billboard, with the story of the massacre written out on both sides. It is all very dusty, low-key and may I say third-world countryish.
As with most "native land" in America, the Sioux reservation around Wounded Knee is generally piss-poor and with the highest concentration of religious loonies anywhere outside the darkest bible belt of the south. This is what happens when a people and their culture is defeated utterly by a superior one and can't seem to fathom what has happened and deal with it in a rational manner.
The injuns on the American reservations remain stuck in a horrible mixture of stupid old customs and new religion (from which they tend to take the most idiotic elements) and seek the intoxication of either the liquor bottle or Christianity instead of getting a proper education and a good job and fuckin' get ON with things like the injuns outside the reservations have done, and with good results.
All pics here.
Wounded Knee. "Information office" to the left.
Overview pic.
Graveyard monument. I have NO idea what the Menorah, nor the Swedish flag are doing there.
Badlands: A friendly antilope
First, my apologies for being almost a week late with updates. This is due to there not being a single, reliably fast internet connection in western South Dakota. Or so it would seem. I'm uploading these pics from the public library in Hot Springs, where the machines that are in the super-fast area are too old to accept my memory card with the pics on.
Head ---> Desk.
After the foodfest with the prairie dogs Wednesday, I drove on into Badlands National Park. It was as beautiful as I remembered it from 2009. At a viewpoint (I believe it was called Homesteaders point or something like that) I saw an antilope - a young buck - stuffing his little snout about 150 feet to the right of me. I took some pics and pretty soon another couple of guys were also standing beside me, filming the animal.
Then the strangest thing happened. He looked up and seemed to become aware of us. But instead of running, he came closer. The other guys went over to the lookout platform about 100 feet to the left of me, while I remained, wondering what this animal would do, as he came ever closer. Pretty soon, he was down by the fence where I was standing, and at the closest I could have pretty much reached out a hand and touched him, I think. Mindful of the Rules and worried about getting ticks, I wisely refrained.
He then trotted off along the outside of the fence and over to the platform, where he commenced to graze on the sparse vegetation and allowing himself to be photographed and filmed, seemingly without a care in the world. I took lots of pics of him, but quite a few were very similar, so I deleted most of them.
All pics here.
"What? Somebody's taking pics of me?"
"Ooooh, I do believe I'm blushing."
"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."
"'ello there!"
Smelling the flowers.
Digging up food with his little hooveses. So cuuute.
Head ---> Desk.
After the foodfest with the prairie dogs Wednesday, I drove on into Badlands National Park. It was as beautiful as I remembered it from 2009. At a viewpoint (I believe it was called Homesteaders point or something like that) I saw an antilope - a young buck - stuffing his little snout about 150 feet to the right of me. I took some pics and pretty soon another couple of guys were also standing beside me, filming the animal.
Then the strangest thing happened. He looked up and seemed to become aware of us. But instead of running, he came closer. The other guys went over to the lookout platform about 100 feet to the left of me, while I remained, wondering what this animal would do, as he came ever closer. Pretty soon, he was down by the fence where I was standing, and at the closest I could have pretty much reached out a hand and touched him, I think. Mindful of the Rules and worried about getting ticks, I wisely refrained.
He then trotted off along the outside of the fence and over to the platform, where he commenced to graze on the sparse vegetation and allowing himself to be photographed and filmed, seemingly without a care in the world. I took lots of pics of him, but quite a few were very similar, so I deleted most of them.
All pics here.
"What? Somebody's taking pics of me?"
"Ooooh, I do believe I'm blushing."
"I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille."
"'ello there!"
Smelling the flowers.
Digging up food with his little hooveses. So cuuute.
Quote of the Day
The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.
- Aristotle
- Aristotle
Monday, July 23, 2012
Quote of the Day
So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
- Voltarine de Cleyre
- Voltarine de Cleyre
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Quote of the Day
Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name. Thy kingdom nada, thy will be nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.
- Ernest Hemingway
- Ernest Hemingway
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Prairie Dog cuteness
Just outside the entrance to Badlands National Park, there's a prairie dog "farm". You can buy unsalted, shelled peanuts with which you then feed the prairie dogs. It's a scheme for suckers, but I bought two bags for the grand total of one dollar and had me some good fun watching and photographing the little critters stuffin' their oh so cute faces.
All pics here. Warning: Cuteness overload may occur. Proceed at your own risk.
Eyeing me suspiciously.
But he turned out to be a peanut slut too.
This fat bully tried to scare away two little ones who were taking peanuts from me. He wasn't trying to steal the peanuts, it seemed like he was trying to get them back on guard duty.
As soon as he had turned away, they were back to stuffing face.
Why eat sitting up when you can eat lying down?
"We break out tonight"
They're just so cuuuuute.
All pics here. Warning: Cuteness overload may occur. Proceed at your own risk.
Eyeing me suspiciously.
But he turned out to be a peanut slut too.
This fat bully tried to scare away two little ones who were taking peanuts from me. He wasn't trying to steal the peanuts, it seemed like he was trying to get them back on guard duty.
As soon as he had turned away, they were back to stuffing face.
Why eat sitting up when you can eat lying down?
"We break out tonight"
They're just so cuuuuute.
Petrified Gardens
After leaving Pierre, I drove through what seemed like endless grassland all the way down to I-90. Then, after a while I started seeing umpteen signs for all the attractions the Black Hills area can offer, from real sights like Mt Rushmore and the Badlands to more curious stuff, like the Petrified Garden.
The name does not lie. It is a large backyard full of petrified trees, even some petrified moss. Indoors there are more petrified objects and fossils and bones of long extinct species. It is fascinating in a slow, horribly boring way. It only costs five bucks and they have a store with some reasonably cheap polished stones and fossils and such.
All pics here.
Overview. At this point I already suspected that I was the only person insane enough to walk around in the sun. I was right.
If you say so.
Again, I'll take your word for it.
Don't say this blog is not informative!
Shoulder blade of a titanothere, an animal not unlike the modern day rhino.
Rocks under ultraviolet light. Or was it infrared? Fuck knows.
Some of these petrified tree slices were quite nice.
Grass, glorious grass.
The name does not lie. It is a large backyard full of petrified trees, even some petrified moss. Indoors there are more petrified objects and fossils and bones of long extinct species. It is fascinating in a slow, horribly boring way. It only costs five bucks and they have a store with some reasonably cheap polished stones and fossils and such.
All pics here.
Overview. At this point I already suspected that I was the only person insane enough to walk around in the sun. I was right.
If you say so.
Again, I'll take your word for it.
Don't say this blog is not informative!
Shoulder blade of a titanothere, an animal not unlike the modern day rhino.
Rocks under ultraviolet light. Or was it infrared? Fuck knows.
Some of these petrified tree slices were quite nice.
Grass, glorious grass.
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