Faces in the Fog and My Gas Problem

We are made of stories. I mean, scientists say that human beings are made of atoms, but a little bird told me that we are also made of stories.

--Eduardo Galeano

So I had my first minor mishap (maybe) with my van on this last segment of the trip, but I’ll tell you that story in a little bit.  Yesterday I drove from Sheridan, Wyoming to Keystone, South Dakota, which is where Mount Rushmore is.  

Glad he was behind a fence!

 I found a little RV park called Wolf Camp that was about 9 miles away from Mount Rushmore—an easy enough distance for a bike ride, I figured.  Plus, the website said they had wolves on site (“pet” ones, not wild ones), so that sounded pretty cool too.

I was driving on Interstate 90, which is just a big, typical interstate (except the speed limit was 80 mph, which was fun), when I saw a sign that said  “Devil’s Tower National Monument – Exit 154.”  I wasn’t sure what Devil’s Tower was, but I figured it would take me off of the interstate and put me on some smaller scenic roads so it was worth a detour.  When I got to exit 154, I left the highway and saw another sign that read “Devils Tower: 26 miles” and had an arrow pointing to the left. I turned left, and followed a narrow two-lane road through rolling hills covered in grass. After about 25 miles, I saw a large, stone tower poking up in the distance.  As I got closer, I thought to myself “Hey! I’ve seen that before!” In fact, I’d even seen a replica of it made out of mashed potatoes.  If you’ve ever seen the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind then you know what I’m talking about.  Devil’s Tower is the oddly shaped “mountain” that Richard Dreyfuss kept having images of, and it is where the aliens eventually land at the end of the movie.  I stopped only briefly and took a few pictures.  There were several gift shops nearby, as well as an ice cream store. 

Remember this from Close Encounters?

Unfortunately, though, the ice cream store was closed for some strange reason, so there really wasn’t anything compelling me to stay too long.

At about 4:30pm I arrived at Wolf Camp.  As I was getting my van setup, I noticed the smell of propane.  I checked the cylinder in back and heard a small hissing sound.  All the valves were turned off, and it hadn’t been too entirely hot so I didn’t think it was the pressure relief valve.  I figured the best way to fix it was to just leave it alone for a while and see what happened.  The owner of the park told me that there were the remains of an old mining town called Spokane just up the hill from the property, so that seemed like a good way to occupy some time.  I took a short hike up there and explored the barely-standing buildings for about 30 minutes and then came back down to check on my propane tank. The hissing sound had stopped, and the smell went away so I figured it was ok.  I went over to meet the two wolves, Wakan and Akia.  They were both about 10 years old, and were much larger than I had expected.  One of the ladies that works at the campsite started howling, and they wolves joined in with her.  They “sung” to each other for about 15 minutes.  It is a pretty impressive, and slightly eerie sound.  I also got to hear them howling at night, which would be a pretty frightening sound to hear so close by if I didn’t know they were in cages. 

This cabin was available for a little cheaper than the RV site

This morning I woke up looking forward to my bike ride to Mount Rushmore, but those hopes were quickly washed away by the tic-tic-tic sound of raindrops plinking on the roof of my van.  Bummer.  I’d have to find another way to get some exercise today.  The rain convinced me to drive to the monument instead.  The bright side of this was that since I would be driving, I would have time to explore some other sights in the area as well. I drove to Mount Rushmore and paid my $11 parking fee.  As with most of the other places I’ve been on this trip, I was again treated to the benefit of traveling to the northern states in May:  the parking lot was nearly empty and there were very few people.  I’m sure the rain added to this as well.  And so did the low fog.  As I got out of my van and walked toward the mountain, I kept looking for the faces.  There is a walkway lined with flags from all the states just in front of Mount Rushmore, but other than that there wasn’t much to see. All I could see was a bunch of loose rocks piled on the side of the mountain below some clouds.   I guess I picked a bummer of a day to visit Mount Rushmore.  I went in anyways and watched a movie that showed how the mountain was built, and then I walked through the museum that had brief little history lessons on Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln, as well as stories about the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum (what a name!).  By the time I finished looking around inside, the fog had cleared up a bit so I was finally able to see the actual monument. 

I don't see why everyone thinks Mount Rushmore is so impressive

After seeing the faces in the clouds, I took a 45-minute drive south to Wind Cave National Park.  Like Devil’s Tower, I had never heard of this one before either.  The office manager lady at Wolf Camp had recommended it, and being in a cave sounded like a good option for something to do in the rain.  Wind Cave National Park was the first national park created for an underground feature, and it is one of the longest caves in the world: it has almost 145 miles of tunnels that span three different levels underground.  Visitors are only allowed to enter the caves via tours led by a ranger.  As the tour started, the ranger asked how many people had heard of Wind Cave prior to their visit that day.  Out of the 25 people on the tour, not a single one raised their hand. He then asked how many people had come to this area to see Mount Rushmore, and every single hand went up.  He told us that he was not at all surprised at this, because that was how most people found out about the park—they came to see Mount Rushmore and then said “Ok, what else is there to do around here?”  The tour of the cave lasted about one hour, and we obviously did not cover the entire thing.  I tried taking a few pictures, but none of them really came out too good because the cave was comprised mostly of smaller, narrower channels rather than large, cavernous rooms.  Wind Cave is very different than several other caves in that it its formations are smaller types called boxwork, as opposed to stalactites and stalagmites in most caves.  Stalactites and Stalagmites are formed by water dripping through caves over millions of years and leaving mineral deposits behind that build up into large structures after the cave is formed.  Boxwork is formed by calcium deposits that were present in cracks in limestone before the cave was formed. Water settles into the rocks and washes away the softer limestone, leaving behind the boxwork. 

This was the best picture of boxwork I could get

This results in very thin lattice-looking structures on the surface of the rock.  Wind Cave is apparently one of the few caves in the world where boxwork is found.  Also, it is different from most other caves in that it is not a very “wet” cave—there is very little dripping water or pools of water found like in other caves that are formed from water dripping through them.

After the tour of the caves, I headed back to Wolf Camp for one more night.  When I arrived, I got my van setup again, and turned on the propane.  As I turned the valve on, I again heard the hissing noise.  I shut the valve off, and the hissing continued.  Maybe just letting it sit didn't really fix the problem entirely.  Tomorrow morning I’m leaving Keystone, and I plan to find an RV repair shop to see if they can figure out my gas problem (maybe they'll tell me it's just too much gluten).  After that, I'll head about two hours east to visit the Badlands National Park. Well, at least I hope I make it to the Badlands without blowing up along the way.  Either way though I suppose I’ll end up with a story to tell, and that in itself will make the trip worthwhile.

A ranger at Mount Rushmore told me there were wild mountain goats around.
Something told me that they really weren't that wild...