Yes, there are bears

in South Dakota. I found some at Bear Country USA, I also found a bobcat, elk and reindeer. This and a trip around wildlife loop was what we decided to do the first day of the Sturgis Bike Rally. (Unfortunately, the rally was quite rainy this year.) The weather started off great in the morning but by the early afternoon, we had strong winds and heavy rain. You can imagine me riding around in my chair going please don’t start, please don’t start raining while I’m exploring. the area that you can get up close to the smaller animals. But I am getting ahead of myself.

We started out encountering the burros, but they were only in the rearview mirror. I think we had also run out of carrots, so it is ok that we only saw them out the mirror. We were more on the hunt for the buffalo. We found them off one of the gravel roads far enough away from the roar of the motorcycles.

So, up the gravel road we head and see buffalo spread out all over the place. Once you come around a curve the whole expanse of green opens up and when it is filled with buffalo the feeling for me is peaceful and awe inspiring. I did enjoy the interaction of some of the bulls as they are getting ready to rut and claim a cow for their own. We even had some of the younger bulls play fighting check out the video. Here is also a photo of the start of a stand off.

I find such enjoyment in just watching these animals here are a few more photos. The first photo is of a cow bellowing at first, I thought it was a bull. I then realized that she was wanting her calf to come home. This is what you see in the second photo. My thought was Lassie come home. The third photo is a tombstone memorial for a baby who died in 1902. The bottom row shows a calf and a cow just hanging near the side of the road.

Now onto those bears. We’ve been to Bear Country before and enjoyed it. This time on top of driving through and seeing the animals from the car I had my chair, and I could get out and see some of the babies and smaller animals. The drive started out with the Rocky Mountain elk there were a couple of nice racks.

Reindeer are up next on the drive around the park we were lucky to catch them finishing up a daily bath. Roy has perfect timing as always. Just click the picture to play the video. We followed them until they decided to get off the road.

Around a few more bends we come upon the big horn sheep. It was a little warm for these animals today so they did not seem to be that active which is ok. We continued on through the park and drove right by two mountain goats, lounging on the cool rocks.

We made our way around to the bears. I have to say I am glad it did rain for them later in the afternoon because with all that fur they looked extremely hot. Here is one trying to get toe jam out of his fur and doing it in some cool water.

After the bears I got my chair out and headed for the small animals and the cubs. All of the bears at Bear Country were born there. The cubs are taken from the mothers after about 8 weeks and are then bottle fed by staff for another 6 to 8 weeks. I saw a badger, bobcat, raccoon and then fell in love with this little black bear cub.

I spent about ten minutes watching and taking pictures of him and the tree he was up in. Check out the video of him climbing down.

These are some of the antics of the cubs who seem to be enjoying life.

I went back to the bears and saw the little black bear in the water and this is my favorite photo from that day.

I had to hurry back to the car because it looked like the clouds were going to open up and let out a bunch of water. At least my timing was perfect I got everything put back into the car right before the bad weather happened. This year I will have to state beyond any doubt this has been the strangest year for weather.

The Whole Herd or

most of it. A couple of weeks ago we had to head into Hot Springs SD to the VA to pick up another one of my prescriptions. This is a story in itself. Needless to say the confusion created by a simple automated text from the VA gave me an opportunity to see the whole herd of Custer State Park Buffalo.

It is the season that the rut is starting so they are starting to gather and some of the bulls that have been on the perimeter of the herd are starting to make their voices heard literally. We came round a curve and saw a bunch of buffalo grazing in the field wallowing in a couple of mud holes and drinking from the river. Everywhere you looked you saw them. We were stopped here for about twenty minutes at least the pharmacy was open until 4pm so there was definitely no rush.

One of the things I noticed was how the babies with their red coats are growing and getting small nubs for horns and the loss of the red coat. The little ones are getting bigger.

We left the buffalo as they were headed on a dirt road (4-Mile Draw Rd) back into the park. It turned out to be an all-day affair for them. I say this because we were lucky enough to catch the tail end of the herd finishing up their journey into the park. 4-Mile Draw Rd is a road that connects HWY 87 with the park.

We have driven this road a few times mainly looking for Prairie Dogs. We knew that they were headed down that road in the morning, so we decided to take 4-Mile Rd on the way home. I’m glad we did because we encountered one of the big daddies bringing up the rear. So, we get to the junction of 4-Mile Draw Rd and Wildlife loop and are greeted by a buffalo traffic jam. Another amazing sight to see. The funny thing to this is that they kept coming and coming and still coming.

I am thinking there were more here than what we saw in the morning. That tells me that we missed seeing some of the herd in the morning.

I do have to sit back and wonder if I am awestruck by this number of buffalo, I can’t imagine what it would have been like for the settlers.

Here is a slide show of more of the buffalo from that day.

It’s a Bouncy Baby….

Burro. We were able to get a peek at it when it was less than a week old. Here is the link to the birth announcement. I was amazed at how nimble this little guy was on his feet. Yes, it is a boy. Side note here: As a male burro he will eventually be sold as there can be only one ‘Jack’ in the herd.

This was another morning we decided to hit wildlife loop earlier in the day then normal. I am thinking it was just the start of the small heatwave we had. I also remembered the carrots, (so much easier than apples). I think at least for me giving the burros carrots is easier because I can keep my fingers farther away from their mouths. When feeding them apples the burros get too close to me. I was growing a little concerned because we had gone past the normal places the burros visit and they were not there.

I look up and I see the small herd headed towards us. As you can see from the video the burros seem to like Roy’s side of the car instead of mine. I was ok with that as I only had one burro to deal with and feed. Roy ended up with three burros vying for his attention and carrots.

Check out the video it actually looks like he was going to come over to my side of the car and then changed his mind. I would say he made the right decision. I have to say even though I get nervous when they want to stick their whole head in the car. These burros are harmless and doing what begging burros do. Beg for food and stick their faces in cars. Roy also got an extra look from the daddy of the baby burro. I think he gave Roy the look of approval. (or he was upset that he was out of carrots.)

After the feeding frenzy Roy pulled up to the turn – off and they were waiting for us and everyone else that was there to feed them. I was able to get close enough to the baby to take some pictures. I even had a guy directing traffic to keep people out of my pictures.

Roy is an awesome judge of where things are headed and usually stays one step ahead of the animals so on to the next turn – out. I was able to use my zoom lens to capture some cool action even maybe the next generation that was until the mare decided to make it clear she had a headache. I even got a car to photo bomb the headshot of mom.

Sitting in the car watching the last beggars get fed

The herd decided that enough was enough they were all fat and happy they started heading down the road. Yes, we followed right behind them.

Earlier in the day we did see a few buffalo and a mom pronghorn and babies. So, it would not have been a total disappointment had we not seen the baby burro.

Later that evening we took another drive around the loop this time looking for night shooting spots. Well, it got dark so we were treated to what buffalo look like on the road at night.

It wasn’t scary at all in fact driving through the middle of them at night was actually fun.

It wasn’t all about balloons

Ok, it was mostly about balloons if I am honest. I loved being able to get up close to all the action. That being said Saturday was a full day for us. After chasing balloons Roy and I had worked up an appetite. Lucky for us the Lion’s were hosting a pancake breakfast. We were able to fill our bellies so we could watch the parade, visit vendors, see the car show and enjoy the day.

After breakfast we did a quick spin around the scaled down farmer’s market (the pancake breakfast took up a bit of space). We were able to get a tomato, an onion, lettuce plus stuff we will never buy again. Sourdough cinnamon bun, scone, and banana bread, they just did not taste like we thought they would.

So, off to the races and the car show. It’s funny how many times Roy leaves me in his dust with his scooter because he has the faster motor. Here is a rare shot of him at a standstill. I actually told him to stop. Side note: getting his scooter and my chair has made this trip so much more enjoyable.

On the way to the car show I rolled up on a lavender plant and there were bees flying around. So, I had to experiment trying to capture the flight path of a bee. One thing I have to say are those suckers are fast. Most of the pictures were blurry here is one though I think you’ll like.

At the car show which was right down the block I got to see a 57 Chevy just like his second car he owned. He however owned a bronze version that he had repainted white. (He does love his white cars.) I am having a hard time adjusting to the fact that some of the cars from the 80s and 90s are now classics and antiques. Yes, there were still the old classic cars from the 50s and 60s.

Check out the slide shows of the car show.

The parade was hot and sunny we were able to find shade but our view was a little obscured. What I would do is run up to the street in the sun take a few pictures and beg for candy from the kids that ran out to pick the candy thrown from floats. Yes, this was a parade where candy was available. After the parade we decided it was time to head home and do lunch. One of the rare days where we had our adventure in the early morning.

Up Up and Away

We woke up early and got to see two deer on the way out the drive, a doe and a fawn crossing the road plus two deer on the side of the road all before the first balloon launch. Click here for the videos. I do know Roy saw an elk but we did not get it captured on dash cam.

After shooting everything in sight yesterday today was all about picking certain balloons to concentrate on. I changed camera lenses to my wide angle so I could take in the whole scene. After we get Roy’s scooter out, I head up the little hill and start taking pictures. The sun had just risen so there were sun beams to take advantage of.

I was taking pictures from a distance and a woman came up to me and stated if I wanted to get closer I could. The balloon she was crewing for is called Morning Manna. (They will also be at the Hotsprings balloon festival in August.) I did journey closer to the balloon and took some pictures of the flame from a close distance.

When the crew told me to come closer. I do have to say that I would not make a good balloon crew member it was too hot. I enjoyed getting close enough to see all the way up into the balloon.

Most of the morning was spent chasing the balloons after lift off.

We decided to follow Morning Manna to see where the wind would blow. It would be a journey of 14 and 1/2 miles as the crow flies. This is where the game lodge is and the landing zone for multiple balloons. They all seemed to go in every which direction you could imagine.

We had to wait at a few different turn outs for either the balloon to catch up to us or the balloon to radio down to the chase car what direction the wind is carrying them.

Once we got to the landing zone there were other balloons touching down. There was a moment when it looked like a balloon was coming in for a hard landing. The hard landing wasn’t as hard as it could have been because of the fast thinking of the ground crew. Everyone was ok just a little shook up.

Last balloon standing. The balloon touched down at the landing zone then lifted off so we followed it. It was cool how they had to walk the balloon to the edge of the road so, they could pack it up.

Looking forward to more balloon chasing in my future.

Full of Hot Air

Roy seems to think I am. I said no it is the balloons that are filled with hot air. I was able to witness how much hot air goes into a balloon this past weekend at Custer’s 100th Gold Days. Saturday was a full day that included the balloon launch, the chase, pancake breakfast, a parade, a car show and a carnival. The highlight for me was getting up close and personal to the balloons. Like anything I do that is new the first day I was timid and not sure what to shoot there was action everywhere. One of the sponsors of the balloon launch and participant was Black Hills Balloon

Roy positioned the car perfectly for the filling and lifting off of the balloons. I on the other hand, was on Roy’s scooter and was mobile. I did not move around as much as I could. I could not believe how massive these balloons were. I guess they would have to be big considering how large they look when they are in flight. The size of the balloon is just one of those things that the mind doesn’t grasp until you actually see it.

It starts with the basket coming out of the trailer, then you have to spread the balloon out, attach the basket and then it is time to add the hot air. I am not sure that I would get that close to an open flame.

Once there is enough hot air in the balloon it is like magic as you watch the balloon lift and pull up on the basket and all it takes is a lot of hot air.

At this point I was not sure where to look everything was blowing up and lifting off, there was so much color around.

It seemed so surreal watching them lift off and just hearing a slow hissing sound of the fire heating the helium to get lift.

So off to the races so to speak. It seemed to me that the balloons were moving slow when in reality they were moving quite fast.

Well like everything there always has to be that one. The one that has to be different or a little difficult. I am not sure why the basket and balloon could not get airborne. It was interesting watching it try to take-off. I was able to catch some interesting looks on the riders faces during this whole process. I am not sure I would have continued with the flight. (Who am I kidding I would have never got into the basket to begin with.)

They were able to get airborne and catch up with the group. We decided to follow the balloons to the landing zone which was fairly close to the lift off zone. The drive over was one of I wonder where they are going, they are headed with the wind.

They went through the trees around the trees and finally in front of the trees all to reach the landing zone.

We had a front row seat to the almost choreographed landing of three balloons right in succession and so close together.

There was a balloon having trouble landing. I did not realize that it was the same balloon having the landing issues that also had the take-off issues until I was going through the pictures.

The hard part about landing seemed to be the wind. You know the general area to come down in. I was a little worried when I saw this balloon descending almost on the roof of our car. I thought I might be able to reach out and touch her. I think she was thinking the same thing.

I had so much fun that I knew getting up tomorrow morning and chasing balloons would be worth it.

Only 68 miles.

That is how far away the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery is from our campground we are staying at for the summer. I bring this up because. Spearfish and Deadhorse was warm and sunny. We had an amazing time even stopped for ice cream. On the way home we were delayed by some big horn sheep. right outside of Deadwood. You can see a few clouds in the sky and a bit of blue. So, it should be nice like that at home, right!

That was not the story at all. 68 miles away there was a freak storm. I get a text from Monica the owner of Timber Ridge Campground (which is home base for the summer). Asking where we were and how was the weather. I said Deadwood and the weather was good. She then sends me a video.

All I could text back was holy CRAP. I guess it came out of nowhere. It did not appear on radar and only lasted for 10 minutes. Her hubby Pete was shopping in Custer SD which is only 14 miles from the campground, and it was blue skies. Just strange how weather can be so different within a few miles. After about ten minutes the skies cleared, and the sun came out. It took us about an hour to get home and there was still hail on the ground. The damage we received from this hailstorm was very minimal. It involved the lid to the citronella candle, our decorator lights and a bunch of leaves in the yard. The lights looked like someone used them for target practice. The awning had tiny bb wholes near the edge that is attached to the trailer. The awning is self-retracting and will roll itself up if there is a threat to it. This worked like it was supposed or we could have had more damage.

I don’t remember every being in a hailstorm before. This is one first I did NOT need to experience. We got ‘treated’ to a hailstorm the next night. It seems I needed to get the full effect of a hailstorm not just the damage afterwards. We were just leaving Rapid City after dinner and some shopping when, the hail started to pound. You can see us pull under the awning of a gas station to wait for it to pass over us.

We pulled out from under the cover when it looked like it was letting up. This allowed us to stay behind the storm. Our dash cam was able to catch the aftermath of hail on the road by catching the steam rising from the road. Once in the trailer and getting ready for bed the sky let loose again. This time I think the hail was larger. It sounded like someone was throwing rocks down on the trailer roof. One sounded like it was the size of a bowling ball had hit the roof. Lucky for us the only damage was a small crack in the skylight over the shower.

This has been a crazy summer of weather. I was however able to practice shooting lightning so that is a plus.

Here Fishy Fishy

No, I have not taken up fishing. We did however go to the D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery in Spearfish SD for the day. (We chose the best day to go more on that later.) This is a FREE attraction it is situated right next to the city park in Spearfish SD. It looks nondescript when you park in the lot and walk across the boardwalk. Once inside you see turn of last century buildings, water and fish the grounds are well kept.

Our first stop was the pond gift shop to get the lay of the land and buy some fish food. Roy never misses an opportunity to feed the animals. I never miss the opportunity to photograph him feeding the animals. We headed down the elevator to see the underwater viewing windows. In the pond there is rainbow, brown, and cut throat trout. The fish in this pond are only for display they will not be released to the wild. Some of the fish are over 8 years old and about 14lbs. Big uns I tell you. The window was a tad muddy due to all the recent rains and the small flood the hatchery experienced earlier in the month. I couldn’t figure out why all the fish were moving back and forth and jumping out of the water, it looked strange. I was seeing the underneath action from the fish being fed.

We headed back up and decided it was time to feed the fish. The amazing thing is watching from above was not as cool as watching from below. Although I did get to see a few fish breech the surface. You could also see that the ducks knew where free food was.

We tried to figure out where to the start the journey. The museum of course. This building was the original 1899 Spearfish Hatchery.

Inside there was a model of a Fish Rail Car. The model was made for $400 and was displayed at the 1900 Paris Exposition. The car itself had crew quarters for the employees who had to ride along and make sure the fish arrived alive. The system for aerating the water was advanced for its time. This was only one mode of transportation to get fish from hatchery to stream. Here is a link to the fish car era.

Some other methods of transportation include, backpacking, trucks, planes, and helicopters. The containers included backpacks tanks on trucks and even milk cans. The photo to the left captures stocking fish using a milk can. Whatever container the fish are in the water still had to be circulated, cooled, and oxygenated.

Also in the museum was the hatchery office. It included the original roll top desk, plus two pieces of equipment I even used when I was younger. Unfortunately, kids today have no experience with this type of equipment. (I felt a little old after seeing these.)

I learned that the fresh water from Spearfish Creek was brought into the hatchery via cedar water pipes. This occurred until the 1970s when most of the pipes were replaced. The hatchery made their own fish food by grinding up raw meat and mixing it with grains prior to the invention of fish pellets.

After the museum we headed up to the Booth House which is where the superintendents lived until 1983. The house was constructed in 1905 it was one of the first houses in Spearfish to have indoor plumbing and electricity.

Finishing up with the hatchery and enjoying the beautiful weather we stopped for ice cream then headed towards Deadwood and home. Where a surprise was waiting.

A True Sunday Drive

Sunday the 9th we headed around wildlife loop in search of animals. It was a beautiful partly cloudy day perfect for photography. I haven’t done much landscape photography this trip so I thought maybe we can do some of that today. There are a series of hairpin turns heading down onto the wildlife loop.

Roy pulled off in a turn out and I got a few pictures showing some of the vastness of the park. The dirt road you see is Oak Draw Rd, this is sometime where you can see buffalo also.

We had a little bit of a surprise rounding a curve we come upon some stopped cars, thinking oh it is probably prairie dogs because we were in that area of the park. Turns out it was the begging burros.

I enjoy watching little kids interacting with the burros. I am not sure if this little one was enjoying it or just a little nervous about touching the burro. We stuck around for a short time watching them pose and do selfies with the burros. But we headed off for more of our Sunday drive. Buffalos were waiting for us somewhere we hoped.

At the other end of wildlife loop rd. where we hadn’t seen buffalo this year, there they were. I think this Sunday drive was a drive full of oddities. We were near the middle of the line of cars waiting to move ahead and get around the buffalo. We had been waiting awhile with no movement in sight, it was then we saw what we thought at the time to be stupid people trying to get selfies. This was not the case.

It turns out that the holdup was not stupid people but bikers who were having some tire issues. Not something I’d want to have happen surrounded by buffalo. In the video you can see the bikers walking and standing off to the side of the road.

Speaking of bikers and buffalo it is interesting to see the wide berth the bikes do give a buffalo who has decided to stand in the road and not move, so you must go around. I know sometimes when they are that close, I get nervous. I don’t think I could be brave enough to do it on a bike.

We inch our way through the buffalo and decide now we can get back up to speed and head back to the trailer only to be stopped in our tracks by this buffalo who was going nowhere fast. Roy did end up going around him after a short time.

Sometimes you just have to take your time and drive like you are out on that Sunday drive.