Madison, Wisconsin

Here it is, the middle of August, and I realize I haven't made any updates to our blog since June. I was almost current after the last entry on The Badlands, but once we arrived at Thunder Bay in Hillman, Michigan, we slipped into the routine of working and golfing, and before I knew it, the blog had become very low on my list of things to do. So now I have to reach back to May to catch up. The last stop we made along our journey to Hillman was to the Madison, the capital of Wisconsin.

The Madison Capitol building is constructed of granite, nestled between Lake Monona and Lake Mendota, and is the only State Capitol ever built on an isthmus. Inside, the architecture, murals, stained glass, and paintings are striking in both size and content, encompassing 43 varieties of stone from around the world and boasting beautiful and unique hand-carved furniture. The interior colors are dominated by golden hues giving one the feeling of grandeur, warmth and richness.

Here are a few pictures from our Madison, Wisconsin, Capitol Tour.

Badlands National Park

Even though we were on somewhat of a schedule traveling from Washington to Michigan, we did allow ourselves enough time for a couple of unplanned side trips along the way. One that came up while we were in South Dakota was a brief stop at the Badlands National Park. I've never seen anything like this, and my first impression was this seemed like a landscape that belonged on another planet, or perhaps the setting for a movie like "The Lord of The Rings". Since that movie has already been made, maybe for an adaptation of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. It is stark, desolate, eerie, and other-worldly.

The park consists of nearly 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires, and is really impossible to describe. The history of the Badlands stretches back to the beginning of time, and the land is rich with fossil beds dating 23 to 35 million years old. The evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig can be studied in the Badlands formations. An array of extinct animals, ranging from very enormous to very small, once ranged through the area now included in Badlands National Park. Some lived in the subtropical forests that flourished after the retreat of the shallow inland seas, while others inhabited the savannahs and grasslands that came in the years afterward.

Hopefully you can get at least a glimpse into this place like no other with the attached pictures. Remember - click on them to enlarge for the full effect.

Pierre, South Dakota

After leaving Rapid City, we continued our Eastward trek, with a two day stop near Pierre, South Dakota to visit the state capitol. Much to our surprise and delight, we were literally the only visitors there on the day we took our tour. It happened to be Sunday, and Mother's Day, and not very pleasant weather, so perhaps all those things combined made this an unlikely day for crowds. Since we were the only ones there, we were given a lengthy and private tour of the building by the docent on duty that day.

The first thing we noticed inside the building was the similarities to the construction and architecture to the capitol building in Helena, Montana. The architect did indeed pattern his design after the state capitol in Helena, with one major difference. The floor of the capitol building in Pierre is made of terrazzo tile. The floor is said to have been laid by 66 Italian artists. To give these artists a chance to place their signatures in the building (without allowing them to actually sign their names to the floor), each is said to have been given a blue stone to place in the floor. Only 55 of these tiles have been found, however. It is thought that the remaining stones may have been placed in locations now covered by walls, doors, or carpeting.

Here are some pictures of the outside, interior, and tile floor of the capitol building in Pierre.

Mt. Rushmore

Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a monumental granite sculpture by Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941), and represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States with 60-foot sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres and is 5,725 feet above sea level. The memorial attracts approximately two million people annually.

We reached Rapid City on May 4th, very excited to finally get a chance to visit Mt. Rushmore. Although I had been here with my family during a cross-country vacation when I was 15, I only had a vague recollection of the experience. This was to be Dan's first visit, and we were both looking forward to the experience. The weather was unseasonably cold, and we woke on the morning of May 5th to a light dusting of snow in our RV Park. As we drove up to the memorial, snow continued to fall, and we were wondering how this would impact our viewing.

When we arrived, it was quite cold and overcast; fog had started to roll in, and the faces of the presidents were sometimes obscured by the swirling mists and the moisture that had collected on their stone likenesses. We took a few pictures, toured the visitor center, and watched a short film on the history of the monument before deciding to leave and try again the next day.

We had much better luck when we returned on May 6th. The air was clear (although still cold, and now windy), but our view was unobscured and we were able to really appreciate the full impact of this masterpiece, trying to capture the feeling in about 50 or more pictures. I've included just a few of the very best for your viewing.

Devils Tower National Monument

After leaving Helena, our destination was Rapid City, South Dakota, to visit Mt. Rushmore. We planned to take two days to get there, as the mileage was a little long for a one day haul. On the second day, we only had a 4-hour trip on the schedule, so we decided to alter our route slightly and incorporate a trip to The Devils Tower National Monument, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, standing 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, 5,112 feet above sea level, and 867 feet from its base to the summit.

Devils Tower is made up of igneous rock, which is made directly from molten rock coming to the surface. Devil's Tower was a spire of molten rock that forced its way from deep inside the earth through the surface, or near to the surface. As time wore on, the sedimentary rock that surrounded the tower eroded, leaving Devil's Tower exposed. Sedimentary rock is much softer than igneous rock, thus it erodes faster. Devil's Tower was left standing tall when everything else had been blown or shifted away from it.

You may recognize the shape of Devils Tower from the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the top of the tower was featured as the landing pad for the aliens. The monument is located in a 1347 acre park featuring more than seven miles of hiking trails and is home to birds such as hawks, eagles, vultures, falcons and mammals such as white-tailed deer and the black-tailed prairie dog. More than 5000 climbers from all over the world climb the tower every year.

Devils Tower is a sacred site of worship for many American Indians and is known as Mato Tipila by the Lakota, which means "Bear Lodge". As Dan and I walked the 1.3 mile trail that skirts around the tower, we saw many prayer bundles tied to the surrounding trees. There were instructions at the beginning of the trail asking hikers not to disturb the prayer bundles as they are considered physical symbolic representation of prayers and are part of religious ceremonies. It's easy to understand how this could be a holy place. I was filled with respect for this massive monolith, and was struck with awe and wonder just standing in the presence of something so wondrous and mysterious.