GAPP 2017 !: Our adventure in South Dakota continues! 😍

Hello again! Let me tell you more about our trip to beautiful South Dakota…

On Wednesday morning we ate self-cooked breakfast including bacon, toast and scrambled eggs and were visited by some deer in our garden before we left for the Jewel Cave National Monument near Custer. The Jewel Cave is the third longest cave in the world (it has more than 290 km of mapped passageways!) and is located in the Black Hills. We were able to learn a lot about the cave’s history and formation before we went on a guided tour through a part of the cave. Even though we had to climb more than 700 steps of staircases it was worth it because of the amazing and unique sight we experienced.

Afterwards we drove to Custer, a small town nearby, to get some lunch and continued our journey to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It’s a monument that is supposed to show the Oglala Lakota Indian leader Crazy Horse riding a horse but so far only Crazy Horse’s head is finished because the works are expensive and the responsible persons are refusing to receive federal or state funding out of respect for the Indians. But even the head is gigantic, it’s about 27m high, and I can’t imagine how big the entire monument will be when it’s finished.

Our next destination was the famous Mount Rushmore National Memorial or simply the Mount Rushmore. For those who don’t know this memorial, it’s a sculpture of the heads of 4 U.S. presidents carved into a Mountain. There we had the chance to take lots of pictures in front of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln which was really fun.

Then we started the way back to the lodge but our bus driver Jo was so nice and drove us a bit through the National Park we’re staying at (Custer State National Park) so we were able to see the beautiful landscape and lots of different animals before we arrived ‘home’.

For dinner we made a simple but delicious meal out of chicken and salad along with garlic bread. The rest of the evening we enjoyed our last night at the wonderful lodge while playing games and just talking about our experiences so far.

The next morning started with a similar breakfast to the one from yesterday but a bit later because we just had to leave at 9am. Most of us were really sad because the days at the lodge passed by so quickly and our trip to South Dakota was slowly coming to an end. After packing all our things we left the lodge and started the long drive to the Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, an igneous rock. A lot of us were surprised by the sheer size of the Devils Tower because it’s huge. A few of us went on a hike around the Devils Tower but the majority of our group stayed at one spot along the trail to take some pictures in front of this gigantic rock.

Afterwards we headed to a city called Hulett where we ate late lunch in a western style bar and were able to try some delicious Bison burgers. Sadly this was the last thing planned for our South Dakota adventure and so we started the way back to Saint Ansgar and Charles City. After stopping at a motel in Wall for the night we continued the journey and were welcomed by our host families at the High Schools in Saint Ansgar and Charles City in the late afternoon and spent the rest of the day with them.

Overall I really enjoyed our trip to South Dakota and I’m very happy that I got to experience the beautiful nature and various sights there. 😍
- Svenja