So it was a very warm day here in South Dakota and Jesse and I decided an indoor activity would be nice. I work with a wonderful woman who has mentioned the Mammoth Site a few times. She said it is very cool and totally worth the trip out to Hot Springs to see it. The story goes that a man was clearing the land to build a housing development and one of the bulldozer drivers noticed that a tusk was sticking out of the ground. He stopped what he was doing and alerted the owner of the land. He realized what he had discovered and ended up selling the land to the researchers who were excavating the area. Many bones were found and it is the largest collection of mammoth bones in the US. They constructed a building up around the site to keep it safe from the elements and also a lab that sifts through the dirt for even more fossils. It is a very impressive set up that they have and the guides are very knowledgeable. Jesse and I enjoyed the tour very much. They have named many of the mammoths and there are a few complete skeletons. This used to be a sink hole and the mammoths would slip into the hole while trying to get water and the slippery limestone would keep them from getting back out. It is mostly males that were probably out trying to find their own herd. It was kinda sad to think about those poor creatures. There were so many layers of bones and sediment they think they can go down about 60 more feet and still find bones. It is pretty incredible.
After seeing the mammoths and doing some shopping (we had to get a magnet), we headed to the town of Hot Springs. It is not very big but it is pretty. There was a small waterfall and creek running alongside the town so we stopped to take a few pictures. We kept on driving and came across Wind Cave National Park. We had not ever been there before so we drove through and stopped at the Visitor Center to get a map of the area. We looked around a bit and vowed to come back to hike a bit around there since it is quite stunning.
Our next stop was in Hill City for a snack and some wine. The winery we went to was Naked Winery since we like their red wines and we had a good time when we were there with Jay. This time we got the huge pretzel and it was awesome. We ate it all even though that was not the plan.
The next morning we woke up and decided even though it was hot we still wanted to do some hiking. There is a great big hill in the middle of Rapid City and it is full of really great challenging hiking trails. The views from the top are also pretty impressive. After a few hours of hiking we were out of water and ready for a shower. But first we had to stop in downtown Rapid to see the large car show they had going on that weekend. There were some very old and very cool cars there.
There is never a dull moment on our weekends. We manage to pack a lot in since we know our time here is running short. Still so much to do and so little time left.
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