In (and around) the shining water

DAY 14

Awakened by the noise of tourists; radios, gunning motors, loud talking. Philistines!

Our next destination is the South Dakota Badlands, but we’re not set in stone as to where exactly we’re going there.

I will now sing the praises of GPS; there are incredibly long stretches of no interests (unless you’re into black angus ranches) along this route. The GPS actually gave me hope that there was something on the end of this by letting me know that in () miles there would actually be something.

Animal spotted a pronghorn. Kewl!

Sadly we’ve lot yet another quail. He died in my hands. RIP dude.

The scenery has changed again, and we can see, far off in the distance what is unmistakably smoke from a massive fire.

 ...

We have now reached the park area and have been told that the smoke we saw is near Pringle, and it is not contained, at all.

I was about to drive past Sylvan Lake which is man made, but Animal wanted to go swimming. So we parked, changed into our suits and walked over to where there were loads of families with screaming children, barbeque grills, and beer. Despite signs clearly stating that jumping from the rocks was strictly prohibited kids and adults were doing it anyway. (Tourists! Feh!!)

Dropping towels and shoes on the shore we went in.

OMG! That water was COLD!!! It actually took my breath away. But I got used to it (kinda) and started to swim. Then I decided I needed to see so went back to get my glasses, went back in the water and just did breast or side strokes to the little rock island several yards off shore.

Animal is part mermaid and did a lot more swimming than I did. I swam back to a different part of shore and started investigating the rocks. When she got out we spontaneously started following the path that led around the lake (it’s a small lake). 

Every few feet I would find a rock I just Had to pick up. I’m a sucker for quartz, and it was everywhere. There were also flakes of mica on the ground and in the water and the sun hitting it would just gleam. Fortunately I had brought my binocular case (sans binocular). I needed it.

Along our hike we ran into a group of (cute) boy hikers that alerted us to the fact that there was tourmaline in certain areas. We found several good specimens although finding an intact spear was rare. Mostly got chunks embedded in the quartz.

My bag was almost completely full by the time we got back to the van.

As usual we went (still on the trail but away from the majority of other hikers) looking for places where others were not and found some incredibly beautiful little out of the way places.

I will reiterate that I’ve got massive amounts of pictures.

We got a look at the actual dam that created the lake. It’s a small thing, mostly just a concrete wall between two very tall boulders, but it’s enough to create the lake, and unlike some this one was an improvement for the area.

So despite my lack of expectation, Sylvan Lake was another incredible adventure.

Into the car again we headed up the road to the Needles. They are an incredible rock formation (please – what isn’t around here) but more exciting was the one-lane tunnel you had to drive through to get to them. Hard to describe so I’ll insert what’s in the brochure. “As part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway, the Needles Highway stretches 14 miles through granite structures and pine covered mountains. Needle’s Eye is one of the most memorable granite needles along the drive, with its signature ‘eye’ formed by countless years of rain, ice and wind.”

On the way down spotted the fire smoke again. We could actually smell and see the smoke, even though it was miles away. (It had a nice mesquite scent. Would’ve been enjoyable but for the reality of people endangering their lives putting the fire out. Btw, I actually thanked a few of the firefighters who were on break for their work.)

When we stopped at the information center we were told this was the Myrtle fire and it was, maybe 5 percent contained. Also, there was an extreme thunderstorm warning out for the area we were in.

The day was getting prematurely gray and the storm was chasing us as we came back out on the prairie. The road we got on ran perpendicular and I can honestly say I’ve never seen clouds like that before. The rain angled downward and it looked like a giant mushroom. The lightning was incredible. Since we were on flat plain you could see everything for miles and the bolts were striking downward, sideways, and even coming from a cloud and jumping to another in a jagged ‘w’.

To my right as I watched I actually saw smoke starting to rise in two places. The longer I watched the bigger the smoke plume. At one point I actually saw the orange flames. They were HUGE! But happily I think the storm put the fire out before it got completely out of control. I saw the smoke die down and dissipate. Whew.

I forgot to mention that at the info center Animal and I decided that we were both “full” and that it was now time to start home, even though there was still plenty that we could’ve done. But both of us had had some extremely profound experiences that needed processing and we were ready.

We drove as far as we could (to Sioux Falls) then got a hotel and crashed.

All the peeps left are still with us. YAY!