Black Hills 1

We arrived in the Rapid City SD area on Sept. 8 to stay at the Coast to Coast park, Rushmore Shadows. It has undergone several improvements since we first stayed there several years ago. It is fairly close to Custer State Park and Mt. Rushmore, as well as the Black Hills Central Railroad.

 

The next three pictures were taken in Custer State Park of pronghorn (antelope) and bison.

 

 

 

 

This bull was branded on his rear quarter. The bison are rounded up annually and the herd reduced to the projected carrying capacity of the range.

 

We wound up our tour of Custer State Park with lunch at its Sylvan Lake Lodge, below. It began raining while we were there, so we called it a day and returned to the RV. 

 

 

 

On the next clear  day we visited Keystone, Hill City, and ‘chased” the 1880 train from Hill City back to Keystone.

 

Most of the tourist stores of Keystone are located on two blocks of Main St.

 

I was surprised to see this diesel locomotive next to the train station in Keystone. The railroad’s brochure indicated that the first round trip of the day from Hill City to Keystone would be headed by this loco.

 

 

Mt. Rushmore sculptures from the highway. One of the tunnels on Iron Mountain road was built to frame the sculptures. Of course the view from the Visitor’s Center is much better. The only charge there is the $11.00 per vehicle fee for the parking garage.

 

A railfan is said to be chasing a train when he plans to be at each intersection of the train tracks and a road to see (and photograph) the train as it passes the crossing. Here is is best done from Hill City as on the way back from Keystone the locomotive leads the consist of cars running backwards. There is no facility in Keystone to turn the engine. Above is the Black Hills Central Railroad’s standard gauge steam locomotive, a 6-6-2 T. The two sets of 6 wheels are articulated to go around the tight curves. The T stands for the water tank being mounted over the boiler.

Another railfan and I got pictures of the train at several crossings.

 

 

 

I was also taking movies of the train at the crossings using my GoPro Hero tiny video camera. For the first time I tried it both mounted on a monopod and later on a headband, above (but not at that jaunty angle). The monopod held the camera steadier. I need to remember to point the camera downward more when using it on the headband.