Today we started with a drive to Hot Springs SD to visit Mammoth Site. I didn't have terribly high expectations,but was pleasantly surprised. The short story is a geologic phenomenon created a situation that trapped 60 known mammoths along with various other animals in a pit about 25,000 years ago. It wasn't a mass event. Individual animals were trapped over a long period of time. The site was discovered in 1974 and has been an active dig ever since. The expectation is research will continue for another 20-40 years. One interesting point is that every mammoth found was male. There are three prevailing theories about this:
1. Female mammoths were smarter than males.
2. Female mammoths pushed the males in.
3. The older males were ostracized from the herd and wandered in searching for food.
You can go with your theory of choice.
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| Complete Mammoth Skeleton |
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| Pit with Various Bones in Situ |
After that I noticed on the map we weren't far from Wind Cave National Park. At this point of my life I have no desire to go above the ground or below the ground, but I do have a National Park Pass I have to justify so I didn't want the opportunity to go to waste. As it turned out there was no fee for entry unless you went on a cave tour which I wasn't going to do anyway. We did see a lot of bison.
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| Baby Bison |
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| Bison Herd |
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| Scratching an itch on the information sign |
Heading back to Rapid City we drove through part of Custer State Park. They didn't care about my National Park Pass so we had to pay the fee. It was worth it. This is one of those places where the pictures can't capture the reality. I'll put up the pictures anyway.
We have two more days in Rapid City. One will be more time at Custer State Park and one will be a day of doing nothing before we head west again. We'll decide when we get up in the morning which day is which.
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