The Black Hills
"Nothing lives long. Only the earth and the mountains." So said Cheyenne Chief White Antelope as he died.
The Cheyenne occupied the Black Hills until the Lakota forced them out. Then, the Lakota were promised these lands "forever" by the United States government, but all that changed when gold was discovered and white settlers poured into the area. We spent four nights in the Black Hills, staying at Sylvan Lake Lodge, and even though I looked at many pictures and did an enormous amount of reading prior to the trip, nothing prepared me for the beauty of this region. We pulled into Custer State Park and took the Needles Highway up to the top of the Hills to the Lodge. Perhaps it was because I was a little tired, or maybe because I thought it would be a lot harder to take a road trip through the Midwest in a MINI Cooper, but here we were, having traveled many, many miles and it was hard not to feel a sense of reverence as we took in the scenery. I was teary-eyed, staring silently and taking in the beauty which surrounded us. We made it. For many years Jamie talked about "just getting in the car and driving west", an idea which I had always dismissed as being too foolhardy. But we did it. I am so glad we did.
We used every minute of our time here in the Black Hills. We hiked, canoed, zip-lined, rode horses and visited many significant sites, including Crazy Horse, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave and Jewel Cave. The Black Hills possess a beauty which is not easy to describe. The dirt below your feet has a lot of pieces of quartz. During hikes, we actually stumbled upon large chunks of quartz sticking up from the ground. The tiny bits of quartz, however, make the dirt sparkle when the sun hits it. We have never seen sparkling dirt! The mountain ranges are granite spires which jut into the sky giving the impression of castles made by Mother Nature herself. The wildlife loop provided a never-ending parade of animals-- prairie dogs, bison, pronghorn, wild burros and more.
If you want to explore America's great Midwest and fall in love with our country, put the Black Hills on your list. Patriotism surrounds you at Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park and the National Parks, but then there is the Crazy Horse Memorial which tells the story of the other people who also bear the name "Americans." Being in the Black Hills reminded me that as a country we have made terrible mistakes, mistakes that cannot be hidden in these Hills. I thought how important it is to respect all people who want to be American; and who are American, even though, culturally, they may be very different than ourselves.
