Wild Horses

Tuesday, September 22

The crock pot is working out great on this trip! Last night, Jambalaya was waiting when we returned to camp; this morning, the smell of Blueberry French Toast wakes us up. We need to get on the road early since we have reservations at the Wild Horse Sanctuary in Hot Springs. Unfortunately, we miscalculate a little as to how long it will take to get there on twisty, winding roads, and as we get closer we realize we are going to be a few minutes late. Deb makes a phone call and reschedules us to 11:00, so now we have some time to kill.

Hot Springs is a sleepy little town full of buildings made of limestone blocks hewn from a nearby quarry in the late 1800's. A sign pointing to a Pioneer Museum leads us to the top of a hill where one of the block buildings overlooks the town. It is a treasure! Formerly a school, it now houses a great collection of artifacts from the town's history, from Indian times to the present. The building itself has beautiful, old woodwork and windows; the floor plan is wonderful with offices looking out over a central court and wide, wooden stairways. We browse the eclectic mix of artifacts, both laughing and cringing while imagining having to endure the torture of early washing machines, stoves, medical and dental procedures, and hair styling apparatus. The top floor is off-limits to the public so of course we sneak up the stairs and check it out. It is a huge attic room with gorgeous domed windows; some remodeling is underway but there's not much else to see there. Downstairs, some scary-looking guy is wandering around; we give him the side-eye and steer clear. Other than that, it is a fantastic museum. Definitely worth the stop!

Just a short drive from the town of Hot Springs is the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. The brochure describes it so much better than I can: "Imagine a place where as far as the eye can see, miles and miles to the horizon, you can view America as it was 300 years ago. Imagine a place, long revered by the American Indians, where the Cheyenne River flows in all four directions and eagles' shadows sweep rock canyon walls, a place where wild horses run free across endless prairies, hooves striking thunder, manes and tails flying in the wind."

On 11,000 acres in the Cheyenne River Valley, wild horses destined for slaughter are rescued and allowed to run free. Boarding a beat-up blue school bus, we ramble along a dusty track into the hills and canyons. Along the way, we learn the story of Dayton Hyde, the man who had a vision to save wild horses and bought this land to give them a place to roam free. We are driven out to the range and walk with the horses; some allow us to pet them. At one watering hole is a herd of Spanish Mustangs coming down for a drink. These grulla horses' DNA has been traced back to horses brought here by the Spanish Conquistadores from Portugal. They are small in size but have great endurance; they rival the Arabian in this respect. Native Americans called them Spirit Horses. When we drive up in our bus, they race away, wild and free. It's an amazing sight!

Though the horses are the stars here, there are other interesting things to see. On a bluff above the Cheyenne River, known by the Native Americans as 4-River Overlook, we look down into a valley sacred to them and used as a gathering place for thousands of years. We are literally standing where Crazy Horse stood! How amazing is that?!

Tree of Life

The Sun Dance was - and still is - the highest ceremonial order for the Plains Indians. After four days of fasting and other preparations, the men are pierced through their chest and tied to a tree until they pull themselves free. This ceremony takes place in June, with the peak of the Sun Dance culminating on the Summer Solstice. We are taken to the site where the Sun Dance is still practiced; prayer flags flutter from the Tree of Life and buffalo skulls adorn a rock wall. I feel fortunate to be here at this sacred location.

But it isn't over yet! We follow the old Deadwood-to-Cheyenne stage road to a rock bluff adorned with petroglyphs dating back thousands of years. There is a mammoth etched into the stone! A mammoth! People who hunted mammoth carved this wall 10,000 years ago! Then passengers from the stagecoach stopped here over 100 years ago and scratched their names into the same rock wall. Oh. My. God!

There is so much more than can be seen in a 2-hour tour, but our time is up. We're not quite ready to leave yet, so we pull over into a small cemetery on the ranch to have lunch. After our picnic, we wander around looking at headstones. Some are just weathered wooden boards, some are pink quartz, and some are petrified trees. It is an interesting little graveyard, and as we leave a herd of wild horses passes nearby. Are we lucky or what?

Lunch in the graveyard

My phone died last night, but as we pass back through Hot Springs we spot a Verizon store and I am able to get it fixed. Gin and I find some fun fabric at Heartsong Quilt Shop and the headache that has been plaguing me for 3 days finally fades away. All it took was some fabric shopping! We race back to the campground and dinner is ready - chili in the crock pot. Then back in the van and off to Wind Cave National Park for an elk bugling program. We learn a little about elk from the ranger, then caravan to a turnout to listen for them. It's kind of a bust because the elk are not very talkative tonight, and the ones that we do hear are very far away. After Gin hisses at a noisy group we get the giggles and go back to Blue Bell for some much needed sleep. Goodnight!