Travel to South Dakota

My husband and I slipped away for 8 days, all by ourselves. We loaded our RV, packed my quilting and out to South Dakota we went. It was heaven.
First stop the Bad Lands. Barren but beautiful. They were so dramatic against the threating skies.

To really appreciate them you have to get out of your vehicle and hike in, feel and smell them.
This is looking back at our RV.

There are many different formations, this group looks like the sand castles we make on our beaches.

My husband on another area.

Everywhere there is wild life. Prairie dogs running and squeaking.

Mountain sheep scattered throughout.

Wild buffalo roam the grass lands.

We spent a couple days there then off to the Black Hills.

Total different mountains, green with pine.

We camped in a wonderful campground with spectacular scenery.

Our campsite overlooked this mountain lake.

Every morning I'd make a chai, hike down to the lake and quilt. Mornings in the mountains are chilly but the peace and serenity is worth it.

I  started stitching on the sun's rays.

I did three different embroidery stitches on the different rays, blanket, chain and feather stitch.

We stopped at Prairies Edge, a beautiful, beautiful (high end) Native American store in Rapid City. I bought some glass, silver lined beads to stitch around the center of the sun. Not a lot of them, a few every few stitches.

I brought this fabric along to practice my stitches before stitching the sun. Later it was turning out so cute I kept stitching around the flowers and adding feather stitching sun beams.

A few days later we're off to Spear Fish Canyon. The most beautiful canyon I've ever seen. We usually travel here in the Fall when the aspen are in full color, this time in the early spring they were just beginning to open.

With all the rain this Spring, Bridal Veil falls was roaring.

Driving through the canyon the walls rise up.

Following along the road was the river.

In the middle of the canyon is the film site where Dancing with Wolves was filmed.

This area is where the final scenes were filmed. In the winter with the Native man on his horse overlooking the canyon.

 

Finally to the campground with only seven sites, we were the only ones there. Perfect!

Set up camp and off we went on a hike. I found this pine tree down and took some bark for dyeing. I'll try it this weekend.

And here I am quilting in this beautiful, serene surrounding.

Leaving the canyon we head to Wyoming to Devils Tower (so named by white man, the Natives called it Bears tepee)

It was so much more awe inspiring then we thought it would be. Can you see the people in red starting to climb the rocks

This mountain is very sacred to the Native people.

There are many prayer bundles left.

Scattered throughout the aspens. It was so spiritual.

We brought our own to leave with our prayers for the Native people.

Along the bottom edge of the mountain is a paved walk, you really feel a part of it from the walk.
After a couple of days there it was back home, rested and refreshed and back to the real world.
I hope I didn't bore you with too many "vacation" photos, it's hard to pick from the hundred I took.
And more importantly if you love the wilderness I hope you can visit these beautiful places.