Photoblog Best Photos

Sundance - Kid sculpture in Sundance, Wyoming

Harry A. Longabaugh
made a huge mistake: he got caught stealing a horse in Sundance, Wyoming and was thrown in jail. He might have lost his innocence, but he gained a name and a place in history. He became known as ‘The Sundance Kid’.

We have seen the “Devil’s Tower” in the Black Hills of Wyoming

Devils Tower
(Lakota: Mato Tipila, which means "Bear Tower")
is a monolithic igneous intrusion or volcanic neck located in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 1,267 feet (386 m) above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea level.

Devils Tower was the first declared United States National Monument, established on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Monument’s boundary encloses an area of 1,347 acres (5.45 km2).

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota

Mount Rushmore National Memorial,
near Keystone, South Dakota, is a monumental granite sculpture by Gutzon Borglum (1867–1941), located within the United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents (left to right): George Washington (1732–1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), and Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres (5.17 km²) and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. It is managed by the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts approximately two million people annually.

It’s laundry day today - don’t disturb me
We had a special encounter with Grizzly bears!

Bear Country USA
is home to 20 species of North American mammals which live in large natural exhibits. While captive born, every effort is made to imitate a wild environment for our animal residents. Larger species roam freely throughout 250 acres of the drive-trough park. Smaller animals, as well as those younger than one year, are exhibited in the Babyland area. Visitors can observe these animals while strolling on foot.

I love you sooooooo much, my little brother
After seeing the big bears, we had the fun to observe the kindergarten - also called “Babyland” - of the park
(click in the photo to see them (all) bigger)

Black bear cubs
are usually born in January. The 11 cubs at Bear Country are all 3 to 4 months old and weigh about 8 pounds. Cubs usually weigh about 12 ounces when they are born. Most full-grown sows weigh about 200 pounds. Boars usually weigh closer to 400 pounds, but Stoffel said the record weight for a boar black bear is 900 pounds.
The cubs do not seem bothered by the whole process and adapt quickly to life without their mothers.

And today we are arrived in Mitchell, SD and have visited the only one and main attraction in this town: The Corn Palace

The needle of the corn compass points to Mitchell, a prairie town that is corn crazy and proud of it. Mitchell’s high school sports teams are the Kernels. Its local radio station’s call letters are KORN. And it’s home to the “agricultural showplace of the world,” the Mitchell Corn Palace.

The Palace, with its mad mix of onion domes and minarets, looks like it was drop-kicked out of czarist Russia. It was originally built to show off the fertility of South Dakota soil - and it’s remained on the job, standing in downtown Mitchell for over 75 years. A rival “grain palace” in Plankinton, 22 miles to the west, succumbed to the rigors of prairie weather decades ago. The Corn Palace, shrine to a superior foodstuff, has survived.