25th - Hot Springs, SD

Today we decided to drive south and go to Hot Springs, which is about 15 miles south of Wind Cave NP. We stopped at the visitor centre in Hot Springs to get some information about the area, but we may as well not have! Except that we got a map. The lady there was pretty useless and just wanted us to spend money. She would only tell us about activities that cost money, like the ‘hot springs’ waterpark ($11 each) and some tour of a hospital or something like that. I didn’t really listen to her after she said the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was great because people came to Hot Springs and spent lots of money. Will listened patiently. He did ask about a spot that was mentioned in Lonely Planet where you could swim for free and she replied by saying there were rattlesnakes at this place, which was called Cascade Falls. Oh, but all the locals went there. So we didn’t take her advice and wanted to go there!

Cute visitor centre - useless advice. 

We walked down the street and took some photos of the old buildings there – lots of red, which looked really pretty. I wondered where all the people were as it was a Saturday morning. It was pretty quiet! As we walked down the main street we saw heaps and heaps of pictures for the Miss South Dakota beauty pageant. Then we saw where all the people were! There was a cool little market selling lots of crafts and food just down the road! I can’t believe the stupid visitor centre lady didn’t bother to tell us that! The Miss SD hopefuls were there having their pictures taken – they looked extremely dressed up for the middle of nowhere South Dakota, but I did admire their dresses. Bought off the internet perhaps?? I’m not sure that there is anywhere to buy dresses like those in the area!

Hot Springs. 

We wandered up the market looking at the various crafts and foods for sale. We settled on a large wedge of chocolate brownie from the old lady cake stand. I think every small town market has at least one stall where little old ladies sit and sell their tasty cakes. (though we later realised this cake tasted nothing like what brownies should – it just tasted like chocolate cake! It was delicious though! And only $1.50! (Little old lady bargain!). 

After the market we headed to Cascade Falls. It was a longer drive than we thought and Will wanted to turn around, but I said to go just a little further. And there it was! Well, there were cars parked around a grassy picnic area that was overrun with ants. We had lunch (bagels and cream cheese!), then read for a little bit to settle our tummies (I made sure we waited half an hour before we swam!). Then we went down to where the scary locals were already swimming. Actually they weren’t so scary except for the kid that didn’t see Will sitting in front of him and pretty well ran into him. I think that kid needs new goggles. Poor thing though, he felt so bad and kept apologising. Initially we went down to the deeper end and put our feet in, then we saw the awesome pool up the top, so we sat in that and tried not to get washed away by the current! It was a great spot, with little shallow pools and then a big deeper one for real swimming. The water was so nice and cool after the crazy heat of the day! I think we spent a whole hour just sitting in the water and cooling off. I watched the little kids splashing around – particularly two girls who kept gate crashing our pool. One was pretty quiet, but the other one was totally Miss Bossy! Look out mum and dad when she hits her teens!!! Eventually we pulled ourselves out of the water, lay in the sun to dry a bit and then headed back to Wind Cave. We didn’t see a single rattlesnake! 

Hot Springs. 

I had been nagging Will to get some more propane as ours was getting low and I didn’t want to run out halfway through cooking dinner! So as we driving back into Hot Springs, he saw a place and we stopped to fill up. There was a guy filling up there and he helped Will top ours up. His gauge wasn’t working too well, so they only filled it to what they thought was full (actually only half, but still). And then when Will offered to pay, the guy said ‘don’t worry, we spill more than that in a week’ – so we got it for free! Score! The guy was nice and was asking about Australia (particularly Sydney, just like everyone else). But anyway, it saved Will’s proverbial balls, as he would’ve got into a lot of trouble with me if we’d run out!!

Pronghorn antelope!

After that we headed back to our campsite in Wind Cave NP where we stayed for a second night. On the way back we saw some pronghorn antelope loping around the park, so we stopped to take some pictures. That caused people to slow right down and in good tourist fashion, peer at what we were taking pictures of in case they needed to stop too! Then the poor antelope must’ve got scared, because all of a sudden they took off again. They looked so cool though! We also saw more prairie dogs and when I yipped at one out of the window, he yipped back once, really high-pitched and then proceeded to jump backwards in the air! It was so funny and I wished I could’ve have videoed it. 

That night we had dinner early (more chook burgers), which was just as well as there was and big thunder and lightning storm! The lightning was just over the hills around us and the thunder was so so loud! So close! We watched the storm while playing cards and then after the storm had passed, it was time for sleep, ready for a cave tour the next day!