Oh Deer

I have some funny insights to share from my trip to South Dakota, but I’m not sure everyone gets my sense of humor. For today, I’ll post some of our sight seeing experiences.

With our dog, Max in the backseat, we planned to drive 8 hours the first day, 5 hours the next.

For the first time in many years of driving-travel, we left right on the time we set for ourselves. Yay! We drove 50 miles when I realized I forgot something. Guess what I left behind?

MY CAMERA!

If you’ve seen photos on my blog before, most of the time they are with my Canon Power Shot SX50, not a phone. I have an old windows phone which does not take good photos.

So much for getting on the road at our set time. We turned back, adding an extra 90 minutes to our drive.

We stopped in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the night, and the next morning we experienced these lovely cascades below.

We left there around noon and headed toward the Badlands, a four hour drive that felt like forty, despite the 80 mile per hour speed limit (128kph).

This city girl felt like she landed in the twilight zone. I’d never seen so much nothingness in my life.

Side note: Pictures of the drive were taken through a bug stained window while going 85 mph (136kph).

There was the occasional farm, cows and windmills. The barren highway with so few vehicles made it all the more eerie.

After three hours of driving, we rounded a curve, and the yellowy-green fields gave way to the body of water shown below.

At first, I thought it was a mirage, but it turned out to be the Missouri river. After we crossed the bridge, we returned to the twilight zone.

Above is our lone vehicle at a rest area. Not a single car on the highway behind us. That road eventually led us to a hot, parched, rocky, cavernous land.

The above photo is my favorite of the whole trip. It looks like they’re walking a boardwalk to nowhere.

Side note: There was quite a bit of haze across the entire state due to Montana wildfires.

The Badlands.

From there, we left for the Black Hills. As the sky clung to last remnants of sunlight, we arrived at our rustic cabin. The tires of our car crackled on the stone-gravel driveway, and a dozen deer scattered out of the way.

I won’t bore you with more details of the entire trip, but I’ll leave you with one story.

We had spent a long, twisty-turny day driving the cliffy scenic byways in Custer State Park.

Near the end of that journey, we came across another majestic sight that we couldn’t pass up.

Lots of vehicles traversed in and out of the compact parking area. Husband pulled into a spot and pointed to a trail between the brush. “Let’s go.”

The trail is where those people are going. Note the trees growing out of rock!

I sighed with exhaustion, but the hills called my name. “Okay, get the dog. I’ll grab the camera.” (Yay for those extra 100 miles to get it).

Not more than fifty yards into the trail, husband stopped and pointed at something to our left. A tourist in front of us started snapping away with a professional camera.

I spotted fuzzy horns peeking atop the brush.

I clicked my camera while waving husband away, worried our dog might start barking. Max and husband hiked farther down the path. The young buck (YB) fixed it’s eyes squarely on Max and followed them!

I trailed behind taking photos and video, but I got worried, because the deer’s fixation on Max wouldn’t cease. At one point it spooked a bit and rushed toward them, but then stopped.

I mentioned to a woman tourist near me that the deer didn’t seem to fear us, but I was concerned about its fixation on my dog.

In a snarky tone she responded, “It can’t hurt your dog.”

Listen lady, are you too old to know what youtube is? Haven’t you ever seen videos of a deer attack?

That’s what I thought on the inside, but I didn’t say it out loud.

I hoped that if I made some noise, I’d scare YB up the hill and farther into the forest. It worked, and my two guys were able to turn back on the trail, but not without YB keeping a watchful eye as they passed.

We’re unsure if Max ever saw the deer, because he has barked when seeing wildlife before, but didn’t this time. Husband says the dog seemed agitated, so he may have caught a glimpse or smelled him.

I wrote about more insights from the trip here, when I Accidentally Walked into Someone’s House.

Have you ever gotten a snarky response from a stranger you engaged? If so, how did you handle it?