Today found me touring the Wild Horse Sanctuary near Hot Springs, S.D. The story behind this place is amazing. The gift shop and the café are the first stops before the actual tour. We loaded the bus with 6 people plus our tour guide. There are about 11,000 acres for the 600+ horses to roam. We were driven to the top of a cliff for a breathtaking view of the visitor center and home of Dayton Hyde, the founder and horse facilities.
We were able to see two bands of horses from above grazing in the valley near the Cheyenne River. Our group was met by several friendly bands of horses throughout our stops. I was so surprised when quite a number of horses came very near us. We were able to touch a few. Remember these are wild horses.
Most of these horses are BLM rejects that did not sell. We were entertained by several bands of horses running nearby.
The little girl that was in our party was chosen by one of the horses to stay with her. The horse did not leave until we all had to board the bus for our next stop.
How about the white mascara and eye shadow on this horse?
We were told these were Spanish mustangs.
This land was the home to many Indians in the distant past. One of our stops included a rock wall of petroglyphs.
After my adventure, we drove to Wind Cave National Park for Allan's adventure. I don't do caves. Wind Cave has 142 miles of twisting passageways and reside under only 1.2 square miles of surface area, creating a maze of tunnels deep under the rolling hills of the park. It does not have stalactites and stalagmites that other caves have. It does have thin calcite fins known as boxwork and other formations referred to as popcorn. It also does not have bats because the natural opening is so small. The tour that Allan took lasted 1 1/2 hours and covered 1/2 mile and over 300 steps down. Fortunately, they got to take the elevator back up. At times there was low clearance and he had to duck his head and other times he had to turn sideways to get through the tight walls. There are other tours that go to different areas and one you have to crawl.
On our return home we drove through part of Custer State Park. We had several animal sightings.
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