Following The Sun: Rapid City, South Dakota

It is a beautiful morning here in Rapid City, South Dakota. We are staying at the famcamp on Ellsworth Air Force Base. We just listened to 7:30 Reveille followed by a B1bomber taking off. Yesterday was filled with the Mammoth Site and Wind Caves National Park. Both were pretty cool.

Mammoth Site is an in-situ exhibit of mammoth bones. It is an on going archaeological dig that started forty years ago. So far 61 mammoths and remains of 80 other species have been found, including a skull of a giant short-faced bear. These animals were trapped in a sink hole about 26,000 years ago and over time, buried in sediment. Fifty-eight of the mammoth remains are those of the Colombian mammoth, while three are woolly mammoth.

The Mammoth dig site

Mammoth pelvis

Colombian mammoth teeth

Colombian mammoth

Mammoth skull

Woolly mammoth teeth

Mammoth foot prints

More of the site

Giant short-faced bear skull replica

Another mammoth

Cut outs of the mammoths

Wind Cave was also really cool. The cave system has over 100 miles of passages, but only 10 percent of the cave has been documented. The cave has low active water flow and so does not continue to weather. It has some unique formations that are rarely found in other caves.