Pics of Our Vacation to South Dakota

[EddieWalker]

Dragged this up looking for my South Dakota people. I did most of my growing up there.

Happy belated, Eddie. Glad you enjoyed my home state. We made the trip similar to yours about 14 months ago. My daughter hadn't been there since she was about 2.

My cousins have a 150+ year old ranch outside of Sturgis. Home to 1000 head of cattle and a bunch of pronghorns.

City folk would view them as ignorant hicks, but they all have BS degrees and generational wisdom of ranching. From the outside, the ranch looks like many others, A throwback to another time...in reality, it is a scientific marvel with millions of dollars worth of land, cattle and equipment.

I totally forgot about this thread. The Black Hills are one of my very favorite places to visit and also very high on my list of places to move to if I ever sell this place. The cold has been my biggest reason to not move there. I'm just not sure if I'll be able to deal with it for such a long period of time.

Trying to create my own farm here in East Texas, I've learned that everyone who has already done it is just about as smart as a person can be. Just thinking of what it takes to build a working barn while taking care of the land and paying all your other bills is almost overwhelming!!! Fencing is taking me years, and I still have years of work ahead of me.

I got divorced a couple years after this trip. It was a lot of fun, but I would never go there when Sturgis is happening again. The noise from all the bikes was horrific. The last time I went was in September of 2013 and that's just about the best time to be there. I really need to go back again, I miss hearing the elk bugle and seeing the aspens.

 

[Torvy]

Sorry, I hope I didn't open up any old wounds. By way of apology... Here is a picture from a few miles from the ranch...if I had the money, I would be up there in the summer and down here in the winter... Our place is about 45 miles north of Tyler.

Bear Butte, SD

 

[grsthegreat]

Eddie, wife and I have made the same trip. Seen most of the same places. We love SD, but the winters could be brutal. I lived a few years in northern montana near Havre. You don’t know cold until you spend a few months with -60f wind chill. I live on the other side of the devide for a reason.

 

[EddieWalker]

No need to apologize. The marriage was a mistake and a good learning lesson. I actually enjoyed looking at those pictures again. It's odd that I barely recognize my ex in them.

A buddy of mine moved to Newcastle WY a couple of years ago from Seattle. He loves it there, but it seems that all of his pictures on FB are of the snow. Even in June, he had snow there!!!!

 

[Torvy]

Lol, July is the only month I never saw snow in my 14 years in SD...and I was in the flat East River part of the state.

 

[grsthegreat]

I once owned 80 acres in Wyoming…..years ago. I kept driving back there trying to design how I was going to build it out. It was ALWAYS cold and WINDY. Always. I ended up selling property to next door owner. Never could bring myself to move there.