Bike Tour West: Days 30 & 31. Riding the Black Hills, South Dakota

We have had the most amazing weather over the last two days and we have ridden around the Black Hills really enjoying every moment. We rode down to the town of Hot Springs and visited the Mammoth Site. This was discovered in the 70's when a building contractor was digging the foundations for a housing development. Fortunately he recognized the importance of the bones that were uncovered and work stopped to allow the site to be excavated. Work is ongoing and a building has been constructed over the site to preserve it. 26,000 years ago there was a sink hole here which trapped large Columbian and Woolly mammoths. It is thought they slipped and fell in whilst trying to feed and couldn't get out again. Layers of sediment preserved their bones intact and this is the largest collection of intact mammoth specimens ever discovered. To date they have uncovered 61 mammoths and numerous other large and small animals. It was a fascinating visit and we now know more about mammoths than we ever thought we would.

The bones are being carefully uncovered and left in place as much as possible. However they will remove them as needed to uncover the layers deep down. They dig for one month of the year and this uncovers enough material to keep the scientists busy for the rest of the year.

The objects that look like the soles of shoes are teeth still in place in a lower jaw. A mammoth grew 6 sets of teeth over its lifetime. As the old ones wore down they were replaced by a new set. After the 6th set was worn out the poor mammoth would no longer be able to eat and so, died of starvation.

After learning about mammoths we rode through the Wind Cave National Park and then Custer National Park. We saw plenty of Buffalo:

and somewhat unexpectedly, some donkeys which were more of a nuisance than the buffalo! They would not get out of the road and caused quite a traffic jam.