South Dakota and Wyoming

We left Winnipeg on September 12th and headed to Nebraska to spend a few days with family. That was a great visit.

Then we headed back home to Yuma with several planned stops in between. Our first stop was Chamberlain, South Dakota. I had heard of and seen pictures of a statue at the rest stop off of Interstate 90 at Chamberlain. The statue is of a Native American woman holding up a star quilt. We spent the night in Chamberlain and visited the rest stop in the afternoon and again at sunset to see the statue in the different lighting.

The statue named Dignity: Of Earth and Sky is magnificent. She stands 50 feet tall and is constructed of stainless steel. The blue diamonds in the quilt move in the wind causing them to twinkle in the sunlight. Sculpture Dale Lamphere designed the statue to honor the cultures of the Lakota and Dakota people. He said she represents the courage, perseverance and wisdom of the Lakota and Dakota culture in South Dakota. His hope is that she will serve as a symbol of respect and promise for the future. The statue was a $1 million gift from Norm and Eunabel McKie of Rapid City, South Dakota to celebrate the 125th anniversary of statehood.

The nighttime views were equally stunning.

The rest stop also has a visitor center with some interesting exhibits in their small museum. Definitely worth a stop. A couple of the rest stops in South Dakota had these large concrete teepees. They were erected between 1968 and 1979 as a symbol of South Dakota tourism and history. 

We stayed at a hotel overlooking the Missouri River. This large pheasant sculpture was just down the road. It's made of over 1,900 railroad spikes, 400 large railroad square nuts, lawn mower blades and transmission parts. It was unveiled in 2019 as a salute to South Dakota pheasant hunters, and is featured in Roadside America attractions. I kept the mail truck in the picture so you can see how large the pheasant sculpture is.

Our next stop on the adventure home was Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. We began seeing it from many miles away.

In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the 867 foot monolith Tower and over 1,000 surrounding acres a national monument. It was the nation's first national monument. The area at the top is about the size of a football field. We hiked the 1.3 mile trail that goes around the bottom. The views were different from every side. 

The first documented ascent was made on July 4, 1893 using a wooden ladder for the first 350 feet. Parts of that ladder still exist. Over 5,000 climbers come every year from all over the world to climb the massive columns. Over 220 climbing routes have been used. A technical climb takes about 5-8 hours, however times vary between 18 minutes to 16 hours. We saw eight different climbers on different sections of the Tower.

The views overlooking the valley were beautiful on this gorgeous fall day.

And, we saw some cute prairie dogs on the way out.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Our tour to Churchill began in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It just so happens that our good friends and neighbors in Yuma live in Winnipeg. We drove from our summer place in Wisconsin to Winnipeg, and left our car parked at Susan's home. That was so nice of her to allow us to do that. Otherwise, our car would have been parked outside the hotel we stayed at the night before our tour with all our stuff in it that we were taking home to Yuma.

The afternoon and evening of our night in Winnipeg, Brant, Jan and Susan showed us around the Forks area of Winnipeg. We stayed at the Inn on the Forks which was in this historic area right on the river. There is a riverwalk with restaurants, bars and shops. We found a place for some beverages and had dinner on a beautiful day.

Inn at the Forks

After our Churchill adventure, Brent and Jan picked us up at the airport in Winnipeg, and we returned to Susan's house. We went out for dinner, and then spent the night at Susan's house. The next day we did some exploring around Winnipeg. 

We started out at Assiniboine Park which had some gorgeous English gardens. They also had the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden and Gallery. I had never heard of him, but he is a big deal in Canada. He was an artist who immigrated from Ukraine in 1948 at 33 years old. His works can be seen all over Winnipeg and the world.

This is the entrance to the gallery with a sculpture of Moses. I also tried to take a selfie with a deer statue. As you can see, my selfie skills are not too great!

There was a pond with purple lilly pads in it. I've never seen purple ones!

After exploring the park and enjoying an ice cream treat, we drove to Jan and Brent's home in Stonewall, about 20 minutes outside of Winnipeg. This home was Jan's mom's before she passed away. Jan and Brent purchased the home and have done a beautiful job remodeling it. Then we headed to Brent and Jan's lake home, about an hour from Winnipeg on Lake Winnipeg. It's a beautiful three bedroom home right on the lake, so they had room for us and Susan to stay for a few nights. 

We golfed twice with Brent and Jan. Susan was recovering from cataract surgery, so couldn't golf. Friends Dave and Anne who also have a place at our resort in Yuma are also from Manitoba. They joined us for golf another day. We had a nice lunch after golf.

This small pine tree was growing out of the trunk of a hardwood tree on the golf course. Isn't nature amazing!

Dave and Anne were camping nearby in Gimli, Manitoba. They invited all of us for lunch. We walked around the town of Gimli and found this Viking statue. It is 15 feet tall and was built by the town of Gimli for the Canadian centennial. It was unveiled in 1967 by the President of Iceland. In 2017 a new park was unveiled around the statue in recognition of the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba's 125th anniversary and Canada's 150th birthday.

We had a few days with some smoke in the air from wildfires to the west. It made for a beautiful sunrise!

We had a wonderful time visiting our friends in Manitoba. We can't thank all of them enough for their amazing hospitality!! 

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Churchill, Manitoba Tundra Buggy Excursion

Our final morning in Churchill was September 6, 2024. We were driven on a bus for about 30 minutes out to the tundra buggy parking area. These buggies are very large with giant wheels. There is even a stove on board for heat during the colder part of the season. We didn't need the heat as we had another beautiful day. Our mission was to find more polar bears and whatever else we could find.

Kevin and Evelyn in front of tundra buggy

Our guides Kelly and Joe in front of tundra buggy

The tour was a total of over three hours. Our flight had been delayed, so we got to stay out a bit longer than planned. For the first hour or so, we didn't see much. The scenery was beautiful, though.

Then we saw this beautiful eagle.

One of our fellow tour participants then spotted what she thought was a bear. Everyone in the buggy was constantly looking for bears, and it finally paid off. It turns out there were two of them. Most likely a mother and her cub from last year. As you can see from all the white rocks lying around, it's hard to spot a bear.

We also saw these Ptarmigan birds which are commonly known as prairie chickens and this Merlin falcon.

It was time to end our tour and get back on the bus. It was a great tour, and we were lucky to see some wildlife. But, the adventure wasn't over. On the way back on the bus, we saw two more bears!! This one was huge. He must have noticed us stopping to look at him, because he moved off into the woods.

Then as we were driving along the coast of the Hudson Bay, we spotted this guy in the fireweed. Fireweed is a beautiful wild plant that grows all over the north in the summer. It was mostly done blooming by the time we arrived, but there were a few plants still blooming. How kind of the bear to pose for us in the fireweed.

We had another delicious lunch at the lodge, and then headed to the airport for our flight back to Winnipeg. I was originally a bit hesitant to book this tour because it was quite expensive. However, I'm so glad I did. It was truly a trip of a lifetime, and we were so fortunate to see as much as we did. This adventure will go down as one of the most memorable trips we've ever been on. Worth every penny!!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Churchill, Manitoba Museum and Dog Mushing

Our fourth day of the trip included a trip to the Parks Canada Museum which is housed in the remodeled train station. 

There are a lot of interesting displays in the museum, including quite a few of the local animals.

This display of a polar bear den looked very much like the real one we saw except this one had a polar bear in it!

Caribou travel through this part of Canada, however they have a large area they cover. So, some years there are lots of them, and some years they travel a different route. Caribou and reindeer are the same animal, just depends on what part of the world you are in as to what they are called.

As you can imagine, there were several displays about polar bears.

We did not see any live snow foxes in Churchill; that would have been a bonus. There were fur pelts of some of the animals found in Churchill available to touch at the museum. The fox fur is so soft!

We were treated to a very interesting presentation by a Parks Canada representative. He taught us about how this area was discovered, and the history of the Hudson Bay Company. It was founded in 1670 and is still in business today. The company started as a fur trading business, but has found a way to reinvent itself many times. They no longer sell furs, but they still sell their famous wool blankets.

That evening we were taken to the home and kennels of dog musher, David Daley. He is quite famous in this part of the world as a dog musher, advocate for the dogs and dog sled racing, and a representative of his native people, the Metis. He was very passionate about all of these subjects, and it was super interesting to listen to him.

He is the founder of the Churchill to Winnipeg race as well as the Hudson Bay Quest race. He runs the tours to feed his dogs, as he says. During Covid, many dog mushers could not afford to feed their dogs. Dave rescued about 50 dogs during that time. Since then, he is not breeding the dogs, just taking care of the ones he already has. 

We were treated to a fun ride on his summer sled on wheels. The dogs were so excited to get to work.

During Covid, he and his family (including some of his employees) were out of work. As they had time on their hands, he taught them how to trap and they built this log cabin outhouse, complete with a woodburning stove. He joked it was the most luxurious outhouse in Canada.

Another fun and interesting day in Churchill. Tomorrow we have one more adventure before we head back to Winnipeg.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!