My week in South Dakota *Day 2*

On Wednesday my grandma and I drove to Rapid City, then we drove 50 miles to Hot Springs to go to the Mammoth Site. The Mammoth Site was a really cool place to see because inside the building they have 55 Mammoths there. There is one in there that has no skull. It's cool there. Then we drove to Custer State Park we saw a lot of animals there. Then we went to the Reptile Gardens which was sweet. Then we went back to the hotel and I went swimming, meeting a couple of boys from Milwaukee, WI.

The Mammoth Site:
Check out their SITE ... I learned that all the Mammoths that they have found there are males, they can tell by the shape of their hip bone. They also found a Short-Nosed Bear which I found interesting. My favorite part about the Mammoth Site was the tour because they took us through the dig spot. The tour guide told us a story on how they were drilling a hole (about the size of a donut hole) .. and the drill bit broke, so they pulled it out and if it hadn't have broken they would have ended up drilling a hole through the top of a Mammoth Skull. The size of the skulls are amazing.
Mammoth Information
Woolly Mammoth

I would be interested in learning more about fossils and possibly participating in a dig site that you can help with. (You could do so there, but it had to be set up ahead of time)

Mammoth Site





This is the museum part... Here I am with a "real-size" Mammoth replica. The elephants now could walk under his chin and never touch him.

Me with a Mammoth
Grandma with the Mammoth
Here is the Short-Faced Bear

This is


At Custer we saw a ton of trees and animals, it was really cool because the animals would come right up to the cars and stuff. We had a Donkey that came up to us. The pictures, the donkey first goes to the car ahead of us, and then to us. He came over to my side of the car.

Custer State Park







At the Reptile Garden we watched three movies: Birds, Snakes, and then Crocs & Alligators.

I learned that my Grandma doesn't like snakes (ha ha ha). I have always watched a lot of animal plant (Steve Erwin is one of my Heros) and I didn't really learn anything new, but I saw a bunch of Cobras (my favorite snake) and thought that was cool. I got to touch baby crocodiles, Grandma was to scared to touch the snakes so I missed my chance.

Reptile Garden (their site)




I think they said the Tortoise was 128 years old.