8-11-07

Yikes! I'm starting to scare myself. Here's another town that turned out to be a surprise as far as parks, scenery, and ambience in general is concerned. I'm still just picking out places along my wandering route that are convenient to stop for the night, or a couple of nights. Today was Sioux Falls, S. Dak. Reading another brochure in the hotel got me interested in Palisades State Park which is about 15 mi.s east of town. The Split Rock river runs through the park, and between these bluffs of quartzite rock. The bluffs are 50' to 60' high, and have rock climbers crawling around like ants. I eventually got used to following trails, turning a corner, and running into an ant group. In that second picture, if you look at the very bottom, there's a climber in the white helmet at the bottom of the crack in the bluff. I got bird feet watching them. It's not a big park, didn't take long to walk around, so I took a round-about way back to town. That's where I spotted this old barn which has been renovated into a house. I loved it.
Eventually I got back to town, and drove over to see Falls Park. It amazed me when I drove up to see this series of falls over the rock outcroppings, which I think is the same quartzite that was in the other park. It just struck me seeing a park like this in "downtown". Congratulations to Sioux Falls! This building is part of the old electric power station. It's been turned into a nice restaurant.
Siuox Falls is another town I would urge anyone to make time for if you're traveling through. Well, off for a Sunday drive tomorrow heading for Rapid City. I'll keep in touch. Catch ya' on the flip flop.