Educationally Speaking: Educational Fieldtrip to South Dakota

You can take the teacher out of the classroom for the summer, but then the world becomes her classroom.

My field trip-like vacation provided new educational opportunities including lessons in geology, meteorology, biology and history.

My summer vacation began in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Like an island, these hills soar above the prairie grasses. From a distance they appear black because 90 percent of the hills are covered in dark Ponderosa Pines. 

Just east of the Black Hills are white hills called the Badlands. These weathered buttes look like a moonscape because erosion has exposed multi-colored layers of ash and shale in its jagged pinnacles.

Some of the richest mammal fossil beds are found in this birth place of vertebrate paleontology.

Most hikers, myself and my old college roommates included, can scale Harney Peak in a couple of hours. At 7242 feet, it’s the tallest peak west of the Rockies.

That’s after about a mile of the sedimentary rock that once covered it has eroded away exposing two billion year old rock which attracts many geologists. 

Thunder showers blew in unexpectedly as my roommates and I ascended to the peak. Grateful the rumbling was not accompanied by any visible lightening, we grabbed the metal handrails and climbed the stone steps to the summit. Though the short shower drenched us, we were able to hop over the small rivers of mud that raced us down the hill.

To soothe away the chill and the sore muscles from hiking we soaked in spring fed tubs at Hot Springs where the medicinal properties of the mineral water helped restore our good humor. At Evan’s Plunge spring water bubbles up at the rate of 5000 gallons per hour into one of the world’s largest spring fed rock bottom pools.

On a shorter hike we found a natural amphitheater called the Stratobowl which was used to launch a huge manned helium balloon into the stratosphere in 1934. A special pressurized gondola carried this scientific expedition nearly 14 miles into the stratosphere to collect data that was later used to start the space program.

After the science lesson at this little known attraction, we drove to the world renowned Mt. Rushmore for a history lesson.

The four presidents’ faces carved in stone on the top of the mountain stand nearly 60 feet tall. Washington was chosen for founding our country while Jefferson was chiseled in granite for expanding our country. Lincoln peers down at visitors to the park for preserving our country during the Civil War while Roosevelt is credited with preserving millions of acres of lands as national parks for the public.
We left this National Park and drove along Needles Highway where tunnels were carved out of tall thin pinnacles of granite.

In Custer State Park we kept our eyes pealed for wildlife and were surprised when buffalo decided to cross the road in front of us. The red calves played close to their horned-cow mothers while the bulls, weighing about a ton, grazed anywhere they wanted.

Prairie dogs peeped out of holes and scurried into other mounds as we passed. These squirrel-like creatures live in towns of underground burrows and use a bark-like call as a warning.

When Lewis and Clark explored this area as a part of the Louisiana Purchase they sent a prairie dog as a souvenir of their travels back to President Jefferson because they couldn’t get the big bison to fit in a shipping crate. 

To complete the trip I found a delightful children’s picture book entitled “The Hole Story” as my souvenir. The great illustrations and facts in the book taught me that the endangered black-footed ferret is a predator to the prairie dog. 

Vacations can be educational field trips, but the best part of vacationing isn’t the wonderful attractions you’ll see or even the new facts you’ll learn, but rather the joy of spending time with friends and family. I hope your summer vacation is full of educational field trips and wonderful memories.

--Kristi McCracken, author of two children’s books and a long time teacher in the South Valley, can be reached at educationallyspeaking@gmail.com.