Mammoth Site- Hot Springs, South Dakota

http://www.mammothsite.com/

 

 

Our original plan on this trip was to spend some time exploring some of the legendary caves in the South Dakota area.

Well.....  we are starting to suffer form a little cave fatigue.  We have been to a BUNCH over the last few years.  We finally agreed that, instead of caves we would visit a couple of other great attractions- including the Mammoth Site.

We found a brochure and some of the other places we stopped at mentioned that this was a very nice place to visit.

If you do visit South Dakota, make sure you stop at this site!  It is a MUST!  This is easily one of the greatest spots that we almost missed.  In fact, it is a bit difficult for me to describe just exactly how great it is.

We arrived at the visitor center right when they opened.  We talked to a young guy named Brandon who sold us our tickets and told us a bit about the tour.

Brandon seemed almost as excited about the Mammoth Site as we were.  He told us a little about it and all.  He explained that the tour was about 30 minutes but there was a bit more to the place than just the tour.  AND we could hang around at the site after the tour to get a better look at things.

So, we got going on our tour.  Brandon ended up being our tour guide and he was amazing!  He told us about the site in an extremely easy to understand way.  He asked several times if we had any questions.  It was almost like he was begging us to ask him questions.  You could tell the he enjoyed the challenge of a tough question!

So, the Mammoth Site is an actual dig site where they have found 60 mammoths have been discovered there so far, in addition to the remains of many other critters!

Please take a moment to go to their site and read about the sinkhole, and how it has evolved over the years.

Oh, and ALL of the mammoths they have found are male!  I will hold off on the jokes, but this is very interesting.  Speculate amongst yourselves.

So, you get the tour with a great guide like Brandon, then you can hang around and take pictures or further examine the site.  THEN, you can take a walk through their very well done museum (see photos).  Lastly, you can can look through some windows into their actual lab!  I really enjoyed seeing the casting molds on display.

As we left, we walked through their gift shop.  Prices were very reasonable and they have a great selection of postcards, shirts, educational books, etc.

Brandon did politely ask about rounding the dollar amount up to benefit the site, and people enthusiastically agreed to!  I think the visitors could see how great and education the site was.  I even saw one guy throw a couple of extra bucks down on his purchase as a donation.

We were very happy that we skipped one stop on our vacation so we could fit this one in.  I have mentioned some of the great spots in South Dakota for a road tripper, and this ranks at the top with Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Corn Maze.  You must see this!