The Wild West

Our continuing journey westward has taken us from the Black Hills of South Dakota into the state which is synonymous with the Wild, Wild West, Wyoming. Miles and miles of open range, lots of cattle grazing, and a lot of deer too. Mule Deer and White Tail Deer we have seen so far. Our first stop was just 8 miles into the state at the Vore Buffalo Jump. This active archeological dig was found in 1971 when I-90 was being built and is the site of buffalo harvesting by several different Native American tribes over about 300 years.

The tribes would lure the buffalo toward the cliff and then chase them until they toppled into the sinkhole where they would kill and process them and be able to feed the tribe for months. This was the only method they had for hundreds of years until the Europeans introduced them to horses.

After lunch we continued on to Keyhole State Park near Moorcroft, WY, where we stayed for two nights. This was a convenient place to stay to allow us to spend some time at Devils Tower National Monument north about a half an hour. The trip there and back was half the fun, as the GPS took us over some gravel roads and open range where cattle and deer were present in large quantities. The mountain was visible a short time into the trip although it was still about 20 miles away. As we approached, it was apparent we were in for a treat, as the skies were clear and the weather was cooler than we had had for a while. Our best find was a pasture where there were two buffalo grazing right in front of a perfect view of the mountain, making for a “post card” worthy picture.

We drove up to the visitor’s center and did some looking around. Unfortunately, the light was wrong from that angle as it was mostly behind the mountain. Geoff and Dave decided to take one of the trails down and around the mountain to try to get some better angles. It was about a mile but was pretty easy because it was mostly downhill. Geoff only had sandals on but they are very comfortable sandals so there was no problem. Ellyn and Myra drove the car down and met them at the bottom. The pictures came out great!

After our visit to Devils Tower (by the way, the name does not have an apostrophe due to a typographical error when the monument was registered), it was off to find lunch. Ellyn found a restaurant in the nearby town of Hulett. When we got there, we found the restaurant closed but the attached bar was open and they had food, so we were saved. It turned out to be a great choice. We had buffalo, elk, and asparagus fries and played the juke box (which was much more advanced a unit than you would expect to find in this little bar in rural Wyoming). The bartender and waiter was great and a local native who helped us a lot. However, stay away during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in August because the place is packed.

Back at the campground, we sat by the reservoir for a while and watched the boaters, kids jumping in the water, and diving birds fishing. It was a relaxing afternoon and got us caught up on our rest for our next push across Wyoming to the ultimate destination of the Great Rolling Yellowstone Caravan.

Spearfish, Lead, and Deadwood

Ok, we had one day off from touring and it was a good one to take off, because it was the hottest. The temperature hit 100 degrees, but it was a dry heat. We did a few errands and then hit the pool. It was very refreshing, even with all the kids splashing around and making a lot of noise. It wasn’t the Sun-N-Fun pool in more ways than one. We enjoyed it though.

So the next day was much cooler; about 24 degrees so. Wow! It did not start off well though. Geoff tried to apply a new charge to the air conditioning in the car, which had been having trouble keeping up with the heat lately. He tried the “AC Pro” we had seen on TV and it seemed pretty simple. However, the A/C compressor started making some strange sounds right afterwards and it seemed to be over pressurized. Bah! Now it looks like we will have to get it looked at on Monday and hopefully they can fix it in one day, the last one we are scheduled to be in South Dakota.

Anyway, we took Dave and Myra’s car and headed for the Northern edge of the Black Hills. The first stop was in Spearfish, where we visited the D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery. It was developed to hatch trout and populate the South Dakota streams, which did not have any trout. They went all the way to Yellowstone to get the eggs and then bring them back and raise the fish to pan size before sending them to the streams in a rail car. They still raise the fish but now receive them as fingerlings from other hatcheries. They also house archives of all US hatcheries.

After a great lunch in Spearfish, we headed down the Spearfish Canyon, a stunning drive through towering cliffs along Spearfish Creek.

From the end of the canyon it was a short drive into Lead (pronounced “leed”, not “led”). The name refers to a vein of gold that “leads” to a richer strike. Gold was mined in the area a lot from the 1900s to the end of the Twentieth Century. We visited the Black Hills Mining Museum which has a simulated mine which is pretty good. Also, Ellyn and Myra panned gold.

Finally, we moved on through Deadwood to a monument created by the actor Kevin Costner called Tatanka, The Story of the Bison. It was originally going to be a hotel and destination as a tribute to the Native Americans of the Black Hills region, but it is just a visitor’s center and a very impressive sculpture garden depicting a buffalo jump, where buffalo are chased off a cliff. Although the light was wrong for some good pictures, Geoff took multiple exposures which could be processed into HDR images. They came out really nice.

The Black Hills of South Dakota

We brought some hot weather with us to Rapid City and The Black Hills. The first few days here are predicted to be 90-100 degrees. This is way off the chart for normal June weather in South Dakota. However, it is also predicted to be clear and sunny and that is very good for taking pictures. This is good. There are lots of outdoor things we want to do here and we will have 5 days to do them.

The first day took us to the number one sight-seeing location in the region, Mount Rushmore. Ellyn and I have been here before a long time ago with our sons. It looks like they have added a lot to the visitor’s center area since our last visit. Of course the monument itself has not changed but it is still as impressive as we remember it.

Our traveling companions had not been here before so it was great seeing it through their eyes for the first time again. The story of the carving is still an amazing one.

From here we moved on to another, possibly more ambitious mountain carving project, Crazy Horse. This was started in the 1940s by a single man and is now worked on by his children and others, a total of about 15 people. It is probably an order of magnitude larger than Mount Rushmore and work has been going on for more than seven decades on it. But it is a lofty goal and it has a lot of backing. The visitor’s center was quite impressive and there is a lot more than just the monument planned for the site.

Our second day of touring in The Black Hills took us to Custer State Park. This park has a remarkably varied landscape. The most spectacular part was the Needles Highway. This is not a road for big rigs but toads only. The “needles” are the many rock spires which stand up all over and you drive through some very narrow tunnels and some very sharp switch-backs.

We also saw a lot of wildlife in the park. There is a whole “Wildlife Loop” where the Buffalo roam and the Deer and the Antelope play, as well as chipmunks, burros, prairie dogs, and marmots.

We still have the old mining areas around Lead and Deadwood to explorer, but I will leave those for the next post.