Deadwood SD to Yellowstone

On August 24th sitting at our picnic table we are looking at snow capped mountains 6 miles west of Yellowstone. The drive today was from Bozeman MT to west Yellowstone via 191, a two lane road just carved out of the mountains. The hills here are so much more dramatic than any we have come across up until now and leaves us both very thankful we invested in a bigger truck. Today marks the first Moose sighting, they are huge and we were told that it was far less likely we would encounter a Moose than a grizzly, we can’t wait.

Since our last post we have visited Deadwood, the town Wild Bill was shot and was made famous during the gold rush. It felt like what you might imagine early Vegas must have been like. Saloons and casinos were about every other door and the references to old west prostitution and gun fights made you feel like you stepped back 100 years. We had lunch at what is referred to as the best restaurant in SD, remember that the entire population of the state is only 10% of metro Atlanta so we weren’t sure what to expect, Jakes was very nice and we had the entire place to ourselves.

We left SD in route to Yellowstone and three days later here we are. WY was unimpressive on the northeast corner on I-90 until just shy of Sheridan. We will, however, never forget the wind. Sheridan to Bozeman the next day was our first glimpse of what might be in store in the Rockies. We just love the west so far.

More Badlands SD and Wall drug store

There is so much to see in the Black hills area. We ticked two more off the list with a visit to the famous Wall drug store. It was made famous when in the 30's the owners started putting up road signs for free water. Today there are signs all around the world saying how many miles to wall drug. Neat story of success it was fun to look at all the pictures and letters from Presidents to actors and to see all the examples of where the signs are, there is one on the Great Wall of China. It is one of those places that once you have been there it's enough.

We also went through the Badlands in SD (31 mile loop drive) which are as stunning as the ones in ND but very different. For example we saw very few animals, the hill sides were completely barren and this is the first time we saw a man standing naked on a cliff getting his picture taken, apparently he missed the sign that said beware of rattle snakes. Hope you like the pictures.

Crazy Horse, Custers and Needles hwy

What a day, from the downright spiritual three hours at the Crazy Horse memorial to the drive down, and up, Needles hwy to the up close and personal view of wild pronghorns, mules, more buffalo, prairie dogs ect, not sure we could have packed more in to one day.

We talked a little to try and describe what our experience was like at Crazy Horse. We both were completely inspired by the dedication of the memorials creator, Korczak Ziolkowski and his family to telling the story of the American Indians. If you are interested I have attached a link http://www.crazyhorse.org/ . Our experience at Crazy Horse sure didn’t leave us proud to be white.

The memorial is not complete and they estimate it will take 7 years before the horses head is complete, they won’t estimate total completion but one guide said it could be another 100 years. Korczak has been offered help by the government to fund the project and has refused several times, he insisted before his death that the people should fund this memorial in recognition of the American Indian as the government has betrayed them enough. Crazy Horse was chosen to be the one carved in the mountain as he was the only Indian chief to never sign a treaty, refused to live on a reservation and was murdered while under a flag of truce by three American soldiers.

It’s size it absolutely incredible and isn’t captured in the pictures. The head alone on Crazy Horse is slightly bigger than all of Mount Rushmore, each nostril on the horse, once complete will be 30 ft in diameter and Crazy Horses nose is 28 ft long. We leave this place with a better understanding of the American Indian and of the settlers, we are again in awe of what we saw.

The trip through Custer’s state parks 14 mile Animal loop trail was nice but we were kind of surprised that it was less mountains and more huge rolling fields. We then decided to take a famous scenic hwy, Needles, on the way back. Just stunning, ok a bit scary too, At least half of this 18 miles required us to keep the mirrors in and do between 15 and 20 mph there are three single lane tunnels (holes blasted out of the mountain) that require 100% driver attention and in our case some passenger interaction. The views were amazing and worth the occasional white knuckle driving. Love you guys

Mount Rushmore

In one of our travel books it said that the black hills were a wonderful place to visit but Mount Rushmore could be viewed from the parking lot in 5 min's and move on, we disagree.

The historical significance of the four men is only a portion of this place. This gave us the opportunity to better understand the relationship the Indian's had with the black hills and how the federal government betrayed them after gold was discovered. The landscape as you can see is granite walls and black cedar forests (the reason it is referred to as the black hills) as far as you can see. The presidental trail (about a mile) gave some really unique and dizzing views of the national landmark.

It is easy to see why this area draws 500,000 bikers every year for the Sturgis rally.

Much more to see here in the next few days, we will post Crazy horse and Custers park tomorrow.

Badlands ND

The North Dakota badlands within Theodore Roosevelt national park is without question one of the most spectacular areas we have ever seen. We hope this is a preview of what we are getting ready to see moving west. The park is separated by a north and a south area, the first is a 14 mile drive around the little Missouri river through forests up mountains and ending at oxbow overlook which was occupied by a heard of wild buffalo when we were there. The south is a 36 mile loop drive that took us 4.5 hours and was by far our favorite. While in the south we saw thousands of prairie dogs (we understand they live in tight family units and are as Missy says “cuter than crap”) a huge mule deer (pictured) Buffalo within 6 inches of the truck and some white tail.

The ability to see the layers within the mountains that are as old as 60 million years is humbling and the colors that are glistening in the sunlight are breathtaking. We hope you like the pictures.

For Cheryl… Theodore Roosevelt came to ND in the early 1880’s to hunt Buffalo and because of this trip became a conversationalist, the first to become president. He was known to have said that he would have never become president hadn’t it been for his experiences in ND. He as you pointed out he resided in NY, but came to the Dakota’s often. Another neat fact is that he went bear hunting while President in Ashville NC and after days empty handed his aides were said to have located an injured and sick bear that they captured and brought to camp tied up. Theodore refused to kill the animal and the result was the term “Teddy bear”

Off to SD tomorrow for what looks to be a weeklong stop.