Our extended time in Rapid City, SD, and Lazy J Campground was really great. So long! Travel and explore is what we want to do today. West on Iron Mountain Road through Custer State Park. Tunnels!? Stop the RV, get out and measure 12'2" top to bottom again just to be sure, then barely squeeze through.
Using Ms. Garmin and map for directions, bump 1.5 hours down a narrow dirt road to a possible ghost town site, Dewey. On the way, metal detect and find little treasures at an abandoned site.
Dewey town!, population "7." It's a ghost town alright, but it seems the few folks living there have everything fenced in.
Reach main road Hwy85 into northeast Wyoming at dusk. Stop north at nearest town New Castle and at 8:02 p.m. turn into a local Auto Inn Motel and RV Park...next to a visible train track...and here come the trains...all night.
Second month (6/6 - 7/6/10) travel statistics>
Total# of miles - 2,778
Total# gallons of fuel - 207.2
Total# of states traveled - 4
Total# bakeries visited ?
Wed, 7/7/10. New Castle to small towns Moorhouse (bakery... 2 coffees and a sticky bun = $2.35) and Upton (never strolled through a junk yard, have you? ) Tim skips happily down the rows of vehicles.
Down Rt14 is a soooooo mysterious looking rock looming in the Black Hills distance. Can't wait to get close!
The 2-square mile park surrounding Devil's Tower was proclaimed the nation's 1st national monument by President Roosevelt in 1906. The stone pillar rises 1,267 ft, about 1,000 ft in diameter at the bottom and 275 ft at the top. Spectacular!
Question: What award-winning 1978 Stephen Spielberg movie did Devils Tower star in? (Answer at end of post)
A Native American LEGEND: One day, an Indian tribe was camped beside the river and 7 small girls were playing at a distance. The region had a large bear population and a bear began to chase the girls. They ran back toward their village, but the bear was about to catch them. Th girls jumped upon a rock about 3 ft. high and began to pray to the rock. "Rock, take pity on us; Rock, save us." The rock heard the pleas of the young girls and began to elongate itself upwards, pushing them higher and higher out of reach of the bear. The bear clawed and jumped at the sides of the rock, and broke its claws and fell to the ground. The bear continued to jump at the rock until the girls were pushed up into the sky, where they are to this day in a group of seven little stars (the Pleiades). The marks of the bear claws are there yet.
Welcome a grassy nice RV site within the park and a great view of the tower. People actually climb this massive column!
Try out newly purchased clippers on Zack...he's happy and handsome, and we're happy. Grilled chicken, hash browns, and spinach. S'mores of course.
We hear a ruckus going on at the nearby amphitheater and go to check it out. It's there where matters of cross cultural diversity are discussed by two chiefs--each in their customary tribal dress.
Thurs, 7/8/10. Hiking around Devil's Tower was a study of contrast--a stark, impressive stone colossus dominating flat, pine forests, rocks and meadows. The Indians have it right.. spiritual. Near the monument entrance, black-tailed prairie dogs live in their "town."
Via Rt24E, travel through Huelett into South Dakota. Such long stretches of road on Hwy212E with farms, cows and sheep. It's scenic, but could put you to sleep...so almost halfway across SD, decide to go south 1.5 hrs on Hwy73 and pick up I90E .
See small town Kadoka and the Ponderosa Motel and RV Park. Not exactly where they filmed Bonanza, but it will do. Quiet night... no trains. Continue our highway journey tomorrow.
Answer to question above: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
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