104

This is the 3rd attempt !!!!! We are in Wall SD after a few great days in the Black Hills at Custer, enjoying the Monuments of Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore. The scenery and roads are spectacular and the 35 MPH speed limit allows you to fully enjoy all there is to see. The 5,000 + motorcycles in the immediate Custer area are less than 1% of the bikes in Sturgis but still a sight hard to comprehend. The several tunnels carved out of solid granite are amazing and VERY narrow. We didn't retract our truck mirrors and managed to lightly scrape one on a tunnel wall. We are in Wall which is famous for handing out ice water during the western migration in the depression....people would stop or couldn't afford water so Walls gave it away as a ploy to get people to stop. Today it is really just a large ( 76,000 sft) store. At 2:00 this afternoon, it was 104F and the same is forecast for tomorrow.

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South Dakota

The drive from Ten Sleep Wy to GILLette ( not "jill ette") was very scenic through the Big Horn Mountains, actually most of Montana and Wyoming have been. The scenery changes almost at every bend in the road. The campground in Gillette was sorta iffy, but it was only for one night. The number of Harley's on the road, both coming away from and going to Sturgis is ever increasing.....what a site They really feel 500,000+ bikes are there. We arrived in Custer, South Dakota around noon. After lunch we started off on the Wildlife Loop through Custer State Park. In order to do so, it was necessary to drive through Custer and an estimated 1,000 bikes in town plus about that many in the park roads. We shared the road with them through the park and enjoyed feeding the "wild" donkeys. We also viewed deer (actually Pronghorns) and Buffalo. The campground today and tomorrow is wonderful , set in a pine woods. Here again we have about 75-100 bikes camping out......I must say, they are very friendly and try to keep the noise level down. Tomorrow it's off to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments.


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Up but not away

Well, as mentioned earlier, we went to the gunfight and guess what....the good guys won again, Pretty head to beat Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Buffalo Bill. We had also intended to watch the hot air balloons but the weather stopped that idea. We have found the afternoons in Montana and Wyoming bring very sudden weather changes. In 15 minutes it will go from sunny and warm to very high winds a drop in tempature and hard rain. This is what happened again Fri night. Saturday moring at 6:00 we up and out to the field in an effort to watch the moring launch of the balloons......they get one inflated but the wind came up and the balloon came down. We are now in Ten Sleep Wy. named by the natives way back. They used to determine days travelled by the number of "sleeps" while on their migrations. This was ten sleeps. There were a large number of Harley's here last night as we are not too far from Sturgis SD. They are expecting between 500,000 and 750,000 people there this coming week....most on bikes. A good place NOT to be. Several of the riders were coming Back from there, havin just passed through. The campgrounds are charging by the person at each tent site at a rate of over $100.00 for 1 up to 4 nights and that rate increased the closer the rally date approached. Today we head off to Gillette Wy.

The drive from Yellowstone RV Park to Cody was a beautiful 20 mile drive. We toured the Buffalo Bill Dam, completed in 1910, only after two of the original contractors went out of business. At the time, it was the highest dam in the USA at 310 feet....taller than the Capital Building in Washington. It is a concrete dam that uses no re-enforcing steel. There is a layer of concrete then a layer of rock and so on. After checking into the campground, we did a walk about in town which is a tourist town , but a nice one. At night, we went to a rodeo...they hold one each night of the week during June, July and August. It was an excellent show. They had a kids portion as well, where kids as young as 6 were taking part...boy those kids can ride. Today ( Friday ) we took trolley tour of the area and tonight we are off to a gun fight, then out of town to a hot air balloon festival.

Montana or Wyoming ????

As Yellowstone crosses both state lines, it is sometimes difficult to know where ya are......that isn't restricted to Yellowstone for us. We got an early start, as hoped, in an effort to beat some of the heavy traffic encountered yesterday...it worked. We were able to stop and enjoy many of the side venues mentioned in the tour books. It is truly amazing how many steam vents, geysers and mud pools there are here. Yellowstone is actually a cauldron of a volcano, which is generally agreed, will erupt some day. In the meantime it bubbles away, very close to the surface. One of the Rangers mentioned today that an Elk went off one of the animal trails and fell through the strata. In less than a week it was just bones because of the heat and minerals in the "soil". It took about 6 hours to travel the 150 or so miles ( almost as slow as a Model A ) because of all the natural displays we stopped to see. Old Faithful lived up to her name and blew right on schedule...very dramatic. When we left the park we drove through Shoshone National Forest which was a sight on it's own with the sandstone cliffs eroded by the weather. We are now in Wyoming about 18 miles from Cody where we will be tomorrow for 2 nights.....how about that 18 miles and it takes two days to recover. We were going to go to Sturgis SD for the Harley Rally, but alas no camping available....they book a year in advance, so it'll be on to Custer after Cody.

Hot Stuff

Yes siree Bob, this place is HOT. We have driven from Mammoth Hot Springs to West Yellowstone where we are in a private campground, just outside the park. What a drive it was. The first pic was taken at a place called Norris Geyser Basin which is full of steam vents like this. The second was at a place right on the side of the road. The crowds on the roads are quite heavy. As a result, tomorrow we will be mobile by 7:30 to head towards Old Faithful.....that's gonna hurt.

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Yellowstone day 1

After a early start ( for us) we arrived at the Mammoth Spring Campground inside Yellowstone Park. We were here at about 10:30 and they figured the campground would be full within the hour......it was. Once setup and lunch was out of the way, we were off on one of the circle tours they recommend ( about 65 miles). What a diverse landscape. Everything from 9,000 ft mountain passes to sulphur springs and waterfalls. This is a "dry campground, which means no hookups. We can run the generator until 8:00 tonight. Our fridge doesn't work on anything but 110V. It will run on propane, but needs 110V to do so......go figure. Tomorrow we move to another campground just outside the park and close to another entrance. This place is huge, not as big as Algonquin, but big none the less. We have internet which was a surprise. The air card works out here.