On to Spearfish

 Wednesday - May 19, 2021

Moving on day today.  With less than 100 miles to drive, we took our time getting ready to leave this campground.  There is a really nice boulder in front of our campsite here, very shiny, with crystals and other interesting ingredients, but it doesn't show up well in the picture (and I couldn't fit it in the jeep).

So we said goodbye to our camp host, got hooked up and hit the road about 10:20.  

We headed west to New Castle, Wyoming, then took Hwy 85 north, picked up 14A to get to Spearfish.  14A turned out to be a Scenic Byway, and it certainly was.  On the western edge of South Dakota, we saw burnout, but also beautiful grasslands still. And some very nice views. 

 

We crossed into Wyoming about 30 minutes later .  Almost immediately, there was a horse and buggy sign, so I watched for Amish farms or buggies from then on, but never saw any signs of Amish.  

We were only in Wyoming a little over an hour (including a fuel/soda stop) before we crossed back into South Dakota.  We drove most of the day in the Black Hills National Forest. An unusual sight was this tower, I told Joe it had icing on top.

We saw a few antelope and deer on this Byway.  One deer crossed the road right in front of us again.  Joe said he didn't have to stomp on the brakes as hard as he had in Albuquerque, but we did have some stuff dislocated in the kitchen.  We finally saw 3 tom turkeys.  He said they were so perfect, with their tail feathers fully spread, that he thought they might be statues, but a few miles later, we saw a dead tom, also with tail feathers spread, so we believe they were real.  We drove along the very pretty Spearfish Creek most of the way on this Highway, and it is right along the edge of our campground.  Joe found a pull-off, and we walked beside the creek, with the rocks tumbling over and dropping down over the boulders.  It was almost a lake here, then got narrow again.

There was a little whirlpool right under the bridge, and we saw several small fish.

This was a very crooked road, like any that follow creeks, with nice boulders along the way.

Then, suddenly, there was a nice waterfall, right beside the road.  Another "Bridal Veil Falls."

And then we were at the outskirts of Spearfish.  The directions on the GPS to the campground took us to a road that was closed.  Found another address for the campground, which was right off Main Street, but we ran out of signs there.  So we finally called.  We were about 2 blocks away.  The host said they close the road we were on, in the summer, so all traffic to the campground has to come in the same way.  

Anyhow, we arrived at the campground about 1:10, and were set up by 1:30.  We have electricity, phone signal, sewer, and water, but the internet signal does not reach our campsite, so it's back on our hotspot.  But the campground is very nice. Our spot is nice, a little close to the neighbors, but grassy, and level.   Joe got us hooked up with everything and pulled the awning out for the first time on this trip.  Spearfish Creek runs about 100 yards from our campsite, just at the edge of the campground.

As we came through town, there were lilacs everywhere.  And when we went back into town, there were more lilacs everywhere.  We stopped at the visitor center to get a map for jeep trails, then we headed back to camp.  I may have to buy this house and move here.

Most houses didn't have just one lilac bush, they had many.  A lot used them as hedge rows -- what could be better.  And we saw one lilac bush with a deer under it. 

I did get Joe to stop so I cold get a new bouquet.  I should be set for the week, able to refresh my bouquet every other day if need be.

We took a short walk in the campground and to the creek, and sat outside for a while to enjoy the beautiful weather -- in the 60s.  We look forward to exploring this area the next few days.  We MAY be able to stay on the main roads and visit the surrounding towns like Sturgis and Deadwood, but Joe has a real yearning for the dirt roads, so it will be a battle of wills.

We had one other issue today.  My arthritic forefinger, my pointing finger, has a slight crook in it.  Joe told me when I point out animals, I need to adjust for the crook because he looks too far to the right every time.  And here I thought I was perfect.

Last Day in Custer

 

Tuesday - 5-18-2021

With our “extra” day today, since yesterday turned out to be Monday instead of Tuesday, we basically took the day off.  We did some chores, went into town to get caught up on the laundry, and Joe got some of the outside stuff put away so we can travel tomorrow.  I forgot my Blog notes when we got to the laundromat, so Joe had to drive back to the RV to get them for me, but the WiFi at the laundromat (called “Lost Sock”) was awesome and I was able to get the last 2 days posted.  There was one more buffalo statue in town that I needed pictures of, so we got that done.

In the afternoon, we rested, took naps, and read for a while.  With no internet or TV at the camp, we headed back to town for pizza, then our last drive through the Wildlife Loop at the state park.  We were a little early for evening, so we took the north loop, Needles Highway to Iron Mountain Highway, and came in to the Loop on the northeast side.  We were still looking for those Bighorn rams but no luck, all we saw were deer.  Once back on the Loop, we did see a lone buffalo drinking water in a creek, which we hadn’t seen before. 

There are some nice equestrian camps in this Park, with good pens for the horses.  We don’t know if riding is restricted to trails, or if you can ride anywhere you like, but it would be a really cool place to bring your horses.  Have to make sure they weren’t shy of buffalo, I guess.  Joe stopped for a pitstop so I got a picture of him in the Grasslands.  And he found three antelope on a far slope while we were there, which we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. 

Animals were scarce tonight.  We did find the buffalo herd again, they had moved a few miles east.  We saw one other antelope, 6 turkeys (one wandered right onto the road in front of us), 2 cow elk, and deer.  But even the deer were fewer.  We saw 46 on the North highways, and only 18 on the Wildlife Loop.  Today was the warmest, sunniest day we had here, and we wondered if the animals were waiting until later, but by this time, it was just before dark, our usual drive time. 

We did see these 4 deer, and it looked like 2 of them were smaller, not babies, but not full-grown.

We have a 10-miles stretch from the Park to Custer, then about 12 miles from Custer to the National Forest we are camped in.  We always see deer in yards in that 10-mile stretch.  Tonight, one of them crossed the road, and stopped, right in front of us.  We have tried to be really aware of that possibility, and if we hadn’t seen it in time, we would definitely have hit it.   We wonder if deer in the rest of the Dakotas are as plentiful as they are in this area. 

I had a new experience here.  I had hard-boiled some eggs the other day, and had them on the top shelf of my refrigerator.  Well, when I was going to give Joe one, they were frozen.  So we left it on the counter overnight.  Yesterday morning, when I cracked it, the shell slid off in one piece, and the egg itself was all shriveled up and rubbery.  Couldn’t think of a use for it so it went in the trash.  I moved the other 3 eggs down in the frig, but I am guessing they will be the same.

Wildlife count for today:

Deer – 64 (again, I didn’t count the ones in the town stretches)

Elk – 2

Antelope – 4

Turkey – 6

Buffalo – a herd, plus some loners

I read at an exhibit kiosk about the fire here.  Named the Galena fire, it started on July 4, 1988, caused by lightning.  It covered 16,788 acres, mostly in Custer State Park.  It was contained 5 days later.  We don't know if the fire damage we still see was from that fire, or if there were more recent ones, since that would have been 33 years ago.  As we left our campground on Thursday, we saw more fire damage, and since the Galena was mostly in the Park, and we are probably 30 miles west of there, we assume there were later fires that caused the damage.  Regardless, it was sad to see.

We have really enjoyed this area, but are ready to move tomorrow to Spearfish.  We are camping in Spearfish City Campground, with full hook-ups, and hopefully a phone signal.  I am really looking forward to having those amenities again.  We plan on driving to Sturgis, Deadwood,  and, of course, the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byways.  There are supposed to be some waterfalls there.  We will probably also make the drive to Devil’s Tower out of there, which is in Wyoming.

We drove about 100 miles on Monday, and very few, probably about 100 today.  Our drive tomorrow to the new location is only about 55 miles, so we hope to have slower days now.

Crazy -Horse and Mt. Rushmore

Monday - 5-17-2021

I gained a day today because I was sure today was Tuesday.  That confused me until Joe got me straightened out.  We got a late start, time to catch up on our rest a little so it was after 11:00 before we really got started.  We had breakfast in town again so I could work on the blog, but it was taking so long to get the pictures posted I finally gave up.  I will have to finish them tomorrow. 

We headed to Crazy Horse first, saw 3 deer right beside the Road.  Crazy Horse is definitely a work in progress, but very impressive.  Dave and Mazie have been here at least twice and are anxious to see pictures of the progress that has been made since their last visit, which was in 2010.  

We took the bus ride to get a view from the front.  They are currently working on the knuckles on the hand.  Their 5 to 10 year goal is to finish the hand.  

This quite a nice complex, with lots of exhibits, a theater where we watched a short film, gift show, restaurant.  They had an exhibit of the horse decked out in full Indian garb.  The white is leather.

And, of course, a buffalo.

We ate lunch here. They have a statue of the finished project here and there is certainly a lot of detail to it.   

From here, we drove past Mt. Rushmore into the touristy town of Keystone to the rock shop I buy my materials from.  They had some beautiful stuff (the pictures don't do it justice).  I settled on a half pound of Botswana agate that I want to tumble.

Right after we left here, I saw our first marmot of the trip.  I made Joe turn around so he could see it.  As we drove on, we saw two more right down the street.

We also stopped here at the wood carving shop, and I walked through it.  Some very cool stuff. 

My favorite was this one of bears on a rope, hanging on a tree limb.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  It was very cute.

There were two carvers at work.  One was fine-tuning the nose on a bear.

We headed back to Mt. Rushmore.  By now, it's 4:00 but it was only a few miles.  It's kind of a long walk from the parking area to the lobby, and there is a lot of construction going on.  We remembered the line of flags at the entrance.  This isn't near as elaborate an exhibit as Crazy Horse.  

We watched a short film here too, walked through the exhibits, skipped the gift shop, and finished up. 

 The only things left on our agenda today was to drive back through Custer State Park and see what animals we could see tonight.  We took part of the curvy road again, then switched to the Needles Byway, where the ranger had said they sometimes see Big Horn rams.  But we didn't see any.  We didn't drive the whole Wildlife Loop tonight, but we did see some animals again.  I resisted taking pictures of most of them, but we came upon a herd of about 25 elk that I couldn't resist.  We spooked them, but they didn't go far, so we watched them for a while.  Joe shut the motor off, and we coasted down the hill to get closer.

Moving on, we found a few turkeys (finally got a good picture), a few pronghorn antelope, and finally the buffalo with babies again.  We pulled off and watched them for a while.  

I mentioned the burnout here earlier but didn't take a picture.  It is very sad, but we do see regrowth in some areas.

It started raining just before we left the park.  It was about 8:20. We continued to find a few deer as it got later, and again on our trip through town.  I quit counting the ones in town because I felt like I was counting them same ones every night.

Today's Wildlife Count is:

deer - 55 (not including those in town)

turkeys - 6

elk - 34

antelope - 3

lots of buffalo