Driving through Black Hills National Forest

5-23-2021 - Sunday

With forest map in hand, we set out to drive the backroads in the forest we were camping near.  Joe fills up the jeep gas tank every morning before we head out because we never know where we will end up, how many miles we will drive.  But he is also testing all the gas stations in town looking for the perfect soda combination:  diet coke, starfoam cup, good lid,  long straw.  You wouldn't believe it's hard to get all those things in one place.  But today was the best, so with one day left here, he now knows where to go.  Yesterday I forgot my notebook, so I had to make my notes on both sides of a deposit ticket (I happened to have the checkbook in my fanny pack).  Today, I think I have everything.

We left the RV about 10:20, and the drive started right at the edge of town.  Shortly thereafter, we had our first interesting sighting:  a camel.  Now that was unexpected.

Driving a little further on, Joe asked if he was going too fast.  I said, well, no, we're not seeing anything yet.  He exclaimed, "not seeing anything!  My God, we've already been to Africa."  He accused me of "unauthorized complaining," and threatened to move me to the back seat (which is folded up against the front seat, so not very comfortable).  

Next we took a little side road back to Iron Creek Lake and Campground.  Pretty little lake, some permanent campers back here.  Got a good picture of a male blackbird.

We are seeing lots of groves of aspens today, but we finally figured out that there were birch trees in here too (Joe's been reading up on this).  The aspens have a greenish cast to the bark, which showed up pretty good when wet.  I told him I thought the top of the birch trees, where they are starting to bud out, looked "reddish."  He said, "more like deadish.  Ha Ha.  But he finally came to agree with me.

We spotted what looked like a cave or mine shaft on the side of a mountain/hill.  

This one uprooted tree caught my eye because of the big white boulders in the roots.  We stopped so I could check it out.  I even picked up a couple of small rocks here.

We did have a large marmot cross the road in front of us.  We took another side road past a couple more campgrounds, to Roughlock Falls, and on out to 14A (where we turned around and resumed our forest drive).  We stopped at the first campground, Timon, and found a bench made from a log.

Joe thought we needed to take a picture of our bear tire cover, so here it is.

Moving on, our next item of interest was the site of the 1997 Christmas tree for the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.  All that's left is the stump and the disturbed dirt.  

There was also a cave here, which looked like someone had lived in it at one time.

I picked up a couple of small rocks here.  

Just a little past this was the film site of "Dances with Wolves," which was made in 1991.

We didn't stop at the second campground, Rod and Gun, but we did see a kid fishing here.    We talked to a woman getting into her truck and she told us the falls was about 3 more miles.  We finally got to the area of the Falls.  It's a hike from the parking lot, and there were 2 parking lots, one less of a hike than the other.  We think we found that, and there was a pond here, with a water weir under the bridge.  I spoke with another lady on the bridge, and she said the hike was probably a mile.  Well, we were now under a tornado watch, with rain predicted within 30 minutes, so we decided not to risk getting caught in a storm (surprise, surprise).  It was a good decision, because it started raining about 5 minutes later, just enough time to get back to the jeep.  Joe said if a tornado did hit, we should head back to that cave we had just left.

Back to our main road, our next side trip was to Cement Ridge Lookout.  This was several miles, and the rain got a little harder, and the road a little rougher.  But we made it to the top, elevation 6,661.  There was a Lookout building, a wind shelter now but had originally been built as a fire lookout tower.  The building was built by the CCCs in 1941.  We sat there in the jeep for a few minutes, hoping the rain would stop.  Instead, the fog moved in, and out, and in again.

On this road, Joe spotted a birdhouse on a pine tree.  He wanted a close-up of it in case he wants to build one when he gets back home, and put it on his pine tree (which we don't have).

We had finally started seeing deer, and one large marmot crossed the road in front of us.  On this side road, Joe spotted another animal crossing the road (I was looking at the map), but he couldn't identify it.  About the size of a marmot, or badger, or martin.  But probably none of those.  Oh well.

Also on this side road, there was a falling-down barn with a very unusual roof, covered in what he thought might be surveyor's markers.  

Another interesting item was this bubbling little geyser in a pond.  We don't know if this is a geyser (didn't see any steam), a spring, or just a pump (there was a house nearby).  But we thought it was picture-worthy.  The height of the stream varied, like a geyser.

 There must have been some awful winds, or tornadoes, come through these valleys.  We have seen a lot of hillsides with trees down like matchsticks.  And large trees uprooted.  One can imagine that winds can really swirl through these canyons (and I certainly don't want to get caught in one).

Back to the main dirt road, we reached the Elk Retrieval Area (where you can drive your vehicle to pick up your elk).  I thought we might see some elk in this area, but no such luck.  No elk all day, even though it was a rainy day (if that matters).  

We hit the highway about 2:45, in the rain.  We counted 20 deer today, and the marmot.  Oh, and the camel!  Joe decided to take Hwy 85 back, thinking it would take us straight to Spearfish.  But no, it took us back through Lead, and Deadwood, again.  Finally, we hit our town.  We decided to stop for dinner (now 3:40) and then call it a day.  We drove 57 miles today in the Forest, and only about 4 hours, then another hour to get back to town, and maybe 40 more miles.  The tornado warning  is set to expire at 9:00 p.m., but it really only rained, not even any wind.  Just a little lightning and thunder.  Good!

Tomorrow is our last day here, and it looks like it will be errands and maintenance.  Joe has his tooth to deal with, and he saw we have a broken spring under the RV so that will have to be replaced tomorrow (he has one with us).  Probably a trip to Walmart, and I have a Facetime appointment with one of my doctors.  We have liked our time here, but are ready to move on to the next location.  

Devil's Tower and Sundance

Saturday - May 22, 2021

Our agenda today was Devil's Tower and Sundance in Wyoming.  I had a pot of chili in the crockpot, and my dishes cleaned up before Joe got up, so he suggested we just stop at McDonald's for a breakfast sandwich and then head out.  McDonald's here is still take out or drive through, so we ate on the road.  We headed up the highway to Belle Fourche, about 14 miles north.  It is just a mile past our turnoff to Wyoming, and he wanted to look for a propane place to stop at on Tuesday on our way to North Dakota.  We found one, and drove through town.  This town is considered the Center of the Nation, after Alaska and Hawaii became states (the center used to be in Smith, Kansas).  They were setting up for a kite and duck  festival at the Museum, so we stopped and took some pictures. 

 They honor our war veterans with monuments of Peace, the Korean War, and the Viet Nam War.

We took hwy 24/34 toward the Devil's Tower.  We came upon a historical marker about Custer's Expedition in Wyoming.

We were just tooling along toward Hulett when Joe saw a Forest Road (dirt) that called to him.  So we spent the next 90 minutes driving 11 miles into the Black Hills Forest again, and then turning around and coming back out.  But it was a beautiful drive, and even though we were not expecting this to be a wildlife loop, we saw plenty of deer, and some turkeys.  And some great views over the canyons.

There is evidence that they are trying to keep this forest clean.  The tree trimmer they used along the road was more like a bushhog, just torn the limbs off instead of cutting them.  I don't know if they bring a chipper in to clean up the debris or not.  But there were some piles of trees and brush to burn, and some places where they had actually burned the piles.

We finally got back to the highway.  We were coming up on the town of Hulett, and we got a glimpse of the Devil's Tower in the distance.

There are a lot of red cliffs in this area, and coupled with the green pastureland, it is a very nice view.

A couple who sat across from us at dinner last night told us there was a golf course in Hulett that looked like it was manicured.  So we drove up the hill to it.  But we think the pastureland or grassland here looks like it is manicured too.  The golf course was pretty, though.  I'm sure this is a high dollar housing development.  There were some really nice homes up here, but no yards.  Except the golf course.

Finally we got to Devil's Tower, and drove the road that takes you about half-way around it.  Joe thought our Great-Niece Hannah Croxton should come here to climb it, if she hasn't already.

There was a prairie dog village here too.  Joe wants to take his lawn chair and sit out there with them, maybe make friends,  but he left the chairs back at camp.  There was a group of 4 piled on top of each other, they must have found something tasty.

At the entrance to this road, we saw some long-horn cattle and a few buffalo.  Always happy to see the buffs.

We had decided to take a forest road on to Sundance, on the map it appeared to come out just a mile or so west of Sundance.  We missed the road the first time (the number didn't match the map) but we turned around and found it.  It was about 25 miles, we thought.  But this was where our day got interesting.  It was a good road, nice drive, saw more wildlife.  Added a new breed to our wildlife count -- peacocks.  We heard this awful squawking first, then I spotted one on a post, then another one in the yard.  Joe recognized the sound but couldn't remember what it was until we saw them.

We continued on, came upon a campsite with some firewood just ready for the taking.  The kind of campsites Jeff and Brenda, and we, like to find.

We went through some very nice groves of either aspen or birch, some larger than we are used to seeing.  I need to come back through here in the fall when their leaves are turning.

This forest was not big on road signs.  When we finally came upon signs, they usually didn't match the map we were trying to follow.  By the time we finally matched a sign with the map, we were headed back toward Hulett!  We had probably already been on this road for 2 hours, for our 25-mile trip.  And I still wanted to go to Sundance.  So we found a road that would take us back to Hwy 111, which connected to I-90, and to Sundance.  Along here, we came upon a group of deer lying down, but they all got up when we stopped.

When we finally came out on the highway, we were about 15 miles east of Sundance, instead of a mile west.  Just as we got into town, we saw the Black Hills Forest Information Center.  Joe said, "that's a hell of a place for that to be," since we had just spent two hours wandering around without a real map of the area.

And that's the other thing.  I didn't know there is also a Sundance, Utah.  All I knew about Sundance was that there is a big film festival there, and a famous actor (I couldn't remember who) had a ranch there.  Oh, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which Joe had read up on.  Well, much to my surprise, the film festival and Robert Redford's ranch are in Sundance, Utah.  So Sundance, Wyoming only had the Sundance Kid (a robber).  

As we came into town, I saw this sign,

I thought, OK, I will try to find this statue of good, old Sundance.  So we drove up and down, through the little town.  I thought there was a Sundance Kid and Western Museum here, but we couldn't find that.  The only museum listed, which we did find, was under construction.  So Sundance  was a total bust.  Except for this art gallery that had posts made from antlers, and skulls, etc.

And we had to stop for 8 deer to cross the street in front of the truck in front of us.  Right at the edge of town.

The highlight of my day was replacing my lilacs with a new bouquet.  I picked these from the same bushes as my first ones here, at the city park just up the street from the campground.  Joe said if he saw a police car, he was just going to drive on to the RV, and I was on my own.  But really, there are plenty of lilacs in this town for everyone to have some.

My biggest complaint about the jeep is that I don't have enough room for my stuff.  I am usually juggling my phone, camera, maps, notebook, pencil, and whatever Joe needs.  I need a desk, or slots, or something to hold my essentials.  Otherwise, the jeep has been doing a good job for us, and Joe really loves being able to take the dirt roads through the forests.

We got back to the RV about 6:30, it got to be a long day, 8 hours in the jeep again, 198 miles.  I was glad I had that chili simmering in my crockpot.  No rain all day, just clouds.  But after dinner, Joe broke off a tooth, so now we have that to deal with Monday.

Rainy Day in Spearfish

Friday - May 21, 2021

No sunshine today, and I never saw the temperature about 42.  It drizzled off and on all day, so we decided on a "down day" and just stayed in town.  We did go out for breakfast.  I wanted to try to download a new app to assist in loading my photos into the blog, and our internet at the camper isn't very good.  But I didn't take my plug in cord with me, and the computer died before I got that done.  We spent the rest of the day in the camper.  I messed with my computer download some more but never did accomplish my mission.  I will have to wait for Cathy to work with me.

I took a picture of our neighbor's enclosed side-by-side.  We see these around up here.  Joe thinks they probably have a heater in them too.

 The breakfast restaurant had a fish fry on their menu tonight and Joe thought that sounded good, so we went back for dinner.  It is just plain cold here, so he dug our new electric heater out of the outside compartment and got it going.  Now we are toasty.  After dinner, we drove around the town a little, in the mist.  We did see this interesting camper on the Walmart parking lot.  Joe thought our neighbor Paul needed it.

We spotted 1 deer in a yard, and we have ducks with babies in the campground.  And lilacs everywhere.  They use them as hedges here, and about every other house has some.  I'm loving it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy, but no rain predicted, so we plan on doing more exploring then.  We have a fish hatchery right across the road from the campground, so we need to get that worked in the next few days.  This is a pretty town, population just over 10,000, but the interstate goes through the edge and they have about everything here.  The yards are all green and the houses seem well-kept.  We were told they are in a drought here too, but we see no evidence of that right now.  We will see what further north looks like when we move on next week.