Friday - May 14, 2021
After a chilly night (38 degrees) and a good night’s sleep,
we were ready to get on with our exploration of this part of the country. We liked our campground (Trailing Edge in
Limon, Co), especially after 3 nights on a parking lot. It was 43 when we got up this morning, time
for jackets and jeans. We actually
turned on the furnace last night.
We saw 6 deer right at the edge of town, and 2 more during
our drive. However, in Colorado today we
saw 44 pronghorn, and an additional 16 in Nebraska.
The windmills we saw yesterday in the distance were right by us today.
We kept seeing this wall of clouds in front of us, getting
bigger and bigger as we traveled toward it.
All of a sudden, we found ourselves in dense fog, with a little rain
thrown in. So with very low visibility,
our antelope count went way down.
We finally cleared the fog, and the sun came back out. We finally found a pull out for a break, so
we walked around a bit. I was hoping an
accommodating antelope would mosey over for a photo op, but no such luck.
We entered the Pawnee National Forest and shortly thereafter
crossed the state line into Nebraska (10:55).
We saw miles and miles of grasslands, rolling hills, cattle
pasture. Very few trees. But when we got near Scottsbluff, Nebraska,
we began to see a change in the terrain – actual bluffs.
Then came the Ogala National Forest, just before we crossed
into South Dakota at 1:55 p.m. We got
to Hot Springs but ran out of signage so, after another u-turn, we got directions when we fueled here. On to our destination, we arrived at Wind
Cave National Park at 3:20. Joe said,
“now our vacation begins.” As soon as we
entered the park, 4 buffalo greeted us!
After Joe stopped and got some pictures of them laying down, he honked
to try to get them to move, but they didn’t.
After we pulled away, we wondered if they were statues. But then we saw 2 more right away, and then
another one. And another one, which
crossed the road in front of us and posed for a picture.
We drove passed the Visitor Center and on to the campground
but didn’t find a spot, so we unhooked the jeep and went back to the Visitor
Center. When Joe had called a month ago,
he was told they didn’t take reservations, it was first come-first serve, but
he had worked there for 35 years and they had never been full. Well, guess what. They were full! The ranger told us of another place, in the
Black Hills National Forest, that might be available. He said they had just opened that day but it
was about 40 minutes away. So we went
back to the RV, Joe got it turned around, and we both drove to the national
forest. Besides the host, we are the
only ones here. But the sign on the
highway says “area closed” so that might be the reason. Anyhow, we are set up here for 2 nights at
least, dry camping and no phone signal (no internet at all). That's really the worst thing about this dry camping, no phone service.
After we got situated, we drove back into Custer for dinner
(lunch never happened today because we couldn’t find a pull-out). On the way back to the campground, Joe, of
course, wanted to drive some dirt roads looking for deer. Well, that part was successful. We saw 54 deer on our drive. Earlier, he had noticed a dirt road that
appealed to him (before we got to Hot Springs), and I pointed out that it had a
gate. He said, “I brought my bolt
cutters with me in case they try to pull stuff like that.” But he forgot his “authorized personnel”
hat.
We got back from our drive just before dark, about
7:30. It got to be a long day, but we
are looking forward to the next few days of sightseeing in the jeep.
We noticed in the grasslands that there were no cattle
grazing there, so we wondered if that isn’t allowed. Without internet, Joe was unable to research
that tonight.
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