Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, Devils Tower and a slight miscalculation

"The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you are not going to stay where you are."
                                                                                                                        -author unknown

In Cody Wyoming for the night after a long, dark evening travelling over the Big Horn mountains in the snow.  Today was a day of channeling our inner-tourist and seeing the sites.  The day began in Rapid City, South Dakota with a visit to Mount Rushmore.  The drive into the Black Hills was steep.  Not as steep as climb we had at the end of our day but steep in its own right.  Mount Rushmore is beautiful but very commercial.  I am definitely glad I have seen it but don't care anything about going back.  The monument can be seen from the road but we paid the $11.00 to park and walked to the base.  It was impressive but after taking a few pictures it was time to go.  At the base of the monument we met a soccer team from Ontario Canada that had beaten the South Dakota State University team the night before.  Interesting guys with a mix of accents.

After leaving Mount Rushmore we headed south toward Custer State Park.  The road was narrow and twisted and turned up over Iron Mountain with switchbacks and pigtail curves over bridges.  The road would go under a curving bridge then turn sharply to curve back around over the bridge.  There were several of these as they aided in raising the road up the steep hollow.  The views were amazing and expansive at the top with Mount Rushmore in the distance.  There wasn't any other cars on the road so I could stop the car in the middle of the road to take pictures.  Three narrow tunnels  through the rocks created interesting sights and you had to beep your horn going through as the road always curved on the other side.  The going was slow but the woods were beautiful with piles of snow in the depressions.

There was still snow left on the hills from the blizzard the area had last week.  Signed along the road warned  to watch out for Big Horned Sheep crossing.  Snow squalls were blowing through as we slowly made the trip up and over the mountains twisting and turning over the narrow road.  It was hard to get pictures from the top as the snow squalls kept spotting my lens.  However, the clouds did a break from time to time to afford an opportunity for photographing the beautiful views.

Custer State Park

Custer, South Dakota

After rambling through the Black Hills, over Iron Mountain and through Custer State Park we came to Custer, South Dakota, population 1860.  The town was empty due to it being autumn.  It was a quaint mountain town that had western architecture.  We turned right and headed north toward Crazy Horse, Deadwood and then to Sturgis, South Dakota.

The snow was falling heavy but not sticking to the road.  Every vehicle we passed had snow on it and there was about two feet of snow on the ground along the road.  The road wound over hills at about 5800 feet in elevation.  The scenery was gorgeous as we dipped and climbed over the hills.

Once over the mountain, the road started dropping into Crazy Horse.Crazy Horse wasn't much to see.  Just a wide spot in the road but very commercial with lots of campgrounds that were closed for the season.  After Crazy Horse, the road kept dropping out of the hills.  The sign on the road stated 7% grade next 25 miles.  (25 miles?)  The hillsides were bare rock and steep.  It slowly wound its way into Deadwood.  Deadwood is a beautiful town in the Black Hills.  The downtown area is historic and lined with saloons.  Brick buildings from the Victorian era lined the streets and you can imagine Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane wandering the streets during the gold rush days.  The main business is obviously tourism and the town boasts 80 casinos.  However, it still is charming.  After Deadwood the road wandered out of the hills and met the interstate at Sturgis, South Dakota of the biker rally fame.  The town is quite boring when the bikers are not in town so we headed west on the interstate rising higher and higher on the high plains.

An hour later, we crossed into Wyoming.  The high plains are amazing to see and provide a little more interest than the lower plains that were filled with corn, wheat and sunflower fields.  Cattle grazed in the fields that undulated to the horizon with large ravines creasing the landscape.  The grasslands swept for miles broken only by the occasional barbed wire fence and line of electric poles to reveal mans presence.  The small towns were few and far between.

The decision was made to visit the Devils Tower National Monument. According to the signage this was the first national monument dedicated in 1906.  We turned off the interstate onto the secondary road and drove into the Wyoming countryside.  The road dipped and rose over the landscape and after about a half hour we topped a hill and could see the Devils Tower in the distance.  The tall natural monolith rose off the valley floor with lines of crags down it's sides.  We stopped for pictures as we got closer and closer.  The red strata in the cliffs of the hills surrounding the Tower were beautiful and you could hear the cattle mooing in the distance.  Rain and snow squalls blowing through the area provided interesting scenes.  I was on the look out for aliens but did not see any or Richard Dryfus for that matter.  I did, however, feel an urge to make a replica of the tower out of mashed potatoes.  Seeing how there were none handy and a Close Encounter of any kind wasn't going to happen, I opted for continuing west.

We took a different route along Route 14 to return to I90.  This led through the Wyoming high plains.  The road curved, rose and dipped with the landscape.  The 30 miles back to interstate were amazing with hills and then finally onto a flat plain that stretched into the distance.

Back on the interstate it was several more hours of driving higher through the plains.  The road was climbing higher and at one point reached 5000 feet elevation before heading back own to 3700 feet.  Towards dusk, after topping another rise, mountains came into view far off in the distance.  We watched them for over an hour get closer.  The sight was spectacular.  This country is so big and impressive.  Up until this point we had passed few towns during the afternoon and into the evening.  The towns along the interstate were and hour and half to two hours
apart and usually had a population less than 1800.  The
mountains in the distance were the Big Horn mountains and as we had decided to try to get to Yellowstone National Park tonight, we were going to have to go through them.   More precisely, as we were to learn, we were going to have to go OVER them.  Apparently when we were planning the route, we decided to take the route suggested by the GPS.  I somehow missed the portion of the sign for Route 16 that stated that not only was it the more scenic route but also the safer route.  This was brought to my attention by my travelling companion at about 8300 feet in elevation with snow on the road and her being very scared.  The trip to Yellowstone was decided upon after a conversation with a couple from Minnesota that revealed that it was something we had to see while out here and should not be missed as they had just come from there the day before.  The gentleman stated the easiest route was from Bozeman, Montana.  Perhaps, we should had listened to this advice.

We got off the interstate onto Route 14 at one of the small towns and stopped to top off the gas tank.  I met a Hispanic gentleman in the store who was obviously intoxicated.  (Not surprising as the only store and gas station also housed the towns only liquor store and bar.)  Said gentleman was wearing only a wife beater tank top on his upper body and was apparently cold as it was only 38 degrees outside.  He bought a cute winter hat that looked like a penquin complete with ears.  He couldn't figure out how to put it on so the clerk helped him including tying the straps.  After that he was ready for his stroll (stagger) down the road.

Route 14 headed toward the Big Horn mountains and I remarked that we were probably going to go through a pass that we could see in the twilight.  It was dark by now but the sky was clearing and the moon was out.  I could not have been more wrong.  The road switched back steeply up the mountainside with sharp curves.  The view over the valley was beautiful.  The lights of the town shrank into the distance as we climbed higher and higher.  Soon they were very small as we were to learn that they were over 3000 feet below us.  The road then turned into the mountains and continued to switchback and rise.  The snow along the road became deeper and soon the road itself was covered.  It had been plowed and the gates that usually close the road in times of bad weather were open so we continued on.  It was tense, I must admit, as it was dark and from what we could tell the sides of the road dropped off into the the dark oblivion.  After what seemed like forever, the car topped the pass at 8300 feet with snow on the road.  Signed along the road warned top beware of "Free Range Cattle.  No Fencing."   Down the other side of the pass the road wasn't as steep but soon began to rise again. It was a little disconcerting when the GPS showed 50 miles to go to our next turn on Route 16 but  luckily the snow had cleared from the road as we topped the next pass at over 9000 feet elevation.  I wish it had been light as the views had to be impressive.  Then it was down the other side for 25 miles and through a curve that looked like a bow tie on the GPS.  It was a 190 degree downhill curve.  Fortunately there was very little traffic coming up the mountain so I had my choice of lanes and I used both of them.  Once down the other side, we met Route 16 again and turned right toward Cody.  This two lane road was poker straight and ran across the open high plain gaining constant elevation.  The car hit 80mph as we headed toward Cody 50 miles ahead.  On the way, we passed though Emblem, Wyoming elevation 4438, population 10.  (10?)  Does this burg warrant a sign boasting this?  Who changes the population count on the sign whenever someone dies, is born or moves away?  Cody, Wyoming is a beautiful town that makes its living off of tourism for Yellowstone.  The snow capped mountains ring the town in the distance as the town sits at 5000 feet.  We found a our hotel, the Beartooth Inn at 9:30, stopped at Burger King for dinner and settled in for the night.

It was quite the day of travel.  Many miles logged and lots of impressive sites seen and photographed.  The country is so different out here from what I'm used to back home.  What still amazes me is the gates that we had passed for a thousand miles that cross every interstate and secondary road so that they can be closed in times of bad weather.  Pennsylvania certainly doesn't have these.  It's hard to imagine the storms that rage across these plains that would be bad enough to close the road and the only main artery across this part of the country.  The town are small and few and far between.  The area I lived in seemed so remote but when the nearest Walmart is twenty minutes away and the nearest mall and hour away, it is civilized compared to here.  Tomorrow is Yellowstone in all it's glory.