Day 4: Sheridan, WY to Hill City, SD - 344 miles
Now its time for the real action to start - the reason for the trip. The next 8 days are going to be fabulous. So much to see. Jumped back on I-90 and blasted down to another fun little town called Buffalo. Gee, they had great Main Street.
Then off through Gillette, WY. A good sized town of 32,000 involved in the development of vast quantities of coal, oil and gas. Millions of rails cars going through here. A climate change activist's nightmare. My V-8 was purring. Did I say the speed limit was 80 mph?
At Moorcroft, we turned North on to Hwy 14 and headed to Devils Tower. I saw it as a youngster and always wanted to return. You may
remember it from Richard Dreyfuss's obsession in Close Encounters of a Third Kind from 1977. My wife spotted it first. It's really quite something. 867 feet base to summit, it is made of greyish-green igneous rock that cooled into hexagonal columns. It was the first U.S. National Monument, established in 1906 by President Teddy Roosevelt.
It just looms on the horizon getting bigger and bigger as you get closer.
Grabbed a quick, expensive lunch and headed on in. We split a bison burger for 13 bucks that was about 2.5 inches in diameter. Sheesh.
The parking lot is large and was almost completely full. People were swarming everywhere, but it was managable. There is a paved 1.25 mile trail around the base, so off we went. The views changed dramatically as we circumnavigated.
Dramatic geology and fall colors.
We never saw any aliens, so it's off for the next destination. Behind the photographer was a giant field filled with hundreds of cute little prairie dogs.
Hwy 24 north out of Devils Tower was a delightful drive - red rock formations, green hills, yellow trees and blue skies.
Passed thru the small town of Hulett
A quick trip through Spearfish and then off to Sturgis, where many of you have no doubt been. For those not aware, every year about 250,000 motorcycle enthusiasts descend into this poor little town for a week of, umm, revelry? Yikes.
It was very quiet in late September.
We drove through Deadwood, but decided we wanted to come back tomorrow and instead get ourselves to Mt Rushmore for the evening light show. So we headed to Hill City, dropped our bags and scooted 12 miles to The Heads (as my father affectionately called them back in the day). Since I was there as a boy they have added a massive parking structure that tucks into the hill, a new gift shop and a spectacular amphitheater that sits below a large viewing plaza. The place was crammed. After the sun went down they put on a very moving program and then flipped on the lights. Way cool.
Awesome way to finish off the day.