Spearfish and Lead

After our harrowing drive from Devil's Tower, we pulled into a site in Spearfish City Park which is at the northern terminus of Spearfish Canyon. As mentioned yesterday, Mr. Snootypurse is from the Midwest and has a fondness for frozen custard which I now share with him. This dessert is similar to soft serve ice cream, but richer because it contains egg yolks. We were delighted to find an outlet of Wisconsin-based Culver's in town and made that one of our first stops. Spearfish has a cute downtown and lots of biking trails but we spent most of our time in the campground, recovering from the excitement of the previous day. We did spend a couple of hours at the D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery and Archives, located close to the campground in Spearfish City Park. While the exhibits were interesting, we most enjoyed talking to the retirees volunteering at the site.

Following a two-night stay in Spearfish, we started our journey into the Black Hills of South Dakota driving south through Spearfish Canyon. There are three picturesque waterfalls along this drive but we only had time to stop at the closest one, Bridal Veil falls.

Upon exiting Spearfish Canyon we headed for Lead (pronounced leed) and stopped at Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center. This is the site of what at one point was the largest gold mine in the world. Within the last several years, the network of tunnels underneath the mine has been repurposed for sophisticated physics experiments. I'm not going to try to explain the parameters of their work but take a look at their website if you are interested in such matters.
Mr. Snootypurse took a short tour of the town of Lead including the hoist elevator associated with the mine. If you're ever in the area and interested in science and/or history, this site is worth a stop.

The Big Cupcake

Our next stop was Devil's Tower, WY. For many in our generation, this landmark is best known for it's prominence in the movie, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. The location of our campsite was amazing; as you can see, we had a view of the tower from our bedroom window! For me, a primary benefit of camping is location ... location ... location (no motel required). The campground has a nightly screening of 'Close Encounters' in their outdoor theatre with the tower rising just over the screen!

There is a small visitor center at the base of Devil's Tower and an approximately 1 mile paved trail that circles the monument. We took the trail and enjoyed the close-up views and chats with other hikers. The monolith looks slightly different from every angle. While in the gift shop, we learned that thunderstorms were predicted for that afternoon, so we didn't dilly-dally.

There is a prairie dog town en route to Devil's Tower. These little guys used to live throughout the Midwest but now their populations are restricted to protected areas like Devil's Tower. We enjoyed watching them and listening to their chirps and squeals.


Just as we pulled out from Devil's Tower, we got a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning on our phones. Mr. Snootypurse is from the Midwest and decided it would be best to try to stay in front of the storm since our route went away from it and there wasn't anyplace to shelter our motorhome. It was a nail-biter on a couple of occasions and we were grateful to arrive safely in Spearfish, SD. A tornado sighting was reported about 18 miles from Devil's Tower!

Little Bighorn National Monument

    


We began our journey on Memorial Day 2018. We are driving a 24 foot Forest River Forester motorhome, rented from RV Northwest, in a big loop that includes Mount Rushmore National Monument and Grand Teton National Park. This is the longest road trip we have ever taken and our first in an RV. The initial few days were spent driving through areas we had previously visited with overnight stops in Spokane, WA and Missoula, MT to visit with cherished friends and their families. The most noteworthy aspect of these travel days were the swollen rivers throughout Montana and Western Wyoming due to a quick spring thaw. I-90 westbound was even closed at one point, but we were headed east.


Our first "official" sightseeing stop was in Garryowen, MT where we paused to take in Little Bighorn National Monument, the sight of the Battle of the Little Bighorn aka Custer's Last Stand. The photo on the right was taken at the top of the hill where Custer's Last Stand occurred. The white tombstones indicate a soldier's final resting place. Despite an animated presentation by a park ranger on the covered porch of the visitor center, I had a hard time envisioning the action as the visitor center is surrounded by many green, rolling hills. We took an optional 4 mile drive out to the site of another related battle. It was hard to imagine that the troops at the various battle sites had no method of communicating and thus could not assist each other.


The sunset photo was taken from our campsite at 7th Ranch campground just down the road from Little Bighorn. This was a lovely campground located on the side of a hill overlooking the valley. Not for the last time, we wished we could stay for an extra night.

Straight to the top

We arrived in Wallowa Lake on Sunday afternoon. Our first excursion was riding the Wallowa Lake Tramway on Labor Day. The tram takes about 15 minutes to transport riders 4000 vertical feet to the top of Mount Howard.

There is a restaurant on the top reputed to be of dubious quality and about 3 miles worth of hiking trails. We walked the whole circuit and it was interesting how arid it was on one side (top photo) compared to the other (middle photo). There were many adorable chipmunks and squirrels begging for food.


The lake in the last two photos is Wallowa Lake. Although the tram is spendy, the views are well worth the cost for those of us who don't savor the idea of a hike with a 4000 foot elevation gain.
Although the area was quite busy when we arrived on Sunday, by the time we finished up at the tram, things had really quieted down.