From the South Dakota Badlands to Sheridan Wyoming

We have just arrived in Colorado -  so we have some catching up to do - from our last update in Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming.

We would love to hear from you -  at

donwshank@hotmail.com

We have been on the road -  just over 3 weeks and have really enjoyed camping and traveling with our trailer and have seen some incredible places and learned alot about this part of the country through visitor centers, museums, Park headquarters and just hiking and exploring around the area.
We just pulled into Grand Mesa Colorado and this is the first of 3 timeshares that we have booked into during the trip ~ so we have a week here with the trailer parked and we are free to explore without hitching up and have laundry, good wifi connection (and catch up with the blog), and a nice 1 bedroom condo to spread out in for a while.

So....... where were we!  between Devil's Tower and Here ~ we spent 4 days in the badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota, 3 days at Curt Gowdy State Park near Sheridan and Cheyenne Wyoming, and then onto Flaming Gorge NRA and Dinosaur National Monument.

Before we leave Devil's Tower -  here are a few factoids about this amazing geological features

• Devils Tower (in Lakota: Matȟó Thípila or Ptehé Ǧí)  is an igneous intrusion or 
• laccolith in the Bear Lodge Mountains near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, 
• northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises dramatically 1,267 feet 
• above the surrounding terrain and the summit is 5,114 feet above sea level.

• Declared a National Monument on September 24, 1906
• Area: 2.10 sq miles (5.45 km²)
• Elevation: 5,114 feet (1,559 m)
• First ascent: Jul 04, 1893

Gotta Love it!

From Devils Tower it is a 2 hour drive to the Black Hills of South Dakota & we camped 3 nights at Custer State Park which was an amazing park and location for exploring the Black Hills, Badlands N.P. and paying a visit to Mount Rushmore!

                                                Grand entrance at Mount Rushmore

Our visit to Mount Rushmore was a highlight -  we all have seen pics of it our whole lives but to stand at the base and walk around the trail and see it from different perspectives is truly awe inspiring. 

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278.45 acres and is 5,725 feet above sea level.


 Custer State Park which is actually a huge part of the Black Hills of South Dakota.
There are 6 or more one lane tunnels along the very windy and scenic roads that traverse the Black Hills the smallest being about 8' x 10' opening.

                                         one of the many tunnels through the Black Hills

                                                           Black Hills Tunnel

                                                    Waiting line for the one way tunnel

We  saw more wildlife in Custer than anywhere we have been and on a later afternoon drive on the "wildlife loop" we saw Elk, Pronghorn, Deer, Buffalo, and Big Horn Sheep in little more than an hour!

The Black Hills are positioned in the western part of South Dakota and extend into Wyoming. In addition to being the home of Mount Rushmore, they also hold the title of being the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains. The oddity of the natural structure is that the hills seem to jut right out of the Great Plains, appearing as an island of trees when viewed from a distance.

                                                   Pronghorn Antelope in Custer S.P.

                                                                 Bison at Custer S.P.

                                                      Custer State Park

                                                                     Badlands N.P.
We spent one day driving through Badlands National Park which is almost 2 hours from Custer SP and covers a huge area.  The crazy landscape goes on forever and it must have been quite an obstacle for native americans and early pioneers

• Badlands National Park is a national park in southwestern South Dakota that protects 242,756 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States

                                                       Rattlesnakes at Badlands?

                                                                 Badlands of South Dakota

                                                     
From South Dakota we drove to Curt Gowdy State Park for 3 nights.  This is a beautiful park halfway between Cheyenne and Laramie Wyoming ~ a great base for exploring both classic western cities and the surrounding area with a very unique landscape.  We refrained from buying boots ($200 - $2000) and took some great drives and bike rides around the Park.

                                               Countryside around Curt Gowdy S.P.

                                                                      Pronghorn

                                                Crystal Resevoir at Curt Gowdy S.P.

                        Dinner of Wild Sockeye with Curried Lentils at our campsite in Curt Gowdy

                                                Wyoming is the least populated State in the Country!

Vendauloo is a popular rock climbing destination just outside of Sheridan

                     Thanks for looking -  more to come!

Don and Carol