Road Less Traveled

Hardin, Montana

There are just a whole lot of bugs in Montana.  Granted, I have only been there three times so it may a coincidence.  And the bugs bite.  You should see the front of the RV – we can hardly see through the windshield.

Little Bighorn, Montana

Kids loved this stop at the site of Custer’s Last Stand.  Drake was especially interested in re-creating in his mind how exactly the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors surrounded and wiped out the whole army.  The markers at each spot where the soldiers fell was particularly moving.

Devil’s Tower, Wyoming

This was so much cooler close up than we thought it would be.  There are huge symmetrical grooves all down the sides – it really looks like it was carved – by an alien perhaps…?

Deadwood, South Dakota

This looked like a pretty cool town when we first drove in (sort of like Placerville).  It is actually a corner casino gambling town with some colorful history (Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are both buried there) and not much else as Greg and I discovered when we “went to town” for dinner and ended up buying Dibs at the gas station.  The kids did enjoy swimming in the RV park pool the next morning.

Roughlock Falls, South Dakota

Although beautiful, these were a bit of a disappointment since we had heard that you could walk behind them but since then walkways had been constructed that blocked off access to the water.  The kids were bummed.  Greg was bummed because it had taken some time to find them – unpaved country road 222 not being in our navigation database.  

Savoy, South Dakota

When we left the falls we didn’t have a place to turn around so ended up continuing up the gravel road.  I don’t know how long we were on that road, but it was a gorgeous drive through the Black Hills.  

Four Corners, Wyoming, AKA “where the heck are we??”

By the time we found a place to turn around (10 miles), our navigation seemed to think we should keep going forward– so we did -- for almost 2 hrs. The upside was that Greg got to see some really cool logging tractors at work and we didn’t break down or run out of gas.

Crazy Horse Memorial

This is amazing!  And progress has been made since I was here 30 years ago.  You can actually see Crazy Horse’s face now.  When finished, it will be the largest statue in the world - bigger than the pyramids. Pretty cool!  The Mount Rushmore Memorial could fit in Crazy Horse’s head.  I told Dane to be sure and bring his kids here to check on its progress.

Mount Rushmore National Monument

This did not disappoint.  The kids kept looking for proof that National Treasure is a true story.  There is actually a Hall of Records built into the mountain but it was never finished, so you never know… One thing we learned is that the carvings were supposed to go all the way to the Presidents’ waists, but construction was stopped because of WWII.  This goat was hanging out in the intersection as we left.

Custer, South Dakota

We are in civilization again (relatively), as evidenced by dinner at a real restaurant “The Sage Creek Grill.”  Buffalo steaks, buffalo ribs, salad, apple cobbler – yummy.  Let’s take a vote.  Should Greg have bought this shirt?