Black Hills South Dakota

On Tuesday, Aug 29th, we weighed anchor and set sail on a southeast course for the Black Hills in South Dakota. It was about 120 miles, or about a 2 hour 15 minute drive. We have reservations at Rafter J Bar Ranch. Rafter J is a huge mountain resort set on a ranch in the Black Hills.

They have five different areas separated by meadows and trees, so you have "glamping" amenities (water, electric, sewer), but a "camping" feel (grass, meadows, trees, space, fire pit). In my mind, this is a happy compromise between an average RV park and a campground. It gives us the comforts of home, but the feel of being more connected to the outdoors.

We are there for four days and use it as our basecamp (or baseglamp?), as we explore the Black Hills area.












Right at the edge of the property is the Mickelson trail. The Mickelson trail is a beautiful 109 mile long, crushed limestone and gravel trail that runs through national forest lands, thru towns and tunnels and over old railroad bridges.
I was very impressed with it and would love to go back and spend some time checking out the entire trail.

The picture at left is one of the entry points for the trail at the base of the Rafter J Bar ranch.

Tank and I did a nice easy walk/jog... maybe a 'waog' or a 'jolk'...of about 5 miles while Wendy rode along on her bike.

Thursday, the 31st, we headed off to see Mount Rushmore. Both Wendy and I had mixed feelings about Mount Rushmore. Let me explain. On one hand, I can appreciate it for the following reasons: 1) a sculptor, with a relatively small group of people helping him, could create a sculpture of such size and likeness is an amazing feat. It is an awesome spectacle, and 2) it honors four men that were integral to the creation of our country and, more importantly, were strong and effective advocates for the constitutional ideals that our country is based on.

Here, though, is where I have trouble with it: 1) the original idea, by a local named Doane Robinson, was to sculpt an area in South Dakota called the "Needles" into likenesses of famous people as a way of bringing tourism and money to the area. It was a money making idea. Even the decision of who was to be honored came later. 2) As Wendy and I have traveled thru much of South Dakota - Devils Tower, the Black Hills, we became aware that much of this area was considered sacred to many Native American peoples that were here before us. The Native American people believed that the earth is their spiritual mother, and as such, the land, trees and rocks were all to be shown ultimate respect. Not only did we kill thousands of Native Americans and take away their sacred land, we dynamited and defaced strikingly beautiful, sacred mountains into symbols of the country that did it.

Some people would consider the act of questioning an American icon like Mount Rushmore blasphemous and un-American, but I think it's the opposite. Isn't free speech and the ability to question our government one of the founding ideals that Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Roosevelt stood for?

Lastly, my personal belief is that we should appreciate things just as God or (if you prefer) mother nature created it.

I'll climb down off of my soap box, so we can continue our journey. We leave Mount Rushmore and head down to a very cool historic town of Keystone. While there, we decide to have lunch at Jane's Boardwalk Pizza. I have to say this was one of the best pizzas I've ever had. This pizza was loaded with toppings and cheese and neither of us could eat more than two slices, but man it was good!

We roll down the Keystone boardwalk and pour ourselves back into our car.  We decide to take a long, scenic ride home - Hwy 16a. Hwy 16a is famous for scenic views, one way tunnels and 'pigtail' bridges.

One of the Pigtail Bridges

It's about as much fun as a road can be (unless you suffer for car sickness) ...

with its pigtail bridges and narrow one way tunnels.

It also winds thru Custer State Park.

We take Hwy 87 - The Needles Hwy - back to the Rafter J. The Needles Hwy, not to be outdone, boast its own tunnels and great views.

Devils Tower Wyoming... or Maybe More Correctly - Bears Lodge Wyoming?

On August 27th, we drive the last 165 miles east to Devils Tower National Monument.

We head to the Belle Fourche River Campground, which is on National Park Service land, almost in the shadow of Devils tower. We find a nice site with a view of Devils Tower right from our campsite.

We spend the rest of the day getting settled in and exploring around the campground.

The name "Devils Tower" probably originated as a mistake. It is suspected that, in an expedition sometime prior to 1900, some men misunderstood a translation, which led them to confuse the words for "bear" and "bad god." Prior to that, it was known to Native Americans as: Bears Lodge, Grey Horn Butte, Tree Rock and Place that Bears Live. No other evidence suggest that Native Americans associated the area with bad gods or evil spirits. As a matter of fact, it is a place held as sacred by several American Indian tribes. You can even see prayer cloths and prayer bundles around the tower, especially along the tower trail.

Devils Tower is without a doubt a striking landmark rising almost 1300 feet above the Belle Fourche River Valley. Several of our geology friends - cognoscenti (I won't name names, you know who you are) will try to explain its existence by spouting some drivel about "igneous intrusions," "phonolite porphyry," "sedimentary rock," "volcanic plugs," and erosion. Fortunately, I, as a beacon of knowledge and teller of truths, will give you the real story (uncovered in a National Park Service publication no less). The Truth shall set you free!

Early Photograph Capturing the Action

A long time ago... Before the Kiowa people came south, they were camped on a stream in the far north where there were a great many bears. One day, seven little girls were playing at a distance from the village and were chased by some bears. The girls ran toward the village, and the bears were just about to catch them when the girls jumped on a low rock, about three feet high. One of the girls prayed to the rock, "Rock take pity on us, rock save us!" The rock heard them and began to grow upwards, pushing the girls higher and higher. When the bears jumped to reach the girls, they scratched the rock, broke their claws, and fell on the ground.

The rock rose higher and higher; the bears still jumped at the girls until the girls were pushed up into the sky, where they were turned into seven little stars (a group called the Pleiades). In the winter, in the middle of the night, the seven stars are directly over this high rock. When the people came to look, they found the bears' claws, turned to stone, all around the base.

Authors note: As a responsible journalist, I corroborated this story with leading Trump administration scientist and was assured that these FACTS were all true... every word!

The hills around Devils Tower is strikingly red in color

On Monday morning, the 28th, we head up to the visitor center and go on a ranger led hike around the base of Devils Tower.

Looking out from the base of Devils Tower at the Belle Fourche River Valley

Surprisingly, there are no bears in the "Bears Lodge" area. There isn't enough food to sustain a bear population.  However, there are cougar, deer, prong-horn antelope, and porcupines here. Porcupines spend their days in the pine trees and look like a bunch of brown pine needles. Needless to say, Wendy spent the rest of the tour looking for brown pine needles! But no, we did not see any porcupines.

And of course, it is also home to a large number of prairie dogs.

Sounding a Danger Alert

On the road to Devils Tower National Monument WY

It's a 410 mile drive from Livingston MT to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and we're not planning on doing it all in one day. Our next planned stop is in Laurel MT for an oil change for the Beast and then on to Billings for the evening.

We drive east for 120 miles and stop at the Billings KOA Holiday. It's in a nice area and is right next to a river. After taking a walk around the park and down to the river, it's hot and muggy, so we set off for the pool. No sooner do we get our suits on than thunder starts rolling, so they close the pool. We do have a nice dinner sitting outside in a little sprinkle under a patio umbrella.

While at the KOA, we see an add for an RV wash, so the next day, we head over for a wash and wax. Believe it or not, this is a VERY exciting event!!! It is the first full RV wash since we started our journey five months ago.

After the wash, we head out on the next leg of our journey and drive 130 miles southeast and cross over into Wyoming to Sheridan. We aren't in a big hurry to get to Devils Tower, because its been hot and the state park there doesn't have electrical hookups - which means no AC. We spend three days at Peter D's RV Park waiting out the heat.

Sunset in Sheridan Wyoming

Finally, on the 27th, we drive the last 165 miles east to Devils Tower National Monument.

Livingston MT

Our next stop is Livingston MT. We stay at Osens RV Park & Campground, a nice, clean RV park set on a country lane. It's on the outskirts of town and close to grocery shopping. The businesses on the outskirts of town have a very Western feel.

We arrive at the RV park and take Tank for a walk to get the lay of the land. There are ranch style homes on a few acres along the lane. Room to breathe...

Then we set out to find dinner. Tom finds a place outside of town that's highly rated on Google. We set out down the highway. We drive past the address a couple of times...but where's the restaurant? We never do find it.

Disappointed, we head back towards downtown. The next place is one I find. It turns out to be an old style cattlemen's type place. Not satisfied with that, we head over to Gil's Goods. What a find! It's a European style cafe, and the whole storefront opens to the street. We have a great dinner and bring home some great desserts.

After spending the evening outside in downtown Livingston, our opinion of Livingston is totally turned around. We've spent the evening sitting across from a railroad museum that's located in a lovely brick building. Instead of a hick town, Livingston is a charming, quaint mid-western town with a very vibrant restaurant scene. Livingston is worthy of another visit.

The next morning, we go to Faye's Cafe for brunch. It's located in the Shane Community Center for the arts, highly rated on Google, and the chef is very creative. The food is homemade and fresh and seemed a little more refined than your typical cafe. An interesting breakfast.

Inn on the Gallatin - Gallatin Gateway MT

We head back north from West Yellowstone towards Bozeman on hwy 191. Our next stop is Inn on the Gallatin... Inn on the Gallatin is a small family run inn with cabins, a cafe, and a few RV sites. When we pull in, the small parking lot is full. There is one gigantic motorhome and a couple of trailers there. I can't even see a campground or anywhere we can fit!

Tom checks us in, and they give us homemade chocolate chip cookies!!! I'm gonna like this place! I want more! Anyway, back to our story... our campsite is to the right of the gigantic motorhome. Our site has a small wooden deck and looks right out on to the river (cool)!  I'm leery of how we're going to fit in that tight spot, but Tom (being the pro RV driver that he's become) pulls in right next to the deck no problem, perfect!!!

We head over to the cafe 'cuz I want to buy more cookies! Come to find out, the cafe closes in half an hour and opens again the day after we leave. (If you can't tell, I have a sad face.) So, even though they were set to close in a few minutes (it's 2:30, and they close at 3), they are wonderful in serving us lunch and make it a great experience. I can't even remember what I had...it was all just a prelude/prep to having the apple pie a la mode. That was yummy. (They were out of cookies, but if you're ever in the area, stop by, those cookies were great!)

The Inn only has 9-10 campsites. The smaller ones are on a lower road and have a great river view.
We were in the upper section, which also had nice views of the river. Having the cafe closed turned out to be a blessing. The campground was very quiet and peaceful. Our neighbors were fly fishermen and their wives, who were also lab lovers; they couldn't wait to meet Tank.

We viewed the solar eclipse there, and, generally, had a wonderful, peaceful stay.

The one problem was that there was no internet or cell service there. We had to head a few miles up the road to the very small community of Gallatin Gateway to get cell reception and set up our next stay.

Grizzly RV Park - West Yellowstone MT

It's the Saturday of the solar eclipse weekend and the waning days of summer in Yellowstone, so finding anywhere to stay is challenging. Fortunately for us, the Grizzly RV Park, right outside the west entrance to Yellowstone, has a available site for one night. Of course, we take it!

Unfortunately, no pictures to show you. West Yellowstone is a very touristy place that has everything you need. Grizzly RV Park was just a nice, clean, family friendly RV park that allowed us to hook-up to electricity, water, and to dump our tanks. Town was a short walk. There, Wendy could get her Yellowstone t-shirt; we could get pizza for dinner, grocery shop, and find our next stop.

So after one night, we are on our way again the next morning...

Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

Here we are after a little over 4 months on the road; we make it to another one of our bucket list places - Yellowstone. We have reservations in Yellowstone for five days, so we should have time to see quite a few of the sites.

We reach Yellowstone's west entrance after about a four hour drive - including stops for lunch, gas and propane fill. I'm thinking - Great, time to pull into our campsite, get out from behind the wheel and relax... but NOOOOOOO. Yellowstone is so immense in size, Grant Village campground is still an hour and twenty minute drive from the west entrance.

If you look really closely you might find Wendy... stalking a pronghorn antelope

Grant Village campground sits on the West Thumb of Yellowstone lake. The lake elevation is at 7733' above sea level, making Yellowstone lake the largest high elevation (above 7000') lake in North America. It freezes about three feet thick in the winter and stays pretty cold year round, so swimming is for the hardy few... and Tank (of course).

The campground itself wasn't anything really special or picturesque, but it did put us smack dab in the middle of Yellowstone and was a great base of operations from which we could do our day trips. After getting checked in and setup in our spot, we opt to hang around the campsite, get our bearings and some dinner, and plan our upcoming week.

We decide to spend the start of our second day there (our first full day) nearby at West Thumb Geyser Basin. We got there just in time to take a ranger led hike of about an hour around the basin, and we were very glad we did. The ranger really knew his stuff and was very interesting and informative. 

This area is unique in that it is the largest geyser basin on the shores of the lake and is full of "paint pots", geysers and crystal clear hot springs.

We head back to the RV and get some lunch before heading up thru Hayden Valley, along some beautiful stretches of the Yellowstone River, and up to the upper and lower Yellowstone Falls.

On the way back, we were slowed down by some slow moving northbound local who didn't seem to care at all about slowing down traffic behind him...

After a full day of exploring, we leave Hayden Valley around sunset to head back to the campground.

We plan on getting up early the next day and hitting the big tourist spots - Old Faithful, the upper geyser basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring. We'll go see Old Faithful first and then over to Grand Prismatic Spring before the crowds start showing up in the park. After all, you can't really go to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful! 

We get to Upper Basin early and find an almost empty parking lot. We head over to Old Faithful and find only one other couple on the benches in the viewing area. We set our stuff down, get our cameras and smart phones ready, and wait for the imminent eruption... and wait... and wait... seems we got up before Old Faithful this morning! After doing some checking and a little bit of research (and yes maybe we could have done aforementioned checking earlier), we find that we missed the earlier eruption by about 15 minutes,and the next one would probably happen somewhere between 50 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes from now. OLD FAITHFUL, MY EYE! Someone needs to go in there and adjust the plumbing; we got a schedule to keep today! As we wait, more and more people start gathering around us, and the place is starting to get crowded, but at least we have primo spots to view the coming eruption.

After seeing Old Faithful FINALLY go off, we and the rest of the crowd (that gathered while we waited) head off to view the other geysers, fumaroles and springs in the upper basin. After that, we're off to see Grand Prismatic Spring.

The next day, we head to the Lamar valley, which is in Northeast section of the park.

We're hoping to see some wildlife. Bison, wolves, grizzly bears, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, moose and elk are on our list of hopefuls. Turns out today is "bison" day. The Lamar valley area is home to multiple herds located in several different areas

This is bison rutting season, so the males are in especially feisty moods, fighting with other males or sticking very closely to a chosen female.

We were really hoping to see a pack of wolves. We were told the Lamar Valley pack had three pups this year and can sometimes be spotted. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to see them. We did spot both a pronghorn antelope and a couple of beaver on the way back to the campsite though.

Yellowstone is a beautiful and exciting place whose character changes dramatically with the seasons. We're just going to have to go back again.

Homestake, MT

Leaving Glacier National Park, it's a little less than 450 miles to Yellowstone. We'd like to stop for the night in Butte, which is right on the I-90 corridor and about halfway. It's a long drive, and we pass lots of open, Montana country.

We haven't been able to find a decent RV park in Butte with available campsites. As a backup, there are a couple of dispersed camping options just east of Butte, Homestake and Pipestone. Reviews on Pipestone say it's a popular with ATVers, so can get noisy. We go to Homestake for a couple of reasons; first it's closer, and second we're hoping it will be quieter. We get off the highway, and when we get past the Homestake trail head, the road turns to dirt. Winding, hilly, dirt roads in a 33' RV is always risky, so we park the RV and take the Subaru to scout what's ahead.

The first plateau we come to already has several RVs and trailers. Not wanting to get into anyone's space, we head up the road and find a branch off with a good level parking area.

It seems like a nice quiet place to stay...until the 4 quads come roaring up the road and stop right on the road outside the RV. It's older guy with a rifle strapped to his quad, his wife, and, I'm guessing, some of his kids. They apparently had a camp just up the hill, and he had stopped to adjust something on his ATV. They adjusted their gear and headed off up the hill. Nothing really wrong with it, just a family out camping and having a good time. Still, you are aware that this isn't exactly like home, and we might stick out. The fancy pants with the big ole RV and the California plates. Although we are just about a mile off of I-90, it also feels somewhat remote -queue the dueling banjos Deliverance movie music.

Things are relatively quiet again. Several cars pass by as there is a lake and campground further up the road, we settle in for a quiet evening.

The next morning, another set of ATVers go roaring up the hill by our RV. Wendy is glad we're leaving today...