South Dakota, Wyoming, & Montana, September, 2021

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September 29th 2021

Published: August 2nd 2023

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NPHiker

Buffalo herd

The little black dots in the distance are Buffalo.

In mid September of this year, Anne and I finally were able to get back on the road again and visit a few spots in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana to do a little hiking as well as touring a couple of historical sites. We flew into Rapid City, SD, on Saturday, 9/11, and returned from Billings, MT, on Saturday, 9/18. In between, we visited Custer State Park and the Black Hills National Forest in SD, Devils Tower National Monument and the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming, and the Little Bighorn National Battlefield and Pompeys Pillar in Montana.

Arrived around 1:30 PM on Saturday in Rapid City, drove to Custer State Park, and checked out the visitor center. The rangers were giving directions to a place where the buffalo herd had been driven, supposedly to make it easier for tourists to see them. Apparently buffalo are a big deal and a major reason so many visit the park. So after watching the short movie, which talked a lot about the buffalo herd, we drove way around our elbow to get to the spot where the buffalo were supposed to be. The herd was not very close, though we were able to

Buffalo

We were able to get close enough to these two for a decent picture.

drive to a spot where a couple were close enough to get a picture. After hunting the buffalo, we drove on to Custer where we checked into the cabin we would be in for the next couple of nights.

On Sunday, 9/12, in Custer State Park, we hiked to the summit of Black Elk Peak, the highest point in South Dakota at 7,242 feet. We combined a couple of trails to make about an 8 mile loop hike with an elevation gain of around 1,500 feet. On the broad summit is a well preserved old fire lookout tower that provides a tremendous 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. The tower itself as well as a reservoir dam and pump house below the summit were built in 1939 by the CCC. All three are listed on the National Register of Historical Places. The peak is the highest point east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Pyrenees Mountains of Europe.

The next day we drove to Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. On the way we passed the Hell Canyon loop trail in the Black Hills National Forest. Since the drive to the tower was

Black Elk Peak Trail

A few of the Black Hills.

a short 115 miles, we stopped and did the roughly 5.5 mile loop, first along the rim, then back along the floor of the canyon. Elevation gain was around 600 feet.

We arrived at Devils Tower about 2:00 PM and, along with several hundred other visitors, walked around the 1.3 mile Tower Trail which encircles the base of the tower. After this short visit, we went to the very small town of Hulett to check into our motel. Strangely, the only places one could purchase a six pack of beer or other alcoholic beverages was at one of the three saloons in town. At dinner that evening in a combination saloon, restaurant, and package store, we were the ONLY ones wearing masks. This prompted one old guy at the bar to turn and tell us that we were in the least vaccinated county in Wyoming. Don’t think he was trying to reassure us. We ate quickly, at a distance from others, and left ASAP.

The next day, Tuesday, we were back at the tower, this time at the earlier hour of 8:30 or so and with way fewer other people, which, of course, did

Black Elk Peak Trail

From the trail on the way up.

not last. But it was nice to begin our hikes of some of the longer trails without an accompanying crowd. We hiked the Red Beds Trail which is also a loop, but longer at 2.8 miles, that goes around the tower but at a greater distance and with many different views of the monolith. The trail passes through an area of eroded banks of red colored soil, hence the name. About halfway around there is a connector trail that took us to the 1.5 mile Joyner Ridge Loop Trail where we had yet more impressive views of the tower. After returning along the connector trail, we completed the Red Beds loop and then drove down to the picnic area where we ate lunch. The picnic area is adjacent to the campground and a Prairie Dog Town. After lunch we walked around the Valley View Trail, another 1.5 flat miles that passed through the Prairie Dog Town. Dinner that night, in Hulett again, was frozen, microwaveable meals from the local grocery.

On Wednesday, we had reservations at the Historic Occidental Hotel in Buffalo, WY. Since the drive was another relatively short two hours, we drove on through Buffalo

Black Elk Peak Trail

The final climb to the lookout tower is a series of rocky steps and pavement stones. Note the two posts with multicolored Native American prayer cloths attached to the left and right of center.

to a trailhead about 30 minutes beyond called the Circle Park Trailhead. The trail from there led to connections with several others that went deeper into the Bighorn Mountains. We only went about two miles in and 600 feet up to a neat alpine lake, called Sherd Lake, where we were able eat our lunch that day. Saw one other couple of hikers and a couple of fishermen there but otherwise had the place pretty much to ourselves.

After lunch, we retraced our steps back down the trail and then drove back to Buffalo where we checked into the hotel. The Occidental was first built in 1880 and is located near the Bozeman Trail at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains. Due to the location, it was visited by many famous people of the Old West as they traveled along the trail, which has its own ignominious history. The trail was a shortcut to gold fields in and around Virginia City, Montana territory; however it cut through the heart of territory that had been promised to several Indian tribes by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1848. Opened around 1864, it was closed by 1868 due to

Black Elk Peak Summit

The summit is very broad and, though there were several other people there, it was not crowded.

constant attacks from warriors of the Oglalla Lakota Chief Red Cloud. The conflict, known as Red Cloud’s war, ended with the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty which recognized the Powder River Country once again as the hunting territory of the Lakota and their allies. The US Army abandoned the forts that protected travelers and the Bozeman Trail was essentially closed to routine traffic, marking the first time the United States government had lost a war. By 1876, however, following the Black Hills War (during which the Battle of Little Bighorn was fought), the U.S. Army reopened the trail. The Army continued to use the trail during later military campaigns and built a telegraph line along it. By 1880, when the Occidental was first built, the trail was again being used as a way to the west coast and the gold fields along the way.

Among those who stayed at the Occidental in the early days were Buffalo Bill Cody, Teddy Roosevelt, and Calamity Jane who drove freight wagons on the Bozeman Trail. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rode to the Occidental from their hideout at the nearby Hole-in-the-Wall. The famous cattle detective and killer Tom Horn was

From Black Elk Peak Summit

Looking Northeast from the summit.

another frequent visitor. And legendary frontier sheriffs like Frank Canton and “Red” Angus were regulars at the bar. Other famous guests include President Herbert Hoover, General Phil Sheridan, and Ernest Hemingway. Owen Wister, author of The Virginian, spent many hours in the Occidental lobby and saloon and based characters in his celebrated novel on cowboys and gunslingers that he observed there. Totally restored in 1997, the hotel has many antiques and other memorabilia from the old west on display in the lobby and throughout the halls. One of the more interesting places we have ever stayed.

Thursday we had a short 100 mile drive to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Just south of the entrance to the monument is the very small community of GaryOwen, located on or very near the site of Sitting Bull's Indian village along the Little Bighorn River. GaryOwen is an old Irish quick-step ballad that became the regimental marching song for Custer's 7th Calvary. GaryOwen has a population of 2 and consists of a couple of stores and the Custer Battlefield Museum. The museum is closed due to the pandemic but there is an impressive monument and grave of an unknown

Fire Tower Lookout

The lookout as well as the reservoir dam and pumphouse were built by the CCC in 1939 and are listed on the National Register of Historical Places.

soldier outside the museum that is interesting. The soldier's remains were discovered in 1926, some 50 years after the battle, and were buried here as part of the 50th year anniversary celebration of the battle.

Originally named Custer Battlefield National Monument, the name was changed to Little Big Horn BNM in 1991 to more appropriately honor both the US Army soldiers who died as well as the Native Americans who were fighting for their way of life. The story told by the national park service has changed over the years from one emphasizing the battle from the army’s and Custer’s perspective to one more balanced to reflect the Native American view as well. Basically, the battle was part of the Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, fought mainly because gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, which, by treaty, belonged to the Indians. It was the army’s ultimately successful effort to force the Indians to live on a specific designated reservation even though earlier treaties had guaranteed them the right to a much larger area that included the Black Hills, where they could continue to live their nomadic lifestyle. The

Reservoir & Pumphouse

Reservoir and dam are in the center with the top of the pumphouse visible on the left.

story of the battle was very interesting and educational. Though there wasn’t much hiking to be had at this monument, I think we both learned a few things we didn’t know before.

After spending the night in Hardin, MT, we drove north to the site of Pompeys Pillar National Monument, located about 30 miles northeast of Billings along the Yellowstone River. This was another very interesting and educational visit that commemorated, among other things, the fact that William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped there on his way back to St. Louis. Lewis and Clark had split the expedition party into two groups with the Lewis group traveling the northern rivers while Clark crossed to the Yellowstone and followed it to the Missouri where the two groups reunited. Clark carved his name and the date in the side of the stone pillar leaving the only remaining on-site physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in existence.

Clark named the pillar “Pompy’s Tower (named for Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, Sacagawea’s son whom Clark called ‘Pomp’) but the name was altered to “Pompey’s Pillar” for the 1814 published history of the expedition. An interesting

Black Elk Peak Trail

Cathedral Spires from the trail.

factoid relating to names of parks and monuments and other geographical features is that the Board on Geographic Names long ago set a policy stating that “apostrophes suggesting possession or association” are “not to be used within the body of a proper geographic name.” Consequently neither Devils Tower nor Pompeys Pillar contain apostrophes.

In addition to Clark’s engraving, Pompeys Pillar is marked with over 5,000 other etchings, petroglyphs, and pictographs. The Pillar was used for centuries as a favored campsite by Crows and other native peoples as they traveled through the area on hunting, trading, war, or other expeditions. Then throughout the 19th century, fur trappers, military expeditions, railroad workers, and early settlers used the sandstone to record evidence of their passing. The pillar itself is being eroded by the natural forces of the elements and to protect it from further damage, no one is allowed to climb on the rock face. However, there is a long boardwalk with around 200 steps leading to the top that allows visitors to experience the view of the countryside from there. The boardwalk also passes by Clark’s inscription, protected now by bulletproof glass.

After eating lunch by

Hell Canyon Trail

From along and just below the canyon rim.

the river at the monument, we were still too early to check into our motel so we found a small park on the outskirts of Billings. Two Moon Park, named for the Northern Cheyenne chief who fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, is located on the northern shore of the Yellowstone River and contains several hiking trails along the river. We were able to get another mile or two exploring some of those trails before continuing to our motel. Checked into the motel and looked for a spot to eat dinner. Picked a nearby brew pub and walked to it. When we got there, it was mobbed with a crowd of unmasked people who were definitely not practicing social distancing. We left and walked to a nearby Denny’s where enjoyed a pleasant, quiet, tasty meal. Even got a senior discount. Back at the motel we packed up one final time in preparation for an early rise to catch our 6:00 am flight from Billings. Flights were all on time with no problems, and we arrived home around 8:00 pm, tired but glad to have finally been able to travel again.

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