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Published: June 30th 2014
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Eastern Wyoming
Puffy white clouds and green prairie Saturday, 28 June, 2014
As we drove north from Douglas to Gillette, we spotted a lot of pronghorns. I don't know whether they are more plentiful up here (I believe they are) or if we are getting better at spotting them (that, too.) The beautiful green rolling hills of eastern Wyoming prairie spread as far as the eye can see. There are long trains here, too, but instead of being loaded with containerized freight, they are filled with coal from the mines around Gillette. We passed a few of the mines today.
All morning the sky was full of puffy white clouds, which grew darker and denser as the day wore on. At Gillette, we turned east onto I-90 for a few miles before turning north to Devil's Tower National Monument. Sean seemed impressed by the crazy mountain in the middle of nowhere. We do love the Devils Tower. Today there were no climbers on the mountain, the first time we'd seen that. Since the mountain is a holy place to the northern plains tribes, during the month of June the mountain is closed to climbing out of deference to their beliefs.
We drove south from Devils Tower on our way to Custer, SD under blackening skies. The rains finally started around Newcastle, WY, about the same time as the road construction began. Between Newcastle and the South Dakota line, the road was paved but narrow, down to one lane several times, and very bumpy. Once into South Dakota the pavement ended and the highway was rough dirt with occasional patches of large gravel. The pavement resumed and the rain ended about the same time, so we reached the campground with a very muddy truck and camper to match. After checking in, but before we could set up, the rain began again, rinsing both vehicles while we sat in the truck waiting.
Sean was disappointed he couldn't swim in the pool, but they had closed the pool when the thunder began and didn't reopen it.
Sunday, 29 June
This morning we drove to Custer State Park and their Wildlife Loop in hopes of seeing some of their 1300 bison and various other wild critters. We were disappointed to only see a few bison, a handful of pronghorns and one white-tailed deer. Oh, I almost forgot
the burros, they were there, too, and Sean was able to pet them. Up on a hill Kerry spotted a couple of vehicles next to a half dozen or so bison. The track that let up to them was little more than 2 ruts through the grass (kind of like our driveway.) When we got there we saw mineral blocks for the animals and a park ranger who informed us we were not supposed to be on this road. Another adventure road for Kerry.
From there we drove to Mount Rushmore, driving up the twisting Iron Mountain Road with its corkscrew turns and tunnels looking out at Mount Rushmore. Sean enjoyed taking pictures of the famous stone carvings and we all enjoyed the brief film about the monument.
By now Sean was anxious to get back to camp and the swimming pool. So back we came, and I did laundry while he swam, until he got too cold (the cute girl left) and wanted to go to the camper to get dressed. Unfortunately, I had most of his clothes in the dryer by that time, and he had to just ride around on his
bike in his swimsuit until he was dry and the laundry finished.
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