Hey, Campers!
A new day and a new state... South Dakota. The first time I've been in any Dakota.
The
day started cool at 8,800 feet in the Bighorn National Forest in
Wyoming. Bighorn is over 1.1 million acres... half the size of
Yellowstone. That means still huge. We hadn't planned to stay there last
night but did because of the altitude and our quest for cooler weather.
We found it. Both Mrs. C' and I (whose home is 6 feet above sea level.
If I float in the pool then stand up on the pool deck I literally
doubled my altitude there.) noticed the thin air at Bighorn.
The
campsite was simple and crawling with Amish or Mennonites or Shakers or
something from Iowa. Folks of all ages in bonnets, suspenders long grey
dresses, beards (on the men only). I guess they couldn't have been
Shakers because they are both extinct and celebate. Nor Amish because
these folks drove pickup trucks and 4-bys and used chain saws which they
decided needed testing at 7:30 AM in the campground. By process of
elimination I think these were Mennonites.
There
was no reason for us to stay so we pulled up the tent stakes and headed
east! The trip across US 16 was quite something. We climbed up to 9,667
feet according to my altimeter before starting a descent that exceeded
any we have faced. We lost 5,000 feet over the next hour or so and faced
grades as steep as 8%. At one point there was a mandatory stop and
brake check for all trucks and vehicles with trailers (that's us!). The
sign in the pull off described the runaway vehicle precautions on the
road below and showed a pic on an unfortunate truck that need but didn't
use them. It should have been captioned "splat!". We were briefed and
prepared but more importantly the Tundra and Airstream were up to it.
After
a bit of a drive we arrived in Buffalo, WY. That's the second city
named Buffalo I've been to on I-90. It's a small city that probably is
described as the eastern gateway to the Bighorns (although we saw no
evidence of that claim). Unlike Jackson, WY, the titles bestowed upon
Buffalo, Way have not gone to its head. Mrs. C' found some worthwhile
shopping, we had a good lunch at the Occidental Saloon (established in
1870-something) and for the first time in days we had reliable internet
at least for a few hours.
We
pressed on... ever farther eastward... . Eastern Wyoming was
boooorrrriiiinnnnggg! I dozed off for a few miles on I-90 and it didn't
even matter... Same straight road, same scenery, for about two hours. We
hit the South Dakota line at about 4:00 and the terrain changed almost
immediately. Hillier, exposed rock, greener. After 20 or 30 minutes we
reached Custer, SD. This town is probably billed as a "the gateway to
Mt. Rushmore" and that would be apt. We didn't stop but the drive
through impressed me that the town took a few arrows with the general
for which it is probably named and never bounced back. It had more "rock
shops" per mile than any town in the US. It had that same charming
western realism we saw in Jackson but with 30 years of wear and tear. We
headed on to Custer State Park, our campsite (which is butt up against
other campers) and dinner at the Sylvan Lake Resort. The resort hotel is
old in the most positive and charming way. Perhaps "venerable" or
"storied" is more fitting than "old". The meal was very good. We decided
to take an after dinner drive (having left the trailer and the two
smelly dogs at the campsite).
All
I can say about the drive is WOW! The lighting was horrible for
landscape photography but that didn't stop us from taking a hundred
shots or more in 45 minutes. Most scenic was the 8'4" wide tunnel carved
in living rock that we passed through just a mile or two from our
campsite and 1,000 feet or more above it. Take a look....
Tomorrow we may do some sunrise shots at Sylvan Lake just 1/4 mile or so from here. We push farther east tomorrow to Pierre, SD.
Good night!
SC
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