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Westward Ho ! Part II

Well, we had a great time in Rapid City, but it was time to move on. We had breakfast, loaded the car and headed west on State road 44. Once we reached US 385 we headed north towards Deadwood, SD . We stopped at the Adams Museum for about an hour and discovered many interesting facts about Deadwood. Deadwood was established in 1874 after Colonel George Custer announced gold was found in nearby French Creek. The town was named Deadwood because of all the dead trees that were lying on the ground in Deadwood gulch. The population grew to over 5,000 in a very short time. However, the town’s notoriety and wealth was short lived. The town suffered from a smallpox epidemic in 1776 and a fire in 1879 burned over 300 buildings. Most of the people fled Deadwood after the fire since the gold had pretty much been depleted. It was a lawless town with saloons, gambling houses and prostitution. One of the more famous events of Deadwood was the murder of Wild Bill Hickok by Jack McCall. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried in the town’s cemetery.

When we left Deadwood, I let Adrienne drive. We headed north on US 85 to I-90. Once we reached I-90 we headed west. I had picked up some site seeing brochures in Deadwood and was glancing through them when I noticed some information on Devils Tower. I remembered seeing it in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and decided we should take a little detour and take a look at it. Just west of Sundance, WY we got on US 14 (Cabin Creek Rd) and headed northwest. We were probably about 10 miles away when we got our first look at the tower . As we approached, it got larger and larger….it was an awesome site. Actually, some geologist theorize that it is the remants of a volcano core. The sandstone and shale has been eroded away over billions of years. [Pic1] [Pic2][Pic3]

Crow Legend

Once when some Crows were camped at Bears House, two little girls were playing around some big rocks there. There were lots of bears living around that big rock and one big bear seeing the girls alone was going to eat them. The big bear was just about to catch the girls when they saw him. The girls were scared and the only place they could get was on top of one of the rocks around which they had been playing.

The girls climbed the rock but still the bear could catch them. The Great Spirit, seeing the bear was about to catch the girls, caused the rock to grow up out of the ground. The bear kept trying to jump to the top of the rock, but he just scratched the rock and fell down on the ground. The claw marks are on the rock now. The rock kept growing until it was so high that the bear could not get the girls. The two girls are still on top of the rock.

It took a couple of hours, but Adrienne and I hiked around the whole base of Devils Tower and stopped every now and then to enjoy the view of the valley below. The hike around the base of the tower is about 2 miles. I'm cetainly glad we took the time to see Devils Tower. It was a wonderful site to see and we even saw a few prairie dogs.

Adrienne and I left Devils Tower National Park and meandered our way back down to I-90. We continued West on I-90 until we reached the town of Sheridan Wyoming. It was about 5:00 PM in the afternoon and we were tired of driving so we got a room at the Holiday Inn. We asked the front desk where there was a place to have a nice dinner and they recommended the Sheridan Inn. To our surprise, the food and the atmosphere were terrific. Please be sure to click on the Sheridan Inn link for a historic overview of the city. It's pretty interesting and you'll learn about the ghost of Miss Kate.

Adrienne and I got up the next morning and had a nice breakfast at the hotel and headed northwest on I-90. It was a short distance, about 20 miles, before we crossed into Montana. We traveled about another 45 miles until we got to where the Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought. Unfortunately, the Little Bighorn River was at flood stage and we couldn't get off of I-90 at the Little Bighorn exit. Anyway, we were extremely disappointed that we didn't get to see the Battlefield. Maybe next time.

We continued west on I-90 into Billings, Montana. Just west of Billings in Laurel, we turned onto highway US 212. This road winds it's way from Laurel, MT to the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The stretch of highway from Red Lode, MT to Cooke City, MT is referred to as Beartooth Pass and is one of the most scenic byways in North America. From Laurel, MT the road has one switchback after another until it reaches the Rock Creek Vista Point at about 9,000 ft. The east summit is just a little over 9,600 ft above sea level while the west summit is over 10,900 feet above sea level. I'll tell you one thing, I was holding on for dear life.....thank God I wasn't driving. The views were absolutely beautiful. There evidently was a late spring snowstorm that came through the mountains around the 10th of June 2007. As you can see from the picture, it must have dumped a lot of snow on Beartooth Pass. I believe I read somewhere that Beartooth pass is only open from late May until mid October. [pic1] [pic2] [pic3] Even though it's only about 33 miles the way the crow flies from Red Lodge to Cooke City, it's about 65 miles via Beartooth Highway. That doesn't sound too bad, but I can honestly say, other then being in an LA traffic jam, that's the longest 65 miles I've ever traveled. Anyway, by the time we finally made it across Beartooth Pass to Cooke City, MT, we decided to call it a day. Checked into a Days Inn, had a nice dinner and hit the sack. Tomorrows a big day....Yellowstone National Park.