Mt. Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Northeastern WY, Buffalo, WY
[ Main Index ] [ Previous Day ] [ Next Day ] [ Photo Gallery ]
We woke to a damp morning. The tent sides are sagging and damp. There’s a fog over the lake that’s really pretty. I went out and took 3 or 4 pictures but as I was later to discover, it was all for naught. The sky had cleared and since we hadn’t made it far from Mt. Rushmore, we decided to give it another try. After a damp breakfast of oatmeal we headed out. Within minutes we hit some more blinding fog and pretty much assumed we were denied again.
But when we hit the mountain, it was clear. We rushed up to take pictures. But as we entered the visit center, I noticed the German family whose van had burned the day before. Les engaged them in conversation and we discovered that they had managed to save their money, credit cards and passports but had lost their airline tickets (no big deal). They had rented a car (for $500/wk!) and were continuing their vacation until they could get down to San Francisco to get another vehicle. The van was fully insured and they only were out $100 (plus travel expenses until they got back to SFO). They were very nice and said that many people had helped them yesterday and today. It’s nice to know there are still people out there willing to do that. In fact, the people in this area (Montana, SD, Wyoming) have been very friendly. I suspect that’s kind of a requirement when there are 3 people per square mile or whatever it is.
We were snapping pictures of Mt. Rushmore when I discovered that my film hadn’t been winding. This is something that had happened to me before and I thought I had been watching for it, but no. So, I was out 29 pictures. I was pretty pissed. Make that extremely pissed. I fumed and stomped around for a few minutes, but in the end, what could be done? In hindsight I don’t think it was a significant loss. We lost some pictures of us crossing a single lane bridge on the Indian reservation, the shots of us in the mud when we reached the 2000 mile mark (those were keepers), some shots along the road in the Black Hills (keepers too but…) and shots of Mt. Rushmore in the fog. Those were mostly “boredom” shots while I waited for Les to finish being berated by his wife and since there wasn’t much to see, probably no big deal. In fact, had Mt. Rushmore not been fogged in the day before, I would have thought I had a bunch of shots of it and I wouldn’t have. So, it could have been a lot worse.
Well, the people in the Black Hills are mountain carving fools. Farther down the road is Crazy Horse mountain, where one of the guys that worked on Rushmore was/is creating the world’s largest sculpture. The sculpture will be of Crazy Horse astride a horse. He started in 1949! Basically, by himself, he moved millions of tons of rock. He started with a jack hammer and a wheelbarrow! Even now, only part of the face and arm is visible. They hope to have the face finished by the year 2000. The guy who started it died awhile back but his family is carrying on. I hope they’re committed because this looks like a multi-generational project.
The most interesting thing about the mountain was not so much the sculpture but the dedication of this guy. 40 some years, much of it by himself, blowing up rocks and trying to build this thing. He refused to accept any public money. He believed that a project like this should only be funded privately. I haven’t ever wanted to do something that badly I don’t think. And I certainly don’t remember ever turning down money.
From there we headed out of the Black Hills towards Wyoming and Devil’s Tower. The road out was not all that interesting. We passed through Four Corners, a “town” consisting of maybe 3 houses and the combination Post Office, General Store and Diner. Les speculated that since we were in Wyoming, one of the beef capitals of the world, and we were out in the boonies, we might get a good steak or burger there for lunch. Turns out he was wrong on that score but we didn’t know it at the time.
An older women and her daughter ran the place. The older one’s the Postmaster. The store and restaurant were basically the same room. There was an interesting collection of stuff from soup, condiments, candy, camping supplies, books, all kinds of stuff. But, the burgers where chewy, the fries were mushy and basically, a bad idea from a food standpoint. But, kind of fun from a slice of life in Wyoming standpoint.
Clearly hunting season had begun. There were guys in orange hats sporting sniper rifles all over the place. We looked like hunters too in our muddy explorer wearing our plaid flannel shirts and sporting our stylish 7 day old beards. People would ask us where we’d been hunting and we’d tell them where we’d been. They’d ask us if we’d seen much and we’d say no. They’d ask what part of Colorado we were from (because of the license plates) and we’d say, well, we’re not actually from there and we’re not actually hunting and, well, never mind. Then they’d leave us alone.
The weather was still pretty overcast with occasional rain. We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to see Devil’s Tower either. But as we got closer the clouds starting breaking up. Driving in you don’t really see it. I expected it to tower above the prairie but the land is pretty hilly there and the distances are deceiving. When we first saw it, it looked pretty small. But by the time we got up to it, it looked pretty damn big!
Devil’s Tower was formed when an underground volcano cooled. It’s essentially the inner core of the volcano. Later, the ground around it eroded away and there it was, ready to receive alien spaceships. We looked for signs of the aliens, but apparently they had already left, off to dissect Richard Dreyfuss presumably.
A 1.2 mile trail circles the Tower so we walked it. It’s amazing how different it looks from different angles. The bottom is covered with boulders that even to untrained geologists like us were clearly big “crystals” that had fallen off and crumbled or had otherwise eroded. Big rocks. It is pretty understandable why the Indians thought it a mystic place. Without the benefit of modern science to explain it, I would have thought so too.
After getting pictures of it from every angle, we headed off for Yellowstone. It was about 3 pm. and Yellowstone was pretty much all of Wyoming away. We weren’t going to make it. We made it as far as Buffalo when the rain really started coming down. Les talked about camping anyway, but after awhile it became clear even to him that wasn’t such a good idea. Still, without me to set him right, he still might have done it. My feeling is, I work hard for my money. I make a lot of money relative to many people. I didn’t take this trip to prove my manhood, or test myself against mother nature or any of that crap. I took this trip to have fun (okay, and adventure, but fun adventure). Camping in this junk was not my idea of fun. So, we decided to hole up in Buffalo for the night and try to get an early start for Yellowstone in the morning.
In a further attempt to get a decent piece of beef, we went to a place called Bozeman’s for dinner. There we had a combined total of 24 oz of New York steak that was pretty good but not earth shattering by any stretch. The menus told us some more history of the area. It wasn’t the intention of the article but it basically described once again how whites had screwed over the Sioux because they wanted the gold in the Black Hills and Montana. This area was where most of the big battles of the Indian wars were fought. It’s interesting stuff and even more interesting to see how with a little more enlightened thinking it might have turned out a lot differently.
Anyway, we have now secured ourselves safely (and dryly) in the Arrowhead Motel (direct dial phones and cable TV!). So that means yet another shower in the morning.
[ Main Index ] [ Previous Day ] [ Next Day ] [ Photo Gallery ] [ Top ]