South Dakota (Part 2)

MON., JULY 3 thru MON., JULY 17, 2023

Sturgis and Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway were on the agenda for Monday, July 3rd, (2023). The Sturgis Motorcycle Museum has over 80 motorcycles dating as far back as 1905. Some of our favorites… Wilma, a custom psychedelic motorcycle that was created for the Motorcycle Division of Allstate Insurance. Another was a bike built for racing at the Bonneville Salt Flats, which we’ll be visiting later this year. The absolute favorite was a custom designed motorcycle made to represent the USS SOUTH DAKOTA Submarine. A bike ignition key will remain on board the sub and any USS SOUTH DAKOTA sailor can ride the bike anywhere in South Dakota. How cool is that! The bike will remain on permanent display in Sturgis at the museum. 

There was also beautiful artwork on the walls of the museum including several paintings by Scott Jacobs on display. He was the first official licensed artist for Harley Davidson in 1993. We saw his amazing gallery in Deadwood when we visited in June. In addition, several paintings were on display by David Uhl. His work has a unique vintage feel. He was licensed as the first ever oil painter for Harley Davidson Motor Company.

After visiting the museum, we walked around town and came across the Sturgis Art Walk with various sculptures on display. 

Then we drove the beautiful 19-mile Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway making stops along the way to see Bridal Veil Falls, River of Gold, Devil’s Bathtub and Spearfish Canyon Lodge. Great names. On the way back we stopped at the Black Hills National Cemetery. It encompasses over 100 acres with over 30,000 interments. Moving.

When we got home, we had more interesting South Dakota weather in the evening… thunder, lightning, wind and hail followed by a rainbow. We don’t think the hail did any damage. We have so many acorn dings on our truck (from being parked under oak trees at our NH home when we owned it) that I don’t think we could pick out the new hail dings. The acorns probably did more damage than the hail!

On Friday, July 7th (2023), we headed out on a little overnight roadtrip. Our tiny home stayed parked. We were doing a hotel for a night and a chance for me to enjoy a bathtub! First stop was Sundance, WY. The town of Sundance is in Crook County, named after General George Crook made famous during the Indian Wars. It was created in 1875 and was 10,000+ sq miles making it bigger than the combined states of New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island. After numerous reconfigurations, the latest being in 1911, Crook County is now 102 square miles. 

It’s also where the Sundance Kid got his nickname after spending 18 months in the Sundance jail for stealing a horse, gun and saddle from a cowboy. When Sundance got out, he hooked up with Butch Cassidy and his gang and the rest was history! 

The town has a museum, a sculpture of the Sundance Kid, a few historic buildings and some gorgeous countryside. 

The Crook County Museum is located in the historic “Old Stoney” building downtown. It’s called Old Stoney because of its stone facade, age, and “dominant presence” in the town. The museum has over 7,000 artifacts. Overwhelming. It had a 1930s Ladies Permanent Wave Machine on display. Looked like a torture device. Also, I have the exact same Ritz Limited Edition container that they had on display. That container even made the cut and is with us in our tiny home. I guess I really am old! 

What floored me was learning about the Barber Pole that was red, white and blue. Those colors reflect that the barber was a surgeon. In the past the red was for blood, the white for bandages, and the blue for arteries. The barber was also the dentist in many small western towns. Wow. 

We could see the Black Hills from the town. In case you were wondering, it’s called Black Hills because of all the Ponderosa Pines appearing so dark from a distance. The Black Hills are also a holy site for the Lakota.

A few days later when we were home, we ended up watching “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Hadn’t seen that movie in years! Still enjoyable. Spoiler alert, they die in the end.

After visiting the town of Sundance, we headed to Devil’s Tower on Friday, July 7th (2023). It is soooo majestic as you drive up to it… this huge tower thrusting up from the earth surrounded by pine trees. In 1906 Devil’s Tower became the nation’s first national monument designated by President Teddy Roosevelt. 

Yellow sweet clover was in bloom throughout the entire area when we visited. Just beautiful. The tower is different colors depending on the sunlight hitting it. Sometimes it can appear green because of lichens that grow all over the surface.

Devil’s Tower was formed from molten rock forced upwards from deep within the earth. The columns that are on the outside of the tower are the result of uniformly-arranged cracks which appeared during the cooling of the volcanic magma. The Tower’s columns are “as extraordinary as they look.” They are the longest and largest natural rock columns in the world. Some are more than 600 ft. tall and 8 – 20 ft. wide. Amazing.

The tower is 867 ft tall from the visitors center to the summit, which is about 1 1/2 times taller than the National Monument. The only way to reach the top is by climbing. There are more than 200 climbing routes to the top of Devil’s Tower with varying degrees of difficulty. Climbers must register before and after they climb. The youngest known climber is a 6-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl. The oldest is a 90-year-old! Wow. The elevation at the top is 5,112 ft above sea level. Its summit is almost as wide as a football field!

We did the 1.3 mile Tower Trail around the base of the monument. No rock climbing for us thank you very much! We saw beautiful views of the surrounding countryside, and were able to watch several climbers making their way to the top of the tower. Awe inspiring. 

The boulder field at the base of the tower was formed from columns from the tower toppling to the earth. Thankfully no columns have fallen since recorded history so this happened a very very long time ago. 

Afterwards we checked into our hotel, then headed out again to enjoy a great dinner at 77 Steakhouse & Saloon on their patio overlooking their golf course. The manager even offered us a job at their resort the following summer. We could bring our RV and park there and work. Tempting but we’ll pass. We returned to the hotel and I was able to enjoy a bath. A rare treat!

Saturday, July 8th (2023) on the way home from visiting Devil’s Tour, we drove through the tiny town of Aladdin, WY, population 15, and stopped in to visit their 130-year-old General Store aka Wyoming Mercantile. It reminded us of a homespun smaller version of Wall Drug. There was an old wood stove on the premises and 130-year-old bins now holding ammunition plus a bar in a separate room. Amazing. 

We also drove through Deadwood again so we could visit their historic cemetery, Mt Moriah Cemetery, established 1876 situated among the northern Black Hills overlooking Deadwood Gulch. Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and Potato Creek Johnny (he discovered one of the largest gold nuggets in the Black Hills) are buried here. Earlier grave markers of Wild Bill Hickok were vandalized. The current one was installed in 2002. Calamity Jane’s dying wish was to be buried next to Wild Bill and that’s where she is buried.

It’s a beautiful cemetery in a gorgeous setting. It’s also known as Black Hills Boothill. Boothill was a generic name given to many cemeteries, chiefly in the western U.S. during the 19th and early 20th century. The name was usually reserved for the burial grounds for paupers. This Black Hills Boothill is nothing like the more rustic, poorer Boothill Cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona. This one was quite upscale!

An interesting tidbit: Deadwood was granted permission by congress during WWI to keep the United States flag flying 24 hours a day over Mt Moriah Cemetery to honor all veterans who have served our country. The flag still flies today. 

Tuesday, July 11th (2023) we visited Wind Cave National Park. We originally had a reservation for one of their ranger led cave tours, but we received an email a few days before that all cave tours were closed for elevator maintenance. Since this is the government, the tours are closed for several days with an uncertain reopening date. Bummer! Since our time is growing short here in South Dakota, we opted to still go to the park but toured above ground rather than below. We did a 2 1/4 mile “moderately strenuous” hike through meadows in Cold Brook Canyon and saw wild flowers, a couple of bison at a distance, lots of prairie dogs, and pretty limestone cliffs. Also we did a driving tour through the park and saw more beautiful scenery including 20,000 acres of mixed grass prairie, which are protected at Wind Cave NP. In South Dakota 70% of the historic mixed grass prairie has vanished due to crop plantings and infrastructure of cities and suburbs.

We’ll have to save the cave tour and seeing their famous boxwork (criss-crossing fins of calcite covering the cave’s ceilings and walls) for another time. They have more boxwork than all other caves on earth combined! On January 9, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed legislation creating Wind Cave National Park. In the 1930s the cave was illuminated and made more accessible through the efforts of the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps.

We’ve been parked outside Rapid City SD for 6 weeks but it’s time to hit the road again tomorrow, Monday, July 17th (2023). We’re looking forward to rejoining Cheryl & Joe and our frequently expanding and ever-changing pod! Gary is doing well with managing his PMR (Polymyalgia Rheumatica) symptoms.

We’ve enjoyed our time here in the beautiful Black Hills taking advantage of downtime with reading, campfires, watching the playful antics of the many bunnies around here and enjoying the (mostly) beautiful South Dakota weather. Gary has also been able to take care of some RV maintenance issues, and I’ve had fun with some hobbies I haven’t touched in quite awhile. We also managed to do a fair amount of sightseeing with visiting a National Park, several National Monuments and many interesting towns in this area. 

The Black Hills are exceptionally beautiful with undulating green hills dotted with grazing cattle and fields of hay bails drying in the sun. All set against a backdrop of dark Ponderosa Pines. Even though it wasn’t the best circumstances with Gary developing an autoimmune disease, we feel blessed to have called this part of the country home for awhile.