South Dakota Here We Come: The Circle Tour!

 

Part 2 of 2

 

In the last episode, I described the first leg of our South Dakota journey (see South Dakota Here We Come, Part 1 of 2, dated August 1) and ended with our visit to Bear Country, USA.

 

We pick up, then, the next morning when we stopped for fuel. I spotted this sign:

 

 

Yeah, I wanted one but my husband said, "No."

 

Our next stop was a visit to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs where, to date, the bones and tusks of 61 mammoths have been uncovered.

 

 

 

On our way through the Black Hills, we detoured a bit to drive the Needles Highway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_Highway_87).

It is an amazing trek on a very narrow two-lane road.

 

 

See that dark box in the center of the picture above the roadbed/guardrail? The road enters a tunnel at that point.

A very, narrow tunnel.

 

 

However, if you are a very, experienced bus driver, narrow tunnels do not frighten you.

 

 

A bit of backing up and going forward to position your bus to venture straight through should do it...

 

 

The traffic started moving again so we assumed the bus did not get stuck.

 

 

 

 

Why, yes, those do look like scrape marks on the ceiling....

 

 

 

And we are out!

 

 

The Bus taking a break spotted down the road a bit...

We checked into our hotel in Deadwood, a rootin' tootin' old Wild West town. Here, in 1837, the infamous Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back playing poker at Saloon No. 10. He was holding what looked like a winning hand; Aces and Eights. After the shooting, this poker hand became known as "The Deadman's Hand."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WildBillHickok)

He was buried high above his beloved Deadwood on Mount Mariah.

 

 

 

His stalwart friend, Martha Jane Canary, i.e. "Calamity Jane," herself a renowned frontierswoman, asked to be buried next to Wild Bill, and her wish was granted when she passed away in 1903.

Back down the trecherous street to the bricked Main Street of Deadwood where we saw these outdoor bar stools. We opted NOT to stop. however tempting...

 

After a delicious dinner and a restful night of sleep, we packed up and headed home.

However, we had one more, out of the way destination on our agenda.

 

Situated in Northern Wyoming, Devil's Tower rises over 867 feet above the ground it sits on. The monolith has appeared in many films, the most famous one being Steven Speilberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Both a sacred site to the Native Americans and a climbing site to outdoorsmen, the National Monument draws thousands of people to its grandeur every year.

 

And then it was home again! Whew!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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