We spent one full day traveling north and west of our hotel in Custer. Our first stop was Devil's Tower NM in Wyoming. We didn't have any "close encounters of the third kind", but we did hike the trail around the base of the monument. That was about all that there was to do there. Let me just say this about Wyoming- there is nothing there. We googled it, and it ranks 51st in population. Washington D.C. has more people than the entire state of Wyoming. It was crazy driving for miles and not seeing any towns or cars or anything.
After leaving Wyoming we traveled to the north part of the Black Hills and ended up in the town of Deadwood. Back in the day, this boom town was full of gambling and alcohol. Not much has changed. The historic buildings are now bars, casinos, and souvenir shops. Not really a kid-friendly place. We did see the saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and we went to his and Calamity Jane's graves.
Since we were up in the north section of the park anyway, we decided to do the Spearfish Canyon scenic drive, which began in the town of Spearfish. We made a quick stop off at the D.C. Booth fish hatchery where we saw tons of trout. We were there at feeding time, and the kids (and Brian) got to help with that.
The Spearfish Canyon Loop ran along a stream and there were several waterfalls right off the road. We stopped at two. The second required a short hike, but was worth the effort. The kids wanted to touch the water wherever we went to see how cold it was. It was always really cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment