Mt. Rushmore

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the trip to Mount Rushmore included more than just seeing the mountain with the faces. Yes, it is great Americana, yes, it is awe inspiring but is that all there is? Well no, Kaye Heins, it is not.
Mt.Rushmore is in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota, an area I would love to return to and spend more time. It is a National Monument on the edge of a beautiful state park, Custer State Park. The drives through CSP are magnificent. On the way to Mt. Rushmore, we went through some rock tunnels that I swear you could not have gotten a slice of bread between our truck and the wall. One of the tunnels is made so that you see Mt. Rushmore framed by the sides of the tunnel. This whole state park was designed by a past governor of South Dakota who knew beauty when he saw it in nature. He mapped out the roads and tunnels from horseback, helped design the over passes and bridges and had great fun I am sure making drivers double back on their trails. There are at least three distinctly different trails, The Needles Eye, Iron Mountain (I think) and the Wildlife Loop. We took each trail on a different day just to take in the sights and not be too overwhelmed. Basically we were still overwhelmed.
The trip to Mt. Rushmore is just as awesome as the mountain itself. I will show you some of the tunnels we went through, the roads we traveled, called pig's tail, and the mountain. We went late in the day so we could see the mountain lit up. What we did not know was there would be a ceremony honoring all those who had served in the Armed forces. Quite a sight to see the young and the old, men and women, black white and Indian all on the same stage being honored for serving their country. I was proud to be an American!
Of course, "new shoes Heins" had to show off his mountain goat abilities.
Our next day was spent on the Needles Eye Highway.Quite awesome, to say the least

The coming together of thousands

Since last September, our plan has been to tour some of the west,visit relatives, go to Yellowstone and attend the Escapees Rally in Gillette Wyoming.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Escapees, for all you uninformed, is a camping club that celebrated its 30th birthday this year with its 48th rally. The club owns several campgrounds and has several partnering campground throughout the US.
The rally consists of a merchandise mall, several large meetings, entertainment and seminars, plus fun and happy hours. There are over 1000 rigs here and approximately 2500 people. Incredible.
Now our mission is to get to Oshkosh,WS so that I can leave the wannabe pilot and go visit the awesome daughter and our friends.On the way we will go to Mt. Rushmore and surrounding areas, Sioux Falls to register to vote, see the House on the Rocks,etc.....
Always another corner to turn or hill to climb.

Devil'sTower

Hum the theme song to Close Encounters of the Third Kind as you view these pictures.
We chose a very muggy day to go sightseeing, but at least there was no snow. There were a few hikes we could take (as in physically able to) so we chose the one that skirted the touristy area. We walked Joyner's Ridge.Once again the ridiculous warning signs but then again some of the people we have met might need this warning.















Whew! We were uphill and down, clamoring over rocks and almost sliding down the sides, but it was fun. I have a terrible fear of heights, so I was quite pleased that I could do this. Erwin says his sides hurt from laughing at me as I whined and griped, but

I DID IT.We were up there on the top. As we were walking through the marsh we saw deer and bunnies, but that was it for wild life.

We then went to the tourist shops.This sign was on the front door...guess they got tired of cleaning the floor.

Then as we were leaving we spotted the Prairie Dog Town. These guys are a big pest here in the pastures and ranch lands but they are cute and busy!

Well, Hello again

It has been ages since I just sat down to the computer and wrote on this blog. We have been somewhat busy but also I was caught up on the spirit of doing things instead of writing about things, make sense?
We had a wonderful time in Gillette, WY with the thousands of other campers. There are often prototypes of new motor homes and campers. This one has a deck...always a useful feature
 

It was nice to meet others who share our lifestyle and that understand the gas /diesel prices do not run our lives. Yes they are high, but life goes on and the fun is still out there, ya just got to pick and choose a little more selectively now....Sermon over.
We were parked in this huge area called a Camplex.Behind us was a rodeo arena. While we were there the 4H clubs and the FFA were having a mini- rodeo as a trial for those that one day want to rodeo. It is sort of akin to T_ball and Baseball, ya know?While Erwin attended Red Cross disaster classes, I watched young ones learn how to do barrel racing and roping. Those horses are mighty big and powerful, but the kids seem to love it. Instead of having them rope steers and tie them, they use goats. Too funny.

Just like other things kids do, Dads do a lot of the set up.
Things we have noticed so far about the West:
  Pride in their state...very clean, no litter
  Kids play outside
  Lots of horses! and antelope (supposed to be more antelope than people in Gillette)
  Recreational choice for young teens has got to do with horses.
  Friendly people always making sure you have seen their favorite place.
  Cannot cook..some of the worst meals we have had have been in WY (except for those I cooked!)

Battle of Little Bighorn

We left the recreation area with no electricity and headed to Hardin MT to a campsite with all the hookups plus a laundry.Sometimes beating your clothes out clean on a rock is just not an option!
We got there in time for the big weekend of the Reenactment of Custer's Last Stand.
Hardin is right on the edge of the Crow Indian Reservation. Sadly, it is a dying town. The businesses and factories are moving away.Once there were sixteen bars and churches on Main Street.But they have this one week in the year when the tourists from all over the world, according to them, come to play.
We toured the battlefield which is a very eerie place. There are grave markers all over the battlefield to show where the soldiers' bodies were found after the battle.
On Wednesday night the Relay for Life Group had a beef BBQ, which we attended and met some of the locals who had grown up in the town. As one lady said,"Thirty years ago this was a jumpin' town." On Thurs night the wrestling team had a pork BBQ which we attended and met other campers.
On early Friday afternoon in the heat of the day was the first performance of the reenactment. It is about 2 hours long and tells the story of the battle from the Indian point of view. The show was written by an Indian and tells why the Indians felt this too was their last stand to try to protect their nomadic way of life.
When the Indians surrounded the wagon train, I could just feel the terror the settlers felt when looking at the Indians on horseback, yelling and riding their ponies into and out of the train. Observing one lone Indian on horseback studying the long train of settlers, one understood that the Indians were fighting for a way of life.
But hearing the tales of surrounding the soldiers like "swirling water over stones" gave an idea of hectic and savage the battle was.
This was a history lesson for me. It explained how Custer got misinformation, made decisions on this information and died because of this information. Toward the end of the battle the Indian firepower increased due to the guns and ammunition they took from the dead soldiers. The fight became a rout as the Indians pursued and killed fleeing soldiers.It explained how desperate the battle was at the end when Custer and his men killed their horses to use as shields.
It was not one of my favorite stops, but it sure was an educational one. I had always considered Custer an arrogant leader that did not listen to his scouts, which is true, but he also was misinformed...........Plus listening to it told from the Indian point of view was also rather unsettling.............There is probably a sermon in there somewhere.

Mountain Goats and Lakes

We took many drives and had wonderful views, but the mountains that we passed going into the campground kept nagging at the old man. You see he had bought "hiking shoes" when we were in Salt Lake City. We had thought to try them out in YNP but the snow did us in.
Each time we left the camp he would look at those red mountains and try to see whether there were trails or not.Then one day the temptation was too great. He left in the morning to walk over and just study the mountains.I stayed in the campground with my eyes glued to the mountain top.
There he appeared!

That afternoon we trudged down to the Lake for the free boat rides. Most of you know that I am fascinated with young kids and their thinking. Well we were standing in line to get our free boat ride when this 9yr old cutie says,"We have to get the fast boat." Her grandmother wouldn't go with her and her brother, so we said we would take the fast boat.....Man, let's rethink that...too late.We wound up on a boat valued at over $60,000 designed to surf behind while on the lakes. It has power and it is fun! We have the two young ones that are sooooo excited and us plus another couple. The pilot took us down to the canyons where the walls are thousands of feet straight up

You can tell how worried I am about this....
Later that day we decided to go find the wild mustangs again. This time we wanted to see them on the other side of the mountains. We had heard that you could go up into the mountains on a dirt road and see a whole herd of them. So off we went. The road looks rather nice, right?

Even in the back hills, this part is marked
But the road just goes on for miles. Sometimes we can see the road, other times it goes on for miles and we hope we are actually on a road and not near the edge of the cliff

Convinced that we were lost;that we would be there forever; no one would know where we were and would not miss us for ever so long, and the puppies would starve and die and someone would eventually find our bleached bones inside the truck that I hate, I sort of panicked. Boy did I feel like a baby when we met coming from the other direction an old woman BY HERSELF driving down the mountain.She told us we had much further to go and that the horses were on top of the mountain. Did I mention it was over 90 degrees? So back down we go. Not so bad going down as going up, I might add. We got to the bottom of the mountain on good road and look what we found
>

Bighorn National Recreation Area

Our next four nights and five days were spent in a magnificent campground in Lovell Wyoming. It is a National Recreation area built by the Bighorn Lake.

There are big sites
a beautiful lake, and the best part...it is FREE!
Of course there is no phone service, no internet service, no electricity, no water, but FREE!The Wild Mustangs of Wyoming and the Bighorn sheep are right there too. We were fortunate to be at the lake during Lake Days and they had FREE Boat Tours...what more could you ask?
Since we saved so much money on our site, we felt we could ride more and further and see the area.
Our first afternoon we met a couple that told us about the horses and where to see them the sheep
and where to find them and a back road we might want to explore...see what I mean about helpful? We will meet them again in Gillette, WY when we go to the Rally.
And the sheep are gone
So off we went to explore.
We drove down the road to Devil's Lookout and peeped over the edge. There , that pea green ribbon is the Bighorn Lake.

We were bombarded by these tiny little birds that flew very close to you and very, very fast, canyon swifts.
We drove on and saw our first wild mustangs, excitement.....

The next day we got a little braver and took some of the unpaved roads into the canyon. I cannot describe how beautiful it is here. So different from anything I have ever seen, very remote and quiet. There is even a different smell here. I spent a lot of time just looking at the wild flowers
and thinking about the diverse country we live in. Of course there is always the warning signs, I swear!

These little guys had figured out a way to be free....out of the fence, but their buddy was not quite so brave.So they visited him. It is as if they are trying to coax him to just try freedom