We left Lake Itasca in Minnesota on a drizzly morning and headed West. The miles passed as we sped past myriads of lakes until near Fargo on the border with North Dakota, the skies cleared, the trees receded, the lakes disappeared and mile after mile of rolling hills appeared. At first they were covered in crops, but as time passed they turned into rolling hills. It was a long drive of 340 miles but eventually we pulled into our destination of Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park near Bismarck, the state capitol of North Dakota. We were right by an old Indian Village made of grass clods placed on a wooden frame. Very cosy in winter and cool in summer. In the distance you can see the Missouri River which we were camping right along side.
Fort Abraham Lincoln is an old fort and was the place where General Custer left to beat up the Sioux Indians at Little Big Horn and got killed for his trouble. His house is still there where he and his family lived, or at least a reconstruction of it.
We stayed a few days here in the lovely State Park and did day tours to look at Indian Villages and the fort where the great explorers Lewis and Clark stayed for their first winter after leaving St Louis along the Missouri River in 1804.
We left Ft Abraham Lincoln State Park on a glorious day and headed South and West through hundreds of miles of rolling grasslands.The further we headed south, the drier it all became. After a long drive we arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota and set up camp at Lake Campground next to some Australians Tom and Betty who were doing the same sort of your we are doing but were going West to East rather than our East to West. We enjoyed a few beers and wings with them and their friends Robie and Sharon. There is a lot to see in Rapid City as it is on the edge of the very beautiful Black Hills of Dakota, the ancient tribal lands of the Sioux Indians. There was no doubt we had left the East behind with the forests, and the lakes. This was the Wild West with ranches, cowboy hats and wide open lovely spaces and hills!. Our first excursion was to the old western town of Deadwood near to where Gold was found in the 1800s. The Sheriff there was a man by the name of Wild Bill Hickock and it is believed he gunned down 34 men before he was killed in a shootout. We visited his grave at Mt Moriah high above the town before having lunch in the saloon where he was killed.
The saloon still looks the same and has sawdust on the floor. There was a huge motorbike festival on in a nearby town of Sturgis where tens of thousand bikies congregate each year for a good time. The whole area was saturated with middle aged rockers reliving their youth. Amazingly 95% don't wear helmets. Obviously they think they are invincible.
The next day we visited the famous Mt Rushmore with carved faces of four of America's famous presidents. Seething with bikes too.
We drove from Mt Rushmore across to the Custer State Park over the Iron Mountain Rd. What a road! Narrow, steep with many switchbacks and lots of tunnels including this one framing the Presidents perfectly.
Custer State Park had herds of bison roaming everywhere and lots of Prong Horned Antelope.
Wild Burros roamed freely and it is permitted to feed them even if you can't feed any other wild life in the park.
We also visited Jewel Cave, the second biggest cave in the world. You will remember a few weeks before we visited Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, which is the biggest cave in the world.
On our last day we drove 70 miles to the Badlands National Park. Like scenes from Mars, these eroded hills and valleys were like nothing we had ever seen before. It was high noon when we drove through the park. I imagine in the evening they would look eerie and wonderful as the setting sun accentuated the reds in the land.
Then it was time once more to move on. This time to Wyoming and our first stop was Devil's Tower. A thousand foot monolith rises from the land and dominates everything for miles. Formed as the basalt plug of an ancient volcano, it has has lasted whilst the outside part of the volcano has eroded away over the years.
