It started getting really cold when we were watching Legends in Light at Crazy Horse and we got nervous when the bus driver/guide said that there was a chance of Rain/Snow. We headed down the mountain, with the heat on in the car, to find an RV park/campground that Matt found online for $10. One thing to note about Rapid City, SD and the Black Hills area is that there is no less than 4 possible routes to get from one place to another. Even though we drove around for a day and a half we constantly found new roads. This is relevant because on the way to the campsite - instead of going the way we came, we drove through Custer State Park which is an incredibly windy road down a mountain. (It was dark). At one point we headed around a bend and I saw a buffalo on the side of the road. This, as you now know, is not an uncommon sight for us, however it was pretty much pitch dark and in a forest as opposed to the plains - I was startled to say the least. Matt, concentrating on the road, asked me what happened and I told him there was a buffalo on the side of the road. While he too and seen his fair share of buffalo we decided to turn the car around so we could see it again (make sure it was there and that I was not crazy). OH MY GOD. Upon turning around not only did we see the buffalo that was on the side of the road (there were two by the way) but we say no less than 30 more buffalo on the other side of the road. Some sitting, some eating in front of the state park buildings, on the triangle patch of grass that separates the incoming and outgoing park traffic and in front of the large ceramic statue of Buffalo at the entrance to the park. Our pictures didn’t come out well - and honestly, we didn’t want to stick around too long to get more.
We made it to the campground, set up the tent and boiled water for pasta in record time and were asleep pretty quickly - neither of us wanting to acknowledge that we had to run a whole lot the next day.
Ashley started looking at maps for running possibilities when we sat in the car with WiFi in Medora and found something called the George S. Mickelson trail. It is a 109 mile trail that runs the entire North-South of the Black Hills National Forest. The trail is on a revitalized railway (rails to trails) and so is fairly flat. We were pretty psyched to find a trail to run on because it was a good way to see more of the area. Running was pretty hard. We ran 6.5 miles there and back, the town we started from was in a valley, so we were running up hill the whole first half. It wasn’t steep (being an old rail way line), but it was consistent. We also started the run at about a mile above sea level and reached almost 6000 feet at the highest point. Running at that altitude was hard for both of us, but the worst part was the sore feeling after the run as much as the run itself. We think a combination of low oxygen during the run and sitting in the car for hours afterwards was a bad combination for minimizing lactic acid.
We weren’t sure the time, having passed between the central and mountain time zone and back as we went down to South Dakota. But at that time we left Hill City and went to Mt. Rushmore.
Mt. Rushmore was disappointing after Crazy Horse. It was clearly much smaller, and only heads. We like the selection of Presidents that they had, but liked the back story -- of what it was supposed to be -- more. The original plan was to have a statue of three presidents: Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, in full body poses. Teddy was added at the last minute because the sculpture was a personal friend of his. He decided to add him because he had done a lot to preserve the natural west -- starting the national park service, etc.
The sculpture died just before he finished the faces, the sun finished them and said it was done as it ever would be. When the sculpture of Crazy Horse died, his wife and 8 kids decided to finish the whole sculpture. The exhibits at Mount Rushmore completely gloss over that it is unfinished or how Roosevelt was added, but a park ranger at the information station seemed to know.
We left Mount Rushmore at about 5 with at least 6 hours of driving to go. The speedlimit was 75 so we couldn’t afford to get there faster by speeding (each mile per hour over 75 is about a half mile per gallon less in gas mileage).
On the way to Sheridan, WY for dinner, where there was promise of large mediocre chains as apposed to large fast-food chains, we called Ashley’s Dad to ask him to look up Olive Garden branches in Wyoming or Montana. Finding none on the way, we decided to stop at Applebee’s in Sheridan. There was about 100 mile from the Wyoming border to Sheridan. The first 50 miles we drove and didn’t pass anybody going the same on the highway. Matt had his brights on on the interstate, which was a first for both of us. The last 50 miles was much more eventful with getting passed once and passing 2 other cars. Wyoming’s license plate of Big Spaces Great Places, was very apropos.
We pulled into Extended Stay America Billings (another Priceline find), and had a much nicer stay. The internet was faster and everything.
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