Day 73 Sunday, May 13, 2007 - Mother's Day
Ranchester, WY to Devils Tower National Monument, WY – 179 Miles
Mother’s day in Ranchester started by us going out for a great Mother’s day breakfast in the one and only diner/restaurant in Ranchester. I guess the single place to eat is what would be expected in the booming town with a population of 701! It was an interesting experience since it was the place were all the locals came in for breakfast each morning and chatted about things going on around the county. We over heard one fellow who came in greet another with something like: “I like those shoes you have on; they look like the ones I have at home.” The other fellow replied with: “Well, that’s what happens when you leave home without them!”
The breakfast special was really great: 6 oz New York Strip, 2 eggs, hash browns, bacon, 2 pancakes all for $6.95. They forgot to mention the hot cakes where the size of dinner plates. Everything tasted great.
While eating we took in the small town USA flavor by listening to some older local fellows bantering with one another and the waitress. The discussions centered around politics, the river rising, where the good fishing is (Walleye)?, and my kind of topic, Indians. Yup Indians – the town borders on the Crow Indian Reservation. They discussed fights breaking out in local bars between whites and Indian fellows. I did hear one comment something to the tune of ”well we took enough away from them, don’t you think”. We were told that the main industry of the town was coal mining and ranching.
While I got the Coach ready to hit the road, Sylvia walked Lucy around town one more time and noted every house having a large Propane tank in their backyard. A local artist decided to turn them in to a piece of art by painting them like a watermelon, bumble bee or caterpillar. Clever!
Before leaving Ranchester, SD we had to take a picture of this interesting place; note the sign that says drive-in window… never saw a bar with a drive-in window!!
We hit the road and drove a bit over 3 1/2 hours and arrived at Devils Tower, WY. My only familiarity with this place was from it being in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. Actually this is a real historic monument.
President Theodore Roosevelt established Devils Tower National Monument on September 24, 1906; it was the first national monument. The spectacular rock formation known as Devils Tower and the surrounding countryside, home to a myriad of plant and animal life, attract visitors from around the world. Climbers test their skills on vertical rock walls. Visitors delight in the beauty of the area and enjoy the activities offered at the monument. Also known as Bears Lodge, American Indians consider the area sacred, a place for prayer and renewal. Devils Tower rises 1267 feet above the Belle Fourche River. Once hidden, erosion has revealed Devils Tower. This 1347 acre park is covered with pine forests, woodlands, and grasslands. Deer, prairie dogs, and other wildlife are seen.
Note the climbers on the photo above!
From here we drove on to Ellsworth Air Force Base just outside Rapid City, SD – 115 Miles.
Here we plan to spend several days re-stocking, resting, doing some maintenance and going to see the sites of Mount Rushmore and the Crazy House Monument. You see this information and pictures in my next posting.
Day 72 Saturday, May 12, 2007
North Yellowstone to Little Bighorn (229 Miles) and to Ranchester, WY (54 Miles)
This morning we left the Yellowstone Mammoth Hot Springs campground and drove to Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument just south of Crow Agency, Montana.
The picture above shows the original North Entrance to Yellowstone built in 1872.
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument is the site of the June 25, 1876 battle between the U.S. Army's 7th cavalry and several bands of Dakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho.
The above pictures are looking up to the top of Little Bighorn where Custer made his last stand. The tombstones you see are markers showing where the last solders fell as they were killed by the Indians.
Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near Crow Agency, Montana, commemorates one of America's most significant and famous battles, the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Here on June 25 and 26, 1876, two divergent cultures clashed in a life or death struggle.
Four hundred years of struggle between Euro-Americans and Native Americans culminated on this ground. Like a handful of battles in American history, the defeat of 12 companies of Seventh Cavalry by Lakota (Sioux), Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors rose beyond its military significance to the level of myth. Thousands of books, magazine articles, performances in film and theater, paintings, and other artistic expressions have memorialized "Custer's Last Stand."
In 1879, the Little Bighorn Battlefield was designated a national cemetery administered by the War Department. In 1881, a memorial was erected on Last Stand Hill, over the mass grave of the Seventh Cavalry soldiers, U.S. Indian Scouts, and other personnel killed in battle. In 1940, jurisdiction of the battlefield was transferred to the National Park Service. These early interpretations were largely mono-cultural, honoring only the U.S. Army's perspective, with headstones marking where each fell.
The essential irony of the Battle of the Little Bighorn is that the victors lost their nomadic way of life after their victory. Unlike Custer's command, the fallen Lakota and Cheyenne warriors were removed by their families, and "buried" in the Native American tradition, in teepees or tree-scaffolds nearby in the Little Bighorn Valley. The story of the battle from the Native American perspective was largely told through the oral tradition.
Even so, today, no memorial honors the Native Americans who struggled to preserve and defend their homeland and traditional way of life. Their heroic sacrifice was never formally recognized - until now.
Here you can see the marker of Custer among the other fallen.
There was also a monument to recognize the Indians who fought and won this battle.
A panoramic of the Indian Memorial is below.
If you’re interested there is a WebCam at the battlefield; the address is below.
Little Bighorn Battlefield WebCams: http://www.nps.gov/libi/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm
From the battlefield we drove another 50 or so miles south into Wyoming to Ranchester where we found a very nice campground for the one night stay before heading out in the morning to see Devils Tower Monument south and east in Wyoming. See tomorrow’s post for the details.
Day 71 Friday, May 11, 2007
North Yellowstone
Today, we broke camp at Lionshead RV Park in West Yellowstone and headed out to camp in the park itself at the Mammoth Hot Springs campground up by the North Entrance to Yellowstone. On the map below you can see the yellow route we took through the park to get to the North Yellowstone campground.
After some lunch we head out to see the Mammoth Hot Springs and the Northern road highlighted in Green on the map above.
There’s a really nice place provided by the National Park Service to take a virtual tour of the springs: http://www.nps.gov/yell/tours/mammoth/index.htm . It really gives a great description of the place and even has a live webcam at: www.nps.gov/yell/mammothcam.htm .
Here are a few of my pictures from our walk around and through the springs.
We saw a bunch more Elk along the route but NO MOOSE!! Where are the MOOSE??
As we drove on we noted that there were a lot of cars stopped and even a park ranger out on the road directing people to park completely off the road. What were they all looking at?? A mama Black Bear and her two cubs.
The little guys were playfully fighting in the picture to the right above.
We drove further and found another really great water fall.
Day 70, Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
This morning we were up and out of our campground to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, waterfalls and, of course, more animals with our traveling partners, Emily and Andy. We still need to see a Moose!
We entered at the West Entrance on the picture above and traveled on a 30 mile route to take us to the canyon. Our first stop was to see another hot springs in the Monument Geyser Basin.
It’s a little hard to tell in the left picture above but the water was super clear and right below the main bubbling water the color was a beautiful aqua-marine color.
We were on our “Moose Watch” and came across a Grizzly Bear in the distance and were happy he was at a distance.
Next stop was at Gibbon Falls.
Last stop for the day was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
The canyon had a magnificent waterfall in it where the water dropped more than 380 feet, a much larger drop than Niagara Falls!
We saw some more buffalo on our way back to the campsite but NO MOOSE!!
Day 69 Wednesday, May 9, 2007
West Yellowstone to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park
This morning we got up and checked with our camp host at Lionshead Campground to see if they would keep an eye on Lucy while we headed into the park. We had found out previously that National Parks are not pet friendly since they are concerned with pets possibly chasing wild animals.
We headed into the park and right off the start Emily spotted a Eagle sitting on its nest.
There were abundant Buffalo roaming around freely. Their gentle nature can be misleading as several tourists have been gored when they came too close to them. They weigh upward to 2000lb and can run 30 miles an hour (3 times faster than humans). OK got it! Do not get too close! We saw new babies less than a week old hanging out with mama.
We next came upon a few Elk grazing across the river.
Not far from the eagles nest we spotted something moving in the woods…. a gray/white wolf..awesome. I came eye to eye with a gray wolf (via binoculars). His eyes where gray blue and totally mesmerizing. I swear he looked right at me, it gave me chills. It just made our whole day.
Later on we came across a Grizzly, again via binocular. Before today I though of bear as rather large animals heavy on their feet swathing a things somewhat comical. I now have total respect for the animal, for all it size it moved deliberately and gracefully full of power and purpose. According to a Ranger, Grizzles used to be common in all 48 states, they are now relegated to mainly the western mountain states with numbers ranging in the 1200. Ask if it is the most dangerous animal in the park, he replied the most dangerous animal in this park has two legs and comes with 4 tires. Point taken…be mindful when driving in the park. Still no Moose sightings….
There were many visitors in the park from all over the US and even from Europe. As we drove through the park we would see cars stopped along side of the road and found that was always a good sign that some animal had been spotted. Not unlike rubber necking on 95, you have to pull over as well to be sure to get a look. While pulled over at a particular busy spot where the Grizzly had been sighted I passed our binoculars over to a German couple for them to get a better view of the Grizzly. At the next animal sighting stop when I saw the couple again I had to ask them where they were from; they were from Leipzig, but now living in Munich.
As we drove along we came across the first Geyser Fields and had to stop and walk the board walk to get a closer view of these things.
Moving on down the road we came up to the Old Faithful Geyser area. We went into the Visitors Center
and noted that they had actually posted the time they had predicted the next eruption of the Old Faithful Geyser; we had about 15 minutes to look around before taking our seats at Old Faithful to see the show. As predicted, the eruption took place within a couple minutes of their estimate. A really awesome sight to behold!
