June 27
June 28
June 29
June 30-July 2
Wednesday, June 28
After a decent night's sleep and a nice breakfast, we headed back to Custer State Park.
We started out the day with a swing along the Wildlife Trail through Custer State Park. Almost immediately, cars were stopped as a good sized bison herd leisurely crossed the road. We were here for a good twenty minutes.
These three photos show part of this large herd of bison that stopped traffic for quite a while.
The photo to the left shows one of the cows in the bison herd as she passed quite close to our car. This was taken through an open window....
We also spotted a pronghorn and a small herd of donkeys (including a cute foal) as we drove through the park.
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Then we braved Iron Mountain Byway, which has a bunch of switchbacks, three narrow (one lane) tunnels, and three "pig-tail" bridges where the road crossed first over, then under the same bridge. It was tight enough for cars to pass through, yet we saw a couple of motor homes and THREE tour buses going the other direction. How any of them got through the tunnels and pig-tails is beyond me!!!
We stopped at a number of pull-offs along the way. The photo on the left shows just how visible Mt. Rushmore is from a distance.
The photo on the right shows a rocky outcropping in the forest. According to nearby signage, this is similar to what Mt. Rushmore looked like before the sculptors got to it!
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These two photos were taken at one of the many pull-offs along the Iron Mountain Highway. We stopped at this one mainly to stretch our legs and enjoy the forest.
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We then traveled north through the heart of the Black Hills and through Spearfish Canyon to the town of Spearfish for the night.
We missed all three of the waterfalls in Spearfish Canyon – the first by choice, the second by misinformation, and the third because of EMT vehicles waving people on past it....
Our lunch stop was a misjudgment, but the place was chosen by looks only. We should have eaten somewhere else. This was in Hill City, SD.
Once we reached our hotel in Spearfish, SD, we got checked in and had a beer at the hotel's lounge - nice touch! Then dinner at the Bay Leaf Cafe. That more than made up for lunch!!! Carl had crab cakes over linguine. I had a luscious tortellini.
Then it was back to the hotel and more Harry Potter....