Crazy Horse, Rushmore, Yellowstone

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Sunday, 5 October -

The alarm woke us this morning at 0600. We quickly dressed and headed back into Yellowstone via the North gate and then on to Slough Creek... about a 40 minute drive As we drove the sky lightened up and by the time we reached the turnoff into Slough Creek campground, it was almost 0730 and we had good light. We were surprised to see we were among the early-birds. We had no problem parking, of course, and in fact snagged a prime spot.
We moved to an obvious observation area on a hill looking west. We scanned with out binoculars for a good half hour and saw a few lone bison here and there, a small herd of elk by the ‘loaf’ shaped hill, and many bison way up on top. We could see something like 100-150 bison in the hills around us.
We had a light wind and a coldish morning so we started getting cold right away. We noticed other vehicles coming in to join us and the more popular place to be seemed to be up on the hill behind us-- but that was further yet away and we didn’t have powerful binocluars or a spotting scope.
Around 0815 I made a pact with Labashi--- we’d stay out here freezing until 0830 and then move to another spot, maybe check out the higher hill so we’d warm up hiking up the hill.
At 0825, a guy nearby who had a spotting scope said he could see a black wolf by the two spruce trees in the distance. It was so far away that we could only see a dark shape. But it also didn’t seem to move like a wolf. That’s because it was a grizzly bear! As it moved about we could clearly make out the shape of a grizz.
As we watched the grizzly, we started seeing other moving shapes--- wolves! We saw a black and several grays milling about. Again, they were so far in the distance that it was hard to tell exactly what we were seeing. Nevertheless, I set up our little pocket camera on its tripod and zoomed to max zoom-- 56X--- and once I was sure I had the objects centered, pressed the video-record button.
I was surprised to see I could actually see a bit more detail in the camera’s monitor screen than with the binoculars but the price to pay was battery life. It wasn’t long before the battery-low signal came on.
After about an hour more of watching and looking for the bear and wolves as they moved in and out of view we were too cold to stay out any longer. We returned to the van and fired up the propane heater for a few minutes.
Once warmed, we went back out but by then the scene had changed-- the bear, wolves, and bison were all gone. We stuck around to try a few more times but after another 20 minutes or so we called it a day.
We then drove further into the Lamar Valley, always scanning for wildlife. We saw hundreds and hundreds of bison in groups of 20 to 40 but they were in the hills in all directions. We also saw several herds of elk, probably numbering somewhere in the 200’s all told.
After our great success in the Lamar Valley, we drove back to Mammoth Hot Springs, hoping to find a wi-fi connection. We’ve been getting emails the last two days about our credit card auto-pay transactions failing. That credit card was caught up in the Home Depot data compromise and our replacement cards are in our mail at home. We have a second credit card to continue buying stuff while on the road but now will have to go in and change all the auto-pays to the other card. Unfortunately for today, Mammoth Hot Springs only has pay-wi-fi by the hour and charges too much for the service (for my way of thinking). We have a few days to get this straightened out so will start looking for a library tomorrow once we exit the park.
After Mammoth Hot Springs, we drove on down past Norris, pausing at many of the roadside pull-offs to look for wildlife. It was in this area a few years ago that we saw seven wolves near Obsidian Cliff.
We continued on down to Madison Junction and booked a campsite for the night, then drove on down past Old Faithful to Lone Star Geyser trail for a late-afternoon walk.
We walked in 2.5 miles on a very pretty trail along a stream. At the geyser we checked the log and saw it had last erupted around 1440. It was only 1530 by then so the geyser wouldn’t be erupting for another two hours (this particular one erupts about every three hours--- since 1872!)
We relaxed a bit then headed back, watching the creek closely for otters. Two bicyclists had told us they had seen otters!
We didn’t see otters but did have a very strange encounter. As we walked along scanning the creek for signs of otters, I noticed something moving in the distance. It was a coyote--- trotting right up the trail toward us. Labashi started up the camera and caught great footage of it as it approached to within 50 feet of us, diverted off-trail for a bit, then went back on trail and continued trotting along in an easy, no-worries trot. What an amazing day we’ve had for wildlife!
We made it back to the van around 1700 and headed to our campsite at Madison Junction. Once there we had supper and then took a walk through the campground and along the stream. Not far from our campsite I saw a Sportsmobile 4x4 Ford van and we stopped and chatted with the owner and his wife for a half-hour or so. They tell us they’ve been coming to Yellowstone for a decade and it has changed dramatically. Ten years ago if you had been here in October, you would have been alone but now it’s difficult to get a campsite. Also, the herds of elk have been decimated by the wolves and farmers all around the park have predation problems. The wolves brought in to re-populate are bigger and much more aggressive (according to these folks) than traditional Yellowstone wolves and the governments all to blame. I don’t know that I believe any of that but that’s what they said. I’ll have to look further into it but it doesn’t sound right to me.
We then spent the rest of the evening taking it easy after our long and very successful day.

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Saturday, 4 October -

This morning we first went to the nearby Cody Wal-mart to provision, gassed up, then headed for Yellowstone’s East Gate. We fought a strong headwind the whole 40 miles to the gate and across to Yellowstone Lake. We went to the Yellowstone Lake Hotel to look around and noticed the wind had died quite a bit and we had a really nice sunny day along the lake.
We then continued north, stopping in at most of the tourist stops. We had a good look at Yellowstone Falls viewpoints and that brought us around to the Canyon Visitor’s Center, where we saw a tourist film and educational displays about Yellowstone’s volcanic origin.
We continued north the rest of the afternoon, then turned into the Lamar Valley. At Slough Creek, we tried to get a campsite but there were none available.
We then drove back to the loop road and across to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we once again found the campground full. However, the guy at the desk gave us directions to two alternative sites. One was Eagle Creek Campground up in the hills above Gardiner (MT) and the other a roadside pulloff five miles north of Gardiner. We chose the latter so we didn’t have to go up the steep 2.5 mile road to Eagle Creek. We believe we had stayed there years ago and if memory serves, it doesn’t have much level ground. And with the elk hunters out in abundance this weekend, I’d bet we’d have a hard time finding a level-enough spot.
We found the roadside pull-off without problem and it has great views of the river and nearby mountains, but does, of course, have traffic going by.
We had supper and turned in early since we’ll be getting up early to return to the Lamar Valley to (hopefully) see wolves.

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Friday, 3 October -

This morning we left our snug little freebie campground in Ten Sleep Canyon and drove in to Worland, then turned northwest toward Cody. We drove to Lovell by lunch time. We went looking for some place to have lunch but ended up having sandwiches in the van in the parking lot of the Bighorn Canyon National Monument there at Lovell.
After touring the visitor’s center, we drove up into Bighorn Canyon, looking for bighorn sheep. We finally spotted about a dozen of them high on a hill but none had the characteristic curved ram’s horns.
We spent the next couple of hours slowing touring Bighorn Canyon’s overlooks and one of the historic ranches, then headed back to Lovell and on to Cody.
At Cody we sought out the library and took an hour or so to upload several videos for family. We then found our campground for the night at the west end of Cody at a small trailer park where we could get showers in the morning.
We then drove into town for supper, first trying a steak house but it was too crowded. We ended up next door at a Mexican restaurant and had fajitas and very strong margaritas.
Back at our camp, we turned in early--- around 2100.

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Thursday, 2 October -

Temperature overnight was 33 degrees but once the sun came up it quickly warmed ten degrees before we ever got up. We could have gotten away without the Buddy Heater but it felt very nice to dress by the glowing element.
After breakfast we drove up to the visitor’s center, pausing many times along the way as our vantage point on the Tower changed. The morning light on it was spectacular and changed as we spiraled up to the visitor center.
Upon emerging from the van, I first saw a climber’s platform high up on the rock. A ranger explained it had been left up there overnight by an IMAX film crew. A little while time later I heard a whoop and saw a climber up on the platform moving about and two more ascending to it with equipment on their backs.
After the visitor’s center we donned our day packs and began walking the Tower Trail, a 45-minute walk around the base of Devil’s Tower. The trail was a beauty. It led through the pines and boulders very close to the base of the Tower and gave us different views at every turn.
After a while, we were joined on the trail by a busload of Chinese tourists from Taiwan. They were very excited and chatty but also friendly. Fortunately, they moved along quickly so all we had to do was wait out their passing and chatting with a few of them. One even invited us to come see Taiwan!
After our walk, we drove back down to the campground and had lunch. We then took on a chore-- cleaning out the cooler. It’s actually an easy chore but does need to be done every two weeks or so.
We then drove back down from Devil’s Tower to I-90 West. We set the GPS for Sheridan, thinking we’d zip across the plains for a couple of hours, then head up into the mountains and camp somewhere in a Forest Service site.
But as we approached an intermediate town, Buffalo, we saw very black skies up toward Sheridan. We used the iPAd to see weather radar as we drove and it looked bad up there--- heavy blue indicating frozen precip. Also, we could see snow-capped peaks and it looked like it was actively snowing in the mountains.
At Buffalo, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center and talked with the agent about weather up that way. She confirmed they were getting hit and said the road we were planning to take was both steep and filled with hairpin turns. We took her advice to instead take a southern route-- US16-- west from Buffalo through the Powder River Pass in the Big Horn Mountains--- and on to Cody.
We climbed out of Buffalo slowly. Mocha Joe was feeling the altitude and the head-wind and climbed most of the time between 35 and 45 miles per hour. Fortunately, we had very few cars behind us.
After a while we started seeing snow at about the 8000-foot level. The girl at the visitor center said the snow is left over from a storm 3 weeks ago but that does not explain the blowing snow we were seeing today.
We stopped at Leaf Mountain Overlook to give the van a rest and take photos of Mocha Joe in the October snow.
We were very happy to see Powder River Pass and start our descent. As we neared Ten Sleep Canyon I pulled off for another cool-the-brakes stop and noticed something interesting on the Forest Service camping brochure. I had checked earlier and saw that only one campground remained open all year and it was at the 8000-foot level. As we passed it, we saw there was snow now and snow coming tonight. However, the interesting part was the fact that Leigh Creek campground at 5000 feet was closed but not gated. We could stay there free but could not expect services such as water pump, trash service, etc.
We took the next turnoff, Forest Road 18, to the campground and were very pleased to find Leigh Creek Campground was both ungated and beautifully situated on Ten Sleep Creek.
We picked out a site and chatted briefly with a young couple who had stayed here last night and were now headed over to Devil’s Tower. We then walked through the campground and up FR18 to the fish hatchery. Though the sign said visiting hours ended at 1700 and it was 1658, we walked through it, reading the exhibit signs and checking out Leigh Creek and Ten Sleep Creek. This hatchery is one of Wyoming’s most productive and specializes in Yellowstone cut-throat trout.
Labashi and I then walked back to our campsite and had supper, then I blogged and Labashi continued editing a video of our visit to her brother’s family in Ohio.



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Wednesday, 1 October -

This morning we woke to a clear sky and the sun coming up on the gigantic stone face of Chief Crazy Horse in the distance. Nice!
We drove to the Welcome Center and watched the intro film for about 45 minutes-- very well done.
We then began our tour of the facility and just kept going and going and going. We arrived at the Welcome Center at 0800 and were kept busy right up to lunch time perusing all the displays of Indian culture and the planning and building of the Crazy Horse mountain-sized statue. It’s just too incredible to conceive that one man did this and his family is carrying it on.
After our tour we lunched in the dining room. I had the tatanka (buffalo) stew and Labashi the Native American taco, both very generous in portion and very tasty.
Rain started just before lunch but we nevertheless drove on to Mount Rushmore, thinking we might be making a mistake. At the entrance gate, we were at first put off by an $11 parking fee but that turned out to include the memorial so that was fair after all. We first saw the massive stone heads of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln from the parking lot. I loved it!
Shortly after we parked the rain stopped and we viewed the work from the various viewing vantage points (several outside terraces and from the glass enclosure of the exhibits and theaters) at the visitor center. We then went inside and watched the introductory movie (time for an update, NPS!!!!) and toured the exhibit galleries. Again, an amazing engineering and artistic feat and quite inspiring.
After Mount Rushmore, we drove northeast across Route 387 to the towns of Lead and Deadwood and then on to our campground for the night (another hundred miles away) at Devil’s Tower National Monument. We arrived near the Tower just as the sun set and took a few photos but the sun didn’t quite co-operate in painting the Tower in light. Perhaps tomorrow!
We spent the evening catching up the blog (me) and editing a video of our visit in Ohio (Labashi).
Today was a good one! It started out clear and we got a good look at the Crazy Horse Memorial, then rained throughout our touring the museum inside. At Rushmore, the rain seemed to stop just after our arrival and we not only had good views, we were able to walk the trail under the Presidents. Then, late in the day, we arrived at Devil’s Tower in the last light of the day and set up camp among the impressive cottonwoods at the campground just as darkness fell and the half-moon came out. Nice!

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Tuesday, 30 September -

Overnight we had a small water leak in the upper seal of the back door. I noticed it early and simply stuffed in some paper towels to keep it at bay overnight. But today we needed to address it. We temporarily covered the back of the mattress with a waterproof tablecloth and that turned out to be a very good thing. After moving the van to the shower building to take our showers, we noticed the leak was a good bit worse but it was being re-directed away from our bed.
After showers we drove in to a “Do-It” hardware store and I bought two different types of rubber seal to address the leak. One is a 3/4”-wide by 3/16” foam tape with a sticky backing and the other is rubber air seal of similar dimensions. When I went to pay for them I discovered my credit card was rejected. I used another card and called my credit union to figure out what’s going on. The agent said they had sent me a new card due to the Home Depot data compromise so all I had to do was activate and use that card. That’s fine-- except the card is at home and I’m in South Dakota. Looks like I’ll just have to use the other card until I get home.
With the persistent rain, we needed something to do this morning so we drove to the nearby National Woodcarver’s Museum. This turned out to be a museum almost exclusively dedicated to one woodcarver -- Dr. Niblack---but he was quite a guy. He had spent some 70,000 hours woodcarving and was a master not only of wood but also of what Disney calls ‘animatronics’--- old-school gears, wheels, and wires moving the wooden characters.
The museum film was a great intro and the displays were kind of old-time kitschy in nature but displayed an amazing talent. We thought it a bit over-priced but not outrageously so.
After lunch the skies cleared so we took the van to an open area at the visitor’s center and I fixed the water leak problem. The worst of it was removing the hardened old foam tape I had used for this repair before. Hopefully, this new all-rubber seal will last longer.
We then drove to Hot Springs and ‘The Mammoth Site’. This is a really nice museum. It’s an indoor paleontological dig of a prehistoric sinkhole which trapped some 60 mastodons--- mostly Columbians and a few woolies--- plus a short-faced bear and other animals.
We were surprised how good this little museum is. It’s a community effort (as opposed to a university or major museum one) but the quality is very high. Everything from the displays and explanations to the laboratory to the book shop are all top-notch. We loved it!
We then drove back via Custer State Park and the Needles Highway. I had no idea the Black Hills had such spectacular scenery as we saw in the Needles Highway.... including two snow-white mountain goats high up the stone spires called ‘needles’. Our drive at sunset was incredible.
We returned to Heritage Village campground for the night and this time we could see the Crazy Horse Memorial in the distance. In fact we saw the laser-light show on it later in the evening.

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Monday, 29 September -

First thing this morning we drove to the nearest Ford dealer to (hopefully) get a new fuel filter installed. Last evening I found Greiner Ford and it was less than a mile from our Wal-mart overnight camp.
When I walked into the service department I steeled myself for a long discussion. I figured they had a full-up schedule and it would be a great stroke of luck for them to be able to work on the van anytime today or, more likely, tomorrow.
You can imagine my surprise, then, when I told the service advisor I needed a fuel filter and he said they could work on it immediately, He wrote down ‘fuel filter’ on the service ticket and asked for the keys. I figured this meant I’d get a surprise on the bill and asked how much. “$59.95”, he said. I said that sounded great.
Labashi and I grabbed our computers and went to the waiting room while Cole, the service advisor, drove Mocha Joe into the service bay. While the tech worked on the van, I uploaded the blog update and Labashi uploaded a video clip for Shilla. In less than an hour, Cole was back and said the bill came in a little less than the estimate--- $56-something. I could hardly believe it. They did the work for LESS than the estimate? And there were no “Hey, we noticed you need a new .......” sales pitches? Really?
I happily paid the bill and we moved on to the local Starbucks, again just a short distance away, to continue with some work on wi-fi. We then figured out where we were going (to the Black Hills!) and took a short detour to the local Staples for Labashi to shop for a laptop sleeve. We had been sharing my laptop bag and it was just a bit small and inconvenient. Somehow, she lucked out and found a nice sleeve--- actually a bag--- for $21 and it’s perfect.
After lunch at a Five Guys we got on the road and headed for the Hills. We drove for a couple of hours while listening to ‘This American Life’ episodes headed up the interstate. We then got off the ‘slab’ and drove through the Salt Creek Formation oil fields, Thunder Basin coal fields, and the Thunder Basin National Grasslands. These oil fields have produced since the late 1800’s and the coal is a favored lower-sulfur variety, making Wyoming a hotbed of activity. At Wright, we stopped at the rest-stop/museum and learned the area is also one of the top producers of uranium yellowcake in the nation.
Around supper time we finally came out of the grasslands and saw the first Black Hills in the distance. We made it to Custer and the Heritage Village campground just before dark. Our campsite was a reasonable $15 per night and supposedly had a view of the Crazy Horse Memorial-- but by then we it was raining and the hilltops were fogged in. We couldn’t see it!
We spent the evening snug in the van with a steady rain drumming on the roof.

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