The Thompson ice fields are serene and beautiful. We've spent hours sitting out in the cool breezes watching mountains and clouds. At least until it got too cold (HA!). Valemount is a nice, uncrowded small town with a good grocery, nice restaurants (the Caribou Grill excellent), and a good vibe. The also have salmon spawning in Swift Creek, 1/2 mile from our site. Really amazing.
Also passed an exhibit foŕ the Invenergy project, a large wind farm. See your Daddy br a wind turbine blade?
Oil change in Billings, then on to Great Falls MT. It's wheat, hay and alfalfa up here -- with a backdrop of buttes and mountains. The fields are blond (wheat), tan (hay), reddish (wheat stubble), and green (alfalfa). They're serious about hay -- they even bale it up when they mow the road verges. They're harvesting now, and lots of big rolls of hay are still lying where they were baled, which gives a polka-dot look to the landscape.
And antlers and horns. And rocks (I couldn't figure out a way to afford the pink quartz rock AND transportation to Florida) (or even just the rock). Also did laundry, after we figured out that the Toyota dealership in Hot Springs that was going to do the truck's oil change was in Hot Springs ARKANSAS, not Hot Springs, South Dakota. Google kinda ignored the SD part of our query. Nice lady at the laundromat recommended "Burgers and Buns" as the best restaurant in town, which I thought said a lot about Custer. Well, wrong. Best food we've had in any restaurant since we left Tallahassee. Back to camp to collapse.
And onward to Custer, the town. Cute and full of bikers. They really love their buffaloes.
On to Crazy Horse. Bill in front of large model used to transfer measurements to mountain; Bill at museum center in front of mountain; A little closer view. Visible progress since we were here 3 years ago -- completed work ramps all the way up, removed stone to start blocking horse head, started work on hand. More millions of tons of rock removed. Progress is slow because 1) they're carving a MOUNTAIN; 2) mountain is not one solid rock and work has to proceed very deliberately for safety and to fit the sculpture into the mountain and 3) as the father of today's sculptors said, "don't blast off anything you might want to stand on later". It's a really remarkable story of an artist who had a dream and devoted his life to it -- and his family who are continuing his work. It will be the largest sculpture in the world when completed; it's already visible for miles and miles. The face is 80 feet high, the pointing finger they're currently working on is over 29 feet long. The horse's head will be 219 feet high. Faces on Mount Rushmore are 60 feet high. I'm just saying.
Yesterday was a walk first thing, then drive the Needles Highway. Guess which tunnel was the Needle's Eye?
After the Loop, we drove (very narrow dirt/gravel road that should have been one way, but wasn't) to the lookout on top of Mount Coolidge, with wonderful views from 6200 feet. Actually, wonderful views everywhere in this park.
1 Bill atop Mount Coolidge; 2 View north; 3 Closer up of the pentacles rock spires formation; 4 View east; 5 View south from lower on the mountain.
Drove the Wildlife Loop this morning -- saw a heard of buffalo grazing in the distance and a solitary male plodding along beside the road; as well as deer and prong horn antelope. Also saw people going crazy about the tame burros that roam the park. I'm pretty sure that Chetos, pretzels and marshmallows are not the recommended feed for burros.
And actually, we were that close to the buffalo. Just stuck the phone out of the window and snapped. VERY important to stay in the truck -- our chuck wagon singer told us ĺast night that 4 people have been injured ìn the last month because they got out and approached a buffalo to get a better picture. 2 had to be airlifted out. Really stupid. Those adult animals can weigh up to a ton, and they can run 35 mph. Don't look as though they are inclined to ignore annoyances or laugh them off, either. There are warning notices on every park brochure and signs everywhere.
Wind Cave is enormous-- just look at the picture of Bill standing next to a diagram of the reach of the cavern. We took a 1/2 mile tour through a very small portion of the very front of the cave, complete with 300 stair steps and lots of downward ramps with wet, slick handrails. The pic of Bill in the cave is at 265 feet below the surface. Just before we took the elevator back up. Really interesting, but I'd have liked a lot more geological details.
Got in late to Chadron State Park, partially because google took us to wrong address. Just pulled in, sat out and listened to night fall. This morning woke at 4:30 Mountain Time, showered (amazing how much hot water there is that early), watched a dozen little cotton tail bunnies dance and nibble grass, then took the scenic drive through the park. It's in the Pine Ridge area of Nebraska, a 4000+ high escarpment that has eroded to reveal buttes and canyons. Again, gorgeous, even with the evidence of destructive forest fires.
Photos- 1 Camping spot; 2 One bunny; 3 Very early morning photo of buttes; 4 View from the road
On to Chadron State Park via Scenic 61 past Lake McConaughy then through the Sandhills, a huge area of ancient sand dunes covering must of the northwest of Nebraska. They're covered with low prarie grasses. Really beautiful -- swooping hills, dry washes, little creeks and marshes. A few trees, mostly around ranch buildings. Lots of windmills and cattle. Views to forever that are impossible to capture with our cameras. A great drive.
