After leaving Yellowstone, we thought we'd have a boring drive to our next destination. Wrong. We went through Bighorn National Forest. The mountains were beautiful, there were rivers and lakes, amazing canyon walls, about 1,000 deer, and MOOSE! I don't really know why, but we've really wanted to see another moose ever since we saw one in Jackson Hole. Well, throughout the forest we saw 5 more. It was a beautiful and entertaining drive.
Every trip has that moment, the one where you get a little homesick. It happened last night somewhere between Interstate 90 and Main St. in Sheridan, WY. Probably because we seriously considered sleeping in our car. After driving around Sheridan for a while, we realized that the town must think very highly of itself. Although it is basically in the middle of nowhere, they somehow believe that they are a metropolis that should charge ridiculous prices for a hotel. At around midnight, we finally bit the bullet and payed the discounted price of $80 for a Quality Inn. I guess that's better than the $100 for the Super 8. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.
The morning brought with it the results of a good night's sleep and therefore a better outlook. It also helped take care of that homesickness. After we got our money's worth at the hotel's breakfast, we set out for western South Dakota. On the way to SD, we stopped at Devil's Tower National Monument in WY. If you're not familiar with Devil's Tower, it is basically the inside of an old volcano (that's what Beau told me anyway) there is a picture at the bottom of this post, and if you're still curious I should reference the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
South Dakota, although very pretty and containing a lot of attractions, was not quite as exciting due to some rain. We planned to visit Jewel Cave and Wind Caves, as well as Mount Rushmore, but the only one we successfully saw today was Jewel. We do plan to see the other two, as well as the Badlands, tomorrow.
Although the rain did put a little bit of a damper on things today, we were still able to stop off at the Cosmos Mystery Area in Keystone, SD. It was a mystery because the building on the land had a "special force" that made everything appear to be slanted in a different direction, or taller when it was really shorter. Beau did point out that it was an optical illusion. Although he is, of course, correct, I enjoyed believing that is was some crazy place that has some cosmic energy that makes only that one spot on earth behave that way. Much more fun. (There is a picture after the post of our guide for the Cosmos area and another lady from our group)
Thanks to a gift card from Mom and Dad for Beau's birthday, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Outback before getting settled into Black Hawk, SD for the night. Tomorrow: Discover South Dakota.
No comments:
Post a Comment