Day 28 - Saturday, Oct 21 - Ft. Collins, CO to Mt. Rushmore, SD to Hill City, SD
Starting mileage: 7148 Starting time: 8:30 am
Ending mileage: 7501 Ending time: 5:30 pm
Travel mileage: 353 Travel time: 9:00 hours
Leaving Fort Collins, it is just a short way up I-25 to Wyoming and rolling prairie that we would be traveling through most of the day. There were electronic signs warning of 50+ mph winds and our car was certainly being blown around. A wind farm on one side of the road had all the turbines spinning but the wind farm on the other side didn't have any turbines turning, strange. The wind must often be very strong as most houses had tree windbreaks planted on the west side of the house and cattle were huddled behind wooden shelters along the road. There are also functioning old-fashioned windmills that pump water for the cattle on the range and occasional pump-jacks slowly bringing up crude oil.
We passed incredibly long trains of coal (bad coal!) cars loaded to the top.
I suspect the little town of Lusk, WY is a speed trap. The speed on the main highway coming into town is 70 mph. Immediately coming over the crest of a hill, there is a 30 mph speed limit sign with barely enough time to slow down. Nobody driving in town was going over 30 mph.
In a number of places we saw Pronghorn Antelope, deer and bison. Carmen was reminding me of "... where the buffalo roam, where the deer and antelope play ... "
Our main objective was Mount Rushmore but we saw that Wind Cave national park was along the way so decided to stop by. Unfortunately, all the tickets for cave tours were sold. The park was one of the first places used for bison restoration in the early 1900s as the terrain was similar to Yellowstone, the only place where bison still lived in the wild. We saw a number of bison but not the large herds that live in the park.We also saw large areas with hundreds / thousands of prairie dogs. They are certainly cute standing up on their hind legs but I couldn't get close enough to get a photo. (One of the early owners of the Wind Cave died after being bitten by a prairie dog...)
It was only about an hour drive to Mount Rushmore - it still looks about the same as when I visited with my grandparents! It is certainly a dramatic portrayal of 4 of the most significant presidents in US history. It looks like there is still room for one more - hopefully not for Trump. We watched a video about the construction of Mount Rushmore which was pretty amazing.
We are staying the night in Hill City, one of the towns closest to Mount Rushmore. This is largely a tourist town and some of the restaurants are already closed for the season and others are only open Friday - Sunday. Fortunately, we did find a place for dinner.
Ending mileage: 7501 Ending time: 5:30 pm
Travel mileage: 353 Travel time: 9:00 hours
Leaving Fort Collins, it is just a short way up I-25 to Wyoming and rolling prairie that we would be traveling through most of the day. There were electronic signs warning of 50+ mph winds and our car was certainly being blown around. A wind farm on one side of the road had all the turbines spinning but the wind farm on the other side didn't have any turbines turning, strange. The wind must often be very strong as most houses had tree windbreaks planted on the west side of the house and cattle were huddled behind wooden shelters along the road. There are also functioning old-fashioned windmills that pump water for the cattle on the range and occasional pump-jacks slowly bringing up crude oil.
We passed incredibly long trains of coal (bad coal!) cars loaded to the top.
I suspect the little town of Lusk, WY is a speed trap. The speed on the main highway coming into town is 70 mph. Immediately coming over the crest of a hill, there is a 30 mph speed limit sign with barely enough time to slow down. Nobody driving in town was going over 30 mph.
In a number of places we saw Pronghorn Antelope, deer and bison. Carmen was reminding me of "... where the buffalo roam, where the deer and antelope play ... "
Our main objective was Mount Rushmore but we saw that Wind Cave national park was along the way so decided to stop by. Unfortunately, all the tickets for cave tours were sold. The park was one of the first places used for bison restoration in the early 1900s as the terrain was similar to Yellowstone, the only place where bison still lived in the wild. We saw a number of bison but not the large herds that live in the park.We also saw large areas with hundreds / thousands of prairie dogs. They are certainly cute standing up on their hind legs but I couldn't get close enough to get a photo. (One of the early owners of the Wind Cave died after being bitten by a prairie dog...)
It was only about an hour drive to Mount Rushmore - it still looks about the same as when I visited with my grandparents! It is certainly a dramatic portrayal of 4 of the most significant presidents in US history. It looks like there is still room for one more - hopefully not for Trump. We watched a video about the construction of Mount Rushmore which was pretty amazing.
We are staying the night in Hill City, one of the towns closest to Mount Rushmore. This is largely a tourist town and some of the restaurants are already closed for the season and others are only open Friday - Sunday. Fortunately, we did find a place for dinner.
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| Day 28 route |
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