Monday, June 5^th, 2017

 

Today’s drive to Devils Tower Monument, WY, would take us through the old gold rush city of Deadwood.  This was the site of the last big frontier gold rush.  Old West legends Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane lived and died in Deadwood.  In the 1870’s Deadwood was a bustling, lawless town.  As the gold rush subsided, it became a near ghost town.  In an effort to revitalize, gaming (legalized gambling) was established for survival.  It’s unfortunate that today it remains a tourist attraction, not for the history, but for the gambling.

 

We stopped around lunchtime and it was extremely hot!  Old Main St was interesting in that many of the shops shared space with their neighbors.  For example, Marie and I were looking for tops, and as we went to the try-on room we were greeted by a bunch of guys sitting at a bar, ogling all the women as they walked by...very strange!

 

We arrived at Devil’s Tower around 3 and couldn’t believe the magnificence of it!  This was the nation’s first national monument, designated by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.  The monolith (butte) rises 867 feet from its base into the blue Wyoming sky.  Mother Nature began creating this wonder 60 million years ago!!!!!! It’s a volcanic intrusion that fractured into columns as it cooled underground.  Over the years, erosion brought on by the Belle Fourche River and the weather exposed the core.  The rocks and boulders around the base of the tower are actually broken pieces of columns having fallen from the sides.  It is a sacred symbol to the Native Americans who have visited this site for hundreds of years.  It was even featured in the 1978 “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.  The campground actually shows the movie every night!

 

The Indians have their own version of how the butte was formed.  Five native girls were playing off on their own, away from their family.  Several bears approached them and the girls ran to the top of a hill.  They prayed to the great spirit to save them from the bears.  As they prayed, the mound began to rise higher and higher into the sky, while the bears continued to claw at its sides.  When the tower reached the sky, the girls turned into stars which form the constellation, Pleiades. The striations on the side of the monolith are purported to be the bears’ claw marks.

As Eddie was beginning to get our fire started (we didn’t have a grill… had to go off site), a huge wind came up and blew everything askew... Marie had just set the table!!  The wind then brought the rain!!!  Thunder and lightning … we were cozy as bugs in a rug.

 

Tuesday, June 6^th, 2017

Rise and shine and on the road by 6am!  We had a 5-hour drive to Cody, WY.  We took the Cloud Peak Skyway, that traverses the southern Big Horn Mountains.  Ed drove this section of the trip, and it was breathtaking.  The vistas were of distant snowcapped peaks, and sheer cuts of mountain, in shades of green.  The Shoshone river rushed along either side of us as it crisscrossed under the road. 

Arrival in Cody, The Rodeo Capital of the World (yee-ha!), by lunchtime.  After getting set up at the campsite, (it was a weird set-up but ours could’ve been worse!), we walked into town for lunch.  We ate at Annie’s, that was once the site of a jewelry/pharmacy!  The old pics were great!  We tried to take the trolley city tour, but it was sold out. 

Cody is home to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, where you can experience the Old West as it was.  The museum encompasses five museums, displaying stagecoaches and an impressive firearms collection.

The afternoon was spent relaxing and getting ready for the Rodeo!!  I’m not really sure what I expected, but it was certainly nothing like I’ve ever seen before.  Marie was the rodeo clown’s best audience!!  She laughed at ALL his jokes and some of them were a little lame! 

The rodeo was divided into events:  riding bucking broncos, (Men’s)calf tying and roping, (Women’s)tying, Junior bull riding (worse than hockey!), barrel racing, team (men and women) tying and roping.  Not too many cowpokes even scored!  We weren’t sure of the scoring but it didn’t seem like many winners!

What was interesting, was that not only did the event begin with singing the National Anthem, but also with a prayer, asking blessings on the participants, the spectators, and the livestock.  It was very moving.

After we got over the initial shock of the seemingly callous treatment of the animals, we settled in to actually enjoying it and rooting for the animals!!

I thought we’d see more Annie Oakley type things…like fancy horseback riding – perhaps hand stands on the saddle, or hanging off the saddle – then I realized that I’ve seen those things at the circus!!  This was a REAL RODEO!!!!  It was fun, but NOT a do-over.  Bucket List – check!

 

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Another early day, on route to Montana!!!!  We have a one nighter on our way to Glacier National Park.  Got here about 12:30, found a coffee shop for lunch then stopped at Walmart to replenish our pantry.  Got to the campground, set up the site, sat poolside for a while (though it’s so hot, the water was ICY) and now getting dinner ready.  Happy Trails…