Day 16-20 -- Yellowstone, Custer Battlefield, Devil's Tower & Deadwood

I'm sorry for not posting more, but I have not had very good internet connections for the past few days until we got to our campsite here at Whistler's Gulch Campground in Deadwood, SD today.  Screaming, best internet we've had anywhere the whole trip.  

Here's a test I did on arrival.

I am sitting here in the trailer enjoying a nice cold Shiner Bock beer and Jeri is on her way in the Deadwood trolley to hit some casinos.  We're booked here for two nights to rest up a bit and enjoy the area--it's beautiful here in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  We found a grocery store over in Lead and stocked up on some groceries and yet another jug of Captain Morgan right after we got here.

Ah-h-h!!

One of Wild Bill Hickok's 1851 Colt Navy .36 caliber pistols--Oh, what I would have given to hold it in my hands for a few minutes!!!!

Native American diorama

Buffalo Bill Statue

Yellowstone turned out to be way under our high expectations.  It was really, really crowded even this late in the season.  The first campsite they assigned us in Grant Village was under water.  We went back and got what they said was the only campsite left and it was also mostly underwater.  Funny, but a really nice, high and dry site right next to us stayed empty the whole time we were there.  Am I pissed?  You betcha, after pulling a trailer all the way from Florida to visit Yellowstone, I expected much better.  Did I mention that it rained almost constantly?  Did I mention our fire pit was literally under water?

Jeri at Old Faithful--what a cutie!!!  It had just stopped raining.

  

Yep, Old Faithful!!  Not as impressive as I thought it would be.  (Maybe I'm a bit jaded in my old age??)

Kepler Cascade--quite impressive!

Jeri at Kepler Cascade--a bit leery of the heights of the viewing stand are we?  LOL

You cross it twice between Grant Village and Old Faithful

My Jeri is at home in the kitchen!!  Be it a full-blown kitchen at home or a galley in a sailboat or trailer she turns out great meals!!!  

Anyway, we cut our Yellowstone visit short a day and left on Thursday, instead of staying another night we had paid for.  Just our luck of the draw on the weather, I guess, but while we saw and experience Old Faithful, the Old Faithful Inn, Kepler Cascades and maybe a few other things, for me Yellowstone was the low point of the trip.  I expected it to be the second most high point (with Sami's wedding on the 26th to be the high point, of course!).

There was a nice young couple (Scott and Nicole) next to us and since our fire pit was under water they invited us over to share their campfire Wednesday night.  We contributed some of our fire wood.  They were from Colorado Springs.  We shared with them the campsite we found beside the Big Sandy Reservoir and I think they were going to try to spend the night there Friday night.

With a bit of sadness we left Yellowstone amid more rain.  While hooking up I discovered that I had jackknifed the trailer a bit too much getting into our campsite and moved one of the attachment points for the weight distribution system.  So, in the damn rain, I had to drag out some tools and correct it (easy).

Since we had already been to Cody, we had revised our route out of Yellowstone to go out the northeast entrance instead of the east so we could see the famous falls, but alas, due to snow the rangers had closed that road, so we had to go back out the east entrance to Cody and beyond--just one more disappointment at Yellowstone.

As we got up around 8,400 feet on the way out the rain turned to heavy snow, we took this video.  

To be honest, I think both Jeri and I were relieved to be out of Yellowstone and on our way to the Custer Battlefield in Montana.

We had a nice trip out of Yellowstone, through Cody and up into Montana where we spent the night at a very nice campground very close to the battlefield memorial.  We camped at the 7th Ranch RV Campground.  They even gave you your choice of ice cream sandwich free, so I gave Jeri the Fudge bar I got.  :-)  Least I can do for my number #1 girl!!

For some reason, I think because it was almost dark when we got there and I needed to grill the meat I didn't take any pictures of this place, but I'd rate it 4.5-star.  It rained during the night, but no problems...

Friday morning we got up and after a bite of breakfast we broke camp and went to the Custer National Battlefield Monument.  I toured most of the grounds on foot and I thought it was a beautiful, yet somber place.  I think the only credit I can give Custer for such a blunder is that he at least died with his men.  

As I gazed out over the grounds where over 250 men (and an estimated 40-100 Indians) died I swear I could see the dust, feel the chaos of battle, hear the whoops, screams, curses and feel the abject terror of the soldiers as they died one by one.  The feeling was almost overwhelming as I moved down the ravine where many of the men ran and died in an effort to escape.  I noticed that most of the markers indicated two to three soldiers died there.  I'm guessing they didn't want to die alone.  They had to know what was coming...  But I will say this--it was a beautiful place to die.

Custer's last stand--the marker with the black on it in the center is where Custer died.

Over 200 soldiers are buried under the green grass around this marker.

As you can see from the markers, men were fighting for their lives as they ran to get away.  What total TERROR they must have felt!!

After spending around an hour and a half at the monument grounds we got back on the road for Devil's Tower, where we spent the night at a beautiful KOA campground just below the Tower.  I think this place was the most expensive place we camped at $55 a night (discount for military or Good Sam--Jeri does this part of it), but it was very nice.  We had deer wandering all over the place and could see bison and long horns across the road.

We walked around the place while Jeri took pictures and spent several minutes visiting with other campers around the community campfire before going to our campsite to grill Bubba Burgers for dinner.  Jeri also whipped up this pasta salad to go with it.

Devil's Tower

 Devil's Tower was very impressive!!  If I remember right our son, Jimmy, climbed it a few years ago.  We had a lovely evening here.

Our rig In the KOA (our first) with Devil's Tower behind it.

Beautiful campsite, as you can see.  I'm going to hate to see this trip end, but I'm starting to feel the wind down as we head back east.  I just simply LOVE the West!

From the back side boulder field

We got up at daylight this morning and after coffee drove into the Devil's Tower National Monument, the nation's first, designated by Theodore Roosevelt.  This picture is from the backside.  Pictures from an iPhone 6 just don't do it justice!

Jeri in the boulder field below Devil's Tower--these boulders were HUGE!!

Longhorn Steer

Devil's Tower Trading Post across the street from the KOA

After spending some time at the Devil's Tower monument we headed back down to camp and I started prepping the trailer to leave while Jeri once again did her magic in the galley, whipping us up a different, delicious breakfast.  After eating we finished breaking camp and hit the road for-----wait for it----Deadwood, SD.  This was only about a 75 mile drive, so we got into Deadwood and signed into the Whistler's Gulch campground for two nights 

Our rig at Whistler's Gulch in Deadwood, SD

Jeri got finished with today's casino runs and came out even, I guess.  She rode the trolley to downtown and back and I picked her up at the bottom of the hill.  I grilled a steak for us and we had that and a nice salad and baked potato for dinner, then enjoyed a campfire until just a few minutes ago.  Some big concert is going on downtown and we occasionally hear strains of the music.  All-in-all, a good day!  Tomorrow, I want to visit Wild Bill Hickok's  grave and go downtown with Jeri and see some of the sites.  Day after tomorrow we head east to Windsor, IL and our granddaughter's wedding on Saturday, the 26th.