Saturday, Aug 15 - Custer State Park and Badlands Rustic B&B

Woke up to a nice morning, but threatening skies. We made a great breakfast of fried potatoes and spam. Gary told us all where spam came from (a factory in Austin, MN, right?), but it sure was tasty. Gary rigged a shower behind our campsite for anyone that wanted to use it. No takers, but several of us did a bucket wash of our hair. Then, while we were tearing down camp the rain set in. We had tempted fate one too many times, and now we were paying the price for lingering a bit too long under threatening skies. We even got a bout of hail along with the rain! We had two bouts of rain that morning, and we tried to put things away in the time between rainfalls. Finally on our way, we headed NE towards Casper, WY.

Before reaching Casper, we stopped at Independence Rock, a large granite hump in the middle of nowhere, 130 ft high. In the mid-1800's, settlers traveling west through Wyoming would stop here, some carving their names on the rock face. The venture crew climbed the sloping hill to the top, where they were met with awesome views of the surrounding area, but also some wind-blown rain! After returning to the vehicles, we finished the last 60 miles to Casper with heavy rain the entire way. It was good we stopped when we did!

Our destination that night was south of the Badlands, and while there may have been a shorter route coming into South Dakota from below the Black Hills, we chose the interstate route through northern Wyoming because of the greater speed limit and better roads, expecting to make better time even though it might be more miles. We lunched in Gilette, WY (Taco Bell! We loved it!), then on to the Black Hills. The scouts were hoping to see a herd of bison, and Gary’s plan was to enter the Badlands from the West in hopes of spotting the herd that might be visible at that end of the park. The scouts suggested we drop deep into the Black Hills to Custer State Park where the Wildlife Loop is almost always dotted with bison herd, so we arrived at Custer State Park around sundown. Early in the loop we did spot 5 bison, but we headed further along on some gravel roads hoping to spot a larger herd. It was getting very dark, but we finally stumbled on a small herd (a male, 3 females, and several younger calves) VERY near the road. We stopped near them, and we could hear the male grunting as he grazed, and listened to the tear, tear, tear of the grass as he grabbed a mouthful of grass every second or two. His grunts became a little more earnest when Chuck got out on the far side of his vehicle for a picture, something the bull did not like – and Chuck did not linger! We sat there for 10 minutes or so with the vehicles off so we could listen with our windows down. It was really impressive the size of the male, and his noises.

We headed out of the park and the long hour drive to our destination for the night – the rustic 1880 one-room homesteader cabin (#3)(complete with kitchen hand pump for water and nearby outhouse) below the cliffs of the Circle View Guest Ranch near Interior, SD. We arrived at 11 pm, and we all claimed a spot on the floor, one of the two beds, or even the screen porch outside. After settling in around the kerosene lantern in the kitchen, we all talked about our impressions of the trip. I told how a couple of times I asked the group if we were missing someone when we were huddled together for a lunch or campfire. It seemed hard to fathom that 8 people could be in such a small space – there must be someone missing! Considering this later, I came to the conclusion that we had become very tight as a group, and that we were so comfortable with each other that being together in such proximity was a very common practice while in the mountains, and that I’d miss that when we would go our separate ways tomorrow. When someone asked for a ghost story, Gary substituted the true story of the Wounded Knee Massacre, which took place just a few miles from where we were staying. Then finally, Gary finished the evening with a story he had been promising the whole trip – the story of that American Icon, Nate the Talking Snake. One of those “had to be there” things! After the groans at the punch line, it was time for bed.