Custer State Park

June 15,
We continued our loop journey from the Iron Mountain Rd. to the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park. Not long after we started on the loop, we came upon a large herd of buffalo---unfortunately far in the field. We also saw some pronghorn antelope, closer than we'd seen before, some wild burros begging from cars. They seemed to know they were protected and just put their faces in any window that might provide them free food. We also saw large prarie dog towns and the best sighting was a lArge buffalo looking for just the right dinner. He was just MAGNIFICENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mt. Rushmore

June 15,
We arrived at the Mt. Rushmore KOA in the rain and mud. It is definately one of the most impressive campgrounds we've been in, located in one of the most beautiful areas we've ever seen. On Tuesday, we set out on the Mt. Rushmore-Custer State Park Loop. We were treated to many views of Mt. Rushmore, including Washington's profile. When we stopped to take pictures, even young children were impressed with view.

After seeing Mt. Ruishmore, we went South on the Iron Mountain Road. We came upon a bridge and wondered what road we were meeting. It turned out that road above the bridge was the one we would be taking, We also encountered many hairpin turns that enabled us to climb and descend the mountainous terrain.

You really have to look closely but the last picture shows when we came out of one of the tunnels......... Mt. Rushmore is framed by the tunnel.

From Cheyenne to Mt. Rushmore

June 14,
We traveled through the prairies of Nebraska and saw the outcroppings of rock-which were sort of surprising-thought it would be flatter. In the afternoon the clouds appeared and we saw rain for the fourth day. As we passed into South Dakota, the land became hillier and then almost mountainous. We made a wrong turn onto 79 and had almost decided on another route when Joe turned around to follow the original route.
Good thing because as we started up Rt. 385 through the Wind Cave National Park we came upon some wild buffalo...... We also saw some deer and the everpresent (but photo-shy) prong horn antelope. They always seem to so far out in the field that they can't be captured on camera. Someday....

We came through some very green and beautiful coutryside to the Mt. Rushmore KOA, even in the rain it is an impressive campground.

Peppers in the plaza

June 13,

After much debate-the rain just wouldn't stop-we set out for Cheyenne Depot and the Peppers in the Plaza Chili Cookoff (we have the apron to prove it). As you can see from the first picture, the day was very damp. Our new friends set up their canopy-all cooking must be done under cover, added another layer of socks-cold AND rainy, and set up their kitchen in the rain. Natalie was entering her first junior cookoff, Alexis and Matt are veterans and Alexis's father, Big John has already secured a spot in the World Cookoffs to be held in Manchester, NH in October.
I tried Alexis and Matt's chili verde(not on Joe's diet), thought it was very good------but it didn't win. Another entrant brought us tortilla wrapped, deep fried hotdogs which were also (unfortunately) good.
When the winners were announced, Natalie placed second and won an engraved chili pot. Not a bad start!!

All around the plaza were painted, oversized cowboy boots. We've seen horses, pigs, pelicans and turtles------first time for boots. We are in cowboy country!!!!!

Cheyenne, Wy.

June 12,
We made it to Cheyenne early last night, driving through some rain but apparently ahead of some wild weather. The storms caused the temperatures to go from record highs to 42 and rain this morning. Don't know how much of Cheyenne we'll see because it's just to cold to enjoy. But for a change we have cell phone, wifi and cable. We'll catch up and do some research on Yellowstone if the weather doesn't improve.

Royal Gorge Railroad

June10,
We left Colorado Springs and went to Canyon City to see the Royal Gorge and it's bridge. We decided the way to do this was the Royal Gorge train. We chose the vista car because it was too hot to ride in the open car. We were seated with a couple from the Cripple Creek area. They had friends visiting from Nebraska that are going to take part in a chili cookoff in Cheyenne this weekend, which we hope to get to. They all made the train ride fun and interesting. The train went through some very rough, mountainous areas with the Arkansas River running next to the track. The river was flowing fast from the quick melting of the mountain snow due to the unusually high temperatures for June. We got our view of the Gorge, the bridge and the tram way above us.
We thought the engineer in the old train looked strangely similar to Ted Fabricki. He shows up in the oddest places!

Cripple Creek and Manitou Cliff Dwellings

June 8,
By the time we realized we missed the cliff dwellings, we were headed out Rt. 24 toward Cripple Creek. We went through alot of beautiful country with a very low population per square mile. We arrived at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine--top picture-no desire to go 1000 feet in the ground, so we stopped at the Heritage Center where we could check out history above ground. We continued into Cripple Creek but were a little disappointed to find that Cripple Creek consists of 12 or 13 casinos and not much more. We left on Teller Rd. 1, where we saw the baby llamas and many more llamas.

We did finally find the Manitou Cliff dwellings. They had an interesting museum with woven and clay artifacts. We walked throught the dwellings which were really a series of small apartments. Most of the rooms were less than 6X8.