June 1 - 4

Wednesday, June 1 was our 43rd anniversary. We drove from Rapid City, South Dakota to Sturgis. Then we took scenic route Highway 14A in a loop through Deadwood, Lead and through Spearfish Canyon. It was a very pretty drive.
After getting back onto I-90 and right before the Wyoming border there was a buffalo jump.

The Plains Indians depended upon the buffalo for many of their material needs - food, shelter, clothing, tools, fuel and ceremonial objects. Tribes joined in communal hunts by driving herds of buffalo over a cliff where animals were killed, butchered and processed in mass. There has been archeological digs here and because of the shape of this particular hole much has been preserved.

We went to Devil’s Tower National Monument after eating lunch in Hulett.



What an unbelievable awesome mammoth piece of rock. We walked the 1.3 miles around the foot of it and even saw some climbers who were about half way up. (The climbers are not us.) The shape of the rock was fascinating.


And we found more prairie dogs. I am sure that folks who live in the areas where there are prairie dogs find them pests but I loved watching them.


We even saw some babies.

We stayed the night in Hulett, Wyoming at a very nice Best Western.

Thursday we drove to Billings, Montana and stopped at Little Bighorn Battlefield on the way. The weather was in the high 70’s but there was quite a wind. The Battlefield was very well marked and it was quite interesting. It stretched over about 5 miles. The white markers are U.S. soldiers


and the red are Indian.

We listened to a cell phone tour as we drove to see the different spots.
There is also a National Cemetery here.

Friday was a drive day and what a day. We drove from Billings to Conrad, Montana which wasn’t that overly long but it was raining with a very, very strong wind most of the day. It was flat grassy land with a few rolling hills and almost no trees. And there was nothing. We ate lunch at a fork in the road restaurant that was extremely busy as there was nothing else around. But the food was delicious.
Saturday we headed west to the east side of Glacier Park and then along the southern end of the park. These are the snow capped mountains we saw as we drove.

We went through Columbia Falls and Whitefish and then north into Canada. We were only at the border crossing for about 10 minutes or so. When we crossed in 2009 we had a fully loaded van. This time it is not loaded to the ceiling.