Goodbye South Dakota, Hello Wyoming

Tuesday, September 28.

We are driving out of Custer, through the Black Hills National Forest, towards Devils Tower, Wyoming.  We saw a bunch of wild turkeys in the gulch on the left a ways back, and “wild” cows dot the forest.  They aren’t really wild, but there are no people or farms in sight.  The cows have yet to be rounded up for the season and I guess they are still roaming and chewing their cud.  Haven’t seen any buffalo today, they must all be in the corrals near the roundup, which according to the local paper included 1,100 buffalo.  We didn’t stick around to see the branding and inoculation because we’d been up since 4:45, and the sun was brutal by noon.  The Black Hills really aren’t black, but a deep pine green.  Pine trees cover the hills, leave the bright yellow quaking aspen and the areas that have burned to spur re-growth.   The aspen don’t seem to get as tall as the pines, they fill in the middle growth of the forest, and instead of lush shrubbery to cover the forest floor, in SD there’s a diversity of grasses and some undergrowth.  It’s an interesting terrain, and looks nothing like the forests of the midwest.  The clean, crisp smell of pine is strong here, and the air is incredibly clear. Cloudless bluebird skys have been our experience and we leave South Dakota having had an amazing time here. 

This is a fly by car picture, but you get the idea- greens and yellows and blues. 

In Custer, we were hosted by Steve and Marcia Pischke, family of our good friends Jim and Jane of Baraboo.  They were our T&B (tent and breakfast), we tented up in their backyard and befriended Sammy, the corgi.  I have officially become a convert to small dogs, Sammy is so intuitive, she has those knowing eyes and when Marcia or Steve would talk to her, she’d cock her head, listen, and think about her answer.  So great, we are really ready for a dog. 

Here you see Steve in the background, (next to me, your author), Sammy the corgi and Marcia sitting on the floor, and Jane has snuck her head in the corner.  Miss you guys already, and thanks for the tour guiding and hospitality.  It is so  much appreciated.  

Custer and the surrounding area is the first place I’ve ever been where people are actively prospecting for gold and other minerals.  Jim was telling us that in Custer, one can collect mica and feldspar and actually turn it in for $$.  We just drove through Lead (pronounced Leed) which is a current gold mining town. It had the look of a wild west town where horses might be tied up in front of a swinging door saloon.  We actually did find a swinging door saloon in Custer, Jim and Jane brought us to the incredibly classic  Gold Pan Saloon.  The floor was sawdust, there was a naked lady painting, there were nickel and quarter slot machines, and the beer came in frosty mugs.  No free popcorn or peanuts, but it was definitely an experience.   Maybe we’ll just stay here and make our fortunes as prospectors panning for gold. 

Cont’d Tuesday, 28th

On the way to Devils Tower, we drove through Spearfish Canyon, where the brook is clear and babbling, the pines jut out of the rock face, and the canyon walls border on both sides.  (That sounds an awful lot like a take on Garrison Keillor’s introduction).  I wanted to pull over and set up camp right there it was so picturesque.  In the distance, Devils Tower loomed ahead, unlike anything I’d ever seen before.  It’s a little ominous driving up, but as we got closer and closer, the forest around it came alive, and the color on the rocks reveal life, lichens and shrubbery.  The tower glows with color and life.  Devils Tower is a palpably powerful place.  American Indians sometimes call it the Bear Lodge and have tied it to much lore.  American Indians find it to be sacred for clear reasons, and many still come to pray and gather strength.  Prayer cloths are tied to trees, and in respect, are left tied year round.  Climbers love the tower as well for amazing climbing courses, and for the boulder field that collapsing columns create.  The boulder field makes me feel like a 10 year old again, I really want to scramble over the boulders and totter precipitously and feel the muscles in my legs work.  I think I will tomorrow.  The tower is made up of many clearly defined columns, stitched together to form a complete God like structure.  Theorists and scientists have settled on three creation theories as to how the tower came to be.  All three involve the earth upwelling and molten rock being pushed out of the earth.  As the earth cooled, regular columns were created, making divots and cracks.  As you get closer to the tower, the columns are defined, some are straight, reaching for the sky, and some are sloping, under some sort of weight.  This is not a perpetual structure, over time, entire columns weaken and come unhinged from the tower, collapsing and creating the boulder field that we walked through.  The last documented column collapse was in 1906, and eventually the entire tower will come back to the earth, columns collapsing and crumbling.  Being here, similar to the Badlands where erosion will flatten the rocks eventually, it feels temporary, we are viewing things that people of the future won’t see.  Looking at the columns, seeing where the rock cooled, and where columns broke off, it’s like watching time happen.  

The columns are visible, the bouldering fields fill in the foreground.

Nick took these two pictures of the tower, from our campsite, only 5 minutes apart.  The changing colors at sunrise were so lovely.  Pictures can't possibly do it justice. 

Nick expertly mounted our new hammock (thanks Katie and Emmanuel!) on two huge old growth trees, have I mentioned how beautiful our campsite is? And now he is swaying in the hammock, reading with a head lamp because it is completely dark by 8pm.  

If you look hard, you can see me lounging in the hammock in the distance while  Nick made a delicious dinner - pasta, sauce, and grotta!  Yum. 

We just got back from a dusk hike, which turned into a night hike because the night came up on us so quickly.  The trail took us right through a prairie dog town, of course whose natural predators are rattlesnakes and I walked through the grasses only a little skittish.  The prairie dogs were sleeping, and the rattlesnakes must have been down in the holes on the prowl because we didn’t see or hear any.   I did hear a rustle in the leaves behind me and snapped around to see a the green eyes of a big buck grubbing around for his dinner.  The deer here are so tame, earlier, we were able to tiptoe within 8 feet of a buck and doe eating near the side of the road.  

But the highlight of the night so far was walking back to the site along the road and the witnessing the emerging milky way.   The firmament expanded exponentially in the few minutes we were looking up and it was a special treat to behold so many stars.  The Big Dipper cupped Devils Tower so expertly, we were the only people around, so it must have been just for us.  

I wanted to add two little thoughts from the last few days.  I overheard a buffalo roundup cowboy talking to his wife about his horse, Scout.  She said, “How did Scout do with all the buffalo?”  The cowboy said, “Scout did great, he wasn’t spooked at all.  I however was spooked like Hell.”  

I snuck a picture of Scout's cowboy while he was walking away. 

  

And from the day before when we were walking around Sylvan Lake at Custer State Park, a ragamuffin family came walking around the bend with their fishing poles.  One of the sons was carrying about six beautiful rainbow trout hooked on a line.  A tourist couple was sitting on picnic benches nearby and the man said “Wow, look at those fish, we’ve been fishing the last three evenings and haven’t caught any.”  The boy showed off his families fish and the dad commented on how the fish were biting so well tonight.  The tourist man said, “I’ll trade you a fish for two beers.”  The dad responded, “What kind of beer?”  Nick and I kept walking around the lake and on the way back we talked to the tourist couple, and found that indeed the beer was up to snuff and an even better trade was made-- 1 fish for 1 beer and 3 corn dogs.  Everybody ended up happy, I think the kids were more excited about the corn dogs than the fish. 

Pristine Slyvan Lake, where brown and rainbow trout were jumping out of the water!