9-10-2021 Piedmont, SD

 The route to Piedmont could have been easy:  Interstate 25 to Interstate 90.  But that isn’t how we like to do it.  The little skinny black and gray roads became the route de jour.  It was bumpy for some miles, very windy through the grasslands, but cattle, wild horses, hawks and speed goats accompanied us as we traveled.

 

As we studied our maps and routes it jumped out at us:  Devil’s Tower.  Yes, it was a bit out of the way and added a couple of hours to the trek but it beckoned.  I’d have to say the E.T.s were perhaps holding our hands and saying, “You gotta see this.  Come this way.”

 

Devil's Tower - a close encounter

Well, I do believe we’ve had a close encounter.  It was imperial majesty rising 867 feet from the base to the summit reaching toward the sky.  It stopped our vehicle and our hearts.  How in the world did it get there?  Nobody knows for sure, it’s all conjecture.  It’s what remains of the core of a volcano.  Or it is an “extrusion.”  Here is the Indian lore:  An Indian maiden was being chased and cornered by several black bears.  She climbed up on a rock and prayed to the gods to save her.  In this case, the gods heard her prayer.  The rock and the area surrounding her rose into a tower with her on top.  The grooves in the mountain are the claw marks from the bears that tried to reach her.  In 1906, Teddy declared it our first national monument under the Antiquities Act.  So, Wyoming is the home of our first national park (Yellowstone) and our first national monument.  Oh and by the way, 4,000 people per year climb this beast, the first ascent occurring in 1893.  I had no interest in hiking around the bottom so do I wish to climb it?  (The short answer:  no.)

 

Connie and Gary

We continued on the smaller obscure roads and are now camped at Elk Creek RV Park in Piedmont, SD, about a half mile from our friends, Gary and Connie.  We met them on the pickleball courts in Pahrump and our friendship lives on, happily.  A little aside:  Gary was an Air Wisconsin pilot so his nickname is, “Captain.”  He and Connie lived in Neenah for 20 years.  So we are spending some quality time with our friends, which began on the pickleball courts.  I was rusty but we had a lot of fun!

 

In the afternoon, we stopped for lunch in Hill City at the Alpine Inn.  Hill City sprang up in 1876 with the discovery of placer gold and later, tin, in the Black Hills.  Hill City was nicknamed, “One mile of Hell,” because there was a church at each end of town and a mile of hell in between due to saloons, gunfights and general mayhem.  The inn was acquired by Wally Matush, an immigrant from Germany, and she beautified the inn to its current configuration, embellishing the ambience with German cuisine.  Her wish is to be buried in the basement of the inn because she wants to haunt it.  FYI, they serve schnitzel to my spouse’s everlasting delight.

We four 

 

Back to the courts with
The Captain and Connie

Our next day, Sunday, began once again with pickleball, this time in Spearfish.  Then, The Captain and Connie wanted to show us the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, one of the oldest hatcheries in the US.  It is here that D.C. Booth decided in 1896 to pull a wagon load of barrels full of trout eggs to this area from the Yellowstone Hatchery in WY (which he established).  He thought the trout would love it here.  They do.  The Hatchery breeds thousands of 4 different kinds of trout:  rainbow, cutthroat, brown and brook and has released 2-4 million trout into the Black Hills rivers and lakes in one year.  My personal opinion?  They look delicious and it made me hungry! 

Dinner on the fin!  Yum!

 

Next, they thought we should go for a ride into the local hills on their side-by-sides.  The sky was blue and the rolling hills stretched to forever.  A point of interest was the Miles City Wagon Trail Crossing.  This trail was established in 1878 and ran 200 miles from Miles City, MT to Deadwood, SD.  Calamity Jane often rode shotgun.  Love it.  

Marker Miles City Trail Crossing

The beautiful SD countryside

 

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we are now home, dusty, sweaty, dirty and grinning.  We hugged our friends and said, “Good bye until next time.”  Next stop:  Nebraska.