3) Devil's Tower, WY

This day had a lot of driving and touring crammed in. Guilty. Day's mileage - 380.

The last stop was a National Monument Campground at Devil's Tower, Wyoming. It was reached on a hilly back-roads highway as the sun faded.

The plan was to camp for the night, then tour in the morning. We used our National Parks Senior Pass for reduced camp fees - $6, dry camping.

May 15
I got up first, took a brief walk to see the sights in early morning light. I came across a prairie dog village/town/city adjacent to the campground. The critters are on the endangered list, so the nearest part of the campground was closed to vehicles. The 'dogs seemed to be doing well, they may end up owning the whole park.

After breakfast, we drove to the base of the tower. It was very quiet, with few people around when we arrived. Later, business was picking up. We enjoyed the solitude.

There is a mile+ paved path around the tower which we took at a leisurely pace. It is spectacular. There were a few parties in the process of climbing the tower. The night before we saw a solitary light half-way up it, apparently from someone who was night-climbing.

Ginnie at the edge of the rubble field. We weren't supposed to go higher than that without a permit; fine with us.

The climbers shown below are in this picture. How good are your eyes?

Use your imagination. This rock chunk has flat sides, ~6 sides in cross section and fell off the tower.This shot is looking end-0n.

2) Mt. Rushmore, SD

We were glad to see this, but it wasn't one of our highest priorities. We didn't give it its due, time was a constraint. There were hordes of other tourists along with us, snapping pictures all along the way.

1) Chamberlain, SD to The Badlands, SD

Up at 7:00am CDT (bodies still on EDT, RV on CDT), we had our usual breakfast of cereal and fruit. We didn't make coffee or cocoa, thinking that we would get same at a nearby fuel stop. We soon crossed the Missouri River (the first of many times, details to follow; take a guess at how many) headed towards our first fueling.

We had our first episode of the gas pump shutting down at $100, waiting for another pass of the credit card to fulfill a fill. Two other classmates pulled into the same station after us. Jean (John?) asked me "you spent $157 on gas?!?". They were still filling. I replied "have a nice day!" to which he broke up, laughing. Get used to it.

It was going to be a great touring day.

First stop, The Badlands of South Dakota. Incredible scenery, incredible terrain to try to cross before roads were built.

First sighting

This picture sums it up, squiggly road, beautiful but rough terrain, picture shot out the window from a moving Winnebago. Ginnie did a great job shooting on the run.