Day Twenty One

We were out the cabin, car packed and ready to leave it for the last time by 10am. It was a lovely quiet place and a lovely cabin, it will be missed, although I won't miss the shower. I think I have a crick in my neck after three days with a beam at head height next to the shower head.

We dropped the key back into the mailbox down the road where we found it and headed on east. Soon we reached Bighorn National Forest which is situated along the Bighorn Mountains. Ann pulled over and made me drive as the road got steep and bendy with good old sheer drops. We reached around 2800m above sea level. The view from the top was pretty good

Long way up

We also saw some wildlife living up there too.

Bambi??

Eventually we had to wind our way down the other side and then kept on across to pick up I-90. After four hours of travel we stopped for lunch at The Breadboard in Buffalo. It was a bit like a subway although slightly more upmarket. Subs were good.

We drove another 133 miles after lunch heading east on I-90 before turning north at Moorcroft. Eventually we  reached our first stop.

Devils Tower

You may recognise Devils Tower from 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' or the film 'Paul'. If you are Bob, you don't recognise it at all.

We went to the shop and bought a magnet before completing the trail all the way around the tower. It seemed to last for ever although it was about a mile and a quarter. We saw people climbing on it. They looked quite small in comparison.

Can you see him?

As we drove out we spotted a lot of these little fellas at the side of the road. They are Prairie Dogs and there is a special reserve for them by the tower to help their dwindling numbers.

Best photo ever

Then as we drove out the area we suddenly spotted more wildlife. Something we had hoped to see earlier on but had failed to do so. We did better this time.

Good bison

Ann had told us that we only had to drive another half an hour to the hotel. That turned out to be an hour and a half. As we drove we saw deer everywhere, even in the road which we managed to avoid. We crossed the border into South Dakota and eventually we reached Deadwood.

Checked in and got our stuff to our rooms before heading down for pizza in the hotel. It has a casino of sorts in it. Looks pretty naff. Deadwood seems to have a lot of them.

States Visited - 8

Deer watch - Extremely high

Prairie Dog watch - High

Bison seen - 2