Mt Rushmore Trip
August 25 – 29, 2014
So Mary says “since the camper is still loaded, let’s go to the place with the heads”. “Hmm – you
mean Mt. Rushmore?” I asked. “Yes” she said “That place”. So on Monday morning, Aug 25th, we
starting gathering up stuff and getting things done that needed to be done. Finally by about 1 pm we
were ready and headed north. Our goal was to reach the Craig, Colorado area for the night.
First though, we had to stop in GJ at Walmart to buy a new deep cycle battery for the camper. The
battery we had was just not charging properly any more. It had given me trouble the previous week on
my Colorado trip. That battery I had gotten in Yellowstone a couple years ago. So any ways, we
stopped at Walmart, changed out the battery and got a few more things and then headed east on I-70.
At Rife, Co. we headed north to Craig. The only campground I really could see on the map around Craig
was a state park about 10 miles to the east of Craig so we headed there. It was a nice state park along
the Yampa River. Colorado state parks are expensive to camp at, as they charge you a $7 entrance fee
and a $20 camping fee. Other states only charge the camping fee.
That night, just after dusk, a storm rolled in and it rained and thundered and the wind blew. But it
didn’t last long and we settled in for the night with a movie. The next morning I headed for the
bathroom to take a shower. Another thing I don’t like about Colorado state parks is that they charge
you $1 to take a shower. I put my 4 quarters in and a boxed “buzzed” and no water came out. What is
with that? I had no more quarters and didn’t want to walk back to the camper, so I just washed my
hair in a laundry room sink that was avail in the building. At least the water was warm.
So from Craig we continued to head north. Next stop was Rawlings, Wyoming. I have passed through
Rawlings several times, but never stopped for anything, but I had recently learned you can tour the old
State Penitentiary that is located there.
This prison was first put in use in 1901 and
closed in 1982. It replaced the Territorial
prison was located at Laramie, Wyoming.
It was quite an interesting tour. I think
every teenage should be taken on this
tour to show them what life would be like
in prison. It would not be fun there. The
cells were small and scary. We toured the
various cell blocks and work areas and
meal room. We saw the hanging room
and the gas chamber area. The guide told us various stories about break outs and other incidents. It
was very interesting.
Leaving Rawlings, we headed north some more and stopped at the LDS handcart visitor center at
Martin’s Cove. Back in the 1850s two handcart companies left late on their trip west and ran into a
major snow storm in the area and many died. The church has a visitor center there at the old Sun
Ranch house. I have been there before, but enjoyed seeing the place again. I wanted to hike out to
Martin’s Cove, but it is a 5 mile round trip and it was a hot afternoon, so I didn’t.
From Martin’s Cove, we drove up the road to Independence Rock. We are in the area were thousands
of pioneers crossed the country as they headed to Utah or Oregon or California. The goal of many of
the pioneer groups was to be at this rock by July 4th. Many people carved their names on the rock.
Mary wasn’t interested in walking over to the rock, so we headed north.
I wasn’t sure where we were going to camp that night, so I wanted to stop at the big BLM visitor center
in Casper for information. I wasn’t sure what time they closed and I hoped they were opened into the
evening, but I suspected they would close at 5. I was watching the time and I figured we were ok to
stop at the Walmart in Casper for a few minutes. I needed a toothbrush and a tail light for the
camper. Mary said she didn’t need anything. I got my stuff and saw Mary in the woman’s clothes. I
told her I had my stuff and I was heading out. I waited at the camper for 10 min for her and then
went looking. She was buying clothes. I told her we were sort of in a hurry. She finally came out and
we headed for the visitor center and got there right at 5. They had just closed.
So I had no clue were to camp that night. The map showed the best option was a state park 3 hours
away in the direction of Devil’s Tower. So we headed that way across the plains of eastern Wyoming. I
was hoping I would stumble across a BLM campground somewhere not on the map, but we didn’t. I
had to call Rindy to get good directions to the state park. We got into the area around 8 just as it was
getting dark. Lots of deer on the entrance road. The park is in a nice wooded area by a manmade lake.
We found a spot and set up camp for the night. I think Mary was mad at me because I was frustrated
at not getting to that visitor center by 5. Oh well. We settled in for the night. I was up early the next
morning and went for a walk. By the time I got back, Mary had a nice breakfast fixed up. We packed
up and headed north to Devil’s Tower.
Devil’s Tower is an impressive rock
sticking up from the eastern plains of
Wyoming. I have been there before,
but still enjoy it. There were no
ranger guided hikes to take. The
map showed that the trail all the
way around the tower was only 1.5
miles so I decided to go hike it. Mary
wasn’t interested so she stayed at
the camper while I hiked.
It was a nice hike all the way around
the tower. Through the woods for the most part. The weather was nice. The trail was easy. I enjoyed
it. It didn’t take near as long as I thought it might. I was back to the camper in less than an hour. This
was most northern part of our trip but we still had to continue east, so we headed southeast towards
the town of Deadwood, South Dakota.
Deadwood is where Wild Bill Hickcock met his demise back in 1876 while holding a poker hand of 2
Aces and 2 Eights. Here after called the “deadmans” hand – Aces and Eights. The town is built up
quite a bit now as a full tourist trap. I had hoped to stop and walk Main Street a bit, but Mary did not
seem interested in doing so. So we continued south. About 20 miles south of Deadwood we pulled
off to the side of the road and Mary fixed us a lunch.
We then headed for Mt Rushmore. You have to pay $11.00 to park and they even have a special
parking area for medium size RVs. It’s been 40 years since I was last at Mt. Rushmore. The heads on
the mountain all look the same, but the facilities are totally different now from what I vaguely
remember.
They now have a “presidents” trail that goes
closer to the mtn. than you use to be able to get
too. We tied in with a ranger guided hike on
this trail and learned about the construction of
the monument. It’s a pretty impressive story
and quite an impressive carving on the
mountain. We hiked this trail and checked out
many of the other displays.
We spent several hours there and then decided to head for our campground. I had Rindy make us a
campground reservation for a spot in Custer State Park. We wanted somewhere with electricity and
showers. It was Wed and this was hair wash night for Mary.
The map showed that if we went back down the road just a few miles there was a turn off to Custer
State Park. I was thinking - good, we can camp early tonight and relax. So we went back and turned
down the road to the park. Well – I got fooled again. This turned out to be 25 miles of slow, sharp
turns, up and over a mountain, thru tunnels that were almost too small for the camper. We even had
to stop once and get the tape measure out and check to make sure we would fit through the tunnel. It
was a pretty drive, but it would have been nicer on the motorcycle.
Finally we get to a park entrance booth. “Oh you have a camping reservation” says the entrance guy.
“That is great. That will be $15.00 to enter the park.” That is over and above the $35 we already paid
for the campsite. Like geeze. Then we still had to drive another 15 miles or so to the campground
along more twisty turny roads. And now it started to rain. It was a steady hard rainfall too.
Finally we got to the campground – two hours after leaving Mt. Rushmore. So much for camping early.
Glad I had a rain poncho to wear while I got the camper into position. It took us a bit to get it level, but
finally did for the most part, got the power plugged in and we were settled for the night in the rain.
Glad I wasn’t in a tent. Actually I like camping in the rain. I love the sound of the rain on the metal
roof.
Mary made dinner and then went off to wash her hair while I washed dishes. I had previously
downloaded some “indexing” files before we left home and I worked on them for a bit. When Mary
got back we watched a movie before calling it a night. The rain finally quit.
On Thursday morning we took our time getting up and going and then head east through the town of
Custer and about another 10 miles to Jewel Cave National Monument. I don’t remember ever touring
Jewel Cave before. There are two big caves in the area – Jewel and Wind – and I know I have been to
Wind before.
Jewel Cave is the 3rd longest cave in the world at this time with 170 explored miles and they estimate
only 5-10% has been explored. We signed up for the Scenic Cave Tour. They take you down 200’ in
an elevator to the cave. We then
walked and stopped and climbed up
and down many stairs. This was a real
pretty cave. I really enjoyed it. They
did a really good job to hide the wiring
and the lights so they didn’t distract
from the view.
The tour took about an hour and a half
and ended up back at the elevator, but
about 100’ lower. It was bright
outside when we popped out.
From Jewel Cave we headed back to the town of Custer. Mary had mentioned she would like to go to a
wood carving museum that we saw in all the tourist brochures. It was located just along the road on
the way back to Custer, so we stopped in. $10 apiece to visit this museum. Mary said lets go for it. So
we did. It was interesting. Not worth the $20 we paid, but still fun to view. What was most
fascinating is that wood carvers had made these intricate scenes – barber shop scene, old farm scene,
old out-house scene, etc. and they animated a lot of the little wooden characters. It was quite cute.
Just north of the town another mountain carving is in progress. This one dedicated to the Indian Crazy
Horse. They have been working on it for years, but only the face is done. Maybe at the most ¼ done.
You could see it from the highway and we decided there was no need to pay the entrance fee and get
and any closer. Rindy later told us you really don’t get to close to the mountain.
So we turned around and went back in to Custer and went to a Pizza Hut buffet. The buffet closed at 1
pm and it was now 1:10, but the manager said come on in and eat at buffet prices as it is all still set up.
So we did and enjoyed a nice lunch together.
We were not sure quite yet what to do next, so we headed back to Custer State Park to drive the
“wildlife” road. We had already paid $15 for this park and the ticket was good for 5 days. This wildlife
road travels down through the buffalo area of the park. It would for sure have been more fun on a
motorcycle, but it was pleasant.
Didn’t see any critters for some time, then off in the distance we spotted a lone buffalo and then
suddenly around a corner there was LOTS of buffalos. The main herd I guess. They were crossing a
small dirt road, so we drove up the road and had buffalos all around us. How cool is that. At one point
we had buffalos on one side of the road
and pronghorn antelope on the other.
It was just like the old west though as
you looked out over this huge heard of
buffalo grazing on the prairie.
Leaving Custer SP we enter Wind Cave
National Park. My thoughts were to
camp here for the night and take a cave
tour in the morning. They have a simple
campground. We decided to go to the
visitor center before we set up so we
could see cave tour times. There was a tour starting in just 10 minutes, and Mary said let’s do it now
and get this over with. I don’t think she really wanted to go.
Again you take an elevator several hundred feet down. This tour, as far as distance, was kind of short.
Still took an hour. The most interesting part of Wind Cave is “box work”. Rock formations that look
like little boxes that was formed centuries ago. I enjoy it. I think caves are fun. I would have like to
take a more adventurous tour, but the next one wasn’t till 1 pm the next day. It was a candlelight tour
where you go in just using candle light.
Getting back to the campground we searched around for a level spot and finally found one, except that
the land dropped off behind the camper. I had to use all sorts of wood blocks to make the steps work.
I could finally relax a little bit. The weather was perfect, the area quiet, and pretty. I sat outside
reading a book till the sun went down. At 8 pm there was short ranger talk about the stars and Indian
stories of the Lakotas. It was given by the same ranger that gave our cave tour.
I decided to get going early the next morning. It was 700 miles to Moab. Not sure if we were going all
the way home or not, but I was in an early mode. Up at 0630 and on the road by 7. We dropped down
to the town of Hot Springs for fuel. There was a Mastodon museum that sounded interesting, but we
were too early. We continued south and west.
There was a pioneer museum outside of the town of Douglas. I was trying to dodge traffic and look for
signs, but I missed them. Apparently Mary saw the signs, but didn’t say anything. The she was
perturbed that we didn’t stop. Well – speak up a little bit.
From here it was pretty much retrace our route home. I could have gone back through Denver, but I
didn’t want to drive through the town. We reached Casper and stopped at the Walmart where she
went clothes shopping again. I sat in the camper and read a book. I didn’t want to fight traffic to go to
the visitor center we had tried to stop
at on the way up and Mary didn’t seem
all the interested in it anyways.
I was watching time and distance. We
were making pretty good time. We
stopped in Rawlings for fuel and an ice
cream treat. Then it was back down to
Craig, Colorado. A sign outside of town
mentioned a free Gunfighter museum.
“Let’s stop” she said. “Sure – let me
know where” I said. We got fuel and
headed through town. I never saw any more signs related to it. “hmm – no more signs” I said. “Sure
there was – we went past the museum a little bit ago” she said. “Why didn’t you speak up and tell me
to turn” I asked. “I figured you just didn’t want to stop as you drove by” she commented. “All you had
to do was a say – there it is on the right” I commented. LOL what can I say. I just give up at times.
From Craig we dropped down to Rifle and back on the interstate to Grand Junction. “Let’s have dinner
in GJ” Mary said. After getting fuel we headed over to an Outback steakhouse, but it was pretty busy.
This was Friday evening after all. So we went down to the Golden Stake buffet. Dinner there is ok. I
was full when we left.
From there it was just truck along the last 100 miles to Moab getting home about 9:45. Almost 15
hours after leaving Wind Cave. It was almost like a Rock Springs trip for Chevy. Overall we had a nice
time. I did at least. I would have taken more cave tours if I had the time. I enjoy using the camper. I
don’t think Mary thinks much of it, but I enjoy it. I like to travel.