We left the Badlands and headed to Wyoming! On the way out, we saw lots of bighorn sheep!
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Both of us found it interesting that technically we have entered the Old West, but there is still much more to the West of us (like California!). On our way, we stopped by Mount Rushmore. We were lucky we got there early because by the time we left, it was fairly crowded already. We enjoyed reading about the four presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln), and we got to learn a bit about the whole process of creating Mount Rushmore. The credit goes to Gutzon Borglum for envisioning the task, but ~400 workers were involved in the creation. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in the process. It is incredible to think of their endeavor, especially given the fact that Mount Rushmore was made from 1927-1941. We drove by an entrance for the Crazy Horse Monument (a work in progress), and the tools that they have now for a similar undertaking to Borglum’s include lasers and higher-tech drills (vs. the good old-fashioned dynamite and “honey-combing technique with hand drills). We weren’t quite sure what to expect with Mount Rushmore, but we were quite impressed!
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From Mount Rushmore, we drove to Bighorn Canyon via Bighorn National Forest. It was a beautiful drive in such a different environment. It was hard to believe that we had just been driving in the plains! The temperature dropped considerably as we entered the forest, and the wildflowers were all abloom. The elevation gain gave us a good view point of South Dakota and Wyoming, and we saw the second highlight of our trip….MOOSE!! Neither of us have seen a live wild moose before, and we were very excited to just happen on TWO of them. The second one we saw we couldn’t capture in a photo, but it had giant antlers!! Bighorn National Forest was beautiful, and if anybody is driving through the area, we highly recommend taking the extra miles to drive through the forest.
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We arrived at our campsite in Bighorn Canyon Recreation Area shortly before sunset. We got some good viewpoints at Devil’s Overlook, and we had another animal sighting! This time, it was of a wild mustang!! The recreation area includes a wild horse sanctuary (the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range), and there are 120-140 wild horses that run free in the sanctuary. Apparently, genetic testing has tied them to colonial Spanish horse breeds or Spanish mustangs, which are considered a very rare breed. So we were very lucky we got to see even one!
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Trip Counter:
– Cumulative Caffeine Count: 19
– Extra states not counted as states: 6
– Puppy Count: 14
– Turtles saved while crossing the road: 1