Chapter 4

After breakfast this morning, we took a little walk around Greybull. It didn't take long -- the town extended for about one block in each direction from our hotel, the historic Greybull Inn.

Our first stop was only 10 miles from Greybull, yet the travel time was 27 minutes ... because the last 5 miles were on a swoopy dirt road. This road led to a BLM-administered site, called the Red Gulch Dinosaur track site. This is site that belonged to a rancher, who discovered the tracks one day. He then gave the land to the BLM, which has set up a great site with lots of information and help so you can find the tracks. One thing they don't know, is what kind of dinosaurs made the tracks. Not only were the tracks interesting, but we really enjoyed the silence. There was no noise of any type out there.

Next, we drove over the Bighorn Mountains. The geology and rock formations along the drive were fantastic, and the views were amazing. Not only were they spectacular, but there were labels telling us how old certain formations were. We had to stop several times just to look around. We drove over the pass, which was 9030 feet high -- the highest point on our trip.

We then drove down, down, down to the flat part of Wyoming, and all the way across the state. We passed a huge coal mining operation, oil derricks, and lots of empty space. Just after crossing into South Dakota, we headed south, towards the Black Hills.

We drove to Custer State Park, a place I picked out months ago as somewhere I definitely wanted to go. We first drove along the Needles Highway. It passes around between and through fantastic rock formations that look like needles, or actually more like fingers. There were several one-lane tunnels. We also saw, twice, a mother mountain goat with her baby. (I lost my photos of Custer, so some are Nora's and some are Google's)

Then we drove along the wildlife loop, also in the state park. Shortly after starting we saw a buffalo, and a few deer, and then we rounded a corner and saw hundreds of buffalo. They were walking along the road, and in fields and ditches. They walked in front of, behind, and to the right and left of the car. One even licked the bumper! This went on for several minutes, and every time we thought we had seen them all, more kept appearing. So many buffalo!

Further down the road, we saw, off in the distance, a herd of pronghorn, a group of burros, and a herd of elk, along with a few prairie dogs. A little further on, we were in a burro jam, with a group of burros all around the car. We saw more deer, and one more pronghorn, before we had to leave.

We drove down into Rapid City, surrounded by very dark clouds and lightning off in the distance. we quickly checked into our hotel, and went to a nearby Indian and Nepalese restaurant for a great dinner. The server told us we looked cold (it was pouring when we ran from the car into the restaurant), and gave us all cups of chai. We enjoyed the meal, and watching a lightning storm out the window.