We left the hotel at 8:00 am and the temperature was 46*. We were looking forward to driving through Spearfish Canyon. Our first stop was at Roughlock Falls. There was a nice picnic area and some small falls. We hiked down to the falls and it was absolutely breath-taking! We stayed here awhile just enjoying all the scenery and the sound of the falls. We only saw a few people here.
Driving through Spearfish Canyon
Roughlock Falls
Area around Roughlock Falls
Roughlock Falls
Linda at Roughlock Falls
Roughlock Falls
Our next stop was at Bridal Veil Falls. It is a 60' fall and had a lot of water from snow melt coming down. This one was right beside the road. We watched a couple people climb part way up the falls. They had to cross the creek to get to it though.
Bridal Veil Falls
We arrived in the town of Spearfish and decided to check out the DC Booth Fish Hatchery. We've seen a lot of fish hatcheries but this one was real different. A lot of the medium size fish were kept in ponds instead of concrete "pools". We learned that trout are not native to the Black Hills area and were imported on trains. This hatchery was completed in 1899 and started with 100,000 trout eggs. Years later the hatchery closed but reopened in 1989. Between 20,000 to 30,000 rainbow trout are stocked from here each year. There was a real nice museum with lots of information and it has the largest collection of fisheries artifacts in the country.
In the late 1800s, fish eggs and small fish were transported by train. By the 1940s they were transported by modern tank trucks. By the early early 1920s, the fish cars had carried over 72 billion fish across more than 2 million miles of track.
In the late 1800s, fish eggs and small fish were transported by train. By the 1940s they were transported by modern tank trucks. By the early early 1920s, the fish cars had carried over 72 billion fish across more than 2 million miles of track.
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DC Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish, SD
DC Booth Fish Hatchery
DC Booth Fish Hatchery
DC Booth Fish Hatchery
U.S. Fisheries Boat #39, a wooden "Great Lakes" style cabin cruiser, tells the story of early hatchery workers who went on expeditions to Yellowstone National Park to collect trout eggs to be returned to the hatchery and stocked in the Black Hills.
Inside a Fish Car - this is how fish
were transported to South Dakota
were transported to South Dakota
Taken just because I liked the name!
After leaving Spearfish, the mountains disappeared and the land became flat. We saw lots of cattle. Near the state line we saw some antelope.
About noon on, we crossed the South Dakota/Wyoming border. We stopped at the welcome center for information and ate lunch in their picnic area. While inside, they were showing live video from Yellowstone and it was white-out snowing! We'll be there in 3 days! If you were towing a boat, you were required to stop here to have your boat checked for zebra mussels.
Wyoming
Wyoming Countryside
Not far from the Wyoming border, we came to the Vore Buffalo Jump. We had read about this place but found found out it didn't open until June 1st. We decided we'd stop by anyway and see what we could see through the fence. They had training going on for the summer employees and the owner himself welcomed us and told us to go on in and have a look. He explained it all to us and told us about the archaeological dig that is still going on in the big hole. There was also a museum with lots of pictures and stories. Exhibits explain how the Indians used the sinkhole as a trap and processed the meat and other products from the bison. You know Conrad was certainly in his element here!
Vore Buffalo Jump, Beulah, Wyoming
The Vore Buffalo Jump looks looks just like a big hole in the ground but it is a 200-foot wide natural sinkhole and is more than just a pit. A few hundred years ago, American Indians drove herds of buffalo into the pit. This allowed them to collect the meat and hides they needed to survive through the winter. Up to five Plains Indians tribes used the bison trap from 1550 to 1800. This sinkhole was first discovered while the route for I-90 was being surveyed in the 1970s.
Vore Buffalo Jump
Vore Buffalo Jump
We finally arrived at Devils Tower. The stone monolith, a 60-million-year-old fountain of magma that cooled and fractured into long columns, rises 867' from its base. Indian legend maintains the tower was the stump of a great tree clawed by a bear.
Devils Tower is the object of obsession in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Visible from almost 100 miles away, this 867' fluted, butte-like rock formation is the tallest of its kind in America.
We walked the 1.3 mile trail that wound around the base of the tower. The trail goes through ponderosa pine forest and the boulder field. We saw lots of colorful cloths tied to trees. They are prayers cloths placed by Native Americans who use the park for traditional ceremonies.
Theodore Roosevelt declared Devils Tower America's first National Monument. It was an amazing site. There were a lot of people rock climbing. We saw lots of prairie dogs on the road leading to the tower.
All of the rock below the tower has broken
off the tower.
are sacred, you weren't supposed to take pictures
of them but I just had to do it!
at the bottom of the tower
How would you like to live here with a view of
Devils Tower from your back porch?
Notice all the antlers on this store! This is in the
town of Hulett, WY. We saw lots of buildings like this
all through the western states.
We only drove 125 miles today and walked 9,542 steps and the equivalent of 28 flights of stairs! We stayed at the Devils Tower Inn in Hulett, WY. ($77.21) Time to rest!!
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