Today we left Wind Cave National Park. We saw a pronghorn antelope running up the hill in the distance as we ate breakfast and as we left the campground, we said farewell to the prairie dogs. Then we saw bison hanging out in the paddocks – but I think we’d already taken enough bison pictures… well maybe I could just take one or two more…! We headed north through Custer State Park, but didn’t pay to do the special wildlife loop. We’d already seen buffalos and prairie dogs that day, so we didn’t really need to drive a few extra kilometres to see more of what we’d already seen lots of!
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| Driving along the road we'd just driven over! |
There was a crazy bit of road that looped under itself. It was hard to take a photo of as we were driving, but it was like the beginning of a corkscrew! First we were driving over the road, then we were driving under it! Random!
We stopped at Jewel Cave and had a look at the displays and postcards. We decided not to do the tour as we’d done Wind Cave the previous day and we didn’t want to lose the novelty of being in a cave. It was too soon to do it all again! So we continued on to Newcastle, which was closer than we thought. We were hoping to find internet, but no luck. Instead we filled up with gas and propane and then headed back into the Black Hills, looking for a campsite for the night. Newcastle was pretty small and sleepy, but it did have a Subway! Newcastle is in Wyoming.
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| Dandelion fluff left by chippies. |
Heading back into the Black Hills we went back into South Dakota, but because we were in the middle of nowhere there wasn’t even a sign! So we guessed we were back, based on the basic map we had! We drove along gravel roads through pretty meadows and aspen groves. We saw cows and lots of gorgeous blue flowers. I think we went over about twenty cattle grids! Finally we found a campground after taking the long way around (our map wasn’t very detailed at all). We enjoyed an afternoon in the sun – I read and admired the little chipmunks who made an absolute mess of dandelions near our car. We had lunch at the picnic table and then one had to go over there and investigate and no doubt eat any crumbs we’d dropped from the bagels we’d had. They scampered over rocks that lined the road near where we were parked. I think they lived under one of them but when we went to the toilet I shined the torch under the sides of it, but couldn’t see any fur or shiny eyes. All afternoon they would go and nibble the top of a dandelion and then take it somewhere to eat. Once they were comfortable around Betsey, they would sit in the shade of her front right tire and nibble away right there, leaving all the fluff behind. They would then scamper underneath her and I’m pretty sure I saw them jump up into the inside part of her wheels! I peeked under and then pew! They jumped up and disappeared! They became pretty confident around me as I was just sitting there and reading and not moving. One jumped up on the rock right in front of me and then saw me and I think he freaked out and ran away. One also raced towards me, then realised he was heading right for me, couldn’t turn around, so kept going and zoom, off he went. Meanwhile Will had an epic nap for about four hours!
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| Tiny chippy having a snack. Right next to Betsey's tire. |
We had Per Sketty (spaghetti) for dinner and then after such a warm day, the sun went down and it got really cold. We talked to a guy and his cute little son who were from Newcastle. The guy invited us over to his campfire for a beer after dinner, but we were so tired that we didn’t go around there. We were parked right near the toilet block (drop of course), so when they drove around (yup, all one hundred and fifty metres!), the kid would always yell out ‘hi!’ which was so adorable. More Deadwood and then sleep! Even for Will after his epic nap.
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