Part 2 – The Second Week
After re-grouping at home base I decided to head towards Wyoming and South Dakota. A few weeks ago I did my first single overnight not far from home at a campground that is next to a cold war Atlas missle base that has tours. Took the tour and was amazed at the technology to take a missile from horizontal to vertical to make it ready for launch.
So my plan was to visit the Mt Rushmore area and then out east of Rapid City check out a Minuteman launch control facility and missile silo.
Trying to stay off the interstate the route for the first day took me up through Cheyenne to Newcastle, WY.
My first stop was two of the museums in Cheyenne. The first was the Depot that is in the old train station in downtown Cheyenne. The museum was ok but the highlight was on the second floor where a model railroader from the Midwest has donated a train layout that took him 30 years to build. 5,000 square feet of space filled with incredible detail of the narrow gauge railroads in the mountains west of Denver.
Train detail
Second stop was the museum at the office of the Cheyenne Frontier Days. They focus on wagons of all styles and sizes. Tucked away in one of the darker halls I saw an early teardrop trailer. Easily identified as it had a place to sleep, a stove, and a table for entertainment.
Maybe the first teardrop? Classic arched shape. What do you think?
Let me be the first to assure you that business is booming in Wyoming. The campground was attached to a motel of about 40 rooms. It had something like 40 gravel sites on the hill behind the motel. All of the rooms were full and 38 of the 40 sites had long term trailers which were mostly battened down for the hard winter of Wyoming by insulating the bottoms to keep the pipes from freezing.
All of the crowd was either working the oil fields or building a large pipeline in the area.
Next day I headed towards Mt Rushmore. Again I was following the more winding local track. First stop of the day was at the Crazy Horse monument. Their museum is magnificent. Lots of history of the area, history of the sculptor and an area where native Americans crafts people can display and sell their art. Bought a beautifully framed feather painted with an intricate buffalo.
Model of the finished sculpture
Wonder if Crazy Horse will be completed in my lifetime. Sure didn’t look like it. Lots of rock still to be moved.
Moved on towards Mt Rushmore. Since this was the evening of the presidential debate I wanted someplace that I could watch the debate and about the only thing that was ‘open’ was the Mt Rushmore KOA. Open being dry camping. I was the only one on site for $15 per night. Though the electrical power was off the cable still worked.
Drove up to the monument to check out things to see where I might want to shoot at dawn for best light. The monument has changed a lot since I was there in the 70’s. All new visitor facilities. Good museum of the carving of the mountain and the history.
The highlight of this stop was meeting and getting an autographed book from the last living stone carver that worked on Mt Rushmore, Don Clifford. With the help of his wife he wrote a book containing the host of questions that he has been asked over the years when he has been on site at Mt Rushmore.
By the time I got back to the campsite the weather started to change. This was the beginning of a strange weather pattern. Winds 40-75mph, rain, thunder, lightning, snow, sleet, hail, did I leave anything out? Put my camp chair inside the side tent and ate dinner there. Furnace kept me warm overnight but lots of noise from the side tent. It did well and by morning the rain cover was covered in a thin layer of ice. Did I say it was windy and cold?
When I woke up looked up through the skylight and could see the stars. Good sign for dawn photos. 30 minutes later the clouds poured in. There goes morning light on the faces. Stopped back at the parking lot. Held onto everything in the wind. When I got up to the central walkway multiple items were sliding by being blown by the wind. I was the only one there. Grabbed a couple of pics but it wasn’t working out very well.
Next stop was the Delta 01 Launch Control Facility which is about 80 miles east of Rapid City. Reservations are first come day of and you pick up a ‘ticket’ to be in a group of six. Size is dictated by the size of the elevator that goes down to the launch control bunker from the top side facility. Great tour and just as it was when they shut down in the 90’s.
Wonder who had this motto first?
There is a follow on tour of the launch silo but they closed it due to the winds. Did I tell you it was windy? ☺ And the wind was so bad my gas mileage fell by about 3 mpg.
Decided the next stop would be Deadwood. KOA there was open until the end of October according to the web. Did a quick stop at the Air Force museum next door to Ellsworth Air Force Base. Would have liked to spend more time at their outdoor displays but if the aircraft hadn’t been tied/bolted down they would have taken off on their own.
As I pulled into Deadwood two things were clear. First. The KOA was closed for the season. They closed 3 weeks early. The two other campgrounds in the area were already closed on October 1. Second, did I mention the wind? Temps had dropped to about 40 degrees at 4pm, just a couple of days ago it was in the 70’s. And then the snow, blowing sideways, sleet, rain started to hammer the CI and TV. Decision made. Bale out to the Hampton Inn. Yeah, I know, the weenie way out…
Next day headed to Douglas, Wyoming and the two museums there. One is at the railroad station. They also have Jackalope on site. Let’s you walk through the train cars that they have. The other is at the fairgounds. The Pioneer Memorial Museum was great. Lots of local lore and a find like this bugle.
Stayed at the KOA and which again was 80 percent full with long term folks working the oil fields. Staff told me that last year was about the best year they had ever had and they have added 25% more sites simply to support the long term folks.
Where else have you ever seen the state patrol escorting a herd of sheep?
Final drive home on the last day took me down through Laramie, Wyoming and a stop at the Wyoming Territorial Prison. Another interesting history lesson. This prison is the only place that Robert LeRoy Parker aka Butch Cassidy ever did time.
So lessons learned?
1. Do some short shakedown trips to get the bugs out.
2. Be prepared. Take extra stuff like my 10 degree sleeping bag just in case.
3. Be flexible. Best trip I have had in a couple of years and took fewer photos.
4. Enjoy our country.
5. Stop and chat in the small towns. You learn a lot and meet great people.
6. Count your blessings. Google Bucyrus, ND. Small 100 year old town of 27 souls was burned to the ground with the exception of the church in a wind fueled wildfire last week.
7. Celebrate the American spirit. “We're not quitters,” said Bill Thompson, whose great-grandfather's 1906 homestead burned to the ground in Bucyrus.
We live in an incredible country. I saw parts of Colorado that I had no idea even existed. I drove past the second largest coal mining operation in North America in the middle of Wyoming that provides 8% of the total US coal supply. I met the last person that ever worked on Mt Rushmore. The conversation at breakfast in Douglas at the next table was like listening to Doc Stone reading the home letters to the pig farmer and his pregnant wife in the movie Doc Holiday, the tribulations of keeping a teenager in school and focused. Americana at its best.
More to come….
After re-grouping at home base I decided to head towards Wyoming and South Dakota. A few weeks ago I did my first single overnight not far from home at a campground that is next to a cold war Atlas missle base that has tours. Took the tour and was amazed at the technology to take a missile from horizontal to vertical to make it ready for launch.
So my plan was to visit the Mt Rushmore area and then out east of Rapid City check out a Minuteman launch control facility and missile silo.
Trying to stay off the interstate the route for the first day took me up through Cheyenne to Newcastle, WY.
My first stop was two of the museums in Cheyenne. The first was the Depot that is in the old train station in downtown Cheyenne. The museum was ok but the highlight was on the second floor where a model railroader from the Midwest has donated a train layout that took him 30 years to build. 5,000 square feet of space filled with incredible detail of the narrow gauge railroads in the mountains west of Denver.
Train detail
Second stop was the museum at the office of the Cheyenne Frontier Days. They focus on wagons of all styles and sizes. Tucked away in one of the darker halls I saw an early teardrop trailer. Easily identified as it had a place to sleep, a stove, and a table for entertainment.
Maybe the first teardrop? Classic arched shape. What do you think?
Let me be the first to assure you that business is booming in Wyoming. The campground was attached to a motel of about 40 rooms. It had something like 40 gravel sites on the hill behind the motel. All of the rooms were full and 38 of the 40 sites had long term trailers which were mostly battened down for the hard winter of Wyoming by insulating the bottoms to keep the pipes from freezing.
All of the crowd was either working the oil fields or building a large pipeline in the area.
Next day I headed towards Mt Rushmore. Again I was following the more winding local track. First stop of the day was at the Crazy Horse monument. Their museum is magnificent. Lots of history of the area, history of the sculptor and an area where native Americans crafts people can display and sell their art. Bought a beautifully framed feather painted with an intricate buffalo.
Model of the finished sculpture
Wonder if Crazy Horse will be completed in my lifetime. Sure didn’t look like it. Lots of rock still to be moved.
Moved on towards Mt Rushmore. Since this was the evening of the presidential debate I wanted someplace that I could watch the debate and about the only thing that was ‘open’ was the Mt Rushmore KOA. Open being dry camping. I was the only one on site for $15 per night. Though the electrical power was off the cable still worked.
Drove up to the monument to check out things to see where I might want to shoot at dawn for best light. The monument has changed a lot since I was there in the 70’s. All new visitor facilities. Good museum of the carving of the mountain and the history.
The highlight of this stop was meeting and getting an autographed book from the last living stone carver that worked on Mt Rushmore, Don Clifford. With the help of his wife he wrote a book containing the host of questions that he has been asked over the years when he has been on site at Mt Rushmore.
By the time I got back to the campsite the weather started to change. This was the beginning of a strange weather pattern. Winds 40-75mph, rain, thunder, lightning, snow, sleet, hail, did I leave anything out? Put my camp chair inside the side tent and ate dinner there. Furnace kept me warm overnight but lots of noise from the side tent. It did well and by morning the rain cover was covered in a thin layer of ice. Did I say it was windy and cold?
When I woke up looked up through the skylight and could see the stars. Good sign for dawn photos. 30 minutes later the clouds poured in. There goes morning light on the faces. Stopped back at the parking lot. Held onto everything in the wind. When I got up to the central walkway multiple items were sliding by being blown by the wind. I was the only one there. Grabbed a couple of pics but it wasn’t working out very well.
Next stop was the Delta 01 Launch Control Facility which is about 80 miles east of Rapid City. Reservations are first come day of and you pick up a ‘ticket’ to be in a group of six. Size is dictated by the size of the elevator that goes down to the launch control bunker from the top side facility. Great tour and just as it was when they shut down in the 90’s.
Wonder who had this motto first?
There is a follow on tour of the launch silo but they closed it due to the winds. Did I tell you it was windy? ☺ And the wind was so bad my gas mileage fell by about 3 mpg.
Decided the next stop would be Deadwood. KOA there was open until the end of October according to the web. Did a quick stop at the Air Force museum next door to Ellsworth Air Force Base. Would have liked to spend more time at their outdoor displays but if the aircraft hadn’t been tied/bolted down they would have taken off on their own.
As I pulled into Deadwood two things were clear. First. The KOA was closed for the season. They closed 3 weeks early. The two other campgrounds in the area were already closed on October 1. Second, did I mention the wind? Temps had dropped to about 40 degrees at 4pm, just a couple of days ago it was in the 70’s. And then the snow, blowing sideways, sleet, rain started to hammer the CI and TV. Decision made. Bale out to the Hampton Inn. Yeah, I know, the weenie way out…
Next day headed to Douglas, Wyoming and the two museums there. One is at the railroad station. They also have Jackalope on site. Let’s you walk through the train cars that they have. The other is at the fairgounds. The Pioneer Memorial Museum was great. Lots of local lore and a find like this bugle.
Stayed at the KOA and which again was 80 percent full with long term folks working the oil fields. Staff told me that last year was about the best year they had ever had and they have added 25% more sites simply to support the long term folks.
Where else have you ever seen the state patrol escorting a herd of sheep?
Final drive home on the last day took me down through Laramie, Wyoming and a stop at the Wyoming Territorial Prison. Another interesting history lesson. This prison is the only place that Robert LeRoy Parker aka Butch Cassidy ever did time.
So lessons learned?
1. Do some short shakedown trips to get the bugs out.
2. Be prepared. Take extra stuff like my 10 degree sleeping bag just in case.
3. Be flexible. Best trip I have had in a couple of years and took fewer photos.
4. Enjoy our country.
5. Stop and chat in the small towns. You learn a lot and meet great people.
6. Count your blessings. Google Bucyrus, ND. Small 100 year old town of 27 souls was burned to the ground with the exception of the church in a wind fueled wildfire last week.
7. Celebrate the American spirit. “We're not quitters,” said Bill Thompson, whose great-grandfather's 1906 homestead burned to the ground in Bucyrus.
We live in an incredible country. I saw parts of Colorado that I had no idea even existed. I drove past the second largest coal mining operation in North America in the middle of Wyoming that provides 8% of the total US coal supply. I met the last person that ever worked on Mt Rushmore. The conversation at breakfast in Douglas at the next table was like listening to Doc Stone reading the home letters to the pig farmer and his pregnant wife in the movie Doc Holiday, the tribulations of keeping a teenager in school and focused. Americana at its best.
More to come….
