A last good bye to Niobrara and I headed north to the Bad Lands east of Rapid City.
The White River marked my approach...
and I continued north to I-90 then west past Wall
before turning SW at the NW corner of the park.
The landscape is moonscape...
but the real wild stuff is deeper into the park.
I swung north along the west side of Rapid City and the Black Hills appeared...I climbed to about 7500 and surprise...
Mount Rushmore..
Keeping my distance, I turned west and discovered Crazy Horse.
When complete, the monument will depict Crazy Horse astride his war pony and with his arm outstretched toward the land there his people are buried. The entire Mt. Rushmore monument would fit in the head of Crazy Horse...that's the difference between chiseling with air hammers and blasting with explosives.
Heading north, I again cross I-90 but near Sundance...next into view...Devil's Tower.
A strange sight to see pushing up from the plain.
But now a little altitude was called for as I slid up the east side of the Beartooth Mtns. toward Sheridan....
past the Tongue River
with the Beartooths off my left wing
and US-14 coming down out of the mountains...
I took a cut at a low spot.
This didn't look like 13.5 to me
The rest of the landscape across the Bighorn recreation area speaks for itself.
particularly where the Big Horn River goes cross country down to Greybull
Soon, Cody appears in the windscreen and the day is over.
But, what a day.
