ERT - day 3, Black Hills and Custer

 Friday, 8/28/2020

7:45 a.m. leaving tiny hotel room. This is our view of Mt. Rushmore from outside our room.

The hotel includes a free hot breakfast buffet in normal times, but in COVID times, it's been reduced to picking up a brown bag at the desk.  Inside is a muffin, granola bar, and apple.  

It's a crisp, cool morning, perfectly beautiful weather for a gorgeous drive through Black Hills National Park.  We drove through this tunnel and there was Mt. Rushmore in the distance and deer in the forest.  

Mike is wearing his content face, which usually only appears in Colorado, but this place reminded us a lot of Colorado. 

Rushmore is behind us in the distance.

9:00 a.m. Entering Custer State Park.  We saw signs that read, "Buffalo are dangerous. Do not approach." Also "Danger of forest fire very high today" and "Wildlife At Large".  How exciting!

Drove through more tunnels, some bigger than others.

We drove the Wildlife Loop, where we saw deer and prong-horned antelope. 

What we were really hoping to see was a big herd of buffalo.  We saw this one by himself near the visitor center.

We also saw wild burros on the road and got out to feed them our sad-looking apples from breakfast.

We were nearing the end of the Wildlife Loop when we finally encountered the herd. They were right by the road. It was amazing.

The teenaged ones look like cows.

We sat and watched them for a long time.  The guy behind us got out of his car and was walking toward them, and a big bull charged him and he ran back to his car and drove away. 

We drove up to Coolidge Fire Tower Lookout at 6000 ft elevation and saw a fire.

We could see Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse in the distance, but it was too hazy to see much of anything.

I like this sign. Good advice for life.  Mike is following it.

Then we drove up Needles Highway. Great views.

Quick stop at Sylvan Lake, and then back on the road.

2:15 p.m. GAS at 4-Way Gas N Go in New Castle, Wyoming.  $2.29/gal x 13.5 gal = $31.06.

4:40 p.m. Baymont Hotel in Sheridan, Wyoming.  Went to dinner at Cowboy Cafe, which had a surprising array of vegan options, then walked downtown a little, came back to watch the sunset.  A lovely day all the way around.