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The goal today was to start in Rapid City, SD, go down and see Mount Rushmore, the see Devil’s Tower and finally get to Bozeman, MT after driving through Yellowstone National Park. Because I was not able to see the Badlands National Park I tried to double back and then do everything else, but it quickly became evident that was not going to work. Instead I went to Mount Rushmore and Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, but then took I-90 to Sheridan, WY and kept on going up into Montana and on to Bozeman. I have a reserve day which I’m seeing if I can work in to pick up Yellowstone on the way back east.

The Badlands National Park was certainly worth all of this though. Additionally on the way to the park I saw a road sign for a Minuteman nuclear missile silo historical site. So I pulled off the highway and way directed to a dirt road guarded by several cows that I had to honk at to get past. As I approached the silo it had a very, you’re int he wrong place kind of feeling. I could see a barbed wire fence and an armored vehicle along with a red civilian car, and the thought crossed my mind maybe I really shouldn’t be here. On second thought I hope we wouldn’t put up signs to active missile silos As it turned out the red car belonged to the ranger who was extremely knowledgable and gave me a tour. They had pulled back the massive concrete protection that would help protect the missile in the event the Soviets had targeted the silo itself (although he did say a direct hit wouldn’t have still destroyed the missile). They also put up a glass enclosure so you could look down and see a missile in the launch silo.

After the missile silo it was a short drive to the Badlands National Park. I think the most amazing part of this for me was how quickly the terrian went from plains going out into the horizon to all of a sudden massive rock formations. After a quick drive through the park I headed back to Rapid city for my first oil change of the trip.

Up next was Mount Rushmore, but before then I decided to get recommendations for Rapid City, however Foodio54’s recommendation system directed me a little outside of town to Rockerville, SD to The Gas Light. I ordered the buffalo burger and it was fantastic, the meat was very tender and they cooked it to a perfect medium rare, just how I like it. The inside of the restaurant was very large and decorated with all sorts of frontier stuff which was an added bonus. This place is very close to Mount Rushmore so if you’re coming to see the monument I would highly recommend stopping by The Gas Light. The Monument itself was also amazing, of course everyone has seen it in books and on tv many times, but being there is always a bit different.

Next up was Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. Devil’s Tower played a role in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (it’s the mountain that the main character builds out of mashed potatoes). I took Highway 24 that went north of the tower and then curved back south and from at least 15 miles away it dominated the horizon, which made for a very cool drive. When I got there I noticed a fairly large group of people turned away from the tower taking pictures of what appeared to be the ground, actually they were taking pictures of prairie dogs. These little things looked adorable, but the sign that gave some information about them tells a very different picture…

1. They bite
2. They have fleas that can carry the plauge
3. Their boroughs are also inhabited by rattle snakes and black widow spiders

After slowly backing away from the prairie dogs I drove around the tower to the visitors center. There was a group of people starting up and I overheard them say “the one guy is halfway up.” Halfway up? Apparently you can go rock climbing and there were two people scaling up the tower. This is incredible because it appears to basically go straight up and is extremely tall. I think there was an effort to downplay the tower’s role in the Close Encounters movie and focus more on its historical significance and religious significance to some of the local native Americans.

After saying goodbye to Devil’s Tower I headed to Sheridan, WY and it was already getting late so I decided to scratch off Yellowstone at least for today. I started to get hungry near Sheridan, WY, and Foodio54 recommended Wyoming’s Rib & Chop House. However there was a slight issue. One of our biggest challenges is managing 620,000 restaurants as some close, some move, and new ones start up. In this case the restaurant had moved, but the phone number was correct and they pointed me to the right spot (and I updated their listing). After finding the new spot I ordered their signature item the Buffalo Rib Eye and it was really exactly what I needed after a long day’s drive. Very tender, very juicy, and covered in excellent spices on top.

Lastly, I needed to get to Bozeman. By the time I crossed the Wyoming - Montana border it was already mostly dark, and then it got really really dark. There was just the slightest crecent of a moon and even with my brights on I couldn’t see more than just a little bit directly in front of me. After about Billings I started to get a little sleepy and so I stopped at each rest area just to walk around a bit and get the blood flowing again to stay awake. As the night went on each rest area started to have more and more cars of travelers who had given up and were taking a nap, but I had reservations in Bozeman In the end I made it there after a very long nearly 800 mile day, tomorrow will be a short about 6 hour drive to Glacier National Park and I’m looking forward to getting a little rest, on Thursday I’ll drive 11 hours and then get on a red eye to Fairbanks Alaska.

Tags: Big Road Trip