https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr8QDAan0pQ

We are spending the night in the Black Hill Mountains of South Dakota, like Rocky Raccoon. The day started with our thinking we had the entire Keyhole State Park campground of Pat’s Point in eastern Wyoming to ourselves. While getting dressed with the windows open, the ranger approached us. I guess people actually go to work on Monday morning. Since there was literally no one else at campground, he looked past Rubi playing tetherball off leash.

We decided to go the most direct way to Devil’s Tower, on a road that turned to gravel at the park’s edge and turned to very well-maintained dirt and gravel about two miles later.

A mile or so after that, I realized that our driving 12 miles per hour on the direct road would result in a 15 minute longer driving time than if we’d just stuck to the regular roads and driven around the park. But by then we were on an adventure and happy to drive off the beaten path. RViejo got a little dusty, but handled very well.

Devil’s Tower involved a nice visit with the prairie dogs and an hour-long hike sans Rubi since it was again a national park.

Two hours later, we arrived in Deadwood, SD.

We drove through the cute, historic town quickly as we were attempting to make the Mt. Rushmore light show, which everyone said was the best part of the national monument. We arrived at Mt. Rushmore at 4:45pm, but it was already mostly dark and there were literally about a dozen people at the entire site. As far as we could tell, there is no light show in the fall. 🙁

We later realized that Deadwood is where Liz’s paternal grandmother Hazel was raised. Maybe we’ll go back. We also looked for the Horse Thief Inn, but only saw the Horse Creek Inn. The Horse Thief Inn is where Liz’s grandmother worked and there are early pictures of Jim Moore, barefoot, on its grounds. We couldn’t find the Horse Thief Inn on a map either, so we assume it closed.

The moon is mostly full so the stars are out, but not as plentiful with the moon’s bright light. It did make for a pleasant evening stroll with Rubi, without the need for headlamps. The pines swooshed in the gently breeze and we heard a few ducks settling in for the evening as well.