Sheridan Lake | Rubi on the Road

The day began peacefully with some warm coffee, a little tetherball, a clothed visit with the ranger, and some cereal. Then we were off for our first real hike on this adventure..

After wandering through the campground looking for the trailhead sign we saw the previous night on the way in, we arrived at the edge of the campground. Confused and a little defeated, we let Rubi wader through the tent camping sites as we doubled back to the host station. Finally finding the sign, we continued up the campground road on our way to Centennial trailhead.

Forty minutes later, we still hadn’t reached the trailhead. Instead, we found brief cell tower reception, a boat dock, more deserted (or, more accurately, closed) campsites, and a well-worn unofficial trail leading around Sheridan Lake. Rubi thoroughly enjoyed being off leash, sniffing the grassland and trees, investigating more deer poop pellets, and romping along the lake’s edge.

We packed up camp as 3 new campers arrived. Happy at our luck of having the campground to ourselves for the night, we ventured off to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Everyone we spoke to raved about Crazy Horse and enjoyed it more than Mount Rushmore. Liz and I would agree.

The memorial’s scale is huge as is the mission to promote better understanding and appreciation of native people.

Crazy Horse scale model (foreground) and construction of full monument (background)

Currently, only the face and part of the arm are completed. They have removed 6 million tons of stone, but still have 1.5 million left. It’s unclear how long the project will actually take to finish. Since the project refuses to take any state or federal money, it relies entirely on private donation, visitor’s fees, and sales at the gift shop and restaurant for funding. If you’re in the area, head over and support the project.

The story of Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor, and his life’s dedication to the project is quite moving. The fact that his wife, until her death this year, and 7 of his 10 children continue to work on the memorial after Korczak’s death in 1982 speaks to the family’s commitment and dedication.

After Crazy Horse, we took a short drive to Custer State Park. It was relatively quiet, with a few other RVers on the property. We plugged in, took hot showers, and enjoyed a bowl of matzo ball soup to warm up before turning in for the night.

Another Van-cooked meal (matzo ball soup) over route and camp planning

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.

12 miles of this on the "direct" route — 12 miles of this on the direct route

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. 🙁

Just lights...no show — Just lights…no show

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.

Rubi on the Road

Tag Archives: Sheridan Lake

Peaceful hikes, peaceful nights

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2 mamas and a bulldog traveling the US