We had a day to explore but we had no idea where to go around Lander, WY. Fortunately, very close to town is Sinks Canyon State Park which is located in a canyon running into the Wind River Range of the Rockies. Most of the terrain west of Lander appears to be a gentle climb up some enormous hills stretching from Lander at about 5500 feet of elevation up to around 9000 feet.
Sinks Canyon is a jagged gash in this otherwise smooth terrain and the Popo Agie River runs down the middle of it. Popo Agie’s pronunciation seems to be a local problem. Some around here pronounce it Popo Aggie or Popo Agee but the Shoshone called it Poopoo Assey. I like their version the best. It sounds as if one had shit his/her trousers. The canyon has massive rock bluffs on each side of the river which has a very unique characteristic; the whole volume of the river tumbles over boulders, takes a big U-turn and disappears into a cavern under the south bluffs. The river re-emerges a little over a quarter mile down the canyon in a big blue and green lagoon. There is uncertainty about the path the river takes to go from where it sinks into the cavern to where it erupts again a bit further down the valley. Although the distance between these points is only about a quarter mile, it takes the water two hours to make the underground passage. There are gigantic rainbow trout visible in the lagoon. Fishing here is prohibited, maybe because the huge fish look like they could kick your ass. Many are over two feet long.
After checking out the river’s disappearing and reappearing act, we continued up the canyon on a long series of switchbacks up to about 8500 feet where we found a big reservoir called Frye Lake and a bald eagle gorging himself on a trout he has snagged out of the reservoir. We turned around and crept back down the switchbacks toward Lander where we took a spin through town to a Ford dealer where we purchased new windshield jets that spontaneously failed earlier today. Lander has a nice downtown section with lots of bronze statues created by a local firm with the ability to make giant castings. I understand they have a 40 foot tall bronze horse at the factory.
We got some Sinks Canyon photos. To see them, click the asterisk *

Today we continued our westward or mostly westward progress across the U.S. We left what may be one of the noisiest nighttime RV parks in the western hemisphere, Casper East RV Park, and headed a very short distance west on I-25 before turning west on US-26 when I-25 turned north. As we got further and further from Casper, the buildings dwindled away and we then headed into the high prairie of central Wyoming. There were some ranches that looked like going concerns but they were mixed in with abandoned sites with old decrepit buildings fading into the hard soil. Whether there were ranchers around or not, there were hundreds of pronghorn antelope happily grazing on the abundant scrubby vegetation. They are magnificent creatures.
About halfway to Lander, we crossed the high point of today’s trip at around 6000 feet of elevation and started both downhill and into more interesting terrain with roadside hoodoos, canyons and rim rocks. We soon entered the Wind River Indian Reservation, crossed sparkling Boysen Reservoir and not too much further drove into the town of Lander. We found our way into the Sleeping Bear RV Park & Campground. It has full hookups and wifi although it took Mr. Luddite quite a while to get connected. The sites themselves are slim parking spaces in a full parking lot of RV’s from around the country. This place will do for our purposes. We will be gone the day after tomorrow.
We got some pix of the ranches and flats during today’s drive. Click the asterisk *

We awoke in the Casper East RV Park after an interesting night of sleeping in increments. Due to the park’s unique location, sleeping for periods longer than about 90 minutes at a time is problematic. To the south of us, Interstate 25 is conveniently situated across about 3 lanes of frontage road from the park. I-25 starts down in Las Cruces, NM, and wanders along the east side of the Rockies for about 750 miles, ultimately crapping out into a state highway north of Casper, WY. Many truckers utilize this freeway and their trucks are registered in states where mufflers are optional equipment so they make plenty of noise. Many of those truckers passed by the Casper East RV Park last night.
On the north side of the park are some railroad tracks and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad utilizes these tracks regularly. In order to comply with Federal laws, the dutiful engineers operating the multiple snorting locomotives in each train sound two long blasts, a short blast and another long blast at each grade crossing and our park is situated between two such crossings. There are many other roads that cross the tracks here in Casper, all within earshot. BNSF does not recognize night from day so the trains pass by the park very regularly, around the clock.
After a fitful slumber last night, Peggy and I got up and decided to take a look around Casper. First we elected to head up to Casper Mountain south of the city. The road was paved but steep and quite quickly we had moved from around 5000 foot elevation to 8000 feet. Up on top there were dirt roads that seem to lead nowhere but partway up is a pullout alongside the cliffside road that offers a spectacular view of the Casper area and the Platte River a couple thousand feet below along with an almost endless view of Wyoming prairie beyond.
We drove around a bit before descending back into the city where we took a short tour through Casper’s mostly uninteresting metro area. We noted they have many buildings shaped like wedges, a product of having many streets that intersect at angles other than 90 degrees. They also have a traffic engineering department that has installed many traffic lights at all kinds of intersections regardless of configuration, primarily at places where there is no traffic. We hit a grocery, a liquor store and a fuel station before returning to our sound-enhanced RV park. We are out of here tomorrow on our mostly westward trek.
See Casper. Click the asterisk *

Today was the second travel day in a row. We generally do not make overnight stops but, since there is nothing in Lusk and we knew it, we jumped back on US-18 which turns due west from Lusk. After about 50 miles through some quite pretty Wyoming landscape full of pronghorn antelope, we hit I-25 and continued mostly west toward Casper. We must have spotted hundreds of pronghorn along the way. They are strikingly beautiful animals.
About another 50 miles down the road, we pulled into the Casper East RV Park in, not surprisingly, in Casper. When we pulled into the park it looked okay with nice landscaping and plentiful trees offering shade. Unfortunately, we were assigned a site in a treeless gravel parking lot sandwiched between I-25 and Burlington Northern railroad tracks. Many trains use the tracks and a nearby grade crossing makes train horn blasts a regular occurrence. I-25 is heavily utilized by semi trucks but there are no steep downhill grades so we have been spared the deafening racket from Jake brakes. In order to sleep here, it seems pretty plain drunkenness will be required in the evening.
See some of the eastern Wyoming flatness. Click the asterisk *

Today was a travel day. Unfortunately, our time in Rapid City had come to an end for this year. We broke down our stuff, crammed it in the trailer and departed from the Happy Holidays RV Park. It was a very nice park – quiet, full hookups, good wifi and spacious sites. We headed back to US-79 and turned south. We arrived in South Dakota from Nebraska a week ago on this same road. We continued south for about 50 miles until we got to Hot Springs where we turned west on US-18 through the southern flank of the Black Hills. We climbed up to around 4000 feet a couple times before starting a long descent into Wyoming.
The terrain flattened out a bit as we left the Hills but didn’t really get Kansas-flat. At a place called Mule Creek Junction, US-18 turns abruptly south and we followed it to a tiny town called Lusk. There, we pulled into BJ’s RV Park which is located in a nice middle-class neighborhood. As far as we can tell, there is not much going on in Lusk. We tried to get a pizza delivered from the only pizza joint in town but we were unable to get the operators to answer the phone. We cooked in instead. Fortunately, Lusk is very quiet and about the only thing we could hear was a distant train passing every so often.

Today was our last full day in the Rapid City area and we chose to head up the Iron Mountain Road into Custer State Park. We took the same course we did a couple days ago but we liked it so much we figured we were not obliged to follow a new route. Iron Mountain Road is quite circuitous with pigtail curves, narrow tunnels and many switchbacks. We love it.
Along the way up Iron Mountain there are superb views of Mount Rushmore and the weather cooperated so we got several eyesfull of nifty carving. Soon we were in Custer State Park and ran across some solitary male bison, one of them rubbing his face on a pine. He must be a regular because he has worn off all the bark. Not too much further down the road we spotted some pronghorn males and females chasing each other around. It is rutting season and that has brought out all the critters and some randy behavior.
We wandered off on a few dirt roads but the first two resulted in solely prairie dog sightings. The third one, however, took us up a road around Mount Coolidge. At the top is the Mount Coolidge Observation Tower, an ancient ashlar masonry three-story structure that is still open to visitors. It was built by the CCC back in the Depression as part of the make-work projects that benefited state and national facilities nationwide. Mount Coolidge must be one of the highest points in the Black Hills and the views are stunning.
On our way back to our RV park in Rapid City, we passed by the park administrative office housed in a log building. There we saw a lone smart deer doe taking advantage of the government’s apple tree in the yard. Although we were only about 25 feet away in our big noisy diesel pickup, it seemed that nothing was going to spook the deer off the apples.
See the critters and rocks. Click the asterisk *

Today was not nearly as much fun as yesterday. I spent most of the day making reservations through the next couple states and it was slow and tedious. Peggy puttered around the trailer fixing stuff and taking care of family communications. We went to the gas station and liquor store. Some days are just dull.

Today we took a spin through the Badlands National Park of South Dakota. Despite the frightening name, the Badlands are a remarkable area where erosion and time have created a fanciful landscape, as long as you do not need to cross it on foot, on a horse or riding in a wagon. There are fabulous minarets, knife-sharp ridges, deep basins, narrow canyons and massive caves and holes within the soil that exhibit myriad pastel colors. There are many box canyons and virtually no level ground can be found. If I was coming through here during the pioneer days, I would have figured out a way around the Badlands because going through them would have been extremely challenging.
We spotted many prairie dogs, some vultures, Bighorn sheep and a mule deer fawn but no bison. The animals that live here must be very tough because the terrain is extremely convoluted and water is quite scarse. Even the park picnic areas we drove by had no water. However, the scenery is absolutely sensational and we drove the entire distance of UT-240 both ways to admire the scenery in the changing light.
The town of Wall, home to Wall Drug, is at one end of UT-240 but we have been there before and we elected to give it a pass this time. The last time we were there, we noted they sold original cowboy attire made in Asia, Indian crafts made in Taiwan, western fancy shirts made by dutiful Indonesians and lots of other foreign stuff like coffee cups and cheesy cowboy boots manufactured in far-flung exotic locations outside the U.S. They offer free ice water and 5 cent coffee to travelers passing by on the freeway. Wall Drug also has a gigantic advertising area along the entire freeway in South Dakota, some other locations within the U.S. and overseas. I saw a sign indicating it was only 6,200 miles to Wall Drug when I was boarding a sightseeing barge in Amsterdam. I understand they have signs in Iraq, too.
We took some photos in the Badlands. Click the asterisk to see them *

Today we took a spin through the Black Hills, a truly breathtaking locale. Two days ago we went through Custer State Park which is at the southern end of the Black Hills. Today we drove through the central section and it is spectacular. We drove past gorgeous Pactola Reservoir where we got some glimpses of an osprey fishing before pulling into Hill City, a particularly cheesy and ugly tourist trap that we zoomed through while ogling the abundance of businesses designed to separate visitors from their dollars. Hill City was the only disgusting part of today’s tour with the exception of some dead roadside deer being devoured by turkey vultures.
Not long after happily departing Hill City, we turned off on the Needles Highway. We soon got to Sylvan Lake, a beautiful scene straight out of fantasy stories. We stopped and ate some lunch alongside the lake. Continuing on Needles Highway, we started climbing, ultimately going above 6000 feet and into the section of the Black Hills called the Needles. The road and particularly the one-lane tunnels along this stretch are quite narrow and we folded in our side mirrors to get through the really narrow tubes.
Abundant fabulous rock formations throughout this area have sharp, pointy pinnacles at their tops and the roads snake around and through them. It is evident why Gutson Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, used this section of the Black Hills for his work. The scenery is stunning here.
We wandered around for the rest of the day, passing another time through parts of Custer State Park where we saw not less than a dozen and a quarter deer. No bison today but we still have plenty of time to scope out these four-footed monsters.
We got some Black Hills photos today and you can see them by clicking the asterisk *

Despite being camped near Rapid City, one of our favorite places, we had to perform chores today and exploring had to be deferred until later. Peggy did a couple loads of wash in the park laundry. I spent a good part of the day dealing with tire inflation on the truck.s and trailer’s 8 tires in addition to washing out and oiling our replacement air filter before using it to replace the strange OEM Ford filter. There were many dead bugs in the air filter canister so I washed and vacuumed those out. I spent the rest of the afternoon picking out the myriad colorful and crispy flying insects that have been smashed into the multiple radiators in our truck during two passes across the Midwest, home to many gigantic and goo-filled bugs. There was probably about a quart of these vermin. What originally seemed like about 30 minutes work turned into most of the afternoon and we are glad this misery is temporarily over.