On June 14 we left the Sacora Campground outside of Rapid City, SD just before 8am – Acey’s odometer 63,367.6 – Thor 66,970. On our way to Buffalo, we stopped to see Devils Tower National Monument and arrived about 10am. Interesting fact: Devils Tower was designated as America’s FIRST national monument in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt.
As we hiked the 1.3 mile trail around the tower, we actually ran into another family from Nashville!
Devils Tower is 867 feet from its base to the summit, and about 1 mile in circumference. The summit is slightly dome shaped and rocky, and about the size of a football field. And yes, it was the alien landing site in the 1977 Speilburg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
As we approached Buffalo, we caught our first glimpse of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains! … for purple mountain majesties…
We arrived at the Indian Campground RV Park around 3pm. Acey’s odometer 63,594 We got set up, checked into the family Zoom at 4, watched the worship service on YouTube that we missed that morning, and Zoomed with our Sunday School class.
On Monday morning, Jim tore into the washer/dryer combo unit to figure out why the dryer vent was not blowing out much air. Apparently, a previous owner of Acey had a cat (or two?!) The dryer vent area was caked with a hardened substance that appeared to be compacted cat hair, and the dryer hose was full of more lint and hair. After we cleaned it all out, he installed a new vent hose. The laundry gets done a lot faster and is drying better too! Its really a good thing he is so handy and can fix things!
After we had lunch, we went to find the Dry Creek Petrified Forest; the location was not well marked. We drove right past the rather small sign and went back to I-90 to find cell service — went down to the next exit and finally found the place, and realized we were in the right place the first time we drove past it! It is not really a “forest” just a few petrified stumps, but it was a nice walk with some pretty flowers.
We drove into Buffalo and walked around the downtown area and checked out the Occidental Hotel and Saloon. Many famous people stayed at this hotel – Herbert Hoover, Theodore Roosevelt, Annie Oakley and (under many aliases) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! The Saloon had a lot of animals displayed on the walls.
In 1912, there was a massive flood that rose 10 feet above main Street. We found the water level marker over Clear Creek to be kind of humorous 1, 2, 3…RUN (not 9!)!
