Murdo South Dakota

Thursday, September 29

On the way to our Harvest Host site for the night, we stopped at the Minutemen Missile National Historic Site. 

During the Cold War, a vast arsenal of nuclear missiles were placed in the Great Plains. Hidden in plain sight, for thirty years 1,000 missiles were kept on constant alert; hundreds remain today. The Minuteman Missile remains an iconic weapon in the American nuclear arsenal. It holds the power to destroy civilization, but is meant as a nuclear deterrent to maintain peace and prevent war.

The Delta-01 Launch Control Center. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to learn more

The Delta-09 missile silo allows a rare opportunity to view a nuclear missile once on constant alert during the Cold War.

On the road again, we pulled into our Harvest Host site, The Pioneer Car Museum, I’m Murdock, South Dakota. If you’re a vintage car buff, this is the place to visit. It has 42 buildings to explore.   

Tomorrow we’ll head to Sioux City, South Dakota. 

On to Wyoming and Devils Tower

Wednesday, September 28

Decided to get off I90 and drive route 212 as we headed to Devils Tower. Nice 2-land road with very little traffic. Notice there isn’t an apostrophe in Devils Tower. The story is it was a clerical error and hasn’t been corrected to this day. 

The landscape was prarie grasslands, rolling hills with some buttes in the distance. Notice the leaves are changing color, singular because we’ve only seen yellow. 

Then off in the distance we could see our destination, Devils Tower in the Black Hills. 

Doesn’t look so big there, right?  When we got to our campground, Belle Fourche River, for the night at the foot of Devils Tower, we could see it’s imposing size. The tower rose over 1,200’ above where we stood at our campground. 

The Tower is an astounding geologic feature that protrudes out of the prairie surrounding the Black Hills. It is considered sacred by Northern Plains Indians and indigenous people

We drove to the Visitor’s Center to get my stamp  and then back to the campground because they were quite adamant about no dogs on trails. We had hiked around the tower the last time we were here and it’s a good hike. 

Back at the campground we walked up a short trail to learn more about the spiritual culture of the tower and the area. 

The above world peace sculpture is one of several sculptures in the world. This one is the Wind Circle sculpture, which is of white marble with a black base stands an impressive 12 feet tall. The artist designed it to evoke the image of a puff of smoke from a sacred pipe. 

Initially, the sculpture was to be called ”Circle of Sacred Smoke.” The name was eventually changed to Wind Circle, a less controversial descriptor.

Thursday we’ll head to South Dakota. 

Moving on to Billings, MT

Tuesday, September 27

Even though we’re still driving I90, the views are beautiful, wide open spaces  

One of our stops was the Grant-Kohrs Ranch that commemorates the western cattle industry from 1850s to present. It is still a working ranch today. 

We arrived at our Harvest Host site for the night, Canyon Creek Brewery early afternoon. Decided to drive to Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. This is in the Crow Nation and was a sobering experience to see and hear (audio tour) the devastation and lost lives as Euro-Americans moved west and displaced the Native Americans. We could have spent more time there but they close at 4:30 pm. 

Back at the brewery, we spent some time with the locals and had a few beers. 

Thursday we’ll head to Wyoming. 

Headed for Butte MT

Monday, September 26

Left Superior, headed for Butte with a few stops in between. 

First stop was to get the RV washed. Was pretty much like getting your car washed but on a larger scale. Took about 15 minutes. 

Next stop was at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site. It’s still a working ranch today. Got my stamp and talked to one of the rangers about the ranch. 

On to our campground for the night - Lewis and Clark Caverns. Spacious campground, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. These are the kind we like. 

Just had time to drive to the caverns, get our tickets and join the tour. Fun and educational trek in the caverns. We’ve been in several different caverns. This is the first one that had a rock slide that we actually slid down. Even though these were developed caverns, you still had to duck in many places and maneuver through small openings. The CCC had a hand in helping to make it accessible. The guide was very knowledgeable on the 2 hour tour. 

These are steps that are made of travertine. 

Since we were t near a town or city to give off ambient light, the sky was so clear and filled with stars and the Milky Way. Second campground we were able to view the Milky Way. 

Great campground. 

Headed to Billings, MT, on Tuesday. 

From Washington to Montana in a day

Sunday, September 25

The best laid plans of mice and men … Left Soap Lake Washington, headed for De Borgia, Montana. Got to the campground in the National Forest there to find it closed, so kept going to another one - closed also. Found out that the National Forests around this area at least close on Labor Day. What the heck!!  Campendium didn’t tell us that. Kept driving to another dispersed campground that was run by the fish and wildlife, Pine Creek near Superior, MT. Yay it was open. Yes, we do find some out of the way spots. Love to boondock. 

The creek is so clear. 

Tomorrow we head for Butte MT to visit Little Big Horn and the Grant Kohrs Ranch to get more stamps in my Passport book. 

Soap Lake, Washington

Saturday, Septey24

Since we were up early (3am) to take Jillian to the airport, we got a very early start east. Drove to Soap Lake   Very different terrain than what we’ve had, rock cliffs with lakes that were created when the Coulee Dam was built. 

This is the view from our RV, lakefront. 

Drove to see Coulee dam and get my National Historic Site stamp. The dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the US. It was a part of the WPA and was good for the country, brought electric to the west and lots of jobs during the depression, as well as electricity to 11 states. Quite an impressive site and Visitor Center. 

Sunset over the rocks. 

Headed to De Borgia, Montana Sunday. 

Jillian’s last 2 days in the Pacific Northwest

Thursday and Friday - September 22-23. 

Camped at Game Farm Campground in Auburn, Washington so that we could visit the Seattle Needle and the Pike Fish Market, plus be fairly close to the airport. Jillian flies out at 6ish Saturday morning, which means we’ll need to be up and at ‘em by 3 am 

Drove into Seattle to see the Space Needle. 

We couldn’t go up in the needle so we decided to drown our sorrows at a brewery. Dinner at a burger place downtown Seattle. Then back to the RV. 

Friday we drove back in to Seattle to go the the Pike Fish Market and Pioneer Square to get my stamp for the Klondike Gold Rush National Site. 

Pike Fish Market is a fun place to visit. Lots of things and people to see. 

Leaves are changing a little while we’re here. 

Saturday we were up at 3 am and we had  Jillian  at the airport by 4. 

Won the road east by 6 am. Probably the earliest we’ve left. It’s dark. 

Mount Ranier

September 20-22

Monday - Still on Route 101 headed south toward Ashford to view and hike Mount Ranier. We drove through small fishing towns as we made our way to our next camping site in Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We are just 5 miles outside of Mount Ranier National Park in the Sahara Creek Horse Camp. Only a couple other campers here. 

Arrived here around 2 pm and headed in to view Mount Ranier. One of the first spots we stopped to see was Narada Falls. Just a short hike down to this beautiful waterfall in the Park. Can you see the double rainbow?

When we first started to talk about going to see Mount Ranier, we heard there were fires and smoke but we had sunny, blue skies. As we drove  closer and closer to Ranier, there was a cloud that had settled on Ranier. 

We stayed at the Visitor Center long enough to see the cloud move away to give us a full view. What a spectacular site. Pictures just don’t show the breadth of the mountain. You feel so small looking up. 

Next we drove to Reflection Lake. The sun was perfect to give us a great reflection photo. 

Last photo for the day was looking through the fireweed flowers at Mount Tanier. 

Great first day. 

Tuesday - back to Mount Ranier. Left the boys napping in the RV so we could hike some of the trails. 

Bill and Jillian took off up the Skyline trail. I went to the Myrtle Falls trail. Absolutely beautiful with Mount Ranier in the distance. 

There just isn’t a bad view from anywhere in this park. Here are some photos I took on my way to the Nisqually Glacier Trail (left side of Ranier). 

View of the Nisqually Glacier

Back at camp for a hike with the dogs on a trail out of the campground. I can’t get over the moss hanging on trees and limbs here. 

A nice fire and s’mores to end the night. 

Wednesday- our last day to hike in the park so away we go. Lenny and Banjo get another day to nap. 

As we were hiking up the Moraine trail, we caught a marmot napping in the sunshine. We’ve had such perfect weather the whole time we’ve been here. 

This is the trail we hiked up to get a closer view of Mount Ranier. 

Yes, it’s huge. 

Hiking down the trail with Mount Ranier behind us, I got a shot of the Cascade Mountain

As we were hiking down, we saw a mama bear with her cubs. 

Butterflies on some asters gave me a break to catch my breath. The trail went uphill so there was some heavy breathing along the way. 

We stopped at the lodge to check it out. Would be a nice place to stay once we can’t drive the RV the whole way here. 

Back at camp for our last night at the Sahara Creek Horse Camp, just 5 miles from the entrance to the park. 

Tomorrow we will head closer to Seattle so we can show Jillian the Pike Fish Market.