Making Memories All Over The World: April 20

Wednesday - Friday, April 20 - 22, 2016

All week there are no entrance fees for national parks, in celebration of the bicentenial.

Wednesday- Cody, WY, took US 16 through the gorgeous
Big Horn Mountains. Passed through one town called "Ten Sleep" - a story told is that the town was named Ten Sleep by the Indians because it took 10 nights of sleep to reach the town after they forded the creek. Stopped to see Devils Tower and had the extra surprise of finding it was loaded with Prairie Dogs. The cute little guys would come right up to the car. Some folks were standing right next to them but we read that we were not to approach them. They were just fun to watch!! After visiting Devils Tower we drove on to Gillette, WY for our overnight stay.

This one I really like the title-
"Unlimited Horizons!"

They had several different Presidents and
some other art pieces around downtown.

Murals like this were all over downtown!

Thursday - left Gillette, WY and drove to Mount Rushmore via the Wyoming Scenic Black Hills Byway. It was a sunny warm day!
Left Mount Rushmore to drive to Rapid City for a late lunch. Had a yummy lunch in Murphy's Pub, and then walked around downtown and even found a quilt shop! There are life size metal art statues of all the Presidents on downtown corners. We saw one alleyway that must have been designated the "graffiti" area. Drove to Keystone, SD to check in to the K Bar S Lodge for our overnight stay. At sunset we drove back to Mount Rushmore to see the Presidents illuminated.

One of the Presidents in downtown Rapid City!

The graffiti alley!

Oh my a quilt shop!

Driving to Keystone!

Friday- We left Keystone, SD and drove to Wind Cave National Park! Visiting the cave was recommended to us by the very knowledgeable and helpful young man at our lodge and what a great place to tour. Wind Cave is the 6th largest cave in the world. Next, we had to stop in Wall, SD to see Wall Drugs because for many miles we had seen signs all along the highways, kind of like the Ron Jon Surf Shop signs along the Georgia and Florida highways! These signs aren't like Ron Jon signs, but they were filled with things to get your attention, such as "free ice water or 5 cent coffee" if you stop in to Wall Drugs! It was really just an indoor shopping center with tourist stuff but Alan can tell you that he did have one of their "famous" donuts and he said it really was very good and fresh. Downtown Wall was just a tourist trap stop but the area was well done! After seeing downtown Wall and Wall Drugs we then drove through the Badlands National Park and again were able to enjoy watching the cute prairie dogs that were all over the place and more amazing scenery!!