16th May: Day 38
Today we head East. Considering that we are on an Easterly journey not much true eastwards travel has happened yet. We set off from Great Falls without a destination in mind really. Yet more huge Montana landscapes slipped past, this really is an epically large country. We stopped in a small town called Stanford for lunch. It was one of those places that has seen its prime, like a lot of the towns we have passed.
We ended up stopping for the evening at ‘Little Montana Truck-stop’ in another backwater called Grass Range. Ostensibly it was a moderately miserable overnight roost; bleak weather, potholed and unkempt and complete lack of any reception of any sort (cell, 3G, Wifi, TV even radio) but it was bargain basement cheap. We managed to park up, get plugged in to power and water and get sorted just before the heavens opened. To be honest, once we are set up and locked into TinCan we could be anywhere. So with dinner cooked, the heating on and a DVD playing – we were happy.
17 & 18th May: Days 39 and 40
As a standard feature there was a diner at the truck-stop. We took our place amongst the be-hatted and booted farmers and had a cooked breakfast for $3 and coffee for 50c. Nick heaven! This fortified us for the miserable day of driving through wind and rain over yet more desolate and endless Montana hills and plains. Will this state never end??
Our destination for the next 2 days was Hardin, another nowheresville. But it is just down the road from the significant site of The Little Bighorn Battlefield which seemed deserving of a visit. This is where on June 25th 1786 Custer and his troops suffered devastating losses at the hands of several thousand Indians led by Sitting Bull. The site does not ignore the fact that the US army and government were definitely wallowing in the moral swamplands regarding their treatment of the Indians. Despite that, at the time it just fortified the US government to step up the heavy hand.
In all more than 200 US troops were killed, including Custer himself, and the site where each soldier fell is marked by a small white headstone; a poignant and understated memorial. The photo shows the hilltop of the ‘Last Stand’. There are now also markers for some of the Indian warriors that died too, and in recent decades a dedicated memorial to the Indian tribes has been added.
After we returned to Hardin, we called into the Museum. This had a reconstituted village made up of lots of relocated historic buildings and was quite a gem, in an otherwise nondescript town.
Our RV park for this 2 nights was misnamed ‘Grand View’, and was the least satisfactory of our stops so far. Of note, the toilets in the toilet block had shower curtains in lieu of doors. What the….? And the trains ran all night and sounded their horns at every crossing. Like Maryhill all over again.
19 and 20th May: Day 41 and 42
We extracted ourselves from the not-so-Grand View, and embarked on another longish day of driving along the I-90. This saw us finally leaving Montana, and crossing into Wyoming. The landscape did change. It seemed a bit tattier, and there were lots of (what I assume were) natural gas wells dotted all over. Lunch was a picnic in a rest stop, and our destination for the night was Devils Tower. Now this is a bizarre place.
It is a magma cone that has had the surrounding sedimentary rock eroded from around it over the past 50 million years or so. So now it stands alone, as an approximately 860ft tall huge lump of rock in the middle of nowhere. Quite impressive. The name ‘Devils Tower’ is likely a mis-translation of the Kiowa tribe’s name for it which was ‘Bear Tower’. The ancient legend tells of a brother turning into a massive bear-like creature and chasing his 7 sisters. The sisters ran to the stump of a great a tree, which told them to climb up, and when they did, they rose up into the air and became the stars of Pleiades. The bear clawed and scratched the bark with its claws, but they were out of reach. Seems a reasonable explanation…
Anyway, the tower was proclaimed the first National Monument in 1906 by Roosevelt, and so was protected from commercialisation. The man had foresight. Climbers come here to scale it and people like us come to walk around it and take photos of it. It is quite awe inspiring.
Our stop for the night was ‘Devils Tower View’, which it certainly had. Another lone ranger night (a real advantage of travelling ahead of the masses) with very tasty burgers in the associated restaurant. I think this was my first burger. An achievement, I think.
We got up early-ish (7.45am alarm-quite a shock to the system at this stage of the game.), packed up, and got on the (short) road to the tower itself. Here did a couple of hours walking around the base, and then got back on the road again. Next stop South Dakota.
We have plans to base ourselves in one place here for 10 days or so as there is so much to see and do in a relatively small area. We stopped in Rapid City for provisions, then headed south to The Black Hills.
Our hook for coming to this area is that Rocky Racoon lives here. In the Black Hills of South Dakota. We know it’s true because it was on TV, albeit in cartoon form, when were were children. We are keeping our eyes peeled.
We are staying near Hill City, a small town of approx 1000. I don’t know what constitutes being a city in the US, but I think it it is merely a matter of self proclamation and erecting a sign to the fact. We filled with propane ($41 worth has lasted us 5 weeks-cooking and heating, and running the fridge when we are on the road. Fairy dust compared to our petrol spending). This area obviously gets a lot of visitors when the season gets going. There are a huge number of hotels, camps, cabins, naff attractions, not so naff attractions, and billboards everywhere.