West - Day Six - June 28, 2005

We took our time this morning to hit the road after shopping for supplies and gas. Heading north up I-25 from Cheyenne, we turned off onto Route 26 East, north on Route 85, and east on Route 20. We decided it would be fun to drive into Nebraska and then head north from there via Route 71 through Hot Springs. The scenery was captivating for everyone in the car. Nebraska was lots of green prairie grass on rolling landscape. Reminded me of Ireland but with only one or two shades of green rather than the 40 shades we saw driving around over there. As we headed north, mounds of rocks and then hills and plateaus began to appear. We could see forever in all directions - big storms off to the west, blue sky to the east. We seemed to be right in between with pretty windy conditions at one point kicking up the dust in dramatic fashion. Finally, we crossed into South Dakota and entered Wind Cave National Park. By this time, it was around 5 pm so the sun was starting to dip lower in the sky. There weren't many cars on the road so we were able to stop multiple times to see the prairie dogs popping out of their holes and barking at us...Noah (8) won the prize for first spotting them but once he did, they seemed to be everywhere (see above).

Libby spotted the first bison and from there, we saw several at different spots through the park.

Along the way, we were also visited by prong-horns and mule deer on the side of the road.

From Wind Cave, it was a longer drive up to Keystone where we stayed for the night than we thought so we were all tired and hungry by the time we got there. Along the drive, we got our first glimpse of Mt. Rushmore and were eagerly awaiting the next day to see it in the morning sunlight. Drove a total of 297 miles this day.