Eventually it was time to leave Colorado behind. I still had 4 unvisited states to visit, and time was a-wastin'. I decided to knock out the Dakotas first and headed north.
My plan was to head due north up into Wyoming, cut east into South Dakota at Custer State Park, head up into North Dakota via a stop in Deadwood, then loop back down through Montana and Wyoming back to Denver before heading west. That's pretty much what happened.
First thing I saw in Wyoming was this:
That's actually a trike. It's tough to see because of the angle, and looks like a little convertible, but no, it's a trike. I don't know that I've seen a trike with a roll bar before. Assuming that's even a roll bar. She was moving, too. Had to have been going at least 65mph.
They say it's "big sky" country up there, which I didn't really understand until I was actually there. It looked like it was photoshopped:
Wyoming was without other events, other than seeing this:
Funny because it was a week or two before Sturgis. I'm surprised they were still trying to get 50 cents on the dollar for the 2012 gear. I'd think they'd be at least 75% off at that point.
Eventually made it up to Custer and saw some bison:
as well as some sweet trees:
and a sign that I hadn't seen before:
took me a second to figure out what the heck that meant, then I was there and it made a lot more sense. For those who don't get it, there is an underpass ahead that you end up taking which loops around under the road you were just on.
There were some deer walking around, despite the sign referring to other wildlife:
Eventually I headed a little more off-road:
and found some cool vantage points:
You can see the dirt road I came up on the lower left, and the paved road down through the bottom right and middle. Very glad I had a vehicle with decent ground clearance to come up that. The view from there was incredible. I took a bunch of photos, but not many came out well as it was really overcast for the most part. That's one of the few clear ones. You could see for miles and miles. Really majestic scenery, too.
I eventually made my way to Needles Highway, which looks about what you'd expect it to look like with enormous rocks jutting up in the sky:
Here's how you thread the needle:
Of course, when I found out that there were 6 tunnels in the park, I made sure to go through all of them:
I did drive by Mount Rushmore, but that's the kind of thing that bores me, so I didn't stop and only took a lazy shot out the window as I zipped past:
This seemed like a good place to stop for dinner:
Here's the view from the roof of the place Wild Bill was supposedly shot and killed at:
I had dinner there. Lots of folks walking around in period garb and fake gunfights happening. Very touristy place, but not in an irritating way.
After leaving Deadwood, I made it up to North Dakota for the night, just barely:
There is not much up there in North Dakota. Lots of hay.
After visiting both Dakotas, I had chopped my remaining states to visit list in half. Just down to Idaho and Hawaii at that point. I hung a left and headed over to Montana, which I hadn't been to in a long time. Contrary to some old tales, they have an actual speed limit and it isn't "reasonable", it's 70mph. They also have skies that give neighbor Wyoming a run for its money:
The clouds just looked fake. Where do clouds look like that, other than the intro credits to The Simpsons?
That's my update for today. Slowly but surely catching up to where I actually am. Currently that's Fort Nelson, British Columbia in Canada.
Bonus photo from today:
Yep, I'm on it. Also had my first vehicle damage. A semi kicked up a rock and put a crack in the windshield. It started off about an inch then over an hour or two it grew to just over a foot. It's not impairing visibility yet. I looked into getting it replaced here in Fort Nelson but it would take two days to get the new windshield shipped up here so I think I'll probably just deal with it and head on to Whitehorse, where I should be in about two days. They will likely have CRV windshields there and I won't lose two days of time that way. If the crack stops growing I may just let it ride until Fairbanks and re-evaluate then. Need to make it up to the Arctic Ocean before it gets too cold!