May 23 - Theodore Roosevelt State Park to Hill City - Driving out of the park, we stopped at the Painted Canyon Overlook. The colorful geological formation are spectacular. We would have hiked one of the nature trails, but all we had time for was a visit to the visitor center.

Continuing south on Highway 85, we reached Belle Fourche for the third time. It was time for lunch. As a joke, Ellen suggested that we stop at Bob's Cafe. We entered right before closing time, but the waitress, Diane Holmann, and the owner/cook, Charlotte Koopman, welcomed us. We discovered that Ms Koopman was 94 years old. The food was solid diner fare. I had an egg salad sandwich and chocolate malt. When we were finished, we had a brief chat with the owner as she sat at a booth which was completely covered with bills and receipts.

We originally planned to stay in Deadwood because of its history and because one of our trip advisors, Doug Donaldson, was a native and the newspaper was run by his parents. He advised us not to stay there because it had become a gambling mecca. We slowly drove through it instead and observed its old western-style buildings. The rest of the drive to Hill City went through beautiful forested hills with lots of snow on the side of the road.

We reached Hill City and the Comfort Inn late in the afternoon, our home for the next two nights. After cleaning up, we went to dinner at the Alpine Inn. Being one of the most popular restaurants in the town, there was a long line to get in. We were surprised when our name was called after 15 minutes. There were only three choices on the menu - large steak, small steak and pasta primavera. Ann had pasta. The rest of us had the small steak with a baked potato and wedge of lettuce. We all had a decadent chocolate desert.

May 24 - Needles Highway and Mt Rushmore - Our focus this morning was Mt Rushmore. To get there, we drove an indirect route on the Needles Highway. This is one of the most scenic drives I have ever been on. The road is narrow and makes countless twists and turns. The rock formations jut out of the ground and look as sharp as needles. Tunnels through the granite so extremely narrow that you want to pull in your side-view mirrors. We were fortunate to have a background of snow to outline the spires and make them more beautiful. We stopped a few times to get some photos. Click on this link to get a better description. Click on any of the photos below to see a larger version.

We pushed on and met the Bensons and Matutes in the parking garage at Mt Rushmore. We walked up the stairs and along a outside mall that had lots of flags overhead and lots of tourists at ground level. The carvings of the presidents were coming into focus as we approached the viewing area. Of course we had our compulsory photo taken by an obliging tourist as we stood before the presidents. It was cold and windy, so we made a beeline to the monument's museum under the viewing area. There we saw displays about how the carvings were done. I had been to Mt Rushmore more than 60 years ago. Since then the National Park Service has done a good job constructing tourist services with places to eat, rest and shop for souvenirs.

Moving along, we stopped next to the raging Grizzly Bear Creek in Keystone for lunch at Ruby House Restaurant. Outlandishly decorated, the restaurant served good food with good service.

We caravanned back to Hill city and our hotel. Ann went swimming while I did the laundry. It was nice to have some downtime.

Dinner was at Desperados Cowboy Restaurant. There was no line to get in like the previous night, but the restaurant was full. Trying to live down my walleye experience a few nights before, I ordered trout and asparagus even though walleye was on the menu. It was a good meal.

Ruby House

Desperados

Desperados

May 25 - Hill City to Hot Springs - We checked out of the hotel this morning on our way to Hot Springs. We had more of the Black Hills to see, though. Driving south on Highway 385, we stopped at Crazy Horse Memorial. This is the home of the Indian Museum of North America and the site of an in-progress mountain sculpture of the Lakota leader Crazy Horse. The carving is impressing in its immensity. The museum is impressive in its displays of Indian artifacts and art.

Driving on, we turned east on Highway 16A into Custer State Park. We retraced part of our route from the day before and stopped at the Visitor Center. Here we turned south onto the Wildlife Loop Road. After negotiating a couple of pigtail turns (cross over a bridge and loop under the bridge) on the narrow forested road, the terrain opened up to vast meadows. The objective was to see wildlife. We came upon some burros and lots of bison. We even saw a horse roundup, but these were trail horses getting ready for the tourist season.

Lunch at Blue Bell Lodge

Dinner at Wooly's

Luchtime had arrived so we pulled in to the Blue Bell Lodge. Here we are in the forest of the Black Hills at an old western log cabin style lodge and our waitstaff and kitchen staff are all Jamiacan. This was not expected. Also not expected was the long wait to get our food. Not a problem, though. We were not in a hurry.

We continued south along Highways 87 and 385 until we came to Hot Springs. Our GPS was a little confused and routed us in a strang way to the USA Stay Hotel and Suites. This turned out to be a budget hotel that advertized a swimming pool that happened to be closed for repairs. Our rooms were OK, though.

We had dinner up the street at Wooly's Grill and Cellar. I am not sure where the cellar was, but we ate on a balcony above the main dining room. My dinner was not very good. The others said that their meals were better.