High plains drifting...
A bit reluctantly we left Denver this morning, not certain how long it will be until we get to see our son Arthur again. It's a little more than a hundred miles to reach Wyoming, a lot of which looks like this:
Southeastern Wyoming from our car window.
Wyoming gets about as much snow as the rest of us do in the wintertime, but once on the ground it doesn't stay put, but blows horizontally into Nebraska or South Dakota unless fences like these are erected all over the place, which they are:
Snow fence alongside Interstate 25 in Wyoming.
Wyoming does have its lovely scenery. After all, most of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons are there. There is a beauty and peacefulness to the high plains country, too, as observed by this mesa-top cowboy:
The "lone cowhand."
Some of Wyoming even reminds one a bit of Utah or Southwestern Colorado, like this Mesa near Fort Laramie:
A mesa in east central Wyoming.
For miles along the way we enjoyed the company of Laramie Peak to our west...
Beautiful Laramie Peak.
...while we watched storm clouds passing across our destination to the north:
Unfriendly clouds gather northwest of us...
As we entered the town of Newcastle, Wyoming, which brought back pleasant memories from our 2005 cross-American adventure, we turned on Route 16 toward Custer, South Dakota, and the planned excitement for the day, a loop of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. Before long we saw traces on the ground of what those storm clouds contained—snow:
Snow building where we're going...
Just a little bit of snow at first, and then a bit more:
Snow in the hills and valleys of Black Hills National Forest on the Norbeck Scenic Byway
But we decided to persevere, and were rewarded with the presence of some lovely country scenery and many deer alongside, or in, the road:
Five of the dozens of deer foraging in the first snow.
Part way into the scenic byway, which is contained within the Black Hills National Monument, we stopped for a time to learn more about the area and its fauna, and good ol' Pete Norbeck himself, a governor and senator of South Dakota back in the 1920's and 1930's, who was instrumental in the many scenic set-asides in the Rockies and Great Plains, including the great national parks of the region:
Mary Frances discusses the weather with the late Governor Peter Norbeck.
From there, we continued along the scenic byway through deeper and deeper snow. Some of us dressed for wintry weather:
Mary Frances at the Norbeck Overlook.
And some of us didn't:
Did I take a wrong turn to Puerto Vallarta?
Finally, we decided because of the snow and poor visibility that we would turn north for the town of Keystone as soon as the next opportunity arrived, which it didn't:
Road closed! Oh well, time to head for Deadwood.
Yes, I did take a little abuse from Mary Frances about my choice of scenic byways. Her bottom was still sore from the bone breaking trek a week ago to see the Grosvenor Arch in Utah. Now her fingers were freezing. So we turned our faithful MPV around and took the first opportunity to leave the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway and make the final 50-mile journey to Deadwood, over roads getting more slippery, skies getting more dark, and the need for some food and restrooms getting more intense. As we passed through the town of Keystone, it was obvious this early winter storm had caused a lot of damage. FEMA anyone?
A tree has crushed the room of a home in Keystone, South Dakota, Oct. 5, 2009
At last we wound our way into Deadwood, South Dakota, a community of 1300 permanent residents and many time that of temporary ones who come here for all the Black Hills attractions like Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, or to gamble in all the local hotels, or to be near to Sturgis during motorcycle week. We checked in to the Deadwood Gulch Hotel & Casino, enjoyed a fine dinner (including the best martini I've had since the last one Kent Dumas made for me), and, yes, we did manage to indulge in the gambling sin once more. And yes, we did come away modest winners. Sometimes things just go right.
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