2018 - Day 25

We were up at a decent time again this morning as we had a fairly full day ahead of us. Leona has never seen Rushmore so we decided to go up and see it. The line of vehicles to get in was a mile long (literally), so we rode by a few times to get a look at it. As far as pictures go we didn't get great ones, but I have many good ones from here, and Leona was content with seeing it in real life. We took a little spin along the Iron Mountain road, the best part of it anyway. From there we headed up to Deadwood and then to Sturgis. We barely got our feet wet in the Black Hills, but just don't have the luxury of time. It was after 12 by the time we hit the interstate bound for Montana.

Closing in on Buffalo, WY from the east is such a beautiful ride, again something that a picture just can't convey to the reader. Everything looks closer and bigger in real life, and the mountains today were just stunning. Leona and I exclaimed a few times at how many amazing sights we've seen on the trip, and how wide a variety of scenery it's been. After Sheridan it gets pretty quiet as there literally isn't anything but wide open country. It was a relaxing ride through some beautiful rolling hills and light traffic.

I've often though of visiting the site of Custer's Last Stand but never been close enough to warrant a visit. Today we were riding right by it so it was time to make the stop. We didn't really have much time but still ended up spending about an hour there. It's such beautiful country there so it's a little hard to imagine the hills being covered in blood and dead bodies, and it's a little hard to reconcile what happened there. The Battle of the Bighorn happened June 25-26, 1876 which just so happened to be exactly 142 years ago to the day.

The last hour of the ride into Billings was really scenic, the perfect way to end the day's ride. Both of us were very hungry and tired when we got in at 8:00 so we didn't waste a whole lot of time getting a late dinner. Almost 12 hours door to door today, but only 776km, so we did some touristy stuff. Tonight is our last night in the USA, a bittersweet thought to fall asleep to.


This picture makes it look further away, but I have better pictures from a previous visit so seeing it was good enough this time

Riding on Iron Mountain road in the Black Hills

One of the tunnels



Riding west on I-90 in Wyoming and looking at the Bighorn mountains

Finally I'm in this part of Montana, and though it was getting late, we decided to go in and see the site of Custer's Last Stand



White marker with the black is where Custer fell



To think so much blood was shed on this beautiful land