Secret Garden Bed & Breakfast Spearfish

... Spearfish Canyon again some time, and spend more time there. The Roughlock Falls canyon is magical. There is a film location where part of "Dances with Wolves" was filmed not far from Roughlock Falls. (I also found some Riesling Truffles at a local country store that were delicious! Never seen those before. Wish I could send some of them to those of you who I know also like Riesling.)

... then and double up, but.....
What fun would that have been? We went all the way down to double zero. Walked out only with the free beer we got while playing. Lesson learned I guess....

Deadwood was very cool, next stop is Mt. Rushmore, probably fairly in the morning. There is lots to explore in this area, so we may be here for a couple days.

... as we were running out of daylight, we decided to pull over in the next town to camp...refer to entry "Heaven" for that experieince.

This morning I was up before the sun, breaking down camp and we were loaded and on the road by 8am. Devels Tower was there. We were very entertained by the prarie dogs. Mara took some fun pictures. I love that part of WY...it's so beautifully green with rolling hills. We are now ...

... at a steakhouse saloon and bar (yes, no more fast food for now). The food in itself (steak, potato, and more) was quite delicious and got me satisfied like crazy. In addition, I would like to thank Fat Tire beer for helping me get insanely full (aka BLOATED). sadly, I wasn't able to have my FREE drink back in my hotel because I was way too full to even get one. At least the coupons didn't go to waste because my family eventually used them.

Mount Rushmore is next!

... the monument, with only the face being completed and it still cost $10 to go in. I think I was there for about 10 mins!! Mt Rushmore was $10 to get into as well.

I stopped for lunch in Keystone and then through the Black Hills area to Deadwood. Once I got to Deadwood I went for a quick drive around town to see what it was like before going back to the hotel to drop the car off and walk into town (in case I had a few beers!). Dropping the car off was a great ...

... A question never answered, even though his killer was caught not a few doors down from the shooting. Another famous name from this town was Calamity Jane, who earned her name because of her clumsiness, but established her fame and name by becoming madam, she died bankrupt but still was given a big funeral paid for some of the notable townsfolk. The town has still a lot of the same buildings built when it was established back late 1800 early 1900. We had a ride around on a ...

... house in a utility vehicle and informed us that we were, indeed, going the right way. He also informed us that the road got "a bit rickety" but that our Jeep shouldn't have a problem. Less than five minutes later, we were in 4-Lo crawling through some off-camber and muddy ruts that double as both road and stream. This led us all the way to Silver City Road and Pactola Reservoir, and was the surprise highlight of the trip, I think.

Day 39 We woke up earlier than most mornings this trip. Wake-up call was at 5:30 a.m. We dismantled our tents and departed at 6 o'clock in the morning. At 9:30 we ate breakfast at McDonalds. Then we drove to an adjacent gas station. Maintainance crew quickly serviced the bus. A funny incident happened as Lauren was cleaning the windshield of Bus 004. Being not so tall, she stands on the front bumper. However at one point as she ...

... molded into a makeshift stairway. There was some interpretive signage here and there describing the kinds of vegetation. Spearfish Canyon is one of the most ecologically diverse places in this part of the country, mixing at least four different kinds of biomes in one place. I've read some really interesting quotes from Frank Lloyd Wright on the place. Apparently ...

... of the deep forest.
My personal art website http://home.earthlink.net/~greenvanartu sa/ , stuff I am puttin on redbubble where prints can be purchased in various formats http://www.redbubble.com/people/greenva nartusa and finally my artwanted portfolio with most of the photos and paintings from my first three travel blogs http://artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=4 2727