We stayed here in mid-October for a week to visit our son Matthew and grandson Anders. Because the primary reason for this stop was to see family, we didn’t do a lot of exploring in the area. As might have been expected we had a few warm days followed by some heavy snow that didn’t stick and then some cooler days and nights. We plan to return when we can enjoy being outside more to enjoy the views.
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Scotts Bluff and Gering are two towns in south western Nebraska with the main draw for tourists here being the Oregon and California emigration trails along with the Pony Express going through the area as our nation grew westward in the mid-1800’s. The bluff that sits here, Scotts Bluff (as opposed to the town of Scotts Bluff) was a major landmark in the area used by emigrants while navigating the trails through Mitchell Pass. Scotts Bluff was named for Hiram Scott, an employee of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who died in the vicinity of the bluff in 1826 after being abandoned by his companions after becoming ill.
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We spent a week near Hill City primarily to see Mount Rushmore and to visit a few of the nearby towns. As you will soon find out, we didn’t even know about Custer State Park when we did our original planning but we’re sure glad we were tipped off to it when someone found out we were going to be in the area. We were sure glad we didn’t miss it as we took more pictures there than anywhere else. The featured image at the top of this post is of Sylvan Lake within the park and is one of my favorite pictures of all time. The beauty in this part of South Dakota is just unbelievable!
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We spent 18 days in West Yellowstone taking in the local attractions and seeing as much of Yellowstone National Park as we could. Even though there are museums and other things to do in the town of West Yellowstone (like shopping for the ladies :-)) the big attraction here is of course Yellowstone National Park. While I’ll talk about that more later, let’s just say that Yellowstone absolutely must be on your bucket list if you have never been before!
West Yellowstone is an ideal place to stay (unless you are inside the park somewhere) because from there you can easily get to anywhere in the park without too much of a drive. Of course, too much is relative. The park is very large so you will be doing a lot of driving but from the west side you’re sort of in the middle of the action and you are also closest to the most popular sites within the park such as Old Faithful.
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Spearfish, South Dakota is a lovely town and we really liked staying there for a week. The Black Hills begin just south of the town and is such a beautiful landscape. The historic Main Street was great to walk thru with boutiques, coffee shops, restaurants, antique stores, a visitor center, and various other businesses that were all fully open, not boarded up as have other historic districts we have been in. The Fall Festival which occurred while we were here was a lot of fun also with lots of booths, fresh produce and performances from the local dance studio and lots of proud parents in attendance.
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