Deadwood

When we woke this morining, the sun was shining (we'd expected cloudy skies) but the temperature had dipped down quite a bit.  

We didn't let that stop us,tho'.  We checked out of the hotel and headed out to see what we could before heading home.

As I'd mentioned in a previous post, we were visiting during the off season.  That meant we didn't get to see the shoot out on the street, the tours and the re-enactment of Wild Bill being shot. :(  We were able to stop in and see The Gem Saloon, the actual location where Wild Bill HIckok was shot, visit the Adams Museum and the cemetery where Wild Bill, Calamity Jane and Seth Bullock are buried.  

We weren't quite prepared for the cemetery tour, tho'.  The cemetery was HUGE and located in the hills overlooking the city of Deadwood.  It was very pretty, but quite steep.  Of course, we were dressed for spring.  lol  Which meant no coats and more importantly - no hiking shoes.
 

We found Wild Bill and Calamity Jane's burial sites fairly easily.

 But we had to really hike up the mountain to see Seth Bullock's grave site.   It was worth it even if only for the exercise we got.  lol  After all, we had decided to make our way back home that day and that meant sitting in the car for hours.  (I like to think of the positives :))

Once we'd seen everything we wanted to see we decided to head on out.  It was almost lunch time before we left Deadwood, so we decided to make it to Casper WY and stay the night.  We didn't relish driving till 10/11pm.

After we were settled into our hotel we decided to see a movie to kill time.  When we came out of the theater, it was SNOWING!!

We should have known...

Devil's Tower, Sturgis, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Deadwood!

First stop - Gillette, SD - where we spent the night.  It was getting dark when we arrived so we waited till the morning to head out to Devil's Tower.  It's pretty awesome to see in person...

(no 'close encounters', tho')

 
As we made our way up to Deadwood, we decided we might as well do a 'drive by' of Sturgis.  Not much going on at the time (of which we were kinda grateful for since both of us are very much NON motorcycle enthusiasts  lol), so it was pretty quiet.

Once we arrived in Deadwood, we checked in to the Bullock Hotel.  We hear Seth Bullock still walks the hallways...

After we checked in we decided we walked the town a little.  Since this was such an impromptu trip, turns out we went in the off season (off-off season, I'd say).  So it was really quiet as well.  Not a lot going on.  Some restaurants were even closed.

The weather was beautiful, tho, and the forecast for the following day was rainy and cold.  We decided to take advantage and headed on over to Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

Mt Rushmore was awesome!  I took so many pictures from all different angles.  I especially liked how they created 'catch lights' in the eyes.  So cool!!

We wanted to come back at night to see it when the lights come on but the weather decided to turn a bit early.  So we headed back to Deadwood for the night.