Alaska 2013, Day 72, Bozeman MT to Black Hills SD

Monday Aug 12, 2013

West of Spearfish there was a 1/4 mi of I-90 that had remains of snow.  Too low of elevation to have leftover winter snow, to hot for fresh snow.  I thought maybe is was fake snow from a Sturgis Bike Week event of maybe a TV commercial. Later found out it was hail, they have had a string of bad storms moving through.

Stopped at Vore Buffalo Jump between Spearfish and Sundance WY. Pretty interesting, there are lots of buffalo bones being excavated from a sinkhole along I-90.  They figure that the site was used for 20 or so hunts from 1500 to 1800 AD by many different tribes.

Saw lots antelope in the alphalpha fields in Wyoming.

Stopped in Sturgis at the Conoco to buy some bike week junk.

Tried a new campground, Horsethief Campground 2 mi up route 87. The start of 87 is all switchbacks and there was a 1 mi stretch where all the trees were knocked down.  You could see where the road had been cleared; trees cut and bulldozed off the edge.  We found out at the campground that they had a tornado just the night before.  The campground had heavy flood damage; lots of their road gravel had been washed away.

Drove up to Mount Rushmore after dark to see it lit up.  Had the place to ourselves, only a couple of other people there.

560 miles today.

10130 miles so far.