Day 3 - aka our anniversary!

Day three was our 3rd wedding anniversary. :-) The trip to Devils Tower was our effort to visit at least one place every year we've never been before. We started the day with breakfast at the Feed Bunk, which is a little restaurant inside the local gas station within walking distance from our lodging. Well, really everything in Hulett is within walking distance so that's not saying much. The food was not untasty and we were fueled up and ready to go pretty early this day. We wanted to beat the crowds to Devils Tower so we could enjoy it.

Tim suggested we do a ranger led tour which was a great plan. The walk around the tower is about an hour long. Our tour guide turned out to be a high school earth sciences teacher from Fort Collins. He was fantastic. Here are some photos of the trail and the tower during our hike.



We had a good sized group for the tour but not so large that it wasn't fun. By the time we returned, the parking lot was full and bumper to bumper RVs and such were circling. Planning for the early start was a brilliant idea. We walked through the visitor's center one more time, hit the restrooms and then hit the road.

Our next stop was the Vore Buffalo Jump. This place was also quite fascinating. It is run by the University of Wyoming. There is a small visitor's center and a short walk to the bottom of the sink hole to view the site. This place is a natural sink hole where buffalo were herded by several Indian tribes hundreds of years ago. As the buffalo fell into this sink hole, the Indians would harvest the meat and other parts of the buffalo. After horses were introduced into their culture, the hole was used less often. Below are some photos. The first is of the visitor's center and the informational sign.

A view of the trail to the structure that covers the sink hole.

Inside the building at the bottom is a small walkway for visitors to view the bones. There is a staff person there as well to answer any questions. There are also samples available to view and handle.

The bones. I think they told us this layer was from the 1800s.

One sample of a buffalo skull. Every part of the buffalo was used for something, even the brains.

This was a very cool and interesting place. If you are in the area stop by to see it. We also played Good Samaritan here. A couple from New Jersey had locked their keys in their car and didn't have enough cell service to call for assistance. This place is located just off the interstate in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately Tim's cell phone worked. Hooray Xerox! They were very very grateful.

After this stop, we hit the road again headed for Spearfish Canyon. One of the guys at MotoGear Outlet told us about this canyon ride. We stopped to do the short hike to Bridal Veil Falls. We had to right? It was our anniversary. It was very cool.

Tim resoaked his cooling vest in the water. It didn't smell too fishy. Well, I didn't have to wear it though. :-) Here we are at the falls. Tim's holding up three fingers for our 3rd anniversary! Love you babe!! :-)

After that we hit the road and continued on to Deadwood. This town is famous for all sorts of wild west tales. Apparently they also have fake gunfights in the streets although we didn't see any. Mostly it is full of casinos. Not our cup of tea. We found some motorcycle parking and set out in search of a place to have dinner.

We found a nice place that said it was family friendly (which I took to mean no gambling). It had rooftop seating and was quite lovely. (It took us a little while to figure out that there was a bar with slot machines downstairs that was separate from the restaurant upstairs.) The service was great and so was the food.

Tim had charbroiled elk and I had buffalo medallions (below). OMG it was so very tasty!! It was a perfect meal for our perfect day! :-)

After dinner we headed back home. It was getting late by now so we decided to hop on the interstate for as far as we could in order to get back to Hulett as quickly as we could. We stopped at a rest area to pee and discovered that our headsets had died. We didn't charge them the night before. No worries though as we knew where we were going.

Once it became dusk, I got a bit afraid for all the deer and antelope we'd been seeing. I have not been that focused on the ride in a long time. I slowed way down just because I thought it was safer. We weren't in a hurry anyway. We saw lots of deer and antelope so I felt justified in my diligence. It took us a little longer to get home but that was ok with me. I also felt justified because Tim wasn't seeing the deer or antelope as quickly as I was. That was the only time we rode at night on the whole trip.

It was an awesome, dare I say, perfect day, with my love!