7/1 Lead & Deadwood, SD and Devils Tower, WY

Before I left South Dakota, I visited two old gold mining towns from the 1874 Black Hills Gold Rush. Lead (pronounced "Leed"), and just a couple miles away, the more famous Deadwood. Lead was home of the Homestake Mining Company, owned by George Hearst (father of William Randolph Hearst). Deadwood was famous being a wild town and the place where Wild Bill Hickok was fatally shot.

Afterwards, I drove to Devil's Tower National Monument. The Native American's regard this place as highly sacred grounds. The mountain itself was formed by the result of volcanic activity and erosion. Native's tell stories that the Mountain is a "bear lodge" and the unusual, long columns down the sides are the result of the bear scratching the side of the mountain.

LEAD, SD:

Open cut gold mine.

DEADWOOD, SD:

Wild Bill's grave.

Calamity Jane's grave.

DEVIL'S TOWER:

First glimpse of the tower.

The weather was weird. Not long after I got there, I thought I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The wind started getting stronger and the darker clouds rolled in... sending these birds in a frenzy.

With the birds going mad like that and the clouds hovering over Devil's Tower, I felt like at any moment, an alien spaceship was going to emerge from the clouds.

By the time I hiked around the Mountain, the weather cleared up and the sun set behind me, giving the Devil's Tower a nice color.

On my way out of the park at night.