June 28th, 2022
No matter how much you research your journey before you leave, nothing beats having a navigator with you who knows the region like they have lived there their whole lives.
I searched sites and grabbed every single tourist magazine I could find. I have piles of pages for each of the excursions we have planned. And then we found our navigator.
We downloaded a new app today called GyPSy Guide. I’ll write a longer post about it in the next couple days. For now, know that we would have missed many of the wonderful things we saw without our GyPSy Guide.
We started our day with a drive through Spearfish Canyon. We started at Chris’ Campground where we parked Honey for the next week or so.
We took 14-A through gorgeous landscape. Our first stop was Bridal Veil Falls. With two daughters planning to get married in the next several months, this seemed like a stop we were required to make.
Bridal Veil Falls drops 60 feet and was flowing beautifully when we stopped.
Next we stopped at Roughlock Falls. There is a great place to park the beast (Tim’s truck.) Reba loved checking out the falls’ many levels and she even got to dip her toes and her knees and her haunches in the chilly water. We learned that Roughlock Falls was likely named because pioneers who were traveling through the area had to “roughlock” their wheels to keep them from turning as they lowered their wagons over the drops.
Our navigator told us to be sure to go up a dirt road just outside of Roughlock Falls to see the site where they filmed Dances With Wolves. They had just sprayed the dirt and we thought, good, that will keep the dust down. Little did we know that the substance they sprayed turned the dirt into a substance resembling a mushy concrete after several hours in the sun. A separate post on our truck and dog wash adventures later!
Reba and I got out to explore the Dances with Wolves filming site. Tim waited in the truck. I encouraged Reba to cool off in the creek by stepping in the water myself and promptly sunk in the mud halfway up my calf. I managed to get myself and the dog of this quicksand like mud while keeping my phone safe and dry. No pictures of this particular adventure because Tim was blissfully playing Words with Friends in the truck.
We decided to spend our afternoon at Custer State Park since this is one of the parks that is pretty dog friendly and there are bison roaming free there!
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