Thursday, August 31, 2017 – Chamberlain, S.D to Sheridan, Wyoming

Chamberlain S. D is along the Missouri River.  At this point, the Missouri is much wider than we expected it to be.  After breakfast in downtown, and after Cal chatted with the local coffee club guys about the area, we were on our way west.

Missouri River

The Open South Dakota Road

We saw fields of sorghum/milo and younger sunflowers than we saw yesterday. These fields were bright yellow where as yesterday those plants were ready to harvest.  Regarding sunflowers: in talking to farmers last night, they told us that farmers need to be careful when harvesting sunflowers.  The oils can build up in/ on the combines, and each night they must clean/wash the combine to remove the oils or a fire will begin.  Combine fires are not unusual during sunflower harvest.

We decided to drive the “loop road” through the Badlands National Park.  This will have been the 3^rd time we have been in the Badlands, however it is always interesting.  Within the Badland we saw Big Horn Sheep, and Prairie Dogs. 

Big Horn Sheep Females and Young

Notice the GPS Collar

Prairie Dogs

After leaving the Badlands on the Loop road, you are near Wall, South Dakota and Wall Drug.  You begin seeing signs for Wall Drug before you leave Iowa!! And of course, signs all along I-90 in S. Dakota.  Wall and Wall Drug continue to grow.  The story of Wall Drug is incredible as it is in a remote location.

We did not stop to see Mt Rushmore or Devil’s Tower on this trip, as we just saw them in January 2015 on our way home from Yellowstone. We continued thru northeast Wyoming.  We than began seeing coal trains.  Oh Yes, the coal trains through Mt Pleasant come from northeast Wyoming.  We googled the Wyoming coal fields and we were in the area of them.   We saw what looked like mines in the distance, and we saw lots of moving trains with coal.  We left I-90 to drive on a State Highway, wanting to see mines closer, but we did not.  It was a lovely drive, through irrigated valleys, and seeing herds of pronghorn.  At one point we began smelling smoke, and later we saw the grassland fires burning. 

Prong Horned Antelope

We decided that tomorrow we want to drive Highway 14 west toward Cody, Wyoming.  It is a drive though the mountains that we made in the summer of 1989 after visiting Yellowstone National Park.  The only problem was that we drove that section of highway after dark, so we could not enjoy the beauty.  We want to drive this section of highway now, during the day.  To do so, we needed to stop tonight in Sheridan, Wyoming, as towns west of here do not have hotel/motels.  We stopped earlier than usual for us, but that did allow us time to enjoy Sheridan.  Sheridan has a vibrant downtown and tonight was the downtown Farmer’s Market. We walked around before going for dinner at the restaurant in the elegant old Sheridan Inn.  The Inn has just recently re-opened after being closed for 50 years.  Can you imagine the work that needed to be done to a building after being vacant for 50 years?  It has been beautifully restored.  If we had not already checked into a hotel along I-90, we probably would have stayed at the Sheridan Inn.  Buffalo Bill Cody was in this area for many years.  He held auditions for his Wild West shows on the lawn of the Sheridan Inn.                  

Hay Ground in the Valley

The Sheridan Inn - Home of Bill Cody for 8 yrs.