Sunday, May 24, 2020
Rapid City, South Dakota to Deadwood, South Dakota
Highlights: Spearfish Canyon, Mount Roosevelt Friendship Tower, and Deadwood
Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway was moderately busy this morning with people out for a holiday Sunday drive through the 19-mile gorge. We took a nice, easy 1.5-mile walk to Spearfish Falls. This was the only time on the trip I put on my down coat, which I almost immediately took back off again. We were very lucky with the weather this high in elevation and latitude, this early in the year.
Jana at Spearfish Falls - Almost needed my heavy coat!
Two miles outside Deadwood, atop Mount Roosevelt, we hiked a mile to Friendship Tower, a memorial built by Seth Bullock, Deadwood's first sheriff, in honor of his longtime friend President Theodore Roosevelt. The dark clouds were just high enough in the sky to still allow a nice view of the surroundings.
Mount Roosevelt Friendship Tower
Bear Butte from Mount Roosevelt
Cloudy, but still a view
Mount Moriah Cemetery is the most popular tourist attraction in Deadwood. Situated on a steep hill overlooking downtown, the cemetery is the final resting place of such infamous Old West characters as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and the aforementioned Sheriff Seth Bullock. The graveyard is vast and green as opposed to the dusty and forlorn place I had imagined.
Burial place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane
Wild Bill
Mount Moriah Cemetery
Hanging around the outskirts of the cemetery
Deadwood from above
It was a short walk from our hotel to historic and touristy downtown Deadwood. We ambled around a bit, saw the bar where Wild Bill got shot, then returned to our hotel/casino and ordered a Marco's Pizza to be delivered to our room. We'd gotten used to not being around people, so the semi-crowd of Deadwood was a little overwhelming, though Tom said there was only a fraction of the people he'd seen here last year.
Aces and eights, the deadman's hand
Historic downtown Deadwood
The bar where Wild Bill was shot
They seem very proud of the fact
Deadwood 2020
Lodging: Tru by Hilton in Deadwood, very modern and nice. We paid $6 (not a typo) for the room and an additional $15 for parking. The hotel gave us $15 in casino credit, which we used on video poker until we won $21, then cashed out. Ha! How do they even stay in business?? The lobby here was pretty much the only crowded place we encountered on our entire trip. I felt a little uncomfortable due to a lack of social distancing, so I pulled up my buff, and the small crowd parted like the Red Sea. Nice!
Driving distance: Only 89 miles today. It was like having a day off from our vacation!
Tom
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