Rapid City Adventure - the Journey Home

November 29, 2008

(This is the last of a series of four posts.)

Woke up, relaxed, packed up and checked out of the motel. There were some things we learned over the last three days. First, we wanted to go back to Horsethief Lake. Second, there were closed roads in the Black Hills. Third, we hadn't seen even a fraction of what there was to see. Fourth, we didn't want to drive home after dark. And most importantly, we really like each other and like being together.

We decided to drive home another way. We looked at a few more things in Rapid City, but the chapel in the woods was "closed for the season". That was a little sad, because all of the pictures we saw of it looked real neat. We did drive by a children's park and got attacked by a flock of ducks.

We drove over to Hill City. I think if we had "known" about Hill City, we should have booked our last night there. It was a quaint little place with more personality that the average tourist town.

We then drove another path down to Custer. We went by way of the Sylvan Lake highway. It had another entrance onto the Needles Highway, but we knew from experience that it was closed for the winter. Still, the Sylvan Lake Highway had some incredible views - Mt. Harney, the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and the Alps - and a "tunnel", basically just a hole in the rock for one car to maneuver through.

Then after Custer we headed west to Newcastle (through the only snow we saw for the whole weekend), then south to home. We did stop and had "a date" and went to Sam's - what else is there to do on a date when your whole life is turning into a date.

This was a grand weekend - despite the elk. (If you want to hear about the whole weekend - read the previous three posts.)