Deadwood and Live Geology

We left Rapid City rather too rapidly – 8 am again! The reputation of our breakfast café had spread, so there was a long queue and we didn’t get our food until 7.45. Not the day to order pancakes layered with apple, but it all went in a box to take with us on the coach.

We made our way north on Interstate 90, through the Black Hills, a very scenic area. We took a slight detour to enable us to visit Deadwood, a town famed for its gambling establishments. It has an attractive main street of stone and brick buildings rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1879 which affected much of the town.

From here we drove East and back into Wyoming, the country flattening out a little, with some notable landforms. The geological structure of the Black Hills is an eroded dome with an exposed core of granite, seen earlier at Mount Rushmore. This is surrounded by a limestone plateau, and an oval-shaped hogs back of red Dakota Sandstone which we followed for miles. Our next stop was the amazing Devil’s Tower, a pinnacle of intrusive igneous rock rising 865 feet from its base. The columnar structure was caused as the molten rock cooled, and the tower has been exposed by the erosion of overlying rocks. It is a site of legend and prayer for Indian peoples. Protected by the National Parks Service, the surrounding woods are a haven for flora and fauna, and we enjoyed a 1.3 mile walk around the base of the tower. 

Another attraction on our way back to the road was a town of prairie dogs – very active until they heard us coming!  Our journey continued west across the Thunder Basin via Gillette. This was typical plains country – undulating grasslands with exposures of buff bedded rocks, no trees, few dwellings, cattle  and pronghorns. By 4 pm we could see the Bighorn Mountains, our destination for the following day. Out hotel for the night was the Holiday Inn in Sheridan. We were tired, so we didn’t explore far from the hotel, only next-door to a huge 24-hour Walmart.